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Wednesday , September 8, 2010
HOW TO LIVE: Tips on Reselling Clothes At Secondhand Shops
A few weeks ago I got a few queries on Twitter and in real-life (OMG wozzat?!) on reselling clothes on Ebay and at resale and consignment shops. I didn't realize till I rattled off all my tips and advice that I actually had a lot of experience with this, so I thought I'd share here once and for all--just so I can say "Don't you read my blog?!!!" in my best accusatory manner to the next person who asks me about this. Kidding! I just thought since it's fall and a changing-of-the-seasons, this might be useful to people cleaning out their closets right now. Also, it's a new moon in Virgo, and if THAT isn't an auspicious time to renew your wardrobe, I don't know what is!
Reselling clothes is a minor but fine art in the stakes known as fashion-on-the-cheap, and if you do it right, it's a valuable strategy in keeping a wardrobe updated, refreshed and in a state of I'm-never-bored-with-my-clothesness. I'm only going to cover reselling at brick-and-mortar resale shops, the kind where you bring your used clothing haul in and get credit or cash for your stash--but pipe up in the comments if you want to read any Ebay- or consignment-specific stuff, or if you have your own advice about reselling clothes.
First off, my own experience with reselling has been pretty intense but rewarding. For the past few years (!!!) I've been on a serious wardrobe-reorganizing tear that has actually been totally awesome for my soul in ways that I haven't even anticipated. It's kind of remarkable to realize it--especially considering the rather baroque state of my closet a few years ago--but I have lived out of a beautifully-organized suitcase (yes, SUITCASE) for the past four months and have felt totally satisfied with my fashion stuff. And when you feel happy with your wardrobe, you buy a lot less, and clothes aren't a source of guilt, annoyance or self-loathing--they're 100% fun. Reselling clothes has been key in my whole "Zen wardrobe" approach, helping me to get rid of stuff I no longer want and need and still get decent value for it, and it's helped me to reinvent and renew the basis of my wardrobe in a ecofriendly, inexpensive way.
So, here's some of the best advice that I have when I help others resell:
WHEN TO RESALE VS. WHEN TO EBAY
I find that it's a question of volume here--if you've got only a few good-value items (i.e., good quality, in-season and designer-y) , I'd Ebay them if you're so inclined. You'll get a better return on Ebay if you market your item right, and you don't have to trek out to a resale shop for just a few items. But it's a pain in the ass to list lots of items, so if you've got a bunch of clothes or are looking to rid yourself of lots of stuff at once just to make some room, take it to a brick-and-mortar resale shop. Even if they don't take everything, often they'll have their own "donate" pile to take to traditional charity-shops, which will save you an additional trip to Goodwill.
KNOW THE SHOP & CALL AHEAD
It pays to visit the shop in question and check out what they're selling and who they're selling to. Some secondhand shops tend to specialize in younger clientele looking for designer and trendy clothing; others in more professional and working clothing, and others do only vintage, sometimes of the high-end variety. Do some research via online city guides or Yelp.com or wherever to find out the "retail landscape" of your particular city or town. If you can't visit, pick up a telephone (OMG wozzzat?) and call to ask. Most buyers are usually pretty upfront about this stuff--they don't want to waste time sifting through a bunch of stuff that isn't right for their market, and it'll save you time and energy not schlepping stuff that won't work for that particular store.
While you're on the phone, ask if they have particular buying times, if they prefer you make appointments to see a buyer (esp. if you have a really large amount of clothes to unload), ask about their clientele, what they're looking for at the time you want to sell, what their compensation is (cash, store credit, check if your items sell after a certain point), what sizes they take (I know, sad, but it's true that some stores prefer smaller sizes), and if they'll take any particular items you may have questions on (like, you have a Chanel jacket, but it's got a rip in the seam...etc.) It's a pain in the butt to haul stuff, so be a Girl Scout and prepare yourself by getting all your questions answered so you don't have to bring in unnecessary items.
