Tag: secondhand

How to shop for second-hand clothes

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The hottest thing in fashion? Old clothes. There are myriad reasons to shop second-hand: buying what’s already out there is not only better for the planet, but also opens up a world of design choices beyond the current season’s trends. You might also unearth unexpected and better-made pieces, if you know where to look.

But as anyone who’s tried to hunt for the perfect vintage Levi’s 501s or Burberry trench already knows, shopping second-hand can also be frustrating or overwhelming. Here, six vintage enthusiasts share their top hacks and haunts for scoring the best finds.

Alexandra Carl, fashion stylist

A woman in a long, black coat with a handbag
Alexandra Carl has become obsessed with auction app LiveAuctioneers © Sandra Semburg

I love to rummage local thrift and vintage shops when travelling. In Copenhagen, where I’m from, I always go to Time’s Up Vintage and Kirkens Korshaer, which is a local charity shop. In Paris, I like Moji Farhat — he’s the king of anything ’80s, and in New York, I go to Beacon’s Closet and Treasures of NYC — [the latter] is appointment-only but so worth it once you finally get through to them. I also love One Of A Kind Archive in London, which has a unique and sprawling range of designer pieces by brands such as Vivienne Westwood, Alaïa, Prada and Chanel.

If you don’t have time to rummage, check out online platforms such as Tab Vintage, which has a great range of dresses and eveningwear, The RealList, or In Louve, which stocks a lot of late ’90s and early noughties-era brands like Blumarine. I’ve recently become obsessed with the auction app LiveAuctioneers, which shows you designer pieces from auctions around the world.

The ultimate guide to Toronto’s second-hand clothing scene

Toronto is one of the world’s top cities for vintage shopping. With dozens of second-hand shops catering to various budgets, tastes and even eras, the city holds its own against notable vintage shopping destinations like London or Tokyo. From the cluster of quirky vintage shops in Kensington Market to expertly edited high-end boutiques on Dundas West, it really is possible to stock most of your wardrobe with second-hand finds.

Of course, shopping preloved fashion calls for more patience and persistence than the average trip to the mall or scroll through the Zara website. You may not find your perfect pair of faded vintage jeans on the first try (or even the second). Inventory is constantly changing, and the nature of vintage is that once it’s gone, it’s gone. But the reward — one-of-a-kind gems, discounted designer scores and high quality construction — is worth it. You just have to know where to go and what to look for. That’s why we’ve compiled this detailed shopping guide to Toronto’s best consignment and vintage stores.

Best for upcycling your wardrobe: Common Sort, multiple locations, commonsort.com

You’d be hard-pressed to find a millennial creative who doesn’t frequent Common Sort. This chain of three stores scattered across the Annex, Parkdale and Riverside, is a unique player on Toronto’s second-hand scene. It’s essentially the city’s answer to New York City mainstay Beacon’s Closet, where you can trade in your own clothes for cash or store credit. Shopping and selling your clothes here feels like participating in a citywide circular clothing exchange.

The Common Sort buyers are discerning, which means you’ll find of-the-moment trends, popular brands like Everlane and Reformation, true vintage and classic basics like denim and leather jackets. The best part? The prices are extremely reasonable (starting at around $12 for tops) and the

ASU pupils embrace vintage style through secondhand suppliers

Fashion can be outlined by almost everything from the earrings somebody pairs with their bracelets to how several holes they reduce in their jeans. Fashion can also be embracing factors of more mature vogue to include into a modern outfit, hence the attractiveness of vintage trend.  

With the resurgence of corduroy jackets, bell-bottom jeans, flared sleeves and graphic tees reminiscent of the 90s and early 2000s, secondhand clothes has come to be a incredibly hot commodity in the present day age. 

“A large amount of my favourite items about vintage manner … is no one particular else has the very same style that you have,” stated Peter Bartos, a Fashion Collective club member and freshman studying English. “No one else has like the exact same prints. And if they do, it truly is heading to be extremely, extremely unusual.”

The affordability and quick availability by transport has built quick trend the new manner of buying dresses and constructing a wardrobe for quite a few shoppers.

Read More: Conscious clothes: sustainable fashion at ASU

“I believe rapid trend is seriously flawed,” stated Nikita Anand, a junior researching business enterprise law. “I assume it is more challenging to locate, like distinctive parts of fast fashion, whereas, like, vintage and secondhand thrifting you can find a lot more.”

Having said that, with the uptick in acceptance for rapid style, numerous youthful buyers and self-proclaimed fashionistas have turned towards on-line searching for their garments. Websites like SHEIN, Endlessly 21, Cider and H&M have skyrocketed in acceptance many thanks to on line procuring hauls and unboxing films. 

