Secondhand Chic: Finding Fabulous Fashion at Consignment, Vintage, and Thrift Shops - Softcover

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Christa Weil is a freelance editor and full-time writer who loves to buyand sell secondhand clothes. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Free Voice, North Atlantic Review, and R&R News. She is currently living in London.

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Fun, funky, and fabulous, this is the first personal buying guide to help you get in on the resale craze that is sweeping America.

Would you like to find a mint-condition Yves St. Laurent jacket for $25...a brand-new, pleated wool skirt still bearing the original $40 price tag, for $7...a genuine Dior suit for $75? Now you can! In SECONDHAND CHIC you'll discover where to look, what to look for, and how to buy quality. In fact, you'll get all the secrets of spotting a valuable bargain so you can shop brilliantly whether you're in a consignment, thrift, or vintage store. Expert shopper Christa Weil shares the insider information that will help you buy the best clothes you've ever owned...at a fraction of the retail cost.

Learn about:

-- Spotting quality -- which you will know immediately from buttons, pockets, seams, and fabric

-- Labels...big names, department store brands, exquisite foreign lines -- and fakes!

-- Finding your size when there are no labels or tags

-- Flaws you can fix and the ones you can't -- from wrong lengths and wrinkles to stains and shininess

-- Unearthing handmade shoes, silk scarves, name jewelry, and other elegant accessories

-- Buying what you really need -- and caring for the clothes you've got

-- The styles that make your body look best

From domestic to international stores, from New York to London, from Memphis to Paris -- no matter where you buy, you can buy secondhand chic.

