{"id":1144,"date":"2011-08-13T02:28:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T02:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/13\/how-to-thrift-for-menswear-part-three-getting-the-good\/"},"modified":"2011-08-13T02:28:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T02:28:00","slug":"how-to-thrift-for-menswear-part-three-getting-the-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/13\/how-to-thrift-for-menswear-part-three-getting-the-good\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Thrift for Menswear Part Three: Getting the Good…"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Some great thrifting tips. These ones, not everybody knows. -e]<\/p>\n

\nHow to Thrift for Menswear
\n
Part Three: Getting the Good…<\/a>: “<\/p>\n

How to Thrift for Menswear<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Part Three: Getting the Good Stuff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So: you\u2019ve got your locations scouted<\/a> and you\u2019re repeating our thrifting philosophies<\/a> in your head. What about picking the good stuff?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thrift stores are full of high-quality menswear. Menswear is relatively timeless. Women shop for men, and they make mistakes – sometimes expensive ones. The kind of men who buy high-quality clothes don\u2019t want to be bothered with selling them. The stuff is out there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s eight tips on how to pull in the cream of the crop:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \nKnow your fit.<\/strong> If you don\u2019t try things on, you\u2019re begging for a disaster. Learn what can be altered<\/a>, then stick to stuff that will fit perfectly.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. \nBuy it when it\u2019s there.<\/strong> Every thrift store piece is one in a million. Maybe more. Don\u2019t put it back on the rack and go get lunch or even walk around the store thinking about it. If it\u2019s right, buy it.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. \nTime your visits.<\/strong> Thrift stores keep regular schedules – new stock goes out at specific times. Either observe the patterns or simply ask politely when new stuff goes out. You can also try to hit sales, but at thrift store prices, getting something great is much more important than saving $5 or $8.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. \nTouch and stare.<\/strong> Perfect the thrift cruise. Run your hand across the shoulders of the garments while inspecting as carefully as you can. You\u2019ll feel the good stuff as much as you\u2019ll see it. <\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. \nLook for damage.<\/strong> Look carefully for damage. CAREFULLY. There\u2019s nothing worse than losing $25 on a jacket with moth holes you missed, or a big stain. Hold pieces up to natural light to help spot holes, and check for stains – pants lining could be yellow (eww) or collars could be soiled. If you\u2019re willing to put in the time and resources, you can fix these things (I\u2019ve had pants linings replaced before), but factor that into your cost.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  6. \nKnow your brands.<\/strong> Your goal should be to identify quality by sight and touch, but you can also cheat with a brand list<\/a>. Of course, even pieces by fine brands can be sub-par, damaged or out-of-date, but it\u2019s a start.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  7. \nWatch out for licensees & diffusion lines.<\/strong> If you find a piece by a well-known brand, but it\u2019s not great quality, it\u2019s probably a licensee or a diffusion line. Just as Ralph Lauren makes everything from Purple Label to J.C. Penney\u2019s American Living, many brands offer goods at a variety of quality levels. Many fashion houses also sell or have sold their names to low-quality makers in their non-core businesses (like menswear). You can read our fuller piece about menswear licenses and thrifting<\/a>, but suffice it to say: if the label says Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Givenchy, Lanvin or Christian Dior, it\u2019s probably a piece of crap.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  8. \neBay is your friend.<\/strong> If you\u2019ve got a smart phone, you\u2019ve got a way to identify the value of that piece in your hand. Search for completed auctions on the web or in the eBay app and get a sense of the market. Some brands fly under the eBay radar, but for larger brands, it\u2019s an easy way to distinguish between Brioni (primo) and Baroni (junk).<\/li>\n

    \n<\/ol>\n

    One of the great pleasures of thrift store shopping is the opportunity to put your hands on all kinds of clothes – from the best to the worst. There are innumerable signs of quality, but here are a seven basic guidelines.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \nLook for trousers with details<\/strong> that mean quality. Split waistbands, pick stitching in the fly, a belt loop, suspender buttons and a closure with a generous tab are good signs of a quality piece.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    2. \nLook for shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons.<\/strong> They\u2019ll look more lustrous and feel cold on your lip.<\/a> They\u2019re more expensive and prone to chipping, so they\u2019re only used on high-quality shirts.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    3. \nLook for fully canvassed jackets.<\/strong> Better jackets will have three discrete layers in their chest – an outer, a lining and a canvas in between. Use the pinch test to distinguish.<\/a> If you only feel two, they canvas and outer are glued together, a sign of a lower-quality jacket. <\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    4. \nDon\u2019t by corrected-grain shoes.<\/strong> Shoes that have a shiny, plasticky look are made of \u201ccorrected\u201d or \u201cpolished\u201d leather<\/a>. Because of imperfections, they top layer is sanded off, then replaced with a plastic coating. This is cheaper than picking undamaged hides, so it\u2019s most of what you\u2019ll find on the thrift store shelf. They\u2019re not worth your time or your $10.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    5. \nNever buy synthetics.<\/strong> I\u2019ve been trying to think of a good reason to buy a piece of clothing with any synthetic fiber in it at all. All I can think of is a trench coat, which might have some synthetic for warding off rain. Otherwise, if you see polyester or nylon, put it back on the shelf.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    6. \nDon\u2019t buy third-world-made goods.<\/strong> With the exception of basics that you need at that moment (say a perfectly fitting Brooks Brothers oxford – the classic thrift shirt), there\u2019s no reason to buy clothes made in the third world. The words \u201cMade in England\u201d (or Italy or the US or Canada or Switzerland or Germany) don\u2019t guarantee quality goods, but the words \u201cMade in Bangalore\u201d generally do guarantee something that\u2019s mall-quality at best.<\/li>\n

      \n<\/ol>\n

      Of course, you\u2019ll gain knowledge with experience, and you\u2019ll make mistakes along the way, but I think you\u2019re ready to get out there and shop!<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Read the two other articles in our series: Thrifting Philosophy<\/a> & Finding the Best Thrift Stores<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

      “<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      [Some great thrifting tips. These ones, not everybody knows. -e] How to Thrift for Menswear Part Three: Getting the Good…: “ How to Thrift for Menswear Part Three: Getting the Good Stuff So: you\u2019ve got your locations scouted and you\u2019re repeating our thrifting philosophies in your head. What about picking the good stuff? Thrift stores […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfIY-is","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}