Thank you to Chelsea Pech, who writes for beautyxpose.com. She interviewed me and wrote a lovely article about the joys of secondhand shopping which you can read here.

On occasion, when my friend Bea and I are hanging out at our local thrift store, she grabs my hand and forces me to touch garments made out of fabrics that are a tactile nightmare. She thinks she’s funny. I’m left with the uncomfortable memory of stiff, itchy fabric.

The purpose of this website is to point out that there is good, sometimes even beautiful, used clothing available at secondhand stores. What I rarely mention is that part of the fun of shopping secondhand is seeing puzzlingly hideous clothing, ugly doo-dads, horrible paintings and pitiful, abandoned dollies. I’m constantly asking myself why anybody would design/make/buy/donate/or put this awful stuff on the shelf, even if the shelf is located in the cheapest-of-the-cheap charity thrift store.

While I’m content to sit and ask myself questions about all of this grotesque stuff, Jacob Williamson, creator of Thrifthorror: Things from Beyond the Bargain Bin, hunts it down, photographs it and then writes about it at length. If you have not yet fallen on the floor laughing today, I strongly suggest that you check out his wonderfully written blog.

As I compose this, I’m at home with a cold, so I’m missing my regular weekly thrift store trip with my pal, Bea. We go on Wednesdays because that’s the day when almost all of the clothing is 1/2 off. By the time I get there next week, at least some the great stuff that I would have found today will be gone, having been discovered by some other bargain hunter. At least I don’t have to worry about missing any of the ugly, hilarious things, though, because they will all still be there.

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!

Manufacturers often put their names, slogans and logos on clothing, but this time Tommy Hilfiger really went overboard. I was sniffing around one of my favorite secondhand stores when I found a tee shirt with the following printed on the chest:

Tom-my Hil-fig-er 1.: American 2: quality tailored clothing, sportswear, jeans and athletic apparel for men, women and children adj. 3: fun, free, spirited, a desirable addition to your wardrobe 4: a group of people who demand distinctive style ＜~ customers have an eye for details ＞ v. 5:to twist tradition, to reinvent the classics to create FASHION FREEDOM 6: to chuck convention, but with panache syn see Duke and Dutchess of Windsor 7: Whoever you are, whatever you wear, TOMMY HILFIGER is you.

This whole issue of logos/slogans/names of companies prominently displayed on garments raises an interesting question for me. I understand that the companies benefit when people wear this stuff, but why do consumers go along with it?

 Thrift store jewels that I’ll make into other treasures.  

I’ve written before about how much I love vintage jewelry. Some pieces I wear as they are; others I disassemble to use the components to make something new. Yesterday while I was nosing around my local public library, I found a great new book on how to take bits and pieces of old jewelry, plastic cake decorations and doll furniture and turn them into necklaces, bracelets, earrings, shoe clips and more. The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl’s Guide to Handmade Jewelry isn’t for those who love only pearls, solid gold and diamond jewelry. But if you’d enjoy a necklace made of plastic gnomes, you should check out this book.