History of Thrifting

In the past several years, shopping at secondhand stores has become very trendy and something that younger consumers have started doing often. However, repurposing and reselling clothes has been a common practice for many generations. Before the transition to mass-production of clothing, wearing used clothes was something that most people did, no questions asked. However, once new clothes became cheaper, people stopped wanting used clothes and started expecting new items. This is where the stigma around thrifting and secondhand stores started. People began believing that wearing used clothes meant you were poor, and so couldn’t afford to buy new clothes. For some consumers, this was literally true. While mass production made new clothes cheaper, everyone needs clothes and sometimes shopping secondhand was necessary. Secondhand stores were real lifesavers, for some people. During the Great Depression of the 1920s-30s, wearing used clothes became more acceptable because it was necessary. Thrift stores were an easy and cheap way to buy clothes for oneself and family members when there wasn’t a lot of money at hand. For people who do have resources, vintage stores started becoming more popular, as well. Vintage stores are usually more expensive than thrift stores because only items of great value are selected and placed for sale there, whereas anything usable can be donated and sold at a thrift store. As time went on, wearing used clothes once again became a sign of low-income and in America it was seen as disgraceful to wear someone else’s used clothes. However, in more recent years, there has been a rise of people seeing the benefits of thrifting. Personally, I have seen the effect that social media has had on the amount of people, young people especially, who are shopping at thrift stores. It’s easy to spot – from YouTube videos of people thrifting items, then repurposing them and creating something unique and beautiful, to TikToks of shoppers going into their

local thrift store and showing a haul of all their extraordinary finds. As more and more people began to prominently promote the benefits of thrifting, more people started doing it. I started thrifting about a year ago, and because I was able to buy so much without spending hundreds of dollars, my style has completely changed for the better. Not only am I and others able to find cheap clothes, but we also aren’t buying and wearing clothes that have been mass produced, something that brings its own environmental and social costs. I also believe one of the reasons thrifting has made a comeback is that we are starting to cycle through old trends. These days, you can find people bringing back trends from almost any decade, so it’s no wonder that people are looking to find pieces that have been donated by people who actually lived in those very threads through those fashion trends.

“I believe one of the reasons thrifting has made a come back is that we are starting to cycle through old trends.”

Unfortunately, now that thrifting has become so popular, the prices at certain thrift stores have risen noticeably. Stores that were once cheap and practical places to find used clothes are now selling items at prices that would usually be seen in an expensive vintage shop. This defeats the purpose of thrifting, since originally, it was to help those who could not afford new clothes. Now, those same stores are being marketed towards and used by people who can surely afford the new clothes that others cannot. Now, if you are looking for thrift shops that haven’t raised their prices, places such as Goodwill and Salvation Army outlets are still affordable. Others, such as the national chain-Buffalo Exchange and local Portland-Vancouver outlet House of Vintage, are more for consumers who can buy expensive clothes but still prefer to purchase them used. These more expensive places are run more like a vintage shop, and they only accept items that are of higher value. For the discerning shopper, then, there are still plenty of affordable thrift stores, but the low prices tend to be found at stores that are neither trendy nor operate in nicer/gentrified areas. In the end, thrifting has been around for many generations and because it remains essential for so many people, it will likely be around forever.