Spencer Finley – Staff Writer

sjf5814@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Current Boutique

One of the best ways to add great-looking, high-quality pieces to your wardrobe at affordable prices is thrift shopping. For example, I was recently at a thrift store, and I was able to buy a Brooks Brothers tuxedo and cummerbund for only $5- Brooks Brothers is known for making high-quality items, and this purchase would easily have cost $1000 new from the factory. However, before you go to the nearest thrift store, there are a few things that you should know.

The first is that location absolutely matters. You are probably going to find better pieces in nicer areas because thrift stores are dependent upon donations for their merchandise. Hence, if you are in a wealthy suburb, you will find more high-quality clothing and more clothing from reputable companies than you will in a poor rural community. 

The second tip is that you should do your research before you go. You do not need to be an expert in clothing, but you should generally know what to look for in a garment to determine whether that particular piece is going to be a stylish, high-quality, durable addition to your wardrobe, or whether it is going to be a shabby, dingy rag within six months of you buying it. 

The third thing is that you should know is how a particular garment should fit. If you find a piece that you think looks absolutely great, but you try it on and it looks a little off but you can somehow cram yourself into it or it is somehow staying on your body, that is not a sign that you should buy that piece- rather, it is a sign that should be left on the shelf for someone it fits better to appreciate. A garment does not need to fit perfectly off the rack; it can always be taken to a tailor. For men’s clothing, a jacket needs to fit well in the chest and shoulder, and be the correct length; anything else can be tailored relatively easily. Pants can always have the waist taken in if they are too big, and can usually have the waist taken out; however, this is fairly limited, as it can only expand or contract the waistband by up to 2 inches, and taking the waist out tends to be far more limited because it dependent on the amount of fabric the waist has in reserve.

Another thing to know is that thrift shopping is always better with a friend. It always helps to have someone tell you if a particular piece fits you or suits your style, not to mention that having a friend might mean that they find something you overlooked. However, you need to trust your friend’s judgment, and you should also make sure that your friend is someone who knows how clothes should fit. It also never hurts if they are much larger than you, smaller than you, or of a different gender than you because that will ensure that you are shopping for different items and they will not take that one thing that fits you and looks great. 

Finally, you should have a pretty good idea of what your sense of style is. There is going to be a lot of stuff at the thrift store that you can get for really cheap- sometimes you can get an entire outfit for under $10. However, you should not be lured into buying something that does not work in your wardrobe or that you will never end up wearing just because it is cheap. When you look at a piece in the store, think about how it fits in with your existing wardrobe. If you cannot picture an outfit or piece of clothing you have at home that you would wear that new item with within a few seconds, you should put it back on the rack and let someone else whose wardrobe it would work in buy it.