Here’s everything you need to know about collecting vintage fashion
part 2.
I’m gonna break down everything you need to know about finding vintage
at secondhand and thrift shops.
This is by far how I have sourced most of my vintage collection.
Genuine
hardcore thrifting is an endurance challenge more than anything else
because you have to kiss so many frogs before you find the prince.
You have to go through every single rack
before you can find something decent.
The upside of that though,
because there wasn’t really labor put into the curation of that store,
the prices are always going to be cheaper.
Conversely, secondhand shops are going to be a little bit more curated
and thus have a better selection,
but also cost a little bit more usually.
Still fairly affordable, but not as cheap as like a true thrift.
These shops are like Buffalo Exchange,
Crossroads, Beacons Closet.
Anywhere where they have like
a buyer up front
who’s gonna go through your clothes and decide what they are
and aren’t going to take. I also did have to buy the clothes from you,
even though sometimes it’s only like 20 bucks for a full IKEA bag.
But anyway, there’s a little bit more overhead,
that’s why it costs more.
I tend to consider most Depop sellers secondhand,
although there are some true vintage shops that run through Depop.
But how do you find vintage at these shops?
Well, it’s all about the tag there Is a legible tag on the garment.
You can do a little bit of research
and try and figure out exactly when that piece was from.
I don’t do this research in store.
I just buy what I like from the thrift
and then if I have a feeling it’s vintage
I’ll do the research when I bring it home.
First thing is just to Google the brand.
If it’s one you’ve never heard of,
there’s a chance that the brand
like only operated between 1995 and 1997.
Great, now you know you have a vintage piece.
But if you wanna get really granular,
you can look at the history of the logo of that brand
and the history of their tags.
I recommend checking out any of these three websites.
If it’s a brand that’s a little bit more established,
you can usually find information on them here.
You can also Google name of brand tags by year
and this will usually bring you to like
Reddit forums or something similar
where there’s other vintage collectors
who are asking these same questions.
For example, I was able to find a garment
that was confirmed to be from the late 80s
that uses exact same tag.
So I can deduce that this shirt was probably produced in the late 80s
early nineties. That’s vintage, baby!
Plus, when you start finding vintage brands that you like,
you’ll start to recognize the tags.
Like these are both Liz Claiborne.
You can clearly See, they were produced at different times.
This is an older garment. This one is barely vintage.
And also, just trust your gut.
When I found this jacket at a secondhand shop,
I knew it was 80s just based on the design,
and the label even helps to corroborate that.
And after about five minutes of research,
I was able to confirm that GF Sport produced jackets like this
in the eighties. Without a doubt,
this is my favorite way to find vintage pieces
because none of the stuff that I have bought from thrifter secondhand
cost more than like
60 bucks, and usually it was like less than 20.
It takes a lot of time, but in my opinion it is so worth it.
Anyway,
let me know what questions you have and come back for part three.