“Knowledge is Money” This can’t be more true when it comes to Menswear charity shop thrifting.
A Kiton double breasted blazer was hanging in a charity shop in Barking, East London for weeks, no one had the knowlege to recognize the supposedly one of the most prestigious Ready to Wear menswear brand in the world. It was priced at 1 pound, guess what? I bought it!
Thrifting clothes is like foraging mushrooms, charity shops are the forests, and you guessed it, the clothes are mushrooms! Without the sufficient and correct knowledge, how would you distinguish between an edible mushroom from a poisonous one? It’s not life and death thrifting clothes(I hope), but you get the gist.
Equipping yourself with sufficient knowledge is the key, if you wish to thrift quality and not junk. Unfortunately there isn’t any shortcuts, It takes time and effort to acquire this knowledge.There are many fantastic blogs and books out there that offer in depth information . I hope to write a separate article in the near future to list those I recommend.
What I am offering in this article is to share with you what I consider ‘quality’ to take home with me, and the whole thought process I go through when thrifting.
I have over the years made many purchase errors and bought countless rubbish, these mistakes have enabled me to re-evaluate and set a kind of ‘system’ :
1 LABELS
I am not the kind of guy who is crazy about labels. Labels are overrated a lot of the time, and many brands sell their labels and ‘heritage’ rather than true quality. However, I do think labels are important, they can be good indicators of quality, if you have the right knowledge about the labels.
It sounds contradictory, so here is an example: BURBERRY, began as an outdoor outfitter, produced some really hard wearing and practical items, one of them became legendary-the trench coat made from their trade mark rain resistance cloth, which shielded soldiers during both world wars. I don’t want to go into all the historical background of this brand, what we can all agree on is that Burberry has the heritage, glorious heritage. But if we ask ourselves logically and objectively, the Luxury Mega Fashion house we know of today, is it really the same brand as the one started 100 years ago? If they didn’t sell the trench coat, would we be able to find something else they make, that is significantly superior than other brands? I don’t think so
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The famous trench coats
Successfully brands know very well how to sell their stories, but stories are just stories at the end of the day, I certainly am not prepared to pay 400 pounds for an “ugly” T shirt with loud prints, that is made from 2 pieces of cloth just because I liked their story, which in fact has nothing to do with the T shirt!
I guess what I am trying to convey here is that every luxury brand has one or a few core products, for Burberry, it’s the trench coat. so if I saw a trench coat with the Burberry label on it,I would know it is a superior garment and worth to buy, but if I saw a shirt with Burberry label on it, I would skip, because I know that at the same price point or even cheaper, Borrelli, Barba and even Drake’s make far more superior shirts than Burberry!
I have categorized labels into 5 sub-categories, if at least one of the criterias is met would I take the piece back:
- Criteria Number 1/ Prestigious Brands:
Kiton, Brioni,Loro Piana, Savile Row tailors, John Lobbs etc fall under this bracket. You can not go wrong with these brands, you are almost guaranteed great craftsmanship, and very sensible and timeless style.
Thrifted pair of Edward Green Worn them for the Christmas day 2019 with fun musical socks!
Criteria Number 2/ Luxury Menswear Brands:
Zegna, Canali, Pal Zileri, Corneliani, Dunhill, Borrelli, Barba etc. In this catergary, if its their mainline or superior line, you can expect great craftsmanship, fabric and style too, maybe not as much handworks or the fabrics not as superior as the prestigious brands, but nethertheless excellent quality.
Thrifted Canali cashmere Jacket Brown label was introduced in mid 2000s
Criteria Number 3/ High Fashion Brands:
Tom Ford, Hermes ties, RL Purple label, Prada, Gucci etc, I pick up these brands if they are resonablely priced, because of the resell value. there is a big demands for brands in this catergary, As men who wants a very good quality suit would usually go to the super famous ones like Gucci and Tom Ford, rather than suit specilist like Canali and Kiton. I have to say the quality of some of these high fashion brands’s suits are actually quite good because they are usually made in Italy by either Caruso, Corneliani, or Zegna. I own a Gucci Blazer, made by Zegna. The fabric is very good, fully canvassed, quality pars with Zegna’s mainline.
Criteria Number 4/ Rare Vintage Pieces:
CC42 garments, demob suits, vintage beever fur felt dedora etc . Needless to explain, with rare vintage piece, well, they are rare, and rare is good! I appreciate vintage looks, the look of the golden era, however I don’t tend to full on vintage, I think it is very often out of touch with my immediate living environment, and I believe the sustainability of classic menswear depends on the harmonious relationship it has with poeple and their living environment, that is to take consideration of one’s job, social circle, environmental climate etc. I do however pair and mix certain pieces with modern classic wear, to add visual interest and character to the outfit, at the same time not be the odd one out too much.
Thrifted Beever Felt Hat Vintage tweed jacket hat fedora paired with Uniqlo chinos
Criteria Number 5/ Garments enjoy a smaller cult followings:
Drake’s , J Keydge, Camoshita, Double RL, Universal works, private White VC etc (Maybe Suitsupply?)I admit I like them because they are “fashionable” , of course not in the mainstream sense, but in the sartorial world sense.
