What a potentially prophetic zoom-out on what the timeline of the future industry could hold. What's interesting here is this kind of constant assumption that people are looking for value ("value") when thrifting, in a way that's seeking high-quality, good looks, or something of some kind of authenticity, and that this would continue. So carrying forward the behavior and rules today, nothing of that sort will exist in secondary markets 10-20 years from now. But what changes are to come in the markets of the future???? Do we assume there is some unknowable change? Would a poor quality mass produced shirt of today be appealing in some /other/ form of "value" that doesn't make sense to us just yet? (Just for fun, I mean, what if in the future in 20 years, we are literally all wearing potato sacks? or all clothing is made of a certain plant only? or forever21 is considered high-quality at that point?)
What if thrifting (kind of like high-end furniture antiquing is today, Louis XVII chairs etccc) becomes a cool, rarefied, high-class-only hobby????
Thinking back to say the 20s...imagining that one day, lace Sunday dresses and beaded fringe would be completely obsolete or couture-only because of the effort was probably hard to imagine. but here we are.
No. I think you're right. thrifting as we know it today is....done.
Immaculate Thoughts as always but for me, this one did skew a little too close to a different kind of cliff face. It totally tracks that even the silver linings of capitalism (like thrifting) are chipped away at. But it's a lot: the notion of poor-quality clothes > conditions even poorer> feeding incomprehensible mass of hamstrung consumers - it's like staring directly into the sun of late capitalism.
But! the mere fact of reading this, peeping the comments and the 'sletters growing audience engenders hope (and hopefully action). Agreed that future thrifting may look different, for sure grimmer - but here perhaps are the inchoate makings of different 'consumers', whose purse and priorities reject what's presently available.
From here, it's all about tactfully preaching the mf gospel 🥲
When I was in college (in the olden days of the mid-'90s), the "cool stuff" to thrift was from the '40s through the '60s. That makes me feel incredibly old, but not as old as watching things I remember wearing in the '90s come back into fashion.
I have been smacked in the face with this lately, as I wandered into a local vintage store only to find a Lollapalooza '94 shirt for sale for $200. (I was there! The shirts were not that great!) Last weekend I was at a vintage show with multiple vendors and I was amazed to find that I kept picking up stuff (denim dusters, pleated khakis, that sort of thing) only to find that they were from LL Bean, the Gap, et al. They were absolutely solid, didn't look worn to death, and now I shudder to think what another 20-30 years will bring to the resale market: piles of Lululemon leggings and stacks of Skims loungewear?
It’s never too late to learn how to sew your own garments. I started sewing five years ago and am still happily sewing away at age 62. I had a blast sewing my first pair of jeans a few months ago and this fall will source some Japanese denim to make a second pair. There has never been a better time to learn how to sew.
To add to the 'harbinger of low-cost landfill' file:
I have, at least three times now, initiated returns of kids' clothes to Amazon or Target (I know, I know) and have been told that I don't actually need to send the item back to get a refund. The latest was for an $18 item.
Do you know how cheaply made something has to be for a publicly traded company to be like "it's literally not worth it for us to bother receiving and re-stocking this item - just keep it or donate it instead."
There's a precursor and parallel in the world of vinyl records. They went from being plentiful and unknown (relatively) in the thrifts to sourced and torched in my lifetime.
Great yarn. I’m in Melbourne, Australia and went to a couple of thrift stores over the weekend. Put it this way, a well-worn, heavily washed and faded Acne shirt was selling for A$190 which is about US$130. It’s insane. 10 years ago I had a banging wardrobe of vintage threads but have since had to go down the route of the Uniqlo U’s of the world to find fresh fits that are within my price point because I’m completely priced out of “vintage” anything.
Do you think that the same quality of clothes exists at the same price, and that we've just introduced a new, cheaper tier of clothing? I agree that <$15 shirts won't last 300 washes, but there are plenty of modern brands doing well-made $40-$60 shirts that will hold up, and are on par to 90s quality+price if you consider inflation. I think those will still make their way to thrift stores.
Living in Alabama, I haven't seen much jawnflation at all, or maybe only its very early stages. Shein on the thrift store rack still makes me do a double take. Now I know to snap up the still-plentiful 2000s heat while I can...
I was recently in a mall—that once beloved place that harkens back to pre-internet, pre-cell phone days of my youth—and happened upon a Uniqlo with acres of plain tees at the entrance. To my not-so-surprise, owing to the nature of Japanese attention to detail, the tees were heavy and well-constructed with a modern cut. I bought a handful and they've been in regular rotation. I expect them to last longer than the frayed and tattered garbage that is late 20-teens J Crew.
