"IT LETS ME SEE A DIFFERENT SIDE OF MYSELF"
FROM OCTOBER 2022 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX
MARKO MATESA (he/him) and SARAH CONSOLI (she/her)
“Marko’s cowboy boots, pants, and technically his car, were thrifted – the boots from Value Village and the car off Kijiji. It’s special to him because it is so far removed from what a modern car is today. My pants and leather jacket came from Value Village as well as a local thrift store in my hometown. I love the brown and black leather combination. Thrifting is something we love to do together since we started dating.”
A mix of friends, acquaintances and strangers – all “non-models, all creative types” – answered the call. Thrifting made sense during the pandemic, not only because it was economical and ecologically sustainable, but for more imaginative reasons: It was a pursuit of “pleasure, connection and self-expression,” as Sisco saw it, during a time of intense anxiety and isolation. Thrifting is a journey that one can undertake close to home, a character-building “choose your own adventure” that requires patience, luck and perseverance. It’s also an activity that raises questions for which there are no definitive answers. Who else wore the item? Where? How many times has it changed hands, bodies? Remnants of personal history remain, ghosting a jean jacket, a pair of shoes, a shirt. In what she smilingly calls “low-budget fashion photography,” Sisco, herself a thrifter, strived to convey the joy in the successful search and rescue and the pride in self-presentation. Here, the subjects in Sisco’s “The Thrift Series” tell us how wearing their favourite second-hand item makes them feel, alongside photos that convey a primal need to be seen and to be celebrated.