Thrifted Camoshita Unlined Jacket Worn with a handmade waistcoat and 7-fold tie by Bvlgari
Criteria Number 6/ Unknown names with high quality craftsmanship:
This include garments made by less known tailors around the world, they need to be very well made with high quality cloth and fits well, Preferably with interesting sartorial details such as Spalla Camicia, Milanese buttonholes etc.
A high quality hand crafted tweed blazer by unknown tailor in Napoli, Italy Beautifully hand sewn buttonholes
2 PRICE
Once I found a recognized well received label, I would then check the price. Pricing vary so much among st charity shops. Some charity shops are “in the known”, they either have someone who knows their brands to price the garments, or have each garment googled before pricing. Some charity shops are in prestigious locations, they receive donations from very wealthy people from the neighborhood, so they simply price every item high, sometimes without any common sense. One charity shop near Harrold’s, priced a used TM Lewin Shirt at 40 pounds, when a brand new one in fact only cost 25!
A Hugo Boss Jacket priced at £80, really? Not really thrifting, is it?
3 SIZE/FIT
If the price is reasonable or I think I am willing to pay because it is either rare, have high resell value, or it is the missing piece to be filled in my wardrobe , I move on to check the size and fit . The size determines whether I will keep it for myself or sell it on. one of the reasons I decided to resell some of my thrift finds on Ebay and Instagram was because I could not allow myself to see a beautiful piece of art just sitting there, ignored and wasted. I felt compelled to bring them back and sell to those who really appreciate them. Of course it turns out I could actually make some extra cash to feed my thrifting hobby!
If the size is OK for me, I will then try it on to check the FIT, Fit and size are sometimes completely unrelated, you could be a size 40R with Pal Zileri, but a size 38S with Corneliani. The cut determines the fit, so when it comes to thrifting suit jackets/blazers, I would like them to cut as closely to my body type so it fits me as well as possible, to minimize further alterations, which in turn save cost.
For me the biggest problem is sleeve length, I have short limbs so most ready to wear are too long for me in the sleeves.
A word of advise is to skip a jacket if the shoulder and chest do not fit you, these two parts are expensive to alter,it is major work and you really need a trustworthy and skilled tailor otherwise more damage maybe done than good. I am also cautious if the length of the jacket is not perfect, I don’t think you can do anything about it if the jacket is too short, and if too long, shorting is also not very cheap, and you are risking ruining the proportion of the jacket between the position of the pockets and hem.
So for me really, I would generally only consider buying a jacket for myself, if the only part needed alteration is the sleeves. having said that, sleeves with working cuff buttons are a little problematic too, they need to be shortened at the shoulder, which again double the cost of shorting from the cuff, and required a good tailor, otherwise shoulder balance maybe unfavorably altered.
To sum it up, to save cost and to get a jacket that fits you properly and looks good on you, only buy one that needs minor adjustment.
4 Authenticity
The next thing I check is the authenticity of the garment, it is usually a very quick glance. As you can usaully dertermine it by just feeling the garment and looking at the overall craftsmanship and construction.
Once you have seen enough of the real deal, You would know when you see a fake one.
The disgraced last emperor of China, Puyi, once visited a friend’s house for tea, the friend was a relics collector, He was very excited to show the emperor his new collections which He paid a lot of money for. At a quick glance without even touching the relic pieces, Puyi told the friend that all of them are conuterfeits! The friend of course was not convinced and later on got a few experts to re-evalutae, to his surprise that the empror was right! The friend went to the Emperor humblely and asked to be taught how He knew, the emperor answed awkwardly: I grew up in the Forbidden City, and was surrounded by relics, the ones you showed me simply looked different from the ones I knew!
Of course we are not all Emperor Puyi and there are super good fakes out there, so a quick quality hallmark check will be useful for reassurance. For instance for a shirt, you could check the buttons, are they made from mother of pearls?Are they thick and nicely polished? Check stitching, do they have a high stitch density, are they straight and consistent? check pattern matching around the shoulder/sleeves area, chest pocket, placket, check collar construction , is it floating lined? etc and etc (for more details about quality shirt, please wait patiently for my next article ‘English shirts quality Comparison ) .For a high end tailoring piece, you would check the collar, sleeves to see of they are hand stitched, do the pinch test to see of they are full or half canvassed.
I hope this article can help you to understand a little on how to thrift, I can not stress enough the importance of knowledge when thrifting. Take your time to acquire this knowledge because you will find how fun it is when you are the one that is “in the known”! The thrill you get when you see something that one one else knows about. I am far from knowing everything myself, it is a continuous learning curve for me and I am enjoying the process of it immensely.
Brilliant I love trifted items and good value items found on ebay Thanks for shearing this information best regards Gerry
Thank you Gerry for the comment! Ebay is certainly the best place to shop when it comes to Classic Menswear. It is search specific so in that sense different from charity shop thrifting which is hit and miss. I have been using Ebay a lot during this pandemic for obvious reasons, I would definitely suffer from withdrawn symptoms without Ebay!