Are you wearing old clothes?

    Don't worry if you are. Clothes bought at thrift shops are more popular than ever in the West nowadays.

    A lot of young people have an interest in secondhand clothing.

Goodwill Industries, one of the most famous secondhand shopping companies in the US, said there had been an increase of 84 percent in money made from the sale of donated goods from 2007 to 2012, from $1.9 billion(about 13 billion yuan) to $3.5 billion.

    Fanny Moizant, an online group that sells used clothes from luxury brands(奢侈品牌), agrees that “secondhand” is part of fashion now.

“Fashion has changed,” she told the Financial Times last month.” People need our service —they need a place to let go and get rid of this excess(过剩).”

    It wasn't always this way. Secondhand clothes used to be much less popular.

    Keren Charles, 37, from the US, remembers how embarrassed she was the first time she entered a thrift store more than 20 years ago.

    “I didn't want anyone to see me,” Charles told CNN. “In high school, people thought you were either poor or homeless.”

    Now, the fashion fan says about 97 percent of her clothes are secondhand. Her favorite find is a $5 blue evening dress that could be worth hundreds of dollars.

    So what is a thrift shop, exactly?

According to the US Association of Resale Professionals, a thrift shop is run by a not-for –profit（非盈利的）organization to get money to charitable causes.

    The shops have become popular in recent times due to economic reasons.

    More customers began coming to thrift shops in the US at the start of the recession(萧条), according to CNN.

    And now secondhand clothing andvintageitems are showing up in Western high fashion and street wear.

    Fashionable hip-hop artist Macklemore and Ryan Lewis even wore a 2013 Billboard Music Award for their hit song Thrift Shop. The song is about “looking for a come up”(search for cheap things in a thrift store.

    However, thrift store culture may be great for new shoppers and for business but it's not so great for shoppers like Charles who are still “looking for a come up.”

    “The competition is tough now,” she told CNN. “You're in the thrift stores, and you're seeing so many other people, but it's still better than shopping at a department store.”