Secondhand / vintage / charity / ethical and slow fashion chat

[madamceladon]

Can we have a chat thread for this?
Tips and ideas, blog and podcast recommendations and latest finds?

I'll start. I think 80% of my stuff is secondhand, from charity shops eBay and vinted. I've got more into this in last five years and never go in fast fashion shops. I feel a bit ill and overwhelmed if I do now.
If I do need to buy new I try to find a company that is ethical and made in Britain.

I've got really into maintenance and repair as well. I love watching a film while I debobble and darn knitwear.

Recent efforts, I had some nice black fine wool trousers but they were too loose and unflattering on thighs, I've improvised and put in my own pleats at the top and pleased with how they came out.

I wanted a black polo neck after I saw some women looking very stylish in a black and white 1960s film and found a perfect one the next day in the charity shop: lambswool, old m and s, made in Britain.

I love this website
vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource

And this podcast
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dressed-the-history-of-fashion/id1350850605

I adore a charity shop. The vast majority of my wardrobe comes from them. I lost a significant amount of weight and I didn't want to spend a fortune finding my style, so charity shops saved me.

One the last two weeks alone I have had: two cashmere jumpers for £2.99 each (I must get them out of the freezer!) a wool Comme Des Garçons skirt for £2, a vintage Laura Ashley silk pussy bow blouse £5, a pair of New Clark's leather boots and lots of nice things for my home.

The absolute best bargain was found last week - a full length Max Mara camel coat. Double breasted and fabulous for £8.99.

I've had so many amazing things from charity shops and love to have a rummage. In fact I might go and have a mooch this afternoon.

Are tailors very expensive? I've always wondered. It seems very luxurious to take clothes to a tailor, but I can totally see the benefits!

@RobertaFirmino

I work at a charity shop too and yes, get to know the staff! We're always ready to yak. If I know you're looking for something in particular, I'm happy to put it aside for you. The vast majority of my clothes come from the CS too (not the one I work at - I'm not comfortable with the conflict of interest as I also sell vintage online). BTW, I'm always happy to help other sellers : )

Such a good idea for a thread @madamceladon, I often use the Vintage Fashion Guild resource. A great blog to read is Vintage Vix. She often goes into the history of labels and gets some fantastic bargains herself.

I love Vintage Vixon - I want to be her when I grow up!

vintagevixon.blogspot.com/?m=1

@covetingthepreciousthings
Tailors can be expensive it depends on the job and I expect where they are. I've used one in central London and in posh Edinburgh suburb so I expect that's more expensive. Between £15 for simple thing and £40 for bigger job?

@Lanaa comme des garçons and max Mara for peanuts! 😮😮😮 wow!

The Marylebone high street ones: there's a nice oxfam, marie curie, some others. I got a Barbour lambswool charcoal grey scarf, mint condition for £10 there.

Another win I had lately was chocolate brown suede Crockett and Jones ankle boots for £35. High price for charity shop but I don't object to them charging accordingly for really good quality brands. I guess those would have been £300+ when new. I've had lots of compliments on them from friends who never notice clothes and shoes.

I want to hear tales from the charity shop workers!
The most amazing, strange or sad donations?
The loveliest and rudest customers?
Best and worst things about the job?

I volunteer in a charity shop. The worst ‘customers’ are the ones who steal from us...

Love this thread! I have recently got into Vinted and picked up a whistles leather biker jacket for £95- bit of an investment yes but the quality is beautiful and would be £300 new. Also I’m vegetarian so second hand leather is much better for my conscience!

Only thing is you need to know what brands you’re after because there’s too much stuff on there to browse, or at least I don’t have the patience.

Could anyone please share their recommendations for quality (perhaps older) brands to guide my Vinted and EBay searches? I grew up in the era of fast fashion so don’t always know what to search for.

TIA

Yay! I'm trying to minimise my current wardrobe by natural attrition. I'm so sick of the crap quality of all the high street brands.

If I'm adding stuff to it, I'm going to be buying more from eBay or charity shops or high quality ethical producers. I feel like I have loads of stuff so hopefully 2022 will have minimal new purchases.

I do plan to have a look in the charity shops in the posh areas though 😃

I guess the saddest donations are from a house that is being cleared out following a death but of course then you can get the most wonderful items. I personally had to clear out a friends' house following their death and the family just wanted me to take everything to the charity shop I run ... it was a lot of hard work but there were some wonderful items. Sadly a very elderly volunteer has recently died and again, her family have given nearly everything to the shop as she would have wanted us to raise funds on her behalf, she had the most wonderful collection of vintage clothes, beautiful quality. Sadly she was a very petite lady and nowhere near my size!

Rarely have any rude customers, sometimes I turn donations away because we have no space and/or it is clear they are absolute junk that we would end up having to take to the tip ourselves, only once did someone get really snotty with me when I refused his collection of Esso garage glasses (remember those) - he shouted at me and said 'I know Director of XX at your Head Office'. I absolutely knew we had no Director of XX .

