Godzilla takes on Nelson – and waste
Lenny Wills remembers the fashion trends of the 1990s as he played hideand-seek between the racks of his mother’s second-hand clothing store in Dunedin. Now the Nelson resident is seeing some of those same trends in his newly opened Godzilla Clothing store on Bridge St.
‘‘I remember the ’90s, and it’s fun to see the fluoro and the tie-dye back again,’’ he said.
It is the most recent venture for Wills and his wife, who sold their auction house at the other end of Bridge St last year.
Wills has run a number of businesses in the retail sector. He previously owned a second-hand clothing shop in Timaru, then an online furniture shop in Christchurch, before setting up Wills Auctions in Nelson.
He said that with the way the world was moving, the timing was right to open the second-hand clothing store.
Consumers were now more environmentally conscious about the high amount of textile waste that was a result of fast fashion, Wills said.
‘‘My Mum’s clothing shop was pre-The Warehouse, so it was when you bought a dress, that was the dress you had for good. It wasn’t a case of buying 12 or 15 items a year.
‘‘Our landfills are just chocka full of textiles because it is all being overproduced.’’
Clothing is one of the fastestgrowing causes of waste in New Zealand, and the growing market for cheap items and new styles is taking a toll on the environment. On average, people bought 60 per cent more garments in 2014 than they did in 2000.
The volume of textiles sent to Wellington’s Southern Landfill has doubled since 2009, and it is estimated that 25 per cent of this has been perfectly fine clothes that could have been recycled, reused or diverted instead of being dumped.
Wills said attitudes towards buying second-hand clothing had changed in the last few decades.
‘‘It is trendy to find something that you won’t get anywhere else. We do see a lot of really cool one-off clothing that you just can’t go and buy in mainstream stores.’’
He started making plans for the store about three months ago, and it opened at the beginning of January. The space, which was formerly home to Pumpkin Patch, had been vacant for some time.
Wills said the location in the centre of Bridge St was an ‘‘awesome spot’’, and he had signed a long-term lease with the new building owner.
The store had been kitted out with second-hand fittings, including cartoon-esque mannequins purchased from a Ka¯piti Coast store that was closing down.
Godzilla’s clothing stock had been purchased from a number of places, Wills said. Some of it was end-of-line stock, including 3000 pairs of jeans that were brand new and unworn.
Wills said the store had sold quite a bit of clothing in its first week, and he had another 10 tonnes of clothes out the back that would make their way on to the racks and shelves in the coming months.