#secondhand zara

[knife-em0ji]

Maybe I’m just biased but as an american living in Europe who goes back once or twice a year it always hits me how much more personality Americans tend to dress with when compared to northern/western europeans. Adults tend to dress in solid monotones with sleek lines and teens look like they just stepped out of gen z tik tok with fake American collegiate wear added for spice. Like this isn’t bad necessarily it’s just so blandly on trend that I don’t get a sense of who anybody is or what their personal style is just by looking at them. The sense of relief I felt stepping off the plane in the Denver airport seeing the diversity of styles from full cowboy to crunchy backpacker to athleisure couture to Dude Stuck In 2004 to married butch lesbians is ASTOUNDING.

[chicinsilk]

At the garage door. Special day outfit in gray and black. Top, Zara, H&M swing skirt, slinback ballerinas from j'Adior (second hand).

À la porte du garage. Tenue du jour de circonstance en gris et noir. Haut, Zara, jupe corolle H&M, ballerines slinback j'Adior (seconde main).

[hotnodiggitydog]

Urgh, it is awful!!!! Fast Fashion and the decline in the quality of clothing are (imo) intrinsically related so it's not surprising that they all use the "fast fashion" as their buzzword to gain attention... anyways this excellent post reminded me of this YT video. It did a great job giving a summary of how the quality of clothing has declined and the contributing factors:

https://youtu.be/jCwbU41Icfw?si=stINhfZETHh6NmIY

It's getting harder to find quality items in second hand stores too because there is just so much cheap & nasty clothing getting offloaded. I am sure plenty of others have seen an uptick in brand-new-with-tag clothing being donated. Sometimes en masse (duplicates of the same product) that the store has offloaded to make way for new stock.

This means the quality of clothing available to those in the most need is also declining. The entire situation is a complex 'wicked' issue, but I'd love to see some industry controls put in place (immediately).

I guarantee you if these massive companies had to pay for all the WASTE they are creating, or held to better quality control / assurance standards - the world would be better off.

Then again, the less consumer driven we are in general (as a society), when we value people over STUFF, we remember that clothing is FUNCTIONAL first (protection). That's why protecting our most vulnerable includes food, shelter/bedding, medical care AND clothing.

so many articles about Fast Fashion, not enough articles about what the hell is happening to the quality of clothes

Like okay. People own more pieces of clothing nowadays and they wear them a lesser number of times before throwing them out. BUT.

Why do we pretend like this is pure vanity or careless wastefulness, rather than forced by the qualities of the clothes themselves?

The other day, I was going through boxes of old clothes in the basement in search of fabric to practice sewing on. The difference in quality of the fabrics themselves is shocking! The worn-out old jeans from twenty years ago are MUCH thicker and tougher than anything more recent. My old baby clothes are made as sturdy as my work clothes from today.

In the past couple years, I have had entire seams rip out of clothes on the first wash. That's not normal!

Polyester blend shirts that feel cozy and soft when they are new, become scratchy and rough after 20 washes or so. I am trying to avoid polyester, but it gets harder and harder; the other day i couldn't find a single pack of crew socks that was 100% cotton. SOCKS!

Also, pilling is out of control. The newest pants I bought developed pills within a single day of walking around campus with a backpack.

These companies are trying to frog-boil us but touching clothes from twenty years ago, the useless crap of today would stick out like a sore thumb...

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[slipdressdiary]

It's the holiday season, also known as the best time to wear fully sequined tops out and about! Not as hard as to style as you think, just pair them with neutrals to look classy or pair them with other funky colors for a tropical twist. In this day and age, every girl needs at least one sparkly top to throw on and head to the nearest party without thinking too hard about an outfit to wear.

Where can I get one? I've recently been seeing a ton of these in the window displays of the likes of H&M and Zara. But if you try to avoid fast fashion, it's not as hard to thrift these as you think! I can't predict what your local Goodwill has in stock, but try looking on Instagram thrift curation shops, which always have statement secondhand tops in store. For example, @shopflorice on IG ships internationally, I'm pretty sure!