As for the death of thrifting, I agree, it probably is upon us. The goods will relocate to online resellers and the prices will only go one way.
Vintage resellers popping up every which way (myself included during the pandemic), so if the thrift is dead, hit the internet like you said and start sniping. IF you know what you're looking for, the stuff isn't too hard to find, and frankly it's easier to shoot offers on eBay than dig through heaps of Zara garbage at the bins.
AND maybe it's good the thrift is dead. They can go back to what they were designed to do -> get people who were tight on money affordable clothes. I don't know if it's cool to be profiting off of goodwill finds.
Very nicely put, I feel with secondhand furniture this has already happened - all (sub-)IKEA-quality everything. Interestingly enough in Germany right now there seems to be a real boom of thrift stores, some of which deal exclusively in vintage garments imported from the US. Lots of Champion, Russell Athletic the likes, albeit it often at higher prices than your typical Goodwill.
It seems odd to me that these clothes that are made so cheaply and intended to be disposable still always include extra buttons, sometimes in pretty elaborate little envelopes or plastic baggies. I find it unlikely that the target consumer of these products is going to replace a button that falls off or would even notice if the garment didn't include them. I would think the extra buttons would be the first thing to go and yet against Marie Kondo's advice I have a whole jar of them.
DEATH AND THRIFTING....A LOVE STORY....When my 98-year-old mother died I went shopping. I bought a new Macbook Air and an iPhone 14 Pro. There were numerous boots in numerous colors of suede and leather, complimenting my new/old favorite 90's red jeans, blue, black, and whatever jeans that I found trolling on websites like Poshmark, ThredUp, and eBay. My closet, overflows like the spillage of a river bank. Unable to unburden itself of old memories that I’d rather forget but can’t seem to let go of even while it continues to grow hungry for more. Like the man eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors, it cries out, feed me!
Rediscoveries allow me to nurture my precious leftovers from the now famously defunct 25th Street Flea and the lesser known at the corner of Grand Street and Broadway. Looking in my closet, I see my style hasn’t changed much. Still stuck in the swinging 60’s.
Whoa. Futurism.
What a potentially prophetic zoom-out on what the timeline of the future industry could hold. What's interesting here is this kind of constant assumption that people are looking for value ("value") when thrifting, in a way that's seeking high-quality, good looks, or something of some kind of authenticity, and that this would continue. So carrying forward the behavior and rules today, nothing of that sort will exist in secondary markets 10-20 years from now. But what changes are to come in the markets of the future???? Do we assume there is some unknowable change? Would a poor quality mass produced shirt of today be appealing in some /other/ form of "value" that doesn't make sense to us just yet? (Just for fun, I mean, what if in the future in 20 years, we are literally all wearing potato sacks? or all clothing is made of a certain plant only? or forever21 is considered high-quality at that point?)
What if thrifting (kind of like high-end furniture antiquing is today, Louis XVII chairs etccc) becomes a cool, rarefied, high-class-only hobby????
Thinking back to say the 20s...imagining that one day, lace Sunday dresses and beaded fringe would be completely obsolete or couture-only because of the effort was probably hard to imagine. but here we are.
No. I think you're right. thrifting as we know it today is....done.
Immaculate Thoughts as always but for me, this one did skew a little too close to a different kind of cliff face. It totally tracks that even the silver linings of capitalism (like thrifting) are chipped away at. But it's a lot: the notion of poor-quality clothes > conditions even poorer> feeding incomprehensible mass of hamstrung consumers - it's like staring directly into the sun of late capitalism.
But! the mere fact of reading this, peeping the comments and the 'sletters growing audience engenders hope (and hopefully action). Agreed that future thrifting may look different, for sure grimmer - but here perhaps are the inchoate makings of different 'consumers', whose purse and priorities reject what's presently available.
From here, it's all about tactfully preaching the mf gospel 🥲
When I was in college (in the olden days of the mid-'90s), the "cool stuff" to thrift was from the '40s through the '60s. That makes me feel incredibly old, but not as old as watching things I remember wearing in the '90s come back into fashion.
I have been smacked in the face with this lately, as I wandered into a local vintage store only to find a Lollapalooza '94 shirt for sale for $200. (I was there! The shirts were not that great!) Last weekend I was at a vintage show with multiple vendors and I was amazed to find that I kept picking up stuff (denim dusters, pleated khakis, that sort of thing) only to find that they were from LL Bean, the Gap, et al. They were absolutely solid, didn't look worn to death, and now I shudder to think what another 20-30 years will bring to the resale market: piles of Lululemon leggings and stacks of Skims loungewear?
