Can I thrift an outfit in England (as a total newbie?)
I liked looking around charity shops, especially at all the little trinkets, but I didn’t really buy things. So trying to thrift an entire outfit in Canterbury was a new challenge for me. I was nervous, had no particularly detailed plan, and decided to make the whole thing harder by not trying anything on until I got home.
That last part was my own rule. Plenty of the shops had changing rooms and people used them, but I chose to judge clothes on their hangers instead. My intuition is not especially reliable. By the end I had a bag of cheap clothes, a couple of strange fits and an outfit I was genuinely happy with, although I’d failed completely on shoes.
The problem with the next shop
I took the train into Canterbury and planned to walk around the main area, going into the charity shops I came across. My first stop was Cancer Research UK on Canterbury Lane. It was busy for a Wednesday afternoon, and there was a dog, which made concentrating on the clothes extremely difficult. I did eventually get to pet it.
I bought two pieces there, including an ASOS shacket I’d gone back and forth over. What made shopping difficult was not knowing whether the next place would be better. If I liked something but wasn’t completely sure, did I buy it or wait? The next shop might have the best piece of the day, or everything afterwards might be terrible.
I liked the next shop’s clothes being organised by colour, and bought two more tops. Shoes were much less successful. Unlike a top you might decide to wear oversized, they had to fit properly. I also kept forgetting my UK shoe size and almost had to take off my own shoes to check. Some pairs came close, but I didn’t buy any.
After four tops, I wanted jeans, shorts or a skirt so I could at least make a complete outfit. Store 50 supplied a pair of jeans and some shorts. That technically got me there, minus the shoes. After a couple of hours of walking around, I was tired and hungry, so I stopped at a bakery for a flat white and a Cornish pasty before heading home for the try-on.
The purple coat I left behind
One thing was already bothering me before I tried my purchases on. I’d left a purple faux fur coat in a shop, and I kept thinking about it. I’d stared at it for so long that people thought I worked there. At £10 or £15, I thought I’d have bought it, but the £25 price at the time made me hesitate.
I couldn’t really picture when I’d wear it, and I decided I probably shouldn’t. Afterwards I regretted that. With something in Marks & Spencer, I could go home, think it through and perhaps order it online. A secondhand piece felt like a decision I had to make there and then, which wasn’t always something I was good at.
Cheap didn’t always mean the right fit
The teal T-shirt was 50p, appeared unworn and felt lovely and stretchy when I tried it on. It was a little long, but I could fold or tuck it. I loved the colour, and it was a keeper. The £6 ASOS shacket was much less convincing. It was meant to be oversized, but on me it looked more like I’d borrowed my dad’s clothes. I am five foot three, and there was simply too much of it.
The mustard hoodie was long too, but that mattered less. It had cost £6.50, looked in good condition and was comfortable. I’d wanted another layer for the long, cold walk to the gym, and it worked for that. Compared with the shacket, the oversized shape fitted me a bit better. I was happy with it, even if wearing it elsewhere was still undecided.
The £5 H&M shorts technically fitted, but they felt strangely like cut-off leggings. They had back pockets and no front pockets, which I didn’t like. The £6 distressed jeans had odd proportions around the waist and hips, although the length was right. They were petite, and I wondered whether that explained the strange fit. Still, I didn’t have anything that shape, and for the price I was happy with them. They also had pockets. Thank God.
An outfit I wanted to keep
The last jumper was the winner. It was a New Look one from the first shop, which appeared unworn and had cost £5. It was soft, relatively light and oversized in a way that looked intentional, rather than badly fitted to me. I liked it for heading into spring, and it looked really cute with the jeans. I had found New Look jumpers didn’t wash very well, though, and worried this one might turn pink on its first wash. That was still a worry, not something I’d tested.
That made the jumper-and-jeans combination about £11 at the time. I kept the jumper, jeans, teal T-shirt and hoodie; the shacket and shorts were the odd ones out. I’d found the challenge more difficult than expected, but I called it an absolute win. I’d bought useful things, seen a dog, had a really nice lunch somewhere new and hadn’t been rained on once. A good day, even with the purple-coat regret.
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