[wizzard890]

Regarding the repeating outfit: How do you keep clothes in good condition after repeated wear? they get very worn out after awhile :(

There are a couple answers to this, but please take them with my supposition that you’re not talking about hard-wearing clothing for specific work/activities. I assume that if you're some hottie in overalls at a wolf sanctuary or whatever, you're probably not turning to a fancy femme on tumblr for garment maintenance advice.

First off, where you buy your clothes is important. Fast fashion is not made to last, it is made to degrade like so much spider silk and to be thrown out with each trend cycle. It can be cared for (see my next point), but it takes effort, and you are actively resisting entropy. Buy well-made clothes secondhand, particularly vintage clothes, and you'll be better off. And when I say vintage, I don't mean pinups and victory curls, I mean good solid mall brands from the 90s, like Nine West, Anne Taylor, Old Navy and Gap. The quality dip in many consumer goods over the past twenty years has been horrifying to watch, and all the brands I listed have been victims, but there are still a lot of old, well-made pieces out there in the thrifting market. Or see if your parents / older family members or friends have anything similar in their closet that they wouldn't mind parting with.

(But ALSO even fast fashion used to be better. I have a sweater from Zara that I bought in the year of our lord 2013, and I wore it to dinner just this week. I've spent years making sure it didn't shrink in the wash and hanging it up and spot cleaning it, and it looks as good as it did the day I bought it. On that note --)

Please please please take care of your clothes. Read the labels inside them for washing instructions, go online to learn more about how to launder the specific material, make sure you don't tumble dry things that will shrink or melt, hang them up so they don't wrinkle, iron them carefully, take in buttons to be repaired at your local seamstress or laundromat, the list goes on. It's a little time consuming, but not complicated.

You'll also be more likely to put in the effort if you get a lot of use out of a garment, and don't feel like a dummy for steam-drying a trendy item that's going to be passé in a few months. Think judiciously about trends - will you be able to incorporate a piece into your personal style once the girlies on tiktok stop wearing it? If so, great. If not, you don't want to be stuck hand washing a popcorn crop top. (Idk if those are back in on the y2k train yet, but as a millennial who shopped at Limited Too, I advise my gen z followers that it's only a matter of time.)

Constant trend cycles, low-quality clothes, items sold for loose change during Shein or Fashion Nova sales, a generation brought up so the idea of "outfit repeating" has any social weight whatsoever: this shit is bad for the planet, and TERRIBLE for exploited workers across the world, particularly in the global south. We can all try for a better reality than this; your habits of personal consumption matter.

[shit-talk-turner]

Can anyone French weigh in? //Buying second-hand is now very common in France, and a lot of people use that term. However (except for younger i think, people in their 20s), there’s still a negative connotation attached to the term second-hand obviously because it implies not being able to afford new items. There’s a CLEAR difference between saying second-hand and vintage when talking about clothing: vintage gives off a vibe of something “rare and expensive”

And nobody would call it vintage if it’s something that was bought this recently, really.

Obviously i understand the reluctance to use the term “second-hand” if it’s coming from people who truly can’t afford new items. But in her case I can’t help but find it elitist (if it’s actually from mango)

Plus, the fact that she ALWAYS makes a point of saying it’s vintage and when someone asks where her clothes are from she only responds when she can say “it’s vintage babe”—correct me if I’m wrong, but she never (or not lately) mentions the others (except when it’s for a sponsorship)

To sum up i think (could be wrong) she only uses that term for the aesthetic

helpful, thank you. So she’s definitely implying that it’s something it’s not. Like today this mod is wearing a Zara sweater that I grabbed secondhand off thredup but I’m not going around telling people it’s vintage, if someone asked it’s either “from Zara” or “I thrifted it”

oh loulou being loulou just like always 😝

[hauntedwizardmoment]

Back on my Jace + the Jaces bullshit. Where do Zara and Lucilla fit into the Everyone Is Sleeping With Porter Drama (I mean. Zara for sure but I think Lucilla’s sitting that one out) and the j2jace drama and the LJ3 “we were on a break bc of J3’s Definitely Very Singular Indiscretion” drama. Also as far as music taste and artistry go where do they fit or are they more fore hire workmen or true collaborators. I see Lucilla n J2 having similar taste and Zara n J4 its like. Half the time they’re on the same wavelength or they don’t get each other at all there’s no in between.