It’s never too late to learn how to sew your own garments. I started sewing five years ago and am still happily sewing away at age 62. I had a blast sewing my first pair of jeans a few months ago and this fall will source some Japanese denim to make a second pair. There has never been a better time to learn how to sew.
To add to the 'harbinger of low-cost landfill' file:
I have, at least three times now, initiated returns of kids' clothes to Amazon or Target (I know, I know) and have been told that I don't actually need to send the item back to get a refund. The latest was for an $18 item.
Do you know how cheaply made something has to be for a publicly traded company to be like "it's literally not worth it for us to bother receiving and re-stocking this item - just keep it or donate it instead."
There's a precursor and parallel in the world of vinyl records. They went from being plentiful and unknown (relatively) in the thrifts to sourced and torched in my lifetime.
Great yarn. I’m in Melbourne, Australia and went to a couple of thrift stores over the weekend. Put it this way, a well-worn, heavily washed and faded Acne shirt was selling for A$190 which is about US$130. It’s insane. 10 years ago I had a banging wardrobe of vintage threads but have since had to go down the route of the Uniqlo U’s of the world to find fresh fits that are within my price point because I’m completely priced out of “vintage” anything.
Do you think that the same quality of clothes exists at the same price, and that we've just introduced a new, cheaper tier of clothing? I agree that <$15 shirts won't last 300 washes, but there are plenty of modern brands doing well-made $40-$60 shirts that will hold up, and are on par to 90s quality+price if you consider inflation. I think those will still make their way to thrift stores.
Living in Alabama, I haven't seen much jawnflation at all, or maybe only its very early stages. Shein on the thrift store rack still makes me do a double take. Now I know to snap up the still-plentiful 2000s heat while I can...
I was recently in a mall—that once beloved place that harkens back to pre-internet, pre-cell phone days of my youth—and happened upon a Uniqlo with acres of plain tees at the entrance. To my not-so-surprise, owing to the nature of Japanese attention to detail, the tees were heavy and well-constructed with a modern cut. I bought a handful and they've been in regular rotation. I expect them to last longer than the frayed and tattered garbage that is late 20-teens J Crew.
As for the death of thrifting, I agree, it probably is upon us. The goods will relocate to online resellers and the prices will only go one way.
I've been searching for "vintage IKEA" lately, and it's all pretty incredible. Death to particle board.
This is articulated so nicely.
Vintage resellers popping up every which way (myself included during the pandemic), so if the thrift is dead, hit the internet like you said and start sniping. IF you know what you're looking for, the stuff isn't too hard to find, and frankly it's easier to shoot offers on eBay than dig through heaps of Zara garbage at the bins.
AND maybe it's good the thrift is dead. They can go back to what they were designed to do -> get people who were tight on money affordable clothes. I don't know if it's cool to be profiting off of goodwill finds.
TL:DR this was a good read.
Very nicely put, I feel with secondhand furniture this has already happened - all (sub-)IKEA-quality everything. Interestingly enough in Germany right now there seems to be a real boom of thrift stores, some of which deal exclusively in vintage garments imported from the US. Lots of Champion, Russell Athletic the likes, albeit it often at higher prices than your typical Goodwill.
‘Garbaggio’ just officially entered my lexicon 😂
It seems odd to me that these clothes that are made so cheaply and intended to be disposable still always include extra buttons, sometimes in pretty elaborate little envelopes or plastic baggies. I find it unlikely that the target consumer of these products is going to replace a button that falls off or would even notice if the garment didn't include them. I would think the extra buttons would be the first thing to go and yet against Marie Kondo's advice I have a whole jar of them.
DEATH AND THRIFTING....A LOVE STORY....When my 98-year-old mother died I went shopping. I bought a new Macbook Air and an iPhone 14 Pro. There were numerous boots in numerous colors of suede and leather, complimenting my new/old favorite 90's red jeans, blue, black, and whatever jeans that I found trolling on websites like Poshmark, ThredUp, and eBay. My closet, overflows like the spillage of a river bank. Unable to unburden itself of old memories that I’d rather forget but can’t seem to let go of even while it continues to grow hungry for more. Like the man eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors, it cries out, feed me!
Rediscoveries allow me to nurture my precious leftovers from the now famously defunct 25th Street Flea and the lesser known at the corner of Grand Street and Broadway. Looking in my closet, I see my style hasn’t changed much. Still stuck in the swinging 60’s.