Thrifting Wizardry - My Tips and Tricks

While everything about pandemic and quarantine and just 2020 in general is A Lot, certain frivolous things I'm missing have been on my mind lately. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, even if it's more a state of mind than tangible season here in Southern California, and it always has me wanting to go out and do stuff. Normally I've been out haunting craft and thrift stores and making Halloween and Dapper Day costumes for weeks by now. This year, that desire to do is amplified by not being able to. Craft stores I can get to online (even if the thrill isn't the same), and Etsy has certainly seen more of my action than usual. But thrift stores are still out of reach.

I've been burning through thrift haul videos on YouTube to live vicariously through other shoppers' past experiences (at the moment I'm watching The Closet Historian and Rachel Maksy, who I highly recommend), and their recaps got me thinking that I could take my own trip down memory lane. I'm figuring out how to do a profile of sorts on some of my all-time favorite thrift finds, and maybe one on identifying vintage markers in more modern clothes, but in the meantime I figured I could jot down some of my methods for A+ thrifting. I can't even pretend to know it all, of course, and everyone's goals and opportunities are different so your mileage may vary. But I've been thrifting basically all my life (big thanks to my thrift-enthusiast parents) and I feel like I've developed a bit of a knack for it. So these are the major tips and tricks I follow when I shop.

-Find your niche
I wear a lot of t-shirts and jeans/leggings in Real Life, so I don't necessarily go thrifting for stuff I'm going to wear on a daily basis. Though at this point, after years of thrifting a lot of my "nicer" everyday clothes are secondhand. So I might pick up some casual wear incidentally, but mostly what I'm looking for is more hobby or special occasion stuff, and for me that's pre-1950s antique/vintage/retro or lookalike, pieces for costumes I'm planning, and things made from great fabric I can repurpose. My roommate loves 1970s pants for office wear. My parents collect dishware and unique wall art. If you have something specific to look for, it can make the whole process more manageable and more exciting. Thrifting can also be a good way to figure out what your niche is, as you start finding things that jump out at you and connect the dots of what makes you tick.

-Do your research
You don't have to know everything. There's still so much I have to learn about the things I love to shop for. But getting a sense of the aesthetic and value of what you're looking for can be helpful. I don't always feel like I know my niche on a technical level, but I've done enough research to develop an eye for what looks correct to me. I can't always explain why it's right, but I know it when I see it and it just feels right, and that helps guide me. The more you research, even casually, the more this will become second nature. Knowing what you're looking for is especially useful at antique/vintage stores that have older stuff at higher prices and where you want to be a bit more careful, but it's super useful at thrift stores too. Knowing your niche at thrift stores can help you identify, for example, vintage design elements in more modern clothes. If you're looking for 1940s and know the look, you can find and take advantage of the 1980s-does-1940s stuff which is pretty common and cheap, and you can get a vintage look for less. Always a win.

This also applies to the types of stores you visit. In my area, thrift stores are generally larger charity "chains" with multiple locations (Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, etc.), and antique/vintage stores are private small businesses. If you like to shop conscientiously, help out those small businesses and do a little digging into which charities you'd prefer to support. Once you start going to stores, you'll also learn which places have the best prices or best inventory (or, ideally, the best combination of price and inventory) and you can develop a list of favorites.

-Set a budget (eww)
This is tied to research, because you kind of need to know the values of items and price points of different kinds of stores to maximize a budget. But it's also just its own issue. I kind of break this rule, because I don't really set a budget per se. I usually shop at thrift stores where the prices are low, and I shop for specific types of things, so I tap myself out on what's available before I spend more than I'm comfortable with. At antique/vintage stores I might lust after a lot, but I only let myself buy things I need that are at a price I'm comfortable with. Basically I just judge where my finances are at and play safely within that so nothing else suffers. So that middle ground works for me, and those kinds of general limitations instead of specific numerical cut-offs can work as a budget too. Like most things, do whatever works for you.

-Look through EVERYTHING
Depending on the size of your thrift store or how many you go to, this might be more or less feasible. But it's worth a try. Things might be sorted incorrectly or misplaced on the wrong rack. I regularly find women's clothing in the men's section and vice versa (to say nothing of clothes you want to use however regardless of how they're branded—the gender binary is a social construct and everyone should wear whatever they like). Different brands, eras, and styles will have different sizing and different cuts, so they'll fit slightly different: a size small that's cut to be oversized might fit like a large, a large might run smaller than usual, and so on. This also goes for sections of the store that you think won't have anything good. One of the coolest finds I've ever made was a World War I liberty loan pin mixed in with a bunch of random 1980s and 1990s knick-knacks in a $1 discount bin. You really just never know what you'll find where. There are treasures out there. Discover them!

-Try stuff on
I do sometimes skip this step when I know I can pass an item on to someone else if it doesn't work for me, or if it's just too cool or the deal is too good and I have to have it regardless (maybe to use as a collection piece for study). If I'm straight-up repurposing fit doesn't matter of course. And unfortunately sometimes there's no dressing rooms. But most of the time, I try on everything I possibly can. Something might be my style and my size, but then I try it on and hate how it looks. Something might leave me feeling eh on the hangar, but once I try it on it's perfect for me. In the same principle as looking through everything, eras and styles and sizes can vary, so you'll never really know until you put it on.

-Manage your expectations
If thrift stores have a weakness, it's inventory. Unlike online shopping on sites like Etsy where you can much more easily search for and find specific items, at a thrift store you're limited to whatever they might have in stock that day. I tend to get my hopes up too easily, and under thrifting conditions that's a recipe for letdown. To manage that, I try to keep an open mind. I do still shop with specific items in mind, and if I find that great! But I don't let myself get caught up in the idea of finding it, and I just let it be a more low-key, adventurous experience to see what unexpected things I might come across. Of course if you go to a store and don't find anything regardless of whether you were on the hunt or just browsing, that's still disappointing. But I spin it as a chance to save my money for something good that will inevitably come along later. Also, going to stores you're familiar with that consistently have good stock improves your odds of finding stuff, so sometimes it helps to also just manage your time and only go to places you know have the best odds.

-Make peace with "no"
On the other end of the spectrum, inevitably you'll find something that stirs your soul but you just can't have. This one is difficult for me, because my eyes and aesthetics are often bigger than my bank account.  Make peace with passing on things that are beyond your budget or that you can't make work. It will happen, and it'll be okay. On the other hand...

-Feel free to take chances
If you're on the fence about something, don't feel bad about saying "why not?" and just going for it. Try it out for a while. Best case, it works! Even worst case, it doesn't work and you sell it or gift it or just donate it again. Of course I can really only justify this when the item is cheap enough that it's not a big risk to potentially be throwing that money away. And I only do it on pieces that have at least one thing going for it: generally it has to at least fit and not look like a disaster, and if it doesn't fit I have to be fairly sure I can alter it or turn it into something else. Just like finding your niche in the first place, thrifting is a great cheap way to experiment with your niche and really develop a style or interest by taking a chance and trying things out.

I hope that helps someone (anyone) in the wild world of thrifting. As I think of any other cool tips and tricks I'll update, and in the meantime hopefully plan for some other thrifting wizardy posts (shall this become a series? Hmm.).

Stay tuned!