The fashion industry is said to be the second most polluting industry after oil. And as someone who writes about wellness for a living, my closet contains more than my fair share of fitness gear made from synthetic-based leggings and sports bras. Synthetic fibers never biodegrade. They wind up in our water systems as microfibers and might go on to be ingested by fish or other wildlife. And then they can make their way back up the food chain, often to our own plates.

So, in an effort to minimize my own personal contributions to this scary cycle of yikes, and help existing synthetics stay away from our food chain, I'm been actively transitioning away from any apparel made from new synthetics. To get me going, I tested out Poshmark’s peer-to-peer shopping site.

Sign up was easy. I first spent a lazy Saturday morning on the platform liking and bidding on various beach coverups, Hawaii-friendly jewelry and similar items (I was getting ready for a Hawaiian escape). 

In thirty minutes, I had created handy filters for searching just for my sizes, scrolled through endless items of clothing and negotiated listing prices with around ten sellers. On my first shopping day, I ended up purchasing two dresses, by two holiday-friendly, LA-based and sustainable womenswear brands.

After my first little shopping flurry, where I clicked 'buy' as soon as a listing price felt within striking distance of fairness, I learned how Poshmark works for buyers who have been on the app for more than 30 short minutes. The many other items that I 'liked' but didn't purchase had issued alerts to their respective sellers, who then could privately message me offering additional discounts on the item or shipping. Clever. Knowing now to 'like' things and wait if it was something I didn't immediately need (note: nothing in any of my searches was a real necessity), I went on a like-fest - liking shoes, dresses, tops and skirts that I didn't love but for which I was curious to see if a seller would be tempted enough to message me better pricing. I realized I should have been doing this in the first place, as my first purchases were really just items I was lukewarm about but couldn't resist a deal and felt I was acting sustainably so what was the harm in getting just one more thing.

When my first item arrived, I realized the error in my hasty ways during that first digital shopping excursion. The dress was actually part of a capsule collection for a more mass-market brand and thus the super deal I thought I was getting was really just okay. But more importantly, the hem of the dress didn't even reach the tops of my thighs. It was somewhere between a tunic and a children's dress. I'm guessing the sizing was based on how the collaboration partner sizes their clothing. The second dress fit better, but its darting didn't exactly line up with my body and had I found it in-store I likely would have passed.

Returns on Poshmark are not nearly as easy as purchases. Because it's a peer-to-peer site, understandably the return policy is not going to be anything like Nordstrom's famously generous one. But it's also not buyer-focused like second-hand e-commerce site The Real Real is, where buyers have 21 days to return an item for a full refund. Instead, Poshmark asks for images and then assesses whether a return is valid. Fit issues are not a valid reason for returning. So what happened when I suggested the sizing was off for the dress I purchased that barely hit my hipbone, sharing images and explaining the possible reasons for the mixup? Return denied. But ‘Re-Poshing’ is a just as easy as making a purchase on the site. Although it took me a while to figure this system out, it’s made the buying process on Poshmark a lot less stressful.

If you’d like to try Poshmark yourself at a discount, please use code FORMERLY415 to add $10 to your account.