I like the idea of used clothes. Of clothes made from finer materials that stand the test of time. Of bargains, because the value of the high-end whatever-it-is tanks once it leaves its (first) lot. And of course of saving the planet and the garment workers and doing a tremendous good deed by refusing Zara their $29.90.
The reality of used clothing tends to disappoint. There’s often a reason someone didn’t choose to hang onto whatever it is, and that reason is rarely that the garment was simply too nice to have in one’s closet. The purpose of getting new clothes is partly that they will not, like one’s existing wardrobe, look worn-out. And due to whatever happened in recent years with the industry, all the better used clothes are professionally sifted out of the heap, meaning that the choice will be between a $500 used dress that was once $600 and a $15 one that was originally $14.99.
Add to this the tendency of jeans made any year before 2000 to be brutally honest about waist sizes and it doesn’t necessarily make for a wonderful experience. Too often ‘vintage’ is this sea of tracksuit jackets being sold to 22-year-old men who will wear them ironically. Or those rockabilly dresses for that subculture of women, persistent across generations, who want to look like they’re in “Grease.”
Then, however, there’s Siberia Vintage.
This is the only used clothing store where I have successfully gone shopping on multiple occasions. I got two floral cotton prairie-lite dresses there this summer (see below) and, today, the exact sweater-vest I had been looking for to no avail. I combed through various new and used clothing sites and nothing worth going for and then there it appeared, in Siberia Vintage’s Instagram Stories. All-wool, from some fun-sounding shop in Scotland, $39.
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