i'm over here in the green section, see you by the hats

I've lived in poor areas for a while, and the goodwill & second-hand stores are useless except for housewares so that's the only section I check (but housewares can be a good mine--witness the rare Fiesta candlesticks I found this summer). Would have to go way out of the city, or else uptown to rich neighborhoods to find good clothes.

*gold mine

i feel like there should be some sort of demographic analysis you could perform to locate the areas where thrift stores most likely to contain treasures

A long time ago, around 2001-2003, I used to take the train out into NJ to Paterson and Passaic and walk from the train station to a local Sal Arm in a building with one of those big chalet-style rooflines and an all-glass front wall. It always had THE BEST STUFF, including great furniture that I just had no way to truck home. My favorite shirt in the world in my entire life came from there, it says "Vulcan Science Academy" on it and is the perfect degree of falling-apart soft.

The Red, White, & Blue in Paterson used to be amazing as well, I bought a bunch of silk Vera scarves from there for $2 each.

it would depend on what you consider a treasure, no?

as far as i am concerned, i long for the golden age of the late 80s/early 90s, when there were lots of people in NEOH giving away their old tiny party dresses
other dream area would be in california in the mid-late 80s (?) when people were giving away their crazy 60s and 70s clothes

i think higher-than-average median income + low or negative population growth provides a pretty good starting point, tho

ime it helps to go where the old folks are (or had been, until recently, r.i.p.)

Bingo.

one of my best finds is an oscar de la renta shirtdress with gold tinsel and brown embroidered lederhosen
it was like $2 because it was in the kids section

but i could reminisce about old clothes forever -- there's another thread for that

i really love church & community thrift stores the most

and the old ladies who volunteer there 7 hours a week

oscar de la renta shirtdress with gold tinsel and brown embroidered lederhosen

wait is this one item or two?

i love the woman who runs the thrift at the episcopal church in providence, she is always there and ALWAYS at least a little bit drunk

I love the places where they hand-write receipts and you get awesome little old lady handwriting

oh, i'm kind of obsessed with boxes of old postcards...but those are more often in antique stores than thrift stores

one item -- the dress had the lederhosen sewn on
i still have it

wait waht, i thought for sure you were talking about 2 items

waow

can you take a photo of it? it sounds incredible!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/8003444599_5725fd6e57_m.jpg

those little poofs all over the dress are gold tinsel

You mean the dress had little picture of lederhosen embroidered on it or that it had actaul lederhosen attached to it that you wear as part of the ensemble? This is a very confusing sounding dress.

Oh so it has like suspenders embroidered on it. I think I get it now.

Sometimes I go to the Episcopal thrift shop with my grandma, but I can never find anything. Also, I can't deal with the old ladies complaining bitterly when the shop doesn't open EXACTLY on time.

can you see it?
it's like the gold paisley wallpapered room with an orange carpeted conversation pit of dresses only it is not sexy at all

that is a fascinating dress LL!

that's one word for it ;)

my boyfriend is having lunch with his aunts in newport today and i KNOW he will be visiting a thrift store afterwards so he better bring me back something nice is all i'm sayin

daddy needs another tie

bring me all of the ties

we are friends with another couple who thrifts a lot, it's pretty awesome because we all know what the others like and what they collect so it results in a slow but steady stream of $2 gifts

for me it's a really solitary activity, though i do find things for people and give them away all the time.

haha yeah, i like to do it by myself too, most of the time for me it's about getting rly rly high and patiently going through every object in the store so nothing is missed.

Oh see I could probably get behind that pretty quickly.

Greetings, thrift clothing shoppers of ilx. My wife likes vintage-y skirts and wrap dresses like this:

http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/P10678860.jpg

but pairs them with what I think is pretty unflattering footwear. When we first met she would often mix flowery skirts and Teva sandals for sort of a hippie college student look. The Tevas finally bit the dust, thankfully, but she has replaced them with something similar to these (if these didn't have a back on them, like a glorified flip-flop:)

http://www.designershoes.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/300x300/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/r/e/revolve_44487200.jpg

She doesn't really like shoe shopping in thrift stores, hates malls in general, and hasn't shopped much online. I think she kinda just doesn't know what to wear with them. Any recs? She used to have some black oxfords, but wore them til they disintegrated.

I am glad she's gotten past the Tevas at least. That's promising!

There are shoe threads, I think, Dan--this one is specif FOR thrift stores, so maybe your question will get more traffic on another thread?

