About the Book

Paperback, $7.95
67 pages, 9 illustrations, 5” x 8”
ISBN: 978-0-9825805-2-3

Book Exerpt

Introduction

Dressing well is important. It can help you find a job, get a promotion or inspire the confidence you need to go out and meet new people. Being able to find wonderful clothing for just a few dollars will keep you looking good when the stakes are high and money is tight.

It’s not at all unusual for me to come home from a secondhand shopping trip with almost-new tee shirts, jackets, pants or sweaters from Gap, Hollister, Talbots, Ann Taylor, or American Eagle. My cost for each item is usually between two and six dollars. I know how to find the deals because I have been shopping the thrifts for over thirty years. I am able to recognize quality clothing because I’m a textile artist with a life-long passion for fabric and clothes. My goal is to teach you my insider skills so that you can go out and find your own unbelievably inexpensive great clothing.

Read on and learn how to tell the treasures from the items that should be left on the rack. Find out why large thrift stores offer more diverse style options than large department stores and why new and barely worn clothes wind up being sold secondhand. Get pointers on how to organize your hunt for maximum efficiency and also get a fresh perspective on why many people feel uncomfortable buying and wearing used clothing. Learn to care for your bargains and find out which “dry clean only” items can be washed by hand, or even better, tossed into the washing machine. Finally, get information about how shopping secondhand is the greenest way to go.

I purposely kept this book pocket-sized so that you can get through it quickly and bring it with you when you shop. Read through the entire book and mark those sections you’ll want to refer back to. Before you know it, you will be able to turn very few dollars into the wardrobe that you’ve always wanted.

A Note From the Author

In 1977 I was a young adult earning barely enough to pay the rent and feed myself. Buying new clothing was out of the question. I was uncomfortable going into a secondhand store on my own and was lucky that my new friend Shannon was a secondhand shopping authority. Like me, she was very young, but unlike me, she was supporting both herself and her baby. Shopping the thrifts helped her pay the bills.

Shannon agreed to be my guide and took me to a Saint Vincent DePaul thrift store. It was like shopping at a regular retail store—only grimier, a whole lot cheaper and much more fun. I could afford everything, which was such an unusual experience for me. Mixed in with the flowered muumuus and oversized work shirts was the perfect little cotton summer top. It cost $1.25 and served me for years, until the fabric finally stretched out of shape. Like a treasure one saves from the jewelry box of a beloved parent, I saved the buttons.

Shopping with my friend helped me overcome the negative feelings that I had about thrift stores, but not everybody has a friend who can do what Shannon did for me that day. The Secondhand Wardrobe is the guidebook that takes the place of a knowledgable friend. Read it and you will learn how to hunt down your own amazing bargains.