Category — Secondhand Wardrobe Shopping

My friend Joanne recently emailed me to say that she feels “kinda ‘funny’ about wearing someone else’s clothes (you know, vibes and spirits from the original owner). But”, she went on to write, “in today’s economy, perhaps I should re-think that.” She raises an interesting point. In general, if something gives me the heebie-jeebies, I stay away from it. Put another way, I believe that my intuition always works in my favor. I have made my best decisions when I’ve paid attention to it, and my worst ones when I’ve ignored it. So I try to pay attention. When I run into something in a thrift store that gives me the creeps, I leave the item there, even if it’s really, really inexpensive, and I really, really like it. That being said, in all the years I’ve been thrift store shopping, it’s only happened a few times. Once I brought home a sweater that had an unpleasant feel about it. I washed it and wore it a few times. It continued to give me the creeps, so I donated it back to the thrift store. I don’t know if my unpleasant feeling had to do with something physical about the sweater (itchy fiber? not quite the right color?), or if I really was picking up the vibe from a former owner. At that point, it didn’t matter to me what was bothersome about the garment because I’d gotten my two dollars and fifty cents worth out of it.

My New Treasure

Most of my wardrobe is secondhand, but I occasionally sew myself a new garment. Since I don’t have a lot of time to sew, I want these items to turn out wonderfully—but life doesn’t always work the way I want it to. I once spent forever altering a jeans pattern, thinking I could make it fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the finished jeans looked like they were sprayed on. I could barely breathe in them, even though the addition of lycra to the fabric blend made them stretchy. I also once made myself a jacket that I painstakingly hand quilted only to find that all those stitches made the material so stiff that it hung on my body like cardboard. I donated those two garments to my local thrift store. That way somebody else could enjoy my work.

But sometimes the tables get turned. Just last week I became the one who gets to enjoy somebody else’s work. I paid two dollars for a hand crocheted sweater that looks like it’s never been worn. Could it have been an unwanted present, or did the person who made it find that it just wasn’t right after they sewed on the last carefully selected button? The sweater isn’t revealing its origin, so I’ll never know. I’ll just have to wear it and enjoy.

My daughter loves a secondhand wardrobe as much as I do, and it’s just my good fortune that we are almost the same size. She examines pants much more carefully than I do and when she tries them on I sit in the dressing room with her. I hang up those that are too small for her and try on the ones that are just a bit too big. I’ve gotten some of my favorite pants this way.

Last summer when we visited a friend in San Francisco we stopped by a few Goodwill stores. I found a fantastic jacket and a belt that were both just a bit too small for me, but that fit my daughter perfectly. Shopping for the secondhand wardrobe is great fun when done alone, it’s more fun with people you care about, but it’s even better with people who wear almost, but not quite the same size!

My daughter loves her new prom dress

My daughter found her prom dress last Saturday. It cost five dollars at a local thrift store and is in perfect condition. Garments that are only worn for special occasions often are in wonderful shape because they usually only get worn a few times. Except for a minor alteration to the shoulder straps, the dress fits her like a dream, looks nothing like what everybody else will be wearing, and according to my quickie internet search, comparable dresses by the same manufacturer run around $150. And although she loves this dress, since prom is months away, my daughter has time to continue to snoop around the thrifts, just in case there’s something out there that she likes even more. I can afford to spring for another five bucks, or even ten, if it’ll make her happy.