When you know your season you can take your fan and your words into any store, including secondhand shops. Shopping secondhand is a great way to lessen the impact on the planet and your wallet. And armed with your color knowledge, you can really come away with some treasures!
Entry-Level Options
Goodwill, Value Village and The Salvation Army are great places to take your fan for a stroll and to start to train your eye to look for warm vs. cool and items that harmonize with your season. These are often the places where you need to roll up your sleeves and really hunt for good finds so you’ve gotta be willing to invest a bit of time and energy.
They also often have interesting pieces if you have gamine, dramatic and/or romantic in your clothing personality.
Remember to cruise the men’s section and don’t skip the jewelry inside the cases. I have a $10 owl necklace from a Value Village case that I adore.
Curated Shops
If you have classic or ingenue in your clothing personality, you may gravitate toward more curated shops like Labels in Greenwood, Refind in Madison Park, Sell Your Sole in Magnolia, Eileen Fischer Renew in Rainier Vista or Between Friends in Issaquah. These are consignment shops selling client’s wardrobe pieces and splitting the profits with them making these great places to sell pieces that you’re ready to let go of, but have value to them.
These stores tend to have higher quality items and a smaller, more manageable selection. Some are Nordstrom level and others are designer and stock secondhand investment pieces from labels like Chanel, Gucci, Dior and beyond.
If you’re thinking about an investment piece like a beautiful purse, these are great ways to get something special for less than the retail price.
Online Options
Not close to the in-person shops or prefer an online option? There are some great ones. ThredUp is a site you can both shop and sell on. They will send you a bag to lad and ship back or you can download a label and send in a box of your own. This is also cool because you can sorty by color, feature, brand, price, size, etc. they carry a few designer things as well.
Fashionphile is a personal favorite. All designer, no clothes, but an incredible selection of bags, jewelry, scarves and other accessories. You can sell to them as well. Rebag is similar and I always hear people talking about The RealReal. I haven’t used that one yet.
Refind, Sell Your Sole and Labels all have online presences on Instagram. Be careful with the lives…they can be really enticing! : ) I think all of them will ship to you.
But, Really, Why?
Here are a few things that motivate me to shop secondhand.
- Often pieces that have survived to become secondhand were well-made in the first place and will continue to serve you well into the future.
- I love that when I find something, the odds of anyone else having it are low so I feel like I’ve got a unique and interesting piece.
- Designer things are EXPENSIVE! Some really high-end people are shopping those things just to get access to something even cooler and they sell them without even using them. I’ll take it!
- It’s a great way to try a new silhouette, explore a color, or test drive a trend without investing a lot of money. If it doesn’t work out, no biggie.
A Few Tips…
- Look (and feel) for natural fibers–wool, silk, linen, cotton. You’ll get more value, comfort and quality from those.
- Don’t worry about the size! And don’t hesitate to shop the racks outside you typical size. Older garments have very inconsistent sizing. I have a top that was HANDMADE so it doesn’t even have a tag.
- Consider alterations. If the garment is a steal or if the tailoring is minor, you could have a real win.
- Look at the details—buttons, seams, pleats, lining, collars—these are often where older garments shine. Small flaws are usually fixable; poor construction isn’t.
- Of course, take your fan, fan it out, and put it to use alongside your style words on the card you added to your color fan.
Share Your Secrets
Do you have a great secondhand place or something online I’ve missed? Please message me and I’ll build out the LIST and park it where you can find it.
Happy hunting!!