There’s no denying that Wellesley students have a unique style. Jusrin Padam ’25 noticed this during her first semester here, and she also observed that students cared about sustainability when curating their wardrobes. Padam got the idea for Wellelsey Thrift from a clothing swap event during community engagement (CE) hours in Pomeroy. She left the event with lots of cool clothes that were also incredibly affordable.
“I was like, it would be amazing if this happened all year round … a sustainable, affordable system [for thrifting] just happening all the time,” Padam said.
Padam set up an Instagram account, @Wellesley_Thrift, to facilitate sales. She said the logistics of Wellesley Thrift are simple and streamline the process for buyers and sellers.
“You bring your clothes, you can do the price you want to sell it for and I sell it for you. That’s literally it. You drop off the clothes and tell me the price. I take $2 per item sold. Someone can just browse during drop in hours or on Instagram, I post pictures of the clothes and then people can buy through Instagram. Then we just get paid via Venmo and Zelle or cash, whatever works best for you,” Padam explained.
Another goal of Wellesley Thrift was to make thrifting easier for students who may find it difficult to get to thrift stores off campus or be turned away by high prices.
“It’s really convenient to have a store on campus rather than trying to go out to thrift stores like Savers, or to Boston. It can get expensive. Nothing here is over 25 bucks, I want to say the average price of things is like 11 bucks,” she said.
Sustainable fashion is important to Padam on a personal level. Like many students, she wanted to change her style after coming to Wellesley but didn’t want to buy dozens of completely new outfits. She didn’t like the environmental impacts of fast fashion, but as a college student, affordability mattered as well.
In the future, Padam wants to have a permanent location for Wellesley Thrift, as she is currently storing all the clothes in her room. If there is interest, she is hoping to hold drop-in hours in the East Side dorms so students who live there can check out clothes as well. Drop-in hours for March and April will be on certain Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. in the Pomeroy media room. Drop-in hours are posted and updated on the Wellesley Thrift Instagram account.
“What’s the point of just buying more clothes when there are other clothes that people aren’t wearing that honestly fit your style and your fashion?” Padam said.