When rapid fashion contributes to pollution and mass squander, recycled outfits can turn into repurposed to generate an specific look for students, producing it not only unique, but also far more sustainable a key piece in the

Designer resale sites – Where to buy second-hand designer fashion

As shoppers, many of us are making a real effort to consume fashion in a more eco-conscious way. And, whether that involves buying from sustainably-minded labels, opting for rental fashion instead of buying new, or selling old pieces and buying secondhand, there are so many great options to consider when it comes to having a greener approach to fashion. In fact, it has never been easier.

One of our favourite ways to be sustainable shoppers is to embrace the circular fashion model. There are now so many great luxury resale sites and stores to choose from, where you can sell your unwanted designer wares, and invest in new (well, secondhand, but new to you) pieces for your wardrobe.

preview for Inside the atelier: The making of Dior's Lady D-Lite bag

Streamlining your wardrobe is not only good for the soul but good for the environment, too. When having a rethink about what you own, you may ask yourself if you are really making the most of the clothing and accessories you already have. Are you guilty of holding on to something that you’ll probably never wear again, for the wrong reasons? A decluttered closet is the first step to making your existing clothing selection work as hard as possible; after all, you’re unlikely to wear something if you’ve forgotten it’s even there.

Here, we round up the best designer resale websites to help you give your unwanted pieces a new home, all of which are reputable, easy to use, and well-edited. Whether you’re looking to sell a designer handbag, a pair of shoes, or perhaps a piece of clothing that no longer “sparks joy” for you, but might for somebody else, then visit one of these sites below.

Of course, if you’re in the market for something special then these sites are also

Cheap, cool and kind to nature: how secondhand became UK fashion’s main attraction | Fashion

If clothes swaps have traditionally been about bobbly jumpers and past-it denim, the format was certainly elevated last week. The Absolut Swap Shop opened in London with rooms full of preloved and “deadstock” clothing (clothes that were never sold in the first place) chosen by sustainability influencer Venetia La Manna, body positivity campaigner Nyome Nicholas-Williams and Harry Lambert, the celebrity stylist who works with Harry Styles, Emma Corrin and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Between them, they have nearly a million Instagram followers. The sold-out event gave shoppers the chance to swap anything from their wardrobe for secondhand clothing.

Lambert says the event appealed to him because he has recently changed how he thinks about fashion. “When I was younger, I’d buy stuff and wear it a few times and I would throw it away,” he says. Now he says he is trying to put himself on a more sustainable path and he hopes the Swap Shop will encourage others to do the same.

A retail space in Brent Cross shopping centre that once housed a Topshop has also just opened as Charity.Super.Mkt, a department store of secondhand clothes masterminded by former Red or Dead designer Wayne Hemingway and Maria Chenoweth, chief executive of Traid. Many middle-market companies such as Cos, Joules and Toast started reselling preloved online alongside their new season collection or organising their own clothes swaps in the last year. Love Island, a reality show once sponsored by fast fashion brand Pretty Little Thing, has now been sponsored by eBay for the second series running, and Depop (which allows people to buy and sell vintage clothing online) has had stars including Olivia Rodrigo sell their clothes on the app. Childrenswear is now the fastest growing sector of secondhand.

These are all examples of how preloved fashion has moved

mainstream retailers embrace second-hand clothing

High street retailers are following in the footsteps of their online rivals, offering more second-hand clothes to lure in shoppers wanting to steer clear of fast fashion and hunt for bargains amid a cost of living crisis.

The second-hand clothing market has exploded over the last decade to an estimated £6.5bn last year, largely thanks to online sites like eBay, Vinted and Depop. That figure is expected to double by 2027.

In 2022, eBay saw a 24 per cent increase of circular fashion businesses join their site, and searches for pre-loved clothing on eBay UK have skyrocketed 1600 per cent since last summer.

Kirsty Keoghan, eBay UK’s global fashion general manager, told City A.M. that shoppers’ changing habits are down to two factors.

“The first is related to consumers’ growing awareness of their individual environmental footprint, and the second is related to their expectation of high-quality products at great value, which is more important than ever as we grapple with the cost-of-living crisis,” Keoghan said.

“A potential recession, the climate crisis, and global unrest are all reasons that, going into 2023, consumers are making shopping decisions based on value… as well as personal values,” Rati Sahi Levesque, co-CEO of online second-hand marketplace The Realreal, said following the publication of a report by the firm on the boom in circular fashion.

But, worried about losing out to online sellers, now mainstream high street retailers want a slice of the pie.

Last week J. Crew Group announced the launch of a resale programme ‘J.Crew Always’, which will sell curated vintage styles in select stores and customers’ pre-owned threads online in return for credit.

Selfridges has also set up its ‘Reselfridges’ scheme, saying it aims for 45 per cent of transactions to come from its circular scheme

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