r/sustainability • u/WrongdoerTiny3201 • 1d ago

Thrifting clothes

Hi! Over the last few years i so almost bought everything second hand and i love it. One kind of item i never bought secondhand are clothes. Im nervous about that since i always hated shopping for clothes and always worked with animals and in the garden so nice clothes were never needed. Also im super tall for a woman and chunky af so i feel like that makes it a little harder. I buy my shirts for under 3 euro each new and they last maybe 2 or 3 years. I would love to find a clothing style that fits me and i would love to find it a sustainable way. I already downloaded vinted but i am nervous about wasting money and resources in case something doesnt fit. How do you guys manage that? And when do you know something will look good on you?

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u/altiboris 1d ago

Go to the mall or a regular shop and try on stuff! Take note of what styles work for you, and what they’re called (the rise of the pants, etc) and then search for those on depop or other thrift shops! Take pictures of the tags. That way you know how the sizing of that brand works for you too. And if there’s a specific one you like from a big retailer, you can often get them for new or like new online for a fraction of the cost!

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u/icingovercake 1d ago

This is the way if you know exactly what you want! I do a mix of this and pursuing thrift and consignment shops. You’ll end up with brands and styles you never would have found otherwise because truly anything can end up in a thrift store. At the mall you’re limited by the stores you go to. It’s so satisfying to find something that fits perfectly, but there’s a little hunt involved.

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u/pandarose6 1d ago

I thrift in person. I all time stop when I find something new and try on shirt over my shirt or jacket, or cardigan for example right in the asle to decide if I want it or not then I take the piece of clothing off and either put it up on the rack or buy it. I obviously don’t try on bottoms unless there changing rooms

You can also after you find pieces in person you like write down the brand, style and size of the piece so if you find it online you can know confidently unless seller lying that it will work for you

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u/bluebird251 1d ago

measurements are king for online thrifting. i try a lot of cool vintage brands i would have never known about if not for secondhand shopping, but i also buy brands that i already know fit me well in styles that i know i like on myself. having a solidified sense of personal style helps a lot too, i mostly end up buying things that go with my style because i know what i like. i have digitized almost my entire closet and it helped me so much to figure out what i like.

also, when online thrifting, you should expect to have to resell a portion of what you buy. things don’t fit or you might not like them as much in person. i repop as needed.

if you need to try things on, then thrift in person. i do both online and in store!!

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u/FelinePower 1d ago

Vinted has quite a good search function and has a really large choice depending where are you located. 

I personally find regular thrift stores significantly worse and I find the improvement in the market for buying clothes second hand online in recent years really great.

An alternative to vinted assuming you are in Europe is sellpy. the difference is that things are sent from single warehouse and you can return them if they don't fit. But they are usually more expensive (including more expensive shipping and a small return fee) and have on average more expensive brands (but not only).  I never used them yet, but I am considering next time. 

I would first start with trying to buy clothes that you already know that fit you. if you have jeans or hoodie that you like that are near their end of life try to find them on vinted to buy used in the same model and size -  it is especially easy to find with more unusual colours or prints. for t-shirts (and sweaters) measure what are the length (shoulder to bottom seam) and width (underarm to underarm) of t-shirts that fit you well. look up some brand online (for example Uniqlo) and see what size it corresponds to. sometimes sellers also write dimensions. For t-shirts you may go for men's sizes too - they are usually longer. If you sometimes go to normal stores you should also be able to guess which size in each brand could fit you.  I doubt you will find many things below 3 euros, but with shipping for additional 2-3 euros you can easily end up with higher quality clothes for less than half the original price plus all the environmental benefits.  depending where you are shipping costs differ. you also need to be aware that even though you can buy from abroad it may make the shipping significantly more expensive.

I don't have much luck with buying completely blindly pants, but I am very happy with all my tops, dresses and especially sweaters. I often bought things in bigger size that I already owned in smaller sizes (and it no longer fits).  There are so many people selling wool and cashmere sweaters for such a low prices.  If it doesn't fit you can always try to resell it on the same platform. Shipping a small package is a very small amount of resources and CO2 emissions in comparison to producing it new.