The local thrift store

[dancerjodi]

One of my new favorite places for clothing is http://www.globalthriftstore.net/index.html on Moody. I had some good luck when I was trying to find a simple thin black button-down sweater to keep me warmish in our crazy air conditioning at work over the summer. Then I found some costuming items there that were just amazing luck (like last week I found a brown coat that looks surprisingly like Mal's coat and would just need some minor tweaking http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=8&pos=20 , that I'm offering up to our local Mal - it cost $7).

I needed some long sleeve shirts for work and spent a good deal of time there last week on payday to see what I could find. I perused the racks for about 45 minutes, tried on about 10 things and left with 5 shirts (each costing $5) that I could wear to work or out of work. Not bad!

The freaky thing is that a lot of these are fairly expensive brand shirts made out of good quality materials, and they only cost me $5 each. I had posted here before about a funky Betsey Johnson shirt I bought there. The work shirts aren't as funky, but I was curious about the one I'm wearing today so I did some online poking. Its from JCrew and their stuff doesn't come cheap (normally I actually kind of sneer if I see a store or catalog or someone that looks like a poster child for the place, actually). I checked the tag and found that its made from Marino wool. It turns out to be this one (originally $70, now on "sale" for $50):
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod86988291&catId=cat220147 but I bought it used for $5. Less money, recycling, supporting the community. Go me!

I used to spend a lot of time in thrift stores when I was in college so that I could find funky cheap stuff that would be cool to wear to clubs or shows (handstapleforehead) that was all extremely unpractical. I feel kind of dumb that the coolness of this option for everyday stuff didn't sink in until recently. I knew it on some kind of intellectual level - we don't need to consume more and more stuff - it just hadn't clicked before. I think I just didn't give the stores the time that's needed to really find the cool things. Or I didn't have a good eye for what fit me and would look good on me or something. I'm actually enjoying buying clothing now, which was one of the worst things you could make me do previously.

What's your favorite thrift store?

Comments

[dali-muse.livejournal.com]

Not exactly thrift, but Oona's in Harvard Square. They do have a $5.00 and $10.00 rack, though. Many of my goth and work wardrobe is from there.