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Chapter One: All About the Secondhand Market
"Secondhand clothes have gone uptown. Cities such as Boston, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. now have used apparel stores that resemble upscale boutiques in everything but their pricetags."
-- Money, June 1996
"It's fascinating to see how this thrifty pastime has changed into a fashion phenomenon."
-- Time Out, January 1998
"Mimicking some of their uptown retail cousins, many used-clothing retailers are offering quality merchandise, attractive displays and comfortable spaces that make them look like any other store. Used-clothing companies have also ditched the 'thrift-store' moniker and call themselves resale shops or vintage stores. Call them what you will, but the trend is clear: Americans are spending more money on used stuff."
-- ABCNEWS.com, October 1998
It seems you can't open a magazine or turn on the TV lately without getting word about the rise of secondhand clothes. The consignment, vintage, and thrift modes of shopping -- indeed, the resale of everything from sporting goods to computers -- is losing its air of down and out, and attracting a growing middle-class market. According to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Stores (NARTS), there are over 15,000 resale shops in the U.S. The association itself currently has over 1,000 members. Receiving about 200 inquiries per month, it is growing at 15 percent per year.
While the wide-scale interest is a relatively new phenomenon, the business itself is not. It's a good bet that the first used-clothing transaction took place in a cave. Since then, the resale business has had a long, successful, and extremely colorful history. Take a peek at a Victorian London market, through the eyes of a 19th-century reporter:
Petticoat Lane is essentially the old clothes district. Embracing the street and alleys adjacent to Petticoat Lane and including the rows of old boots and shoes on the ground, there is perhaps two or three miles of old clothes...gowns of every shade and pattern are hanging up. Dress coats, frock coats, great coats, livery and game keepers coats, paletots, tunics, trousers, knee breeches, waistcoats, capes, pilot coats, working jackets, plaids, hats, dressing gowns, skirts, Guernsey frocks, are all displayed.
Odds are this is where Dickens's Oliver Twist would have come to fill out his wardrobe (and here too his master Fagin would send boys to sell their nicked wares). The market was a rowdy place. The reporter went on to explain that "clothes first come through the Old Clothes Exchange. The Exchange had been so noisy that the East India Company, who had warehouses nearby, complained; sometimes it took 200 constables to keep order." Just imagine what it was like during sales.
If Petticoat Lane is a bit too reminiscent of the nasty old clichés about resale, why don't we look back even further, to the royal courts of France, where exacting rituals of dress and decorum reigned. Culture of Clothing, a sociological history of clothing in that country, notes that the tax records of the mid-18th century list approximately 1,700 resellers of clothing in Paris. At the high end was the so-called revendeuse à la toilette (a reseller who visited during the noblewomen's lengthy, gossipy get-up sessions before they appeared in court). Revendeuses bought and sold old fabrics, lace, jewels, and other items from the rich and resold them to equally upper-class customers. They can be seen in engravings of the period acting as "both confidantes and merchants at the morning toilets of the ladies."
Just like it was in the past, today's secondhand business is stratified, with different stores aimed at different segments of society. What's different now is the crossover -- the well-heeled are haunting the dingiest of thrifts, and the hard-pressed for cash are shopping at the snootiest of consignment stores. Moreover, today we're seeing a rise in specialty resale stores, such as Transfer in New York City's Soho, which features garments (mostly sizes 4, 6, and 8) straight from the catwalk and magazine feature shoots.
First Things First: A Few Definitions
Consignment
This is a place where women who want to dispose of certain wardrobe items can resell them, with the store acting as middleman. Here's how it works. Our consignor, let's call her Mrs. Pink, recently lost 20 pounds and can no longer wear her lovely wool skirt, from the mall store called Ashbot's, purchased a year ago for $100. When she brings the skirt in, the store owner or manager will take a hard look, making sure it is clean (a must), free of damage and obvious signs of wear, of a recent season (though this is not always necessary), and suitable for the store's clientele. If they accept it, the store could tag the skirt at anything from $5 to $500, but most likely somewhere in the range of $30 to $90. If the garment sells, most stores will pay Mrs. Pink 40 to 60 percent of the selling price. The store will display the piece for an average of 60 to 90 days. If it doesn't sell at the original price after a set period, it may be marked down. If it still hasn't sold within an agreed-upon period (often another six to eight weeks), Mrs. Pink must reclaim it. If it does sell, she collects a check.
Many consignment stores stand in sequined reproach to the bad old reputation of resale -- they can be as exquisite as the best boutiques in town. And guess who is in the back office, agreeing on prices for last season's castoffs? The cream of local society, my dear -- but the good stores properly keep this mum. In fact, Carole Selig, owner of Encore on New York's Madison Avenue, said to be the oldest consignment store in the country, would only confirm that Jackie Onassis had been a frequent consignor because the story had already been published. The identities of her other consignors? She diplomatically refuses to say. This is not to imply that all consignment stores carry only haute-couture goods; quite the opposite. Most, like Buy Popular Demand in Chicago, stock Ann Taylor and Gap along with high-end gowns, maximizing their appeal to a wide range of clients.
Advantages of Shopping at Consignment Stores
Time savings -- the items have been prescreened by the management.
Rational display -- usually the clothing is sized, and sometimes arranged by color. Sale goods are often on a special rack.
Consistency of goods -- the owner's taste prescreens the merchandise -- either you like it or you don't.
Condition of clothing -- most stores accept only dry-cleaned clothes, on hangers, with little sign of wear.
Real dressing rooms -- you'll have privacy and good lighting.
Markdown policy -- pricing can range anywhere from 25 percent (for brand new, current season items) to 75 percent off the retail cost. Extreme bargains to be found if store holds clearance sales.
Service -- frequent customers get preferential treatment.
Disadvantages of Shopping at Consignment Stores
High $$$ -- reflecting original cost of garments.
Attitude -- while the vast majority of stores offer a warm welcome, some can be snobby.
Vintage
Vintage (or "retro") clothing stores specialize in older and antique fashions. Here the merchandise may range from Huckapoo polyester shirts to Lily Pulitzer golf shorts to Balenciaga ballgowns, depending on the tastes of the owner and her clientele. In larger cities, vintage stores may specialize in certain fashion eras. Store owners generally purchase their stock from vintage-clothes wholesalers, from individuals like you and me who have been clearing out the attic, or from thrift stores.
Advantages of Shopping at Vintage-Clothes Stores
Distinctiveness -- most of the items are truly one-of-a-kind.
Volume -- if you love Victorian lace, you'll find it in quantity if you find the right store.
Craftsmanship -- the better...