{"id":116548,"date":"2026-09-03T08:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/116548\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T08:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:56:13","slug":"richard-e-grant-fronts-second-hand-september-as-britons-try-to-buy-fewer-clothes-positive-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/116548\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard E. Grant fronts Second Hand September as Britons try to buy fewer clothes – Positive News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The actor is helping launch Oxfam\u2019s annual secondhand fashion campaign as new research finds 57% of UK adults deliberately tried to buy fewer clothes in the past year<\/p>\n

Richard E Grant has revealed that one of the most consequential pieces of secondhand clothing he ever bought was a Burberry trench coat from Oxfam \u2013 because it helped him land the role that made his name.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life-changing career break happened because I was wearing a second hand coat I bought in an Oxfam shop,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was 1986 and I arrived for my \u2018Withnail & I\u2019 audition soaking wet and in a second hand Burberry trench coat. Turned out I\u2019d nailed the look for the part without even trying \u2013 So, no Oxfam, no Withnail!\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty years later, Grant is fronting Oxfam\u2019s Second Hand September<\/a> campaign, which encourages people to buy pre-loved clothes, donate those they no longer wear, and keep their existing wardrobes in circulation for longer.<\/p>\n

Solutions every Saturday
\n Uplift your inbox with our weekly newsletter. Positive News editors select the week\u2019s top stories of progress, bringing you the essential briefing about what’s going right.
\n Sign up<\/a><\/p>\n

The campaign launch comes backed up with evidence that many people are already questioning how much clothing they need. Oxfam\u2019s new State of Style report<\/a> found that 57% of UK adults deliberately tried to buy fewer clothes during the past year.<\/p>\n

Its findings are based on polling of 3,037 UK adults carried out in July of this year. The charity plans to repeat its study annually to track whether Britain\u2019s relationship with clothing is becoming more sustainable.<\/p>\n

However, there is still a lot of clothing sitting around unused. The research found that almost a third of the pieces in an average UK wardrobe had not been worn in the previous year, while four in 10 people said they had worn an item of clothing just once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Richard E. Grant shot by Sane Seven for Oxfam’s Second Hand September 2026 Campaign\n <\/p>\n

One in five people surveyed admitted to still throwing unwanted clothes away, rather than donating, repairing or reselling them.<\/p>\n

The environmental cost goes well beyond the clothes themselves. Oxfam estimates that the water used to produce clothing currently sitting unworn in Britain\u2019s wardrobes would be enough to provide one million people with drinking water for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Second Hand September was launched in 2019, but secondhand fashion has since become increasingly mainstream<\/a>, helped by the growth of resale platforms alongside charity shops and vintage retailers. Oxfam has more than 500 shops around the UK as well as its online store.<\/p>\n

It was 1986 and I arrived for my \u2018Withnail & I\u2019 audition soaking wet and in a second hand Burberry trench coat<\/p>\n

The campaign is also tapping into an idea that buying less does not have to mean taking less pleasure in clothes. Grant says he has always loved clothes \u201cthat have lived a life before you\u201d; he still wears pieces he has owned for decades, alongside clothes that belonged to people he loves and things he has picked up over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginal style isn\u2019t about buying more. It\u2019s about finding pieces with a story, keeping them for as long as you can, and passing them on for someone else to discover. We\u2019ve already got too much of everything. Reusing and upcycling clothing \u2013 second-hand, vintage, call it what you like \u2013 just makes perfect sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Images: Sane Seven for Oxfam\u2019s Second Hand September 2026 Campaign<\/p>\n

Be part of the solution<\/p>\n

At Positive News, we\u2019re not chasing clicks or profits for media moguls \u2013 we\u2019re here to serve you and have a positive social impact. We can\u2019t do this unless enough people like you choose to support our journalism.<\/p>\n

Give once from just \u00a31, or join 1,800+ others who contribute an average of \u00a33 or more per month. Together, we can build a healthier form of media \u2013 one that focuses on solutions, progress and possibilities, and empowers people to create positive change.<\/p>\n

Support Positive News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The actor is helping launch Oxfam\u2019s annual secondhand fashion campaign as new research finds 57% of UK adults…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2298,19106,1109,28163,44233,5,6],"class_list":["post-116548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-charity","tag-clothing","tag-fashion","tag-recycling","tag-second-hand","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117206278776877379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}