secondhandwardrobe.com » vintage clothing

Secondhand Clothing: The Ick Factor, Part III

Cheryl — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:40:01 +0000

Thrift stores can smell like a combination of musty basement, mothballs and who-knows-what else. I personally find the scent of regular retail manipulation to be far less appealing.

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Pitiful Abandoned Dollies for Sale Here!

Cheryl — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:58:00 +0000

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.

Girly Shoes

Cheryl — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:23:47 +0000

These heels, made by Miracle Tread of Craddock Terry Shoe Corporation, are 50 years old and still gorgeous!

I’d never owned a pair of heels until last week, when I visited my favorite vintage store and found the perfect pair. They’re skinny, just like my feet. If you haven’t noticed, narrow sizes have all but disappeared from the shoe racks. Were I to get an invitation to some fancy event, say a wedding, I could spend half a year just looking for shoes that fit me, and since there are very few companies that still make them, the prices are more than I want to pay. So I nabbed the skinny heels for $20 and will pack them away until the next invitation comes.

Groovy, Baby!

Cheryl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Having trouble locating the perfect late 60’s/early 70’s garb at your local thrift store? I’ve got a book for you. The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book by Bordow and Rosenberg, originally published in 1972 has been reissued. Those of you with modest sewing skills or an interest in learning can use this book to give secondhand finds a vintage feel, although most of the book is devoted to from-scratch patterns for items such as caftans and ponchos.

I can tell you that those of us who were young in 1970, when the book was first published, actually did want to look like “…pirates and Native Americans…. We longed to be fairy princesses…”, as one of the authors notes in the 2008 introduction. The designs are definitely representative of what we wore then, but I can’t vouch for the patterns, because I haven’t made any of them. Although I enjoyed dressing like a fairy princess when I was a teenager, my taste in clothing has definitely changed since then. By the way, check out this shot of the original cover. Now that’s what I call groovy!