Just over two years ago, Marley Ashem-Hibbert was a newly graduated Toronto student making travel plans for her gap year. When COVID-19 cut those plans short and lockdowns emerged all over the world, Hibbert didn’t hesitate to concentrate her efforts into a lifelong interest: fashion.
Now, Hibbert is a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and co-founder of Free Us All (FUA) Collections, an online thrift store that aims to break the consumerist, fast-fashion mindset. Her online store is part of a growing digital thrifting and online shopping trend – a trend largely fueled by the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions on retail.
“When I told my friends [about FUA], they lowkey laughed,” Hibbert recalls. “That’s when I reached out to Gillian, and she was like, I’m down 100 per cent.”
Gillian Jones is the other co-founder of FUA and Hibbert’s best friend. The two met when Hibbert joined an online forum looking for a travel partner during her year off.
“I DM’ed her and it was so random – I was like, ‘hi, nice to meet you, you want to travel together?’’’ Hibbert recollects with a laugh. “And she was like ‘yeah, okay.’”
Jones and Hibbert ended up planning a full trip through Europe before the pandemic cut their itineraries short. Both had big plans to move to New York, and Jones’ support for Hibbert’s idea was the perfect nudge to kickstart their business. Since its start in the Summer of 2019, FUA has amassed over 1,000 followers on social media and has had a few pop-up markets in Washington Square Park.
Right now, FUA Collections is centered on Instagram and Depop.
“We’re adjusting to our new lives in NYC and it has been the hardest yet most exciting thing we’ve both had to deal with,” explains Jones.
Hibbert and Jones used to run an account on Shopify, but Hibbert’s full time schooling and Jones’ work schedule made the monthly subscription fee not worth the cost.
“We realized focusing on Depop right now was the smartest move,” says Hibbert. “But up until September, we were selling outside… that’s where we did most of our sales.”
“We want to try and keep our prices affordable because we understand how expensive thrifting can be. And that turns people away and makes them want to shop at fast fashion stores.”
Marley-Ashem Hibbert
According to a report by Statistics Canada, online shopping has drastically increased during the pandemic. The emergence of social commerce – a relatively new term for shopping through social media – has fueled a new trend of online stores popping up on platforms like Snapchat, TikTok and Facebook.
Last year, an Instagram update added a shopping tab to its home screen, reinforcing the idea that social commerce and peer-to-peer sales could be the next big shopping trend, especially for young audiences. According to a report by Mention, about 71 per cent of businesses now claim to use Instagram for business.
Depop’s statistics show that 90 per cent of its users are under 26. With up to 140,000 listings posted each day, the e-commerce company is tapping into a business market that is relatively new.
Hibbert says she’d love to one day open a storefront, but a brick-and-mortar store would increase the product pricing.
“We want to try and keep our prices affordable because we understand how expensive thrifting can be. And that turns people away and makes them want to shop at fast fashion stores,” she says.
Hibbert’s sentiment is mirrored by the store’s full name, Free Us All, which “randomly” popped into Hibbert’s mind.
“The world is so messed up, and I feel like in every industry, there’s always no escape,” says Hibbert. “Individually run businesses are a way to go against capitalism … so, to me, it was kind of like, free us all from this type of life that we live.”
“The [thrift store] community is literally such a huge and welcoming community.
Recent reports show that Gen Z shopping habits are trending towards sustainable fashion and could drastically affect the fast fashion industry. Hashtags like Thrifting on apps like TikTok have amassed over 2.7 billion views.
For online thrift stores like FUA, pieces are carefully curated and selected from bin sales and big box thrift stores like Value Village and the Salvation Army. This saves shoppers time from having to “hunt” through the clothing racks themselves in search of a good find. When stores start to gain more sales and momentum, wholesalers are often contacted to help curate collections, and donations from the public are also encouraged.
Not only do Hibbert and Jones individually find pieces to resell at FUA, they also curate collections.
“As of right now my main role is sourcing for FUA,” says Jones. “Let me tell you, it’s been interesting starting that in NYC, but I’ve found some pretty good places and I can’t wait to find more.”
Hibbert’s favourite collection is Dream On, which features lots of pieces with warm undertones and simple garments perfect for layering. Polished black loafers, a small mini leather pouch and a vintage mocha wool vest are some of the pieces that complete the set.
Curating the collection itself was not as simple as walking to a bin sale or a thrift store. Hibbert and Jones had to figure out a colour scheme and plan a few steps ahead.
“Go with an idea of the type of style you’re looking for … as soon as you set that in your mind, it’s so much easier to find cool pieces that fit into that group,” advises Hibbert. Her tangerine hoodie fills up her phone camera as she sits laid-back in her Brooklyn home, sporting some mid-size hoops and a silvery-gold nose ring.
Hibbert’s own fashion sense is not one to miss. Her personal Instagram shows off her bohemian-meets-city-chic style, complete with chunky silver rings and festival-worthy frill tops.
“I love kind of mixing the feminine and masculine-type vibes – I’ll wear a super big, oversized jacket, but then have tight fitting clothes underneath,” she says. “Right now, it’s getting cold, so I’m rocking the hoodies and sweaters.”
“We’re adjusting to our new lives in NYC and it has been the hardest yet most exciting thing we’ve both had to deal with.”
Gillian Jones
A close friend of Hibbert’s was the first to buy something from FUA Collections when it launched, but Hibbert still remembers the nerves she felt when she had her first unacquainted customer.
“I was very nervous,” Hibbert laughs. During her first sales, Hibbert said she often triple-checked the whole packaging process. That nervousness quickly went away as sales picked up.
“After that, I could do everything in the span of like, five minutes – I didn’t even think twice about it,” she explains.
Most of the orders Hibbert and Jones process are concentrated in the United States as well as Canada. Hibbert credits part of the store’s customer growth to the online thrifting community and the ability it gave her and Jones to network through other small businesses.
“The [thrift store] community is literally such a huge and welcoming community. If you start a thrift store, people are going to be DMing you being like, ‘join our community, let’s help each other out,’” she says. “But fashion is very subjective – you don’t know what people are going to like … sometimes you think, well, this is cute, but then no one ends up buying it,” Hibbert adds.
Hibbert herself is interested in incorporating her textile development studies into a fashion line. She says that big-picture plans for FUA collections’ future would either involve the potential brick-and-mortar-store or a sustainable fashion line.
“I want FUA Collections to continue to be a provider of second-hand clothing, whether that be online or in a storefront one day,” adds Jones. She would also be interested in styling customers and helping them find the right secondhand pieces for them.
The store’s collections and products can be found on their Instagram page.