I do believe it's called "Just got feet, don't got SHOES."

so has anyone tried twice.com? i haven't had the chance to do much recreational thrift store shopping but i'd like some new winter clothes. mine are old and -- i'll admit it -- somewhat decrepit. i do have some plaid wool skirts that i bought when i was in college and STILL WEAR every winter, but i'm interested in some new sweaters.

i still can't bring myself to pay retail for sweaters

they're so expensive! and most are such shitty quality!

agree! i try not to spend much time in the sweater section but i'll usually run my hand over them as i walk past. i found a nice lambswool pendleton sweater this weekend! it didn't fit me (aw) so i bought it for my boyfriend.

They are! I did get a really cute sweater at Target for $20 bucks the other day though. I'm sure it'll fall apart after (or during) this winter but hey - $20!

also 2 wool work shirts and 1 wool dress shirt, all pendleton. it was a pretty good day! xp

Elmo, I'm gonna come down to Providence one of these days and go thrifting with you so you can show me how it's done. Sound good?

also i found this book

http://highvalleybooks.com/book_covers/the-kitchen-book.jpeg?

which i have been seeking for a long time. it's great, as are the other books in that series.

omg that book

yes, e! haha, i actually have a bunch of different 'circuits' i can run on a given day. on saturday i did my eastern circuit (salvation army & savers & south baptist, all in fall river, then salvation army in swansea, then savers in east providence).

I miss my amazing collection if thrifted wool skirts ;_;

also, it's not like I keep all my thrift scores forever -- I let things go when they cease to be useful or there are enough other things that have surpassed it in terms of joy and use value ... granted, I might have more things than some people believe I should, but what can I say ... i have so much love to give

especially when it comes to things that are relatively unique ... like the things I get rid of first are the more generic-looking items that would be easy to replace if I changed my mind

like i said, symbiosis!

“It’s a good time for thrift shopping. I have the people who are purging, and then I have the people that need those things and can have access to them at a lower price. It’s a beautiful, mutual symbiotic relationship,” she said.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/01/11/marie-kondo-has-everyone-tidying-up-and-chicagos-thrift-stores-are-reaping-the-rewards/

i have plenty of things to get rid of too. maybe i should organize a swap. i found the handout i made for aspiring swap organizers for my speech class last semester and i make it sound so easy! maybe it is easier than i think it is.

i think you just need a space and willing participants and a plan for what to do with stuff that is left behind ... clothing swaps have always been awkward for me because I'm significantly larger than most of my friends

since we don't have a thread for swaps, i will put my q here in the hope someone can give me a quick answer:

what is the most inclusive language for inviting women + femme people of all stripes ?

is the swap just for women's clothing? Others I've seen have been "all genders/gender identities welcome" -- but if you want to specify that the clothing to be swapped is gendered, do that separately? Also, you may want to say something about sizes.

opening it up to men's clothing would open a whole new can of worms that i am not ready to host in a week, so yeah -- just women's + children's at this point. the swaps that i have been to are all women's clothing but there are people of various identities there (not cis het men though)

this is why i haven't hosted before. too complicated!

i am definitely going to mention that there will be diversity of sizes and style + a changing room w a mirror
it's the invitation process that is giving me hives at this point :-/

then i would say, "women's and children's clothing!" "all sizes and gender identities welcome!"

ok thank you -- that is helpful!!

let us know how it goes!

someday i would like to host a monster swap for everyone but not right now. party planning is so hard for me! i get really hung up on things that aren't important and then the stress fritzes me out
i also want people to know that even if they don't have stuff to bring or don't want to swap they are still welcome to come over and hang out and meet some new people/talk with me and who knows -- maybe a free accessory or other item may fall into their laps! you never know what you're gonna get at a swap.

i will def let you know how it goes.
it's a week from tomorrow :)

i have since let go some of the items i found at the beginning of this thread almost 7 years ago! wow
time flies!
my swap failed btw. i had to cancel it!

It’s 2023 now and I just got home from a trip to hometown, where I visited my hometown first and fave thrift and scored many items to my immense satisfaction.
Haul included: 4 nice sweaters, one denim skirt, one pair cords, two blouses for work, one tweed jumper dress, and a pair of shorts to sleep in bc I forgot mine.
The thrill is not gone!!

yay!!!

a friend on fb who lives in Canada recently posted complaining about how fast fashion is most of what you see anymore in thrift stores ... I do a lot of it online now, and seriously, there is so much of it. I am tempted to suggest to the online thrift site I frequent that it should have a way to filter out certain brands. Like, can I just omit all the Shein, Lularoe, etc. crap?

I’ve never taken to internet thrifting in spite of years of attempts. Being in the store and being able to hold the items, it makes choosing so much easier for me. I tried on the skirt over my jeans but overall everything I bought fit nicely and I didn’t try anything else on before buying. Part of that is my size, I know. The other part is the eye, which doesn’t work the same way for me on a screen. I’m so relieved to have some fresh work clothes and not have to sweat it or shell out hundreds of clams lol