5 Tips For Finding Designer Items at a Thrift Store.
Do your research: Discover popular designers and brands so that you may begin to identify labels. Learning what quality fabrics look and feel like will also help you more quickly spot worthwhile items.
Use your resources: Smartphones offer instant search engines for brands and styles to easily find an item’s value. If a general search engine doesn’t yield results for a brand I’ll often look it up on my Etsy app.
Be willing to search: Sometimes thrift shopping comes with a bit of digging. On so many occasions my greatest finds have come from turning over the very last item at the bottom of a bin yielding something great beneath. This is why identifying quality items is so helpful for speeding up the entire process!
Visit often: Nowadays as thrifting continues to receive a public image facelift & vintage fashions are on trend there’s so much more competition when it comes to shopping for thrifted items. Visiting a shop regularly allows you to often have first pick of newly stocked items. Finding out specific times and patterns that shops restock their items is also a great idea.
Analyze your shopping: Think about what you are hoping to find and isolate shops or sales that are more likely to posses those sort of items. Estate sales are often a great place to find well kept vintage formal wear. A thrift store may have much less formal and high fashion items, however when found they will often be at a much cheaper price than an estate sale. Your expectations must be considered against a pros and cons analysis.
As with all guides there are exceptions to all of these rules. What is most important is that you begin to look at the existing patterns in your thrifting and to consider what works best for you!