It’s not easy to find vintage designer clothes – you could spend months looking for something that’s stylish and fits you, and isn’t too expensive. But all the searching is worth it when you finally get a great deal on that new piece. If it’s something you’ve been looking for for a while, so much the better.
So, how do you find vintage designer clothes – or any nice vintage clothes, for that matter? You have to look for them in all the right places, and take your time doing it. Always try vintage clothing on, and make sure you always inspect secondhand clothing carefully for flaws.
Know Where to Look
The best places to look for vintage designer clothes are thrift stores, consignment stores, flea markets, and vintage boutiques. You can also buy vintage designer clothing and dresses online. Vintage fashion experts recommend sites like eBay, Grailed, and The RealReal.
If you really want to focus on high-end items, go to thrift stores in wealthier areas or go to consignment stores, which specialize in reselling designer pieces. Vintage boutiques are also a good bet for picking up nice designer pieces. Online retailers can be easy, but some sellers may overprice their items.
Take Your Time
You can find great stuff at places like flea markets and thrift stores, but you have to be willing to take your time with the endeavor. Finding hidden gems means doing a lot of looking. You should be prepared to look at every single thing on the rack.
Shopping for vintage designer clothes can be time-consuming and draining. That’s why it’s helpful to take your shopping in small doses. Spend half an hour combing through the racks at your favorite Goodwill, then head for the dressing room after the 30 minutes are up.
Try Your Vintage Designer Clothes On
When you’re shopping for vintage clothes, you should try everything on. It doesn’t matter how nice a piece is if it doesn’t fit you. Clothing sizes have changed over time, and truly vintage clothing will be 20 years old or more. So don’t rely on the tag to tell you what the size is.
Try every piece on and don’t buy it if it doesn’t fit unless you think you can alter it. Even then, only get it if you’re actually going to alter it.
Of course, if you’re shopping online, you don’t get the opportunity to try the piece on. That doesn’t mean you can’t get an idea of the size. Ask the seller to send the dimensions of the piece so you can see if they fit your measurements.
You can use this strategy in other scenarios where trying on garments isn’t an option, such as at a flea market. In order to make it work, you’ll have to know your vintage fit.
Inspect Your Vintage Designer Clothes Carefully
Vintage clothes are used, so they could have flaws and damage that new clothes wouldn’t have. Carefully inspect any clothes before you buy them. Look for things like stains, weak seams, missing buttons, burn marks, broken or stuck zippers, holes, or tears. Assess the quality of the fabric, and how well it has held up. Inspect delicate fabrics extra carefully.
If you’re shopping for vintage clothing online, look for listings that have lots of high-quality pictures so you can get a good look at every part of the piece before you buy it. Don’t be shy about asking the seller for more pictures, if you feel you need them. You may not be able to fix flaws in a garment, so consider whether you can live with a specific flaw or not.
A broken zipper could be repaired, or a hole from moth damage darned, but you likely won’t be able to get stains out, for example. Even if a flaw can’t be fixed, maybe it’s something you can live with.
But don’t go around buying stuff that needs mending if you’re not going to mend it. It will just pile up and you’ll never get to actually wear any of your new vintage pieces. Learn how to wash your vintage clothes, too.
Hunting for vintage designer clothes takes a big commitment to carefully searching through second hand clothing stores, including vintage boutiques and consignment stores, thrift stores and flea markets, looking for that perfect fine.
Once you find the vintage piece of your dreams, all the hours of searching will be worth it. So get out there and start building your own vintage designer wardrobe. There’s plenty of great stuff out there just waiting to be found.