OOOOOO okay okay... i think zara has keyboard player vibes definitely. i think she starts out as a touring member/session musician for their first album but then she and j4 really start getting along musically and personally, and she ends up being a much closer collaborator and a semi-official fifth member. lucilla i see as less involved, she does backup vocals and is also a supporting musician for them, so she has input on the songs she's on, but she's less of an unofficial member and more of an occasional collaborator/someone to bounce ideas off of. j2 does stay on her couch sometimes though bc they like each other.

so for the drama. yeah zara's definitely got a casual on-again off-again thing with porter but is like. keeping her distance bc she can See how he is with the jaces and shes like. hmm. thats not great. should i intercede? and jaceprime keeps telling her "no no we're fine it's fine, come on let's talk chord progressions" and then the band implodes and shes like what the fuck. lucilla gets the drama secondhand from j2 when he's embroiled in it and crying into her lap but is sworn to secrecy about it.

for music taste yeah i think you hit it on the head. j2 and lucilla have very similar instincts for what not only sounds good but will get people into stadiums, and j4 and zara are both fans of the experimental, weird, genre-pushing stuff. which is why theyre either super closely aligned cosmically destined twin flames or they think the other has lost their damn mind.

[oldsamarie]

perfume brands i'm choosing not to support

i know this is my specific niche, so i don't know how many people will find this useful, but i wanted to compile a list of perfume/fragrance brands that support israel that i personally have decided not to use. for most, they're owned by a pro israel company, so i'll group them to make this easier to read

note: some brands listed under major companies are partnered with the larger company in question, i just say "owned by" as a catchall

feel free to correct me if i'm wrong on any of this, i'll update it if i need to add or remove anything

Brands owned by Estee Lauder Aerin  Aramis Clinique Jo Malone  Kilian Le Labo Tom Ford Michael Kors Coach Cosmetics

Anything owned by LVMH Dior Guerlain Givenchy Loewe Marc Jacobs Kenzo Parfums Maison Francis Kurkdjian Yves Saint Laurent Bvlgari DKNY Louis Vuitton

Anything owned by L’Oreal (as seen on the subsection of L’Oreals website, L’Oreal Luxe)  Diesel Fragrances Giorgio Armani Valentino Beauty Mugler  Maison Margiela Fragrances Lancome Ralph Lauren Cacharel Prada YSL

Various other brands Bath and Body Works Zara BDK (for the life of me cannot find any source talking about this, but here's a screenshot of what the owner has to say) Chanel

truth be told, a lot of these brands have really good dupes for a ton of their most popular fragrances. i wouldn't even bother going secondhand for their products, but that's just my personal opinion on what i'd be willing to buy. instead, i recommend brands like kayali perfumes who are vocally pro palestine. imo being silent is not really enough, but that's because perfume is a luxury for me and i'd rather spend my money on brands i feel comfortable supporting. anyways, once again, please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong on any of these or if i missed any

[awesomeredhds02]

aliceejosefsson

👩🏻‍🦰 •  #ginger #gingerhair #redhair #redhead #styleinspo#lookoftheday #outfit #zara #vintage #secondhand

[twinsforfashion]

Amalia

Hacer listas mentales es una de mis especialidades, incluso cuando no quiero hacerlo, mi cerebro funciona así. Una de esas listas se llama “Las cosas que más me gustan de vivir en Barcelona” e incluye cosas como “pasear hasta descubrir un bar o una cafetería y sentarme a tomar algo, porqué sí". Ese día pasó eso y además estrené un jersey de segunda mano que me había comprado justo esa mañana. Tengo pendiente añadir eso a la lista, también.