SEASONS ARE IMPORTANT
Retail is all about supply and demand, and a key piece of advice I give about reselling is to sell only what season the resale shop is buying for. It doesn't matter if you're selling a fabulous Max Mara coat--if you're trying to get rid of it in the middle of July, it mostly likely will not fly. You have to realize that stores have to store stuff physically, and each item they take in must go fast. Maybe some shops may take it, but you won't get the value you're looking for. Call first and ask what season the resale shop is buying for. And if you're just looking to unload stuff fast, then sell unseasonal items on Ebay or wait till you can get rid of them in season. Sometimes if it's a great item, a store will take your out-of-season clothes, but you won't receive the highest value you can get out of it. But again, call ahead and ask: every store manages inventory differently. One time I called in the summer just to ask if a store was buying for fall yet, and it ended up they were looking for cold-weather coats and jackets for some charity initiative and I got a nice penny digging them up from the back of my closet.
MAKE SURE IT'S ALL CLEAN AND IN GOOD CONDITION
This actually makes a big difference in my experience. I've had wrinkled or unwashed stuff (DON'T LECTURE, I WAS IN A HURRY!) that didn't get picked up one time, but then a good cleaning or dry-clean got it accepted the next time I swung by. Buyers tend to eyeball stuff pretty quickly since they have so much to go through, so make it easy for them to spot your gems.
SELL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK
This is really about selling during that sweet spot when the store isn't as busy and the inventory has been a bit more emptied from the weekend's sales. Whatever the reason, I find selling generally on a Tuesday or Wednesday ups your chances of getting more of your stuff accepted for selling, and selling on a weekend? Forget it. But every store has its own traffic patterns, so use your fancy phone and talk to a real-life human to find out when's the best time to bring something in. But it's been my general experience that non-peak times work best for selling.
AND A BIT ABOUT USING RESELLING AS A WAY TO EDIT AND TRANSFORM YOUR WARDROBE
At some point, if you're good at it and you make it a strategy on dealing with organizing your closet and wardrobe in general, reselling becomes a key piece of refining and maintaining your wardrobe. Basically my m.o. after My Great Closet Cleanout of Summer 2008 (which was an epic of epicness in its own right, I regret not documenting it for nogoodforme) was to really pare down my wardrobe and make sure every item was of such quality that I would love it forever and/or be able to sell it off at a decent resale value if I wasn't so in love with it anymore. Three fulltime years of classes and film school had taken their toll and my wardrobe was pretty much a hot mess. But a hot mess doesn't really work for a Manhattan closet, and something had to be done or else I was in danger of being pegged on the head by a random overstuffed bag of clothing every time I opened my closet door. Inspired by my beau at the time, who managed to go on tour with nothing but a tiny duffle bag of clothes and an extra pair of shoes, I was going to reinvent myself as a clothing minimalist even if it killed me.
It took forever and a lot more self-awareness and a wholesale reinvention of my shopping and consumption habits, which I won't get into here--but reselling became a key part of paring down in a happy, satisfying, non-hairshirt-y way. Basically at the beginning of the season I would clean out my closet for the season, figuring out what I didn't want or need anymore, and then I would unload the unwanted but cool items at Beacon's Closet or Buffalo Exchange. (I unloaded stuff like a Rick Owens sweater and a Chloe blazer--I'm sure someone out there is super-happy with them!) Taking the credit I got at those stores, I'd pick up anything that caught my fancy for the upcoming season and pretty much not buy anything new unless it was a genuine need. Doing this for a few consecutive seasons, I realized at some point that I basically buying clothes only out of the cash and credit I got via reselling, which was cool--it was ecofriendly, cheap and I still got to shop but it wasn't as toxic to my budget and didn't give me that icky feeling of being wasteful.
