For the Love of Thrifting

I have to be honest, I'm loving all the Second Hand Shopping love I see. 

More often than not, fashion figures I follow will post something that they absolutely love and when asked about it, they quickly and proudly reply that they found it in some second hand shop or on a random thrift run. And I love it. I love hearing stories of how people come by their vintage items. 

What began out of necessity for me (I needed new clothes on an extremely tight budget) grew into something I prefer. Finding gems like a vintage Fendi cross body on a dusty mannequin or discovering tarnished Pandora bracelets that, after some cleaning, gleam like new (pictured above) are things that excite me, so much so that I wanted to share this love of stylish preloved things with you, my readers and friends. 

I've heard various other thrift bloggers say how it's a bad thing, that it will give too much attention to where we nab our finds, then there won't be any finds.

I disagree. 

Honestly that kind of thinking is not only selfish, it's ridiculous. To say that there won't be any more preloved finds is like saying there won't be anyone who wants to clean out her closet by donating to a thrift or selling it. Right. Like I said, ridiculous.

And obviously, I'm not the only one who thinks second hand shopping is great. With sites like Poshmark, Thredflip, Tradesy, The RealReal, and of course, eBay raking in tons of cash from style seekers, second hand is not only economical for us consumers, it helps the economy over all. Time Magazine shared that the National Association of Resale Professionals reported a 7% profit in each of the last 2 years. So all this thrifting and second hand shopping does indeed help our economy (that kind of makes me feel a important).

Even big fashion sites are taking notice. WhoWhatWear shared their shopping guide on what to buy second hand vs what to buy new, and there was a ton of great advice on what to get second hand and what to buy new. In fact, last week, I posted all of the Spring transitional clothes you would most likely find at your local thrift. It was interesting to see how much I and the WhoWhatWear author thought alike (although I did disagree about not buying pumps and designer bags thrift because, um, that's how I get my designer bags).

Point: Second hand shopping is where it's at. If you haven't tried it, I encourage you to go. And why not shoot me an email at TheReclaimedblog@gmail.com to tell me all about it!

Have a beautiful Wednesday loves!