Shopping for preloved clothing: how to have success
Guest blogger Sandra Stafford has landed in 2024 – Happy New Year, btw – with an outline preloved wardrobe plan for the next 12 months and a handful of guidelines to help achieve it.
How many of us start our new year full of ambition and intent? New plans and schemes are a great way to mitigate the shorter, darker days. Mine have been unchanged for years, and generally run along these lines.
1. Sort out wardrobe.
2. Take excess to charity shop.
3. Do not return with more new stuff than donated!
Points 1 and 2 are relatively straightforward, but point 3 is always problematic for me. So here goes with what I’ve learned so far, and what I plan to change.
1. Sort out wardrobe (e.g. a ‘clothing cull’)
My criteria for this are related to three things: discipline, discipline and more discipline. In other words, I need the strength to make ruthless decisions; anything not worn for at least a year, along with items bought for one-off past events are the first victims.
2. Take excess to charity shop
For ‘charity shop’, read ‘anywhere that takes donated clothing’. As a point of etiquette, I try to fix buttons, holes and stains before I offload.
3. Do not return with more stuff than donated
Preloved clothing (cashmere especially) is my Achilles’ heel. So this year, I’m attempting to be even more rigorous with some personal purchase guidelines that may, I confess, run counter to popular thinking.
Guidelines 1 and 2 (applies to physical outlets): Take cash (particularly if you are on a budget) and know what you are looking for. OK, I know that a fixed cash limit requires discipline (a fixed card limit is even harder imho), but at least give it a try and see how it feels. Most charity shops and preloved market stalls still take cash.
‘Know what you are looking for’ can be as narrow or as broad as you like. If you set off with £3 in your pocket to find a vintage gaberdine mac in pink at a specific size/length with solid metal belt buckle, you may be disappointed (although, turning that frown into a smile, as they say, you will still have your £3 in your purse).
My own plan this year is to broaden out a bit, but not go completely feral. I might set off, for example, to find something in black, or striped, or (and this would be my pot of gold at the end of the preloved rainbow) a tartan kilt. I find that even a vague plan helps to set an intention.
Guideline 3 (applies to online outlets): Use the basic principles from above, and (if available) add some filters. For example, I would set a colour filter of ‘black’ or a pattern filter of ‘stripes’, or a ‘pot of gold’ filter for a tartan kilt. You could also set a price filter of ‘between’ or ‘below’. Stay true to your original intention.
Guideline 4 (before purchase): If you are drawn to a particular item, give it a good check over for the things that may bother you. In a physical shop, and beyond an initial overall viewing, my specific checks would include:
a. looking inside any pockets and at instruction labels (if pockets are squeaky clean with unripped linings, and labels still have visible writing on them, you know you have in your hands an item that hasn’t been worn to death)
b. checking fabric type (I like natural breathable materials, so I’m always on the lookout for 100% cotton, linen, wool or silk)
c. assessing ‘damage’ such as stains, loose buttons and other signs of neglect, to make sure they are fixable (countless are the times I have planned to change a trouser zip or alter a hem length, but ended up 12 months after purchase ejecting the item untouched from my wardrobe).
Item checking online is (for obvious reasons) harder so you’ll need to read item descriptions with care and really study those photographs. Has the seller been upfront with descriptions such as ‘slight stain under right armpit’ or ‘zip will need replacing’? Can you see anything in the photos that might worry you? Of course, you could always contact the seller for more details before you hit ‘Add to cart’ or even ‘Buy now’.
Guideline 5 (after purchase): Wear your new item, love it, flaunt it, look after it, or even turn it into something else (I’ve chopped a full-skirted dress into a top and two cushion covers, for example), but whatever you do, don’t leave it untouched in your wardrobe until January 2025.
Finally, as buyers we do have some statutory rights to return items, so it may be worth checking what these are.
We’d love to know if you have any tips you could add to these. We’ve only covered clothing in this article; accessories, jewellery and other preloved items can throw up other checks and balances which we hope to cover in the future.
Sandra Stafford is an author, editor and long-time Trash Chic customer. Why not find out where Jane and her rails will be popping up next or follow her on Facebook or Insta and get first pick of new stock on the rails.
