How to Master the Art of Second-Hand Clothes Shopping
If you want to lower your carbon footprint, save money and donate to worthy causes – all whilst finding one-of-a-kind pieces for your wardrobe – then second-hand shopping is probably the pastime for you. Unlike with standard clothes shops, second-hand stores offer unique items and pay no attention to whatever fast-fashion trends are currently flying through the magazines, allowing you to curate a wardrobe that truly reflects your style.
What I especially love about second-hand shopping is that, to young folks such as myself, these items serve as artefacts as well as bargains. By rifling through second-hand goods, you can find the discarded remains of a society gone by - crumbling leather wallets with labelled sections for one pound notes, commemorative Charles and Diana tins in the shape of post-boxes, trinket boxes shaped like ducks. Where are these people now? What were they spending their one pound notes on back in ‘81? What did they keep inside the duck? We’ll never know the answers, but we can at least buy the dumped-out treasures of their lives at extraordinarily cheap prices. Here’s how to find them:
The Charity Shops
Nowadays, charity shops can seem rather expensive. The popularity of charity shopping has soared in recent years, and in this modern age of price matching with Ebay, what was once an accessible way to shop with the reckless abandon of the super-rich now requires some caution to avoid embarrassment at the till. That being said, there are still plenty of bargains to be had.
The simplest trick to success in any charity shop is to give everything a proper look over, and I mean everything. Don’t limit yourself to a passing glance at each section of the rail in your size, investigate the smaller and larger clothes too - it’s surprising what can be made to work with a little optimism. You should also check out the section for the opposite gender - jumpers, t-shirts, and coats are normally genderless anyway - so why limit yourself? Finally, don’t forget to sweep through the jewellery and shoes, you can find some real treasures in there!
The Jumble Sale
Jumble sales are my personal favourite spots to hunt for clothes, and they also tend to be the cheapest. For the most authentic jumble experience, look out for posters on village notice boards and community Facebook groups. The more amateur the poster-design, the better the jumble sale is likely to be.
The thrill of the jumble is in the chaos of it. There is, as the name would suggest, no organisation to the clothes - punters are expected to dig in and wrench from the pile whatever looks promising. As everyone’s hunter-gatherer instincts begin to kick in, normal etiquette goes out of the window. In polite society it may be frowned upon to fight elderly women, but this rule does not apply to jumble sales. Deidre and Barbara can huff and puff all they like but that cardigan is yours! Sure, it might reek of cigarette smoke and be covered in small mysterious holes, but for 20 pence we can hardly be picky now, can we? With prices normally ranging from ten pence to two pounds, jumbles are great places to take risks - both with your personal style and with the quality of the clothing.
The Car-Boot
Car-Boots are something of a middle-ground between the carefully-priced order of the Charity Shops and the grubby-yet-cheap thrill of the Jumble Sales. Here, you really could find anything, and the prices can range from basically free to extortionate. Stick to your instincts and don’t be taken for a fool, but ditch the jumble sale aggression - friendliness is the key to the car boot sale.
If you really want to find the gems, then you have to arrive for opening time, which can be as early as 7am. Don’t worry though, you can normally find a catering van offering bacon rolls, tea and coffee.
If you’ve got all day to kill, then I’d recommend taking a book with you and doing a first sweep at opening, then a last sweep just before closing. This way, you’ll get first dibs at the best stuff, and then the chance to buy the things you weren’t sure on at a hugely discounted price. Remember, most vendors really don’t want to drive home with their offerings, so you can collect some great bargains when people are packing-up.
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