Every fashion enthusiast will tell you that a large part of their free time is spent browsing various platforms in search of their next clothing acquisition. But where are they actually looking?
As great as it would be to find an entire wardrobe at the thrift store, the reality is that finding the pieces that fit you best almost always requires traversing several second-hand and retail stores and platforms, both online and in person.
As I’ve added more outlets to my “where to buy” repertoire, I’ve learned that where you should look for a certain item depends on the type of item you’re looking for; for many reasons, some platforms are better suited to certain aesthetics or areas of fashion than others. Regardless, finding exactly what you’re looking for usually takes a good amount of time and a willingness to sort through a plethora of listings before finding the right one.
My goal here is not to eliminate the search, but to ensure that it produces a worthwhile result.
So, without any further delay, let’s get into it: Here is my comprehensive where-to-buy guide for all types of fashion enthusiasts.
I’ll start with the most widely accessible area of fashion: vintage clothing. Vintage clothes are the easiest to find, cheapest and most diverse, so there is no shortage of places to source them. There are vintage stores in Claremont, but I find that their selections are often picked over and not super varied. Square one for vintage clothing is undoubtedly some kind of thrift store, be it Goodwill, Savers, the Salvation Army, or another local store or chain.
However, because everyone comes to these thrift shops looking for vintage clothing to wear or sell, expectations for the quality of these stores’ inventories can often be unreasonably high; in reality, the likelihood of finding a quality vintage piece is pretty low and it can require a lot of effort.
Still, for the 10-minute drive in each direction to the nearest Goodwill, it’s definitely worth a shot.
I think that flea markets are a better option for vintage clothing than thrift shops. Even extremely popular ones like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (the second Sunday of every month) have such a large selection that you’re bound to find something, regardless of your taste; smaller flea markets like the Silverlake Flea in Los Angeles (every Sunday) are worth checking out too, but can sometimes be on the pricier end given their more trendy target demographic.
Both the Rose Bowl and Silverlake Flea are accessible via Metrolink or bus from the 5Cs, but, as with most things outside of Claremont, it’s a lot easier to take a car for an hour-long drive.
“As I’ve added more outlets to my “where to buy” repertoire, I’ve learned that where you should look for a certain item depends on the type of item you’re looking for; for many reasons, some platforms are better suited to certain aesthetics or areas of fashion than others.”
Vintage clothes are pretty much the one type of clothing where I would argue that your options in-person are just as good as your options online, especially since pieces that you find in person can carry a special kind of sentimental value. That said, the amount of vintage clothing on sites like eBay is absurd — and for those willing to put the time in, the hidden gems are quite rewarding.
For large platforms like eBay and Etsy, my suggestion when looking for vintage clothing would be to search for a certain clothing item and time period; the more specific you are, the more your results will be narrowed down and the less time you’ll have to spend sorting through items that you don’t want. I also like to take the manufacturer of some of my favorite items and search their name along with a time period to find similar pieces that I know will fit me well.
For those who just don’t have the time to invest in these long expeditions, however, there are tons of vintage dealers that release drops of well-curated vintage clothing on a weekly basis.
Beware, there’s a trade-off here: You don’t have to do the dirty work of sourcing the clothing, but the available pieces are significantly marked up compared to what you might find elsewhere. I usually only pull the trigger at places like Unsound Rags, Two Fold and Ametora when I know I won’t see the piece they’re selling again, so I can be sure I’m getting my money’s worth.
Luckily, shopping for designer clothing often takes much less effort, mostly because there’s less of it out there. Because the retail prices of designer clothing are so ridiculously high, the only accessible ways to buy them are on sale and secondhand.
As far as sales, there’s the notorious Ssense sale that features markdowns of up to 70 percent on hundreds of designers. Variety-wise, this is the best retail sale you’ll find, but sometimes other retailers can have bigger discounts, especially with special promotions that don’t exist on Ssense. I’d recommend checking out Dover Street Market, Slam Jam, SVRN and Net-a-Porter/Mr. Porter for some serious markdowns at the end of the summer and winter.
Secondhand platforms broaden the scope of the search significantly, unlocking decades of archives at affordable price points. For menswear, I still believe that Grailed is the best place to look for clothing in terms of selection, though it often necessitates a search strategy similar to eBay due to the quantity of available items. Filtering results by brand can often help to narrow down the selection.
Grailed’s womenswear section is growing too, but I would still side with Depop as the best secondhand dealer of women’s clothing.
Another platform worth mentioning is TheRealReal, which has an online presence as well as several brick-and-mortar consignment stores in major cities in the United States (including three in the LA area), though you’ll most likely have more luck on the app than in a store. TheRealReal is the best place to look for used legacy designer pieces and formalwear since it’s honestly just wealthy old people getting rid of clothes they no longer wear. There might not be as much diversity as on Grailed or Depop, but TheRealReal shouldn’t be underestimated, especially since practically everything is discounted from list price.
Finally, I’ll turn to my favorite and most recently-discovered secondhand platform: buyee.jp. Buyee is a proxy service that allows international customers to peruse secondhand platforms otherwise exclusive to residents of Japan, such as Mercari, Yahoo Auctions and Shopping and Rakuten.
Buyee is a great place to look for secondhand designer and vintage clothing (among other things), but it does require a high level of dedication. Not only do you have to create an account and link a payment method so that the service can purchase items for you within Japan, shipping costs can also be very high ($25-75) given that all shipments are international.
That said, I think it’s completely worth the effort; on platforms like Yahoo Auctions, older pieces from legendary Japanese designers will sell for miniscule amounts compared to their retail prices and relative prices on other platforms like Grailed — and for or better or for worse, the more pieces you buy, the cheaper the shipping cost becomes for each item. Given the current weakness of the Japanese yen compared to the dollar, the bargains on Buyee are unmatched.
There is one problem that stems from all of these different places to look for clothing: extreme pickiness. Every time I find something I like on a certain platform, I’ll force myself to check all of the other platforms to ensure that I’m getting the best deal possible. Going on sale soon? I’ll happily wait it out.
Unfortunately, sometimes this can lead to me missing out on stuff I really wanted. I’ve learned from this to just follow my impulses and not overthink it when I find a cool piece at an affordable price.
After all, it’s just clothes in the end.
Gus Gingrich PO ’24 is from Walnut Creek, California. In his free time, he enjoys stressing over being outbid on Japanese auction websites and mocking up re-designs for his dorm room closet.
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