the minaret

The first thing to know about thrifting is that you know nothing