Of course, there are a few factors that made this work--namely, living in a great resale market like NYC and having access to great clothes in the first place. At any rate, I'm a huge fan of reselling clothes (and buying vintage and secondhand in general), so hopefully the above info will help out a few people who find the process mystifying or overwhelming.
(Don't ask me what the above graphic means. I found it on Google image search under "clothing racks." It's mystifying, no?)
Tags: closet management, ecofashion, living out of a suitcase, reselling clothes, wardrobe, Zen wardrobe
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by Kat in HOW TO LIVE
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Monday , May 26, 2008
DIY/Giveaway: Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin
True confession: I can sew. My ever-practical mother made sure of it, although she did also tell me that a girl should never let anyone know she can cook or sew, or otherwise she'll get stuck doing those things. (Hey, it was the early 80s, before craftiness became a Third Wave feminist thing.) Yet it's rare that I get to practice my mad skills, mostly due to time, but also to disinclination. To be honest, most things you learn sewing on -- A-line skirts, woven tops, that sort of thing -- I never really wear at all, so why would I spend time making them? I'm pretty much a jeans/leggings/t-shirt/boots/jacket kind of girl at this point, so there's not much in the super-crafty look that works for me. But leave it to Built By Wendy designer Wendy Mullin to create that one book that could get me to dust off my old Singer again. While Mullin's previous book, Sew U, concentrated on the basics of sewing and started off the beginning seamstress with woven patterns, Sew U Home Stretch is all about knits: t-shirts, stretchy dresses, even hoodies! If you ever wanted to learn how to make a t-shirt or a cute boatneck top, this is your tome: it offers clear, easy-to-follow instructions in a beautifully simple layout, and it provides three patterns that Mullins shows you how to customize and alter to create those ever-important variations. Word of warning, though: if you're a total beginner at sewing, you should get a bit more familiar with the craft before you pick this up, although novices who know their way around a machine should be fine. (Mullin does a good job with providing instructions to make her patterns with a conventional sewing machine, but the first thing you learn is that most knits are made with a serger, which is a scary-looking piece of equipment that she demystifies nicely.) Still, I'm excited to take a crack at some of the patterns in the book -- and to make something I'd actually wear! I imagine some of you are, too. So here's the fun part: the first two readers who email me will get a free copy of the book! So hit me up at editors at nogoodforme.com, mmmkay? Our 2 copies have been given away! But stay tuned, we have more goodies planned for nogoodforme.com readers!
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Tuesday , August 7, 2007
DIY: Packing Like A Champion I've been on vacation for the past two weeks, and that includes a vacation from fashion. Nothing like being "on the road" smack-dab in the middle of a super-hot summer to make clothes the last thing on your mind. (My biggest concern? Trying to figure out how to wear the littlest without being obscene.) I've got nothing to report in terms of style from my time riding on buses, zooming on planes, crashing on couches and swanning around in fancy hotel rooms, except that I think "International Hipster" has been codified into a set of standards and practices applicable to any First World geographical region -- and that I've perfected my only bona-fide superpower, the ability to pack clothes for any trip in 15 minutes, often into one teeny bag. (Okay, 25 minutes for longer trips, and the bag's a little bigger.) Yes, it's true: whether it's a weekend away or a month-long sojourn to Southeast Asia, I can pack for the trip in a very short period of time, a skill highly useful especially when your trip is organized by a pack of crazy people too hungover to tell you when things are coming, going or just plain stuck. (Don't ask.) There are plenty of people who can tell you how to pack stuff with the utmost efficiency and fewest wrinkles possible, but the biggest challenge in the packing process is often conceptual: it's not how you pack, but what you pack. Knowing exactly what to bring on your trip helps to avoid the cardinal sin of overpacking, which is wasteful, inconvenient and will make you hate yourself when you are lugging your bag up ten flights of stairs when the elevator has broken in your hotel. Here are the strategies I've come up with that help me curate the smallest bag as quickly as possible. 