*

Making mental lists is one of my specialties, even when I don't want to do it, that's how my brain works. One of those lists is called "The things I like the most about living in Barcelona" and includes things like "walking around until I discover a bar or a cafe and sitting down to have a drink, just because." That day that happened, and I also got a new amazing secondhand sweater that morning. I have yet to add that to the list, too.

Second hand sweater, Zara pants, Kipling bag & Mango shoes.

+ Shoot by Júlia.

[umichenginabroad]

Stockholm Week 2: Museum Museum Museum!

Välkommen, again, to my journey in Stockholm! 

I'll get started right away:

1/23 Tue: Visiting Host Family

A lot of snow melted (finally) this week, and it was my first full week of classes. I watched a comedy film I Love Lucy in Glued to the Screen class and talked about political ideas and issues in the Swedish Language and Culture course. I thought the U.S. education system had a lot of discussion built into the curriculum, but the Swedish Language and Culture course had even more discussion integrated into the class. We listened and gave opinions about concepts like nationalism in addition to typical vocabulary and grammar lessons. 

Last week, I was accepted into the Visiting Host Program through DIS and invited for dinner with another student! I had a few hours after class and you know I didn’t miss the opportunity to go shopping ;) I went into Zara instead and tried on a bunch of clothes. Compared to other countries, Zara in Europe has bigger sales and better quality clothes! 

I shopped around the rich stores (Moncler, Gucci, etc) but did not dare go in

On the way to my Visiting Host family, I met up with the other invited student (also from Minnesota! What a coincidence) in the subway station (where I got lost for a good 10 minutes). The hosts were SO NICE and the 5-year-old baby was SO CUTE.

She braided our hair and put a pin as a cherry on top  

They prepared authentic Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and white wine. The dessert called princess cake was very pretty and sweet as its name <3

I usually don't like wine but this one was surprisingly good and I’m planning on asking the name of it! 

We had such a good time, and I am excited to see them again soon! 

1/24 Wed: Museum Field Study

Our film class, Glued to the Screen, met altogether at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology (Tekniska Museet) at 2 pm on Wednesday. 

This was nothing like I imagined. The museum had three floors and there were endless passages and stairs and rooms that we went through. It mainly covered the history of technology in Sweden and Europe.  

Although two hours of continuous walking was exhausting, we took hundreds of photos and were submerged in activities. In fact, two hours was not enough time to look around the huge museum packed with interactive activities like gaming, cycling, driving, etc.

Air balloon, AI, VR, Phone booths, and so much more

This particular room was full of mirrors!

After the independent tour around the museum, as with all field studies, we had a fika at the wooden cafe in the museum. 

If you are able to go, please order the strawberry smoothie there. It was DELICIOUS!

After the field trip, my friends and I spontaneously, again, headed for more shopping. I did a big Zara haul and so did my friends. 

I can’t stop buying clothes and it’s a problem. The discounts aren’t helping either :(

1/25 Thu: Sour Day

Because I had four hours in between classes on Thursday, I killed time in the library in the DIS building (was going to work on homework but inevitably fell asleep for a while). Then, with the goal of waking up, I headed to a bigger ICA supermarket. Aaaand as you could’ve imagined I couldn’t pass by the snacks corner without buying some. I got a wide range of chocolate and jellies.

Afterward, I went back to DIS to actually do homework. I got bored after a few minutes; I took out the chocolate bag. The moment I took a bite of a round chocolate ball, I stopped biting. Not voluntarily, but forcefully. There was a very hard, blue ball inside the chocolate cover. With hesitation, I tried licking the exposed side and regretted my choice immediately. It was extremely salty AND sour. 

I learned the hard way that I should read the descriptions before putting all kinds of chocolate in the goodie bag.

1/26 Fri: Busy Busy Friday

Friday was another thrift day for me. DIS leads led us and showed us around the secondhand stores in Zinkensdamm. The high-end vintage store Beyond Retro sold clothes for 500 Krona (~$50) while the more common stores like Myrorna and Stockholm Stadsmission had things for 50 Kr (~$5). The latter ones were more of my style. 

