Secondhand life is the focus of my creative path

Secondhand life for me as far as I can remember has been on a creative path. I have never bought into mainstream living and never been materialistic. I love to create beautiful things and live in style but not at the cost of the planet. My style is living thrifty and individually, If I can create a living space or an outfit from used items then I am happy.

I remember as a child we lived a very nomadic life, moving from place to place for work. After moving back from Malta my father gave up a life of working out at sea and turned his hand to restoring an old cottage. He was a master of all trades, a real handyman and my mother baked everything from scratch. I therefore learnt to do both and always on a budget. Dad was a lifelong ‘skip rat’ and would source materials used above buying new living a very secondhand life. He would always appear with something else he had found and always fix something that had broken instead of replace.

As a child I used to make things by cutting up old clothes and reinventing them long before I could sew. I wasn’t really into fashion, just creating. I skated and lived in jeans and trainers and it wasn’t until the 80’s that I really developed a style. The 70’s was about being yourself and the 80’s about trying to be someone else!

Choosing secondhand is ingrained in me, back then local jumble sales were the go to. I remember going with my gran frequently to them and being given pocket money to spend there. They were a fabulous community based event that happened regularly. Along with bring and buy sales and of course Carboot’s. Items were passed around from friends and handed down from family, lots of people lived a secondhand life. The best thing of all is that less went to landfill, it got reused and repaired. Life needs to take a step back to this thoughtful way of living instead of the throw away society we currently live in. EL HOBO is my way of showing people that choosing used needs to be their way of life.