1. Immediately consider any occasions on your trip. "Occasion" being loosely defined, of course, whether it's a wedding or other ceremony-type deal, or an evening when you know someone you fancy is going to be in the vicinity and you need to look especially fetching. Set aside the entire ensemble, from underwear to shoes and accessories. 2. First things first: choose your knickers. One pair for each day of your trip, preferably cute and non-ratty. I often include a silk pair or two because they are hand-washable and dry quickly. (Nothing makes you go ewww like a pair of damp knickers.) Maybe an extra pair or two if you're the Girl Scout type and like to be prepared. In terms of other lingerie items, the same rule applies, but I feel you can get away with less, not more. 3. What's the theme of your trip? Don't laugh at this Oprah-ishness of this question, but taking a moment to consider what you're doing in the middle of hectic travel prep can help make decisions at a time when just one more choice will push you over the edge. If the trip is about proprietary family occasions, then you know not to pack your "DO ME DAILY CHRISTOPHER BAILEY" t-shirt -- unless the subtheme of your trip is "causing a ruckus," of course. On the other hand, if the theme is rock 'n roll decadence, then obviously those PVC leggings from American Apparel are coming along. If you're balancing a few different things, I've found a few keywords very helpful: separates, mix-and-match and irony. 4. How much? I admit that I have a literal formula that I follow in my head when it comes to what items to pack, excluding occasion clothes: I take the amount of days I'll be gone, figure out the longest interval of days until I'll be able to do laundry on the trip, halve that number, and lo and behold, that is the amount of tops and bottoms that I pack. (Example, a 14-day trip, 10 days till I have access to laundry, divide 10 by 2 to get five, therefore packing five tops and five bottoms.) If the minimalism of the number freaks you out, just take the number of days and halve it to get the number of tops and bottoms each to bring. (Yes, you can round up.) And remember, if you truly feel deprived, you can always go shopping. (I know some of you out there like to do that, right?) 5. Color-coordination is so 70s, yet so helpful. Obviously the above formula is all about minimalism and making the most of your finely honed ability to "mix it up," as they say in fashion mag parlance. Obviously if your aesthetic is clash-tastic, then you can throw in anything from your wonderfully eccentric wardrobe and make sartorial magic happen. But picking a color palette helps in making your little capsule wardrobe go a long way. The key is to make sure most of the tops go with most of the bottoms. (Refer to any of those "7 Day a Week" magazine features if you need inspiration.) This is of course assuming that you want a mixed up capsule wardrobe, of course...you can easily pack all dresses, which I've done before, and is tremendously fun. 5. Shoes. I've always found shoes to be hardest to deal with in terms of packing because they're bulky, sometimes heavy, and don't collapse into manageable little squares of fabric. If you're really about packing lightly, all you need are a pair of good walking day shoes, a pair of dressier shoes, and perhaps another pair thrown in to stave off fashion restlessness. (On this last two-week trip, I got away with a pair of ballet flats, a pair of sandals and a pair of wedges and it worked out great.) And your grotty pair of running shoes, if you like to workout during your travels. I often wear the bulkiest pair of shoes to the airport to save on space. (Although now that we all have to take off our shoes at the security checkpoint, I once regretted wearing a pair of lace-up Frye boots.) 6. Odds and ends. The little bits and bobs are where a lot of your style will come through, and are often so personal that it's hard to advise. I personally always have a large scarf, which does double and sometimes triple duty as a coverup and a top. I'm not a huge jewelry person, but one or two pieces are always nice to have. I often bring one city bag on the plane with me that goes with everything, and a smaller bag for carrying essentials or for evening. And don't forget toiletries and sleepwear. 7. Lastly, Space Bags are your friends. My friend Cathy turned me onto these, and seriously, these things are genius. And there's something really gratifying about squeezing the air out of the bag. They really do reduce the amount of room your clothes take up in your bag, which leaves more room for things like books and magazines. (Travel entertainment: sadly, something I have not mastered in my quest to become the perfectly Zen traveller, as I still like to carry a veritable portable library around with me despite everything.) (Just for your amusement, this 1950s chick shows you how it's done.)
