Let’s be honest, the most toxic thing in our lives is our favorite thrift store.
The first word of advice an avid thrifter hands out is to thrift often. We all know the best thrifters practically live at their favorite second-hand shop. Thrift culture is based mostly on luck. One day you could find a vintage Chanel, and the next day it could be filled with t-shirts from some family’s Christmas Day 5k run, but missing out is not an option.
As thrifting culture gains popularity in the fashion community, the pressure to find the rarest, most original thrifted pieces grows. We end up buying things strictly to show them off rather than for our own personal joy. Yet even when it doesn’t match our aesthetic, color palette, or quite literally anything in our closets, the fear of never seeing it again sets in. We would rather sell everything we own than leave that bright green leather jacket. Sworn off green in your closet due to the Kelly and Bottega green uproar? It’s iconic. You can’t let it go. I mean, the idea of someone else owning it is gut-wrenching, so it gets bought.
A week later, a friend posts about their vintage Vivienne Westwood corset they found at their hidden gem (if you can call a rancid, rundown thrift store a gem). Cue the thrifter spiral. Nothing is cuter than this corset top. I mean, it’s your Pinterest board personified. And so the hunt begins, and it’s back to the thrift store. The previously mentioned jacket is still in a bag on the floor waiting to be properly washed and your room even smells like “Eau de Thrift Store.” How long has that been sitting there? Oh well, maybe you’ll sell it. Green isn’t your color, anyway. Your keys jangle as you rush to your car, off to buy something else that you’ll never wear.
This may feel like a callout, but we all do it. Instead of a kelly green leather jacket, maybe it’s a bright red leather purse, or in my case a teal suede coat. These may sound like beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces, but that doesn’t mean they align with the closet you’ve created.
Hence the “Thrifter Fomo Cycle” of the buy buy buy mentality. We purchase pieces that are too niche or not in line with our personal style created in a closet that makes us scream, “I have nothing to wear.” Feeling like a stranger in your closet is criminal, so thrift what you’d wear, not just for fellow thrifters’ validation.
Words by Megan Acosta.
Graphic by Aarushi Menon.