Half of UK Adults Tried Buying Fewer Clothes This Year

A vintage Burberry trench coat from Oxfam helped Richard E. Grant land the role that launched his acting career, and now he's paying it forward by encouraging others to embrace preloved fashion.

The beloved actor revealed that his secondhand coat sealed his iconic 1986 audition for "Withnail & I." He showed up soaking wet in the charity shop find and accidentally nailed the character's look without even trying.

Four decades later, Grant is fronting Oxfam's Second Hand September campaign with a message that resonates with millions. New research shows 57% of UK adults deliberately tried to buy fewer clothes in the past year, signaling a major shift in how Britons think about their wardrobes.

The findings come from Oxfam's first State of Style report, which surveyed over 3,000 UK adults in July. The charity plans to track these numbers annually to measure whether Britain's relationship with clothing is truly becoming more sustainable.

Still, there's work to do. Almost a third of clothes in the average UK wardrobe went unworn last year, and four in 10 people admitted to wearing an item just once before abandoning it.

The environmental impact is staggering. Oxfam estimates the water used to produce clothing currently sitting unworn in British closets could provide one million people with drinking water for a lifetime.

The Ripple Effect

Since launching in 2019, Second Hand September has helped normalize preloved fashion alongside the boom in resale platforms. Oxfam now operates over 500 shops across the UK plus an online store, making sustainable choices easier than ever.

Grant's message strikes at the heart of the movement. "Original style isn't about buying more. It's about finding pieces with a story, keeping them for as long as you can, and passing them on for someone else to discover."

He still wears pieces he's owned for decades, mixing them with clothes that belonged to loved ones and treasures discovered over the years. For Grant, fashion with history beats fast fashion every time.

One in five people still throw unwanted clothes away rather than donating or reselling them, but that number suggests most Britons are already choosing better options.

The campaign proves that buying less doesn't mean loving fashion less—it just means loving it more thoughtfully.