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by Kat in D.I.Y.
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Saturday , July 21, 2007
Feather Headbands (Inspired by this week's Snapshot!) Last winter my friend Alita took me to Anthropologie and I very nearly spent a fortune on a feather headband. Now last year's general headband craze barely registered in my interests, but something about the colors of pheasant feathers really sets off dark, wildly frizzy hair in a way that is so becoming. I was also inspired because they were an easy way to make me look a bit more like the iconic Isabella Blow (R.I.P.). Luckily, Alita had the sense to pull me back from the impulse of blowing money I didn't have by informing me that feather headbands would be quite easy and inexpensive to make. We went down to the garment district in Manhattan and picked up some Aleene's Tacky Glue as well as some plain cloth-covered headbands sold in bulk at the wholesale retailers near Herald Square. Then we visited several millinery supply stores and found pheasant feathers- the kind we liked were sold on pads, from which we carefully pulled off individual pieces. You can also find feather pads on eBay. I won't tell you how cheaply I finally got my fix for, but check this: If you're still too lazy to do it yourself, you can support my ever-resourceful friend Alita by purchasing her beautiful feather headbands at her Etsy shop, Charm School.
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by Jane in D.I.Y.
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Friday , July 6, 2007
Do-It-Yourself Decorating with Laura Jane This past week, my father and I took a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Seabord, traveling from Toronto to New York City to Montreal over the course of three long and arduous days. Kind of sadly, this journey acted as my official farewell to NYC, but we parted ways on good terms, with a t-shirt binge-buying sesh at Uniqlo, several raspberry tollbooth cookies from Lifethyme Natural Market, and the expected deluge of madcap misadventures that New York City tends to ignite in my madcap-enough-already life. That being said, I have now moved to Montreal officially, and have spent the majority of my very-recent past decorating a new studio apartment. Now that it's all said and done, I think it looks pretty hot. Allow me to impart some of my droves of interior design wisdom upon y'all. (clockwise): Detail shot of Kelley Walker poster in my gold-painted nook (the gold paint barely photographed); Crapola on my yellow wall, Pt. I; John and George appreciation-fest on my bedroom wall (not shown: RFK Jr. pin-up); Crapola on my yellow wall, Pt. II clockwise: All that remains of my New York life is this Empire State Building lamp, purchased for $10 at Indigo Books (located next to the window; if you squint, it looks like you're really there!); nerdy little figurines left over from early childhood; gorgeous calendar found on sale at Nota Bene, embellished with the pom-poms that fell off my Laurentian Chief winter boots last January; my beloved Fuckscrap This wall displays an ongoing project I am working on called The Aging Process. It is a pretty easy project. All I have to do is take daily photobooths and watch how long it takes before I can visibly see myself age. In the upper lefthand corner of this image you will find a pin-up of a hot boy. left: I impulse-bought this hangy orange thing at a little shop here in Mtl, and find that it's a really handy tool for storing accessories, which are always awkward to deal with organizationally. Note the John Lennon sunglasses and their overwhelming visual impact; right: This musty-dusty old trunk was a mere $30 at a junk shop, and I'm using it to store all my clothes that I never wear, since I don't really care if they end up smelling like rotted-out wood. I'm sure it will end up doing double-time as a coffee table as well. I bought a giant wall unit from Ikea. I am not exactly sure of its Swedish product name, but I must say I highly recommend it. Not only does it fit every single thing you own pretty much, in my studio apartment it also functions as a divider between the bedroom and living areas. I have been going organizing-crazy this round of moving. In the upper righthand image, you can see every notebook I've had since 1998 organized chronologically. And see those red and yellow binders in the lower righthand image? Everything I've ever written on looseleaf (also chronological). IMPRESSED??? Affixing an image of Her Majesty above your toilet makes a really strong statement (although I don't know what about). And lastly:
Lesson One: How to Decorate Your Walls Cool-ly 
Lesson Two: Whimsical Decorative Touches Go a Long Way
Lesson Three: Be Self-Indulgent
Lesson Four: Be Smart About Storage 
Lesson Five: Display Your Cool Shit for all the World to See
Lesson Six: How to Make your Bathroom Tasteful & Elegant
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by Laura in D.I.Y.