Same approach for me @silentpool. I'm trying to be one in one out and do upgrades eg saw some great brown boots, get rid of the ones I had that weren't as good.

@ShanghaiDiva jeez. People are gross.

Some tips on good old brands to search for for @BigHeartyTruffle:
British "heritage" brands - aquascutum, Barbour, Burberry.
Vintage st Michael's ie old m and s.
Laura Ashley. Eastex. Daks. Pringle (avoid the diamond golf jumpers 🤢)
Old jaeger.
Dannimac, berkertex.
Some of these don't exist any more.

Anyone else interested in Scottish knitwear and Harris tweed? Johnstone's of Elgin scarves are beautiful, very expensive new but you can get for about £20 on eBay and vinted.

Lovely tales @Ragwort.
I see so many beautiful old sets of Denby crockery and cut crystal glasses in the Edinburgh suburbs charity shops and I'm sure they were from kids clearing elderly relatives homes after a death. ❤️ I just hope they actually used them while they had them instead of "Saving for best" like many did in that generation.

madam - exactly what I've got in my shop at the moment, Denby and cut class - sadly not much demand for them where I am though. I priced the Denby plates at a very reasonable £2 each ... one customer was interested but told me they were too expensive! I will reduce occasionally if items have been on display a long time, but these had only been out for a couple of days so I refused to budge on price.

Glass not class

I used to work in a small charity shop for a less popular cause in a rural area. I was in my early 20s but 99% of our volunteers were much older people and 99% of our donations were Primark type stuff. One day when I was going around sorting the clothes I found a full 3 piece woman's Versace suit out on display priced for £5! I looked it up and the same suit was selling on ebay for hundreds! Briefly thought about buying it myself but my consciousness won and we ended up selling it for what it was actually worth via the charity's ebay account.

Love it! Agree it's a 'thrill of the chase!!!
Especially love visiting a new town/city and checking out the charity shops.
Most recent bargain- White Stuff jeans for £1
I think you have to be selective though- have seen many a primark item for the same or similar price as new
(Picking up tips from this great thread)

My mum was a long term charity shop volunteer and she once bought lots of stuff home for me - saying they were just my style- and they were the stuff I had given her to donate! :)

@crochetmonkey74 Haha 😛 I have actually picked out pieces to try on before realising that I’ve donated them. Consistency of taste at least!

My local charity shops aren't great for me - but I am going to go back in and look for cashmere jumpers that I can customizer.

I make some of my own clothes and whilst I buy new fabric half the time, I also buy fabric from charity shop, other people selling their surplus stash or from a local material recycling charity. I keep my scraps and either use them for stuffing cushions or for pockets.

I'm much more thoughtful about clothes now and tend not to buy anything I think I could make. So dresses, tops and skirts mostly. I also made a coat! That was all second hand fabric apart from the pocket material.

One of my regrets is slacking off during needlework lessons at school because, as a budding feminist, I had decided it was demeaning to assume sewing was all girls were good for. I now realise I could have saved myself a fortune in alteration costs had I actually paid attention (sorry, Mrs Burns!). I can darn neatly, sew on buttons and have even replaced a zip on one occasion, but taking things up or in seems like some dark art to me.

Oh me too Craftycorvid. What an arrogant young wanker I was - too liberated to learn to sew. I'm now re-learning it but all the family members who could have helped are dead.

I love charity shops! I always look when I'm in town. I'm still buzzing from my recent best buy - a Max Mara long black cashmere coat for £25!! It's in perfect condition, the pockets haven't even been unstitched. I'm in a suburb of Croydon, I have no idea how it ended up there, only that there's a gated estate where footballers (and allegedly Michael Buble) live nearby, so maybe someone there didn't like it! I also occasionally pick up Toast trousers and some Mint Velvet, Hush and Pied a Terre. My previous best was a Kooples silk shirt for a fiver.

I try and buy second hand where I can, I used to be a prolific ebayer but it's harder and harder to find the bargains on there, plus selling is harder too. They're really trying to gear towards businesses rather than private sellers, which is a real shame.

I tried DePop, but really didn't get on with it. You need to build a following and be able to display your clothes really artfully, and I just couldn't manage it. Didn't sell a thing, and some of it was great. Not tried buying from there, or Vinted. Must give it another go.

Someone upthread mentioned Thrift+ - beware! I donated a bunch of good clothes - most of the profits go to charity, but they are supposed to give you credits for a discount at Farfetch. I had built up about £45 when suddenly they removed it from my account! I had to really badger them to get it back.

I have been temted by VintageKilo and the like, but not had one come near me - anyone tried it?

Will follow this thread and add any tips I think of. I'm sure someone has mentioned already, but spelling errors are good to try for on Ebay - eg try misspelling Aquascutum or Jaeger - loads of people do. There's a specific site called Fatfingers which if you type in a brand name, will search all of the misspellings for you - very handy!

I also highly recommend the sniper site Gixen - you can set your highest bid limit and it will bid automatically at the last second for you. I've won a few auctions that way