For dinner, I finally had MAX. It is a Swedish burger chain that has tons of menus including Vegan and Vegetarian options. I tried the advertised burger meal with the sweet potato fries on the side. The burger was as good as I was told by the locals. I’m definitely going back to try other burgers and smoothies!

We faced an unexpected amount of snow on the way back home but it was so pretty that I forgave the weather. 

My hair was soaking wet

That same night, my friends living in a different student apartment came to Södermalm to try out the bars here. We sat down and talked and had a couple of drinks together to end the night <3 

1/27 Sat: More Museum Trips

We made it to the Banksy Museum just to find out that the tickets for that day and the next day were sold out already. To make sure this doesn’t happen again, we booked the tickets for next week on the spot. The Fotografiska museum, which was conveniently right next door, compelled us in. We got a student discount (199 Kr ~$19.90) and separately wandered around the museum to appreciate each artwork. My favorite ones were Rinko Kawauchi’s photo collection located on the top floor. 

The artwork reminded me of words like ethereal, surreal, serendipity

We couldn’t walk past the photo booth either! It was $6, which was not as expensive as the ones found in the subway ($9.99). 

The camera started shooting right after we paid, so you can see us caught off guard in the first frame. I got the black and white version and my friend took the colored one.

But aren’t we so cute <;3

Even the sky on the way back home was gorgeous.

1/28 Sun: Flea Market!

DIS notified students about the weekend flea market and I recruited people to go with me as soon as I saw the information. 

There were tens and hundreds of people selling and buying clothes and home goods for a good price!

I got a jacket, 5 gold rings, a sweater, shorts, and a mesh top for a total of 274 Kr, which is about 27 dollars. The flea market was a cheaper and higher quality version of a thrift store and I absolutely loved it. Do you see a trend here ;)

We were craving pastries later on so we stopped at Gamla Stan to grab some before going home.

Selfie!

As people with high standards, we inspected more than five cafes to find the perfect place that met our needs. A bakery called PANEM was our last stop, and the desserts there were phenomenal even at a reasonable price. 

I got a mango mousse cake and it was the best dessert I’ve had in Stockholm so far!!!

This concludes my second week in Stockholm. Stay tuned for more adventures from me!

Tack så mycket, 

Jiwoo Kim 

Chemical Engineering

DIS Study Abroad in Stockholm, Sweden

[meowyoi]

LMAOOOO a group of four girls dressed exactly the same just gasped at my outfut and screamed "SECONDHAND SHOP GANG" like okay? zara gang?? not the insult you think it is 😭

[twiggyscrazylife]

Thrifting. A guide.

Hello, all my sweet bees! I decided that because I see lots of people around me struggling with finding thrift stores, clothes from said stores that they like, or not even trying because they are overwhelmed, I want to write a how to thrift guide. 

So I will go over what thrift stores are, why I thrift / shop second hand, how to find clothes you will actually wear, and the different kinds of stores. 

Firstly, what is a thrift store? According to Merriam - Webster (my dictionary of choice, you can look this up on any one you like), a thrift store / thrift shop is ‘a shop that sells secondhand articles and especially clothes and is often run for charitable purposes’. Pretty good definition, let me add onto that. There is nothing you cannot buy at a thrift store. It is sort of like a store version of a flea market. I have bought cameras, clothes, bags, and such, but have also seen tableware, furniture, other tech items, legos, books, movies, toys, ect. If you are looking for something, chances are you can get it second hand or from a thrift store. So yes, thrift stores are sometimes big warehouses / buildings with multiple floors, or small boutiques (but we will get to that later). 

Now, why do I personally thrift shop? There’s multiple reasons to this. Firstly, I love to go shopping, but sometimes, my allowance does not allow me to go to H & M or Zara every week (I promise I don’t shop this much, I’m just saying). So enter thrift stores. The clothes at bigger places are oftentimes very cheap, and considerably good quality if you go to the right neighborhoods to thrift. Another one is obviously sustainability. I love shopping sustainably, and if it means that I don’t buy a super trendy glitter crop top today but instead a sweater from the thrift store, then that’s okay (I don’t condemn the actions of people who like sparkly glitter clothes, I too, am a magpie, I’m just saying). Repurposing old clothes that you don’t wear but that could make other people happy is so cool, so genuinely cool. And same goes for buying clothes that people have worn before. I don’t personally have a problem with that. 