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Thursday , May 3, 2007
Love: Honorable Mention luggage tags To help me quickly spot my luggage at baggage claim, my little sister wrapped my Samsonite's handles with a few pieces of hot-pink gimp. It's effective but could use an update, and gimp always reminds me of what a lousy arts & crafts teacher I was at all those summer camps I worked at as a teenager. One really cute way to make your suitcase stand out is with a luggage tag from Honorable Mention. Designer Chandra Sweet takes J cards from old cassettes, seals them in clear vinyl, and adds an insert on the back so you can fill out all your info. Some of our favorites (Rank by The Smiths, Thriller by Michael Jackson, Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police) are already sold out, but you can still have your pick of stuff like Bobby Brown, Styx, The Clash, Debbie Gibson, the Footloose soundtrack, and these two total classics:
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by Liz in D.I.Y.
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Thursday , July 13, 2006
D.I.Y Calling: Built By Wendy Patterns Because we love all things Built By Wendy: I'm not gifted with sewing machine savvy, but I know some of you are and will be thrilled to know that you can whip up your own versions of Built By Wendy's girlish yet tough designs.
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by Kat in D.I.Y.
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Wednesday , June 28, 2006
Indie craft documentary We're so excited about Indie Craft Documentary, an in-progress film project focusing on - of course - the indie craft community. Producer/director Faythe Levine (of Flying Fish Design) and director of photography/co-director Micaela O'Herlihy are currently in pre-production, shooting at craft fairs all across the country (they'll be stopping at Craftstravaganza in St. Paul on July 8 and the Detroit Urban Craft Fair on August 5). You can help support the film by visiting the Indie Craft Documentary Etsy Shop and buying a t-shirt ($25) or pin ($2.50), both of which were created by a designer who's donating her goods out of love for the project. Yay.
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by Liz in D.I.Y.
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Wednesday , June 7, 2006
Etsy.Com: Where All Your Handmade Dreams Come True Etsy.com is like an incredibly fun, well-curated flea market where everything is handmade and created by independent artists and designers -- always our favorite fashion people. You can spend hours browsing the site, finding everything from Bjorkian paper-doll dresses to slightly macabre yet totally hot beetle necklaces to basically anything your little D.I.Y. heart desires. Etsy.com is incredibly well-designed as a site, offering RSS feeds to keep abreast of new items added in each category and more ways to search for items besides seller and category. Check it out, support indie arty and crafty types, and be prepared to be happily lost in all the unique possibilities.
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by Kat in D.I.Y.
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Wednesday , April 12, 2006
Craftlance.com
I love knitting, crocheting and sewing just as much as anyone else, and it's fantastic that these pursuits have caught on in a big way overall - we happily support the politics behind crafts, love indie and D.I.Y. designers and love the whole handmade aesthetic, which has especially crept into the larger fashion framework this spring. (So, people, please send in info about your companies, lines and such when you can.) But what with school, work, jobs, social life and everything else that goes on in the most overcrowded schedule, sometimes the most well-meaning D.I.Y. devotee just doesn't have the time or ability for certain things. Happily, this is where Craftlance.com comes in. The premise is simple: a project, including its particulars and budgets, gets posted, and crafters bid on it. Whether you are still in the market for that crocheted dress or haven't made any headway on that sewing project, the site should hook you up with someone who can make your craft dreams come true.
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by Kat in D.I.Y.
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