\u201cClothing is a huge contributor to waste in landfills, so being able to repurpose used clothing can contribute to sustainability,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LIFESTYLECULLUMTHRIFTINGANDUPCYCLINGCLUB102325-1.jpeg\")
A student looks through racks of thrifted clothing during a Thrift and Upcycling Club outing to the Salvation Army. The club encourages sustainable fashion through secondhand shopping and upcycling. (Courtesy of Lily Wu)<\/p>\n
The Thrift and Upcycling Club has a GroupMe chat of around 350 members, with around 30 students being consistently active. Wu said people don\u2019t have to be interested or have previous experience in thrifting to join.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From brownies and bracelet-making at their first general body meeting to monthly trips to Goodwill and the Salvation Army, the club blends social events with sustainability. In September, members traveled to local thrift stores, swapping style tips and sharing their finds.<\/p>\n
For Fayle, the club\u2019s vice president, these outings are her favorite events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was super sweet to have our first actual meeting to go thrifting as a group,\u201d Fayle said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fayle said thrifting is also about self-expression. Last winter, she found a perfectly-worn leather jacket at a thrift shop located at a Bethlehem church \u2014 a reminder to members of how it\u2019s easy to stumble upon something great.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The executive board is currently planning a fundraiser where students can submit Pinterest boards to receive personalized thrifted bundles. They\u2019re also organizing workshops in partnership with Wilbur Powerhouse, where students can learn sewing, embroidery and T-shirt printing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arusho Tewari, \u201827, the club\u2019s secretary, manages communications and event feedback. She said she wasn\u2019t familiar with thrifting prior to coming to Lehigh, recently taking up the hobby after realizing how accessible it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The executive board has also faced hurdles with funding. Last year, the club received $100 in Student Senate support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFunding is difficult,\u201d Wu said. \u201cIt\u2019s made us be creative and have events that don\u2019t really cost any money, which has been really nice and aligns with the mission of the club that these things don\u2019t have to be expensive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LIFESTYLECULLUMTHRIFTINGANDUPCYCLINGCLUB102325.jpg\")
Students browse a clothing rack during a Thrift and Upcycling Club event. The club promotes sustainable fashion by encouraging students to thrift, upcycle and repurpose clothing. (Courtesy of Lily Wu)<\/p>\n
Club member Gavin Santiago, \u201827, has immersed himself in upcycling since joining the club. His favorite event was the workshop at Wilbur Powerhouse where he learned embroidery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the Wilbur meeting, I went back throughout the semester and kept using the machines and made a bunch of stuff,\u201d Santiago said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Tewari, the ultimate success of the club is hearing about students who leave workshops with new skills and their closets growing with secondhand finds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said this facilitates important broader campus conversations about sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all just trying to get through classes, and being able to thrift and find things that are more accessible or sustainable and cheaper is an avenue for everybody,\u201d Tewari said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hum of machines and chatter of students fill the air in Lehigh\u2019s Wilbur Powerhouse Design Lab. Denim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1197,1198],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature","tag-student-and-campus-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}