Now, how do you not enter the thrift store and buy all sorts of clothes that you will actually never wear? First, let’s make a secret pact: make a Pinterest board. My best thrift finds have come from inspiration off a pinboard on that hell site, so… But yeah, and also be sure that you’re not looking for clothes that are on trend in this very moment. Yes, there are often a lot of fast fashion companies out there whose clothes get donated into a Goodwill, but that does not mean that they are fashionable right in that moment. So instead, try to find clothes that are easy to style or a good statement piece, functional clothes, or really just something that you love. Besides that, check the garment you want to buy for holes, tears, and such, to make sure you don’t have to mend the first item you buy from the thrift store. There is obviously nothing wrong with mending your own clothes, it is a part of the clothes cycle to make a pair of pants or a shirt last longer, but make your life easy for now. 

Finally, the difference between different thrift stores. Firstly, you have secondhand boutiques, bougie people thrifting. If you have a couple hundred (or more) in your pocket for a secondhand LV Speedy, alright queen, go off. But I find these stores to have less of a variety and be vERY expensive. Secondly, the trendy thrift stores. We are talking kilo sale, hippie thrift spots. Pretty cool, I have found some nice things in those thrift stores, but understand that each item in those stores was filtered through, from the shirts and jackets to the bags. Each item was pulled to be trendy and cool, which ups the price a LOT. I like to go for the weirdest thrift stores, the Goodwills, the bins. This is where clothes are dirt cheap and either you find a vintage real leather jacket or a half ripped polyester shirt that was once a soccer jersey. But that’s all personal preference. Just understand that because you see a nice, hot, cool thrift store online, that doesn’t mean the clothes there are super cheap. 

But on we go. Thanks for reading, my little bees, and I hope this whole post has given you some ideas on where to go shopping next. And also as a side note: understand that wearing clothes other people don’t wear also counts as a thrift situation. If you don’t want to go head straight into the thrift experience, host a clothing exchange at your house with your friends! Bring some drinks, some snacks, and just try on clothes. The whole idea of this is to repurpose clothes and give them a home where they will be worn with joy. So that’s it! Hope you have fun!

[funkypunkyhermitcrab]

I feel kinda fucked about buying clothes for cheap.. if I've got enough saved up, I will try to get good quality clothes that I like, but not too regularly. I pretty much exclusivey buy secondhand, but from experience from working in one, second hand shops are pretty much deadstock Zara couldn't sell, or someone's shein haul which (surprise, surprise) just fell apart. I mend and rewear old clothes as much as I can, and I use fabric from old stuff for sewing projects, etc, but it just seems so hard to buy GOOD clothes now. Even expensive stuff has that plasticky made by children feel

[wizzard890]

hello! I've really loved looking at your style posts and as I've been creating my first adult wardrobe have gone with interesting pieces and bright colors just for the love of it, with your looks in mind. Do you have recommendations for not super pricy but still interesting/good material places to shop for blouses? I've gotten a lot (like 30) of floor length brocade skirts that are very ornate and vivid in color, and even the tshirts I wear don't go with all of them, and I'd love to pair them up with more architectural/ruffled/romantic stuff!

I'm always going to start with The Real Real, which is secondhand designer fashion, often in really good condition. You can usually find garments taking a bit more risk in these bins than you can find at like, Zara or whatever. Try this romantic secondhand blouse from Cult Gaia, for example.

Other than that, these brands might work for you if you're in the mood for ruffles, boldness, and romance: Selkie, Tanya Taylor, Reformation. Cool architecture and prints: Etro, Roberto Cavalli.

There's also APOC, an online store for up and coming clothing designers, and you can find absolutely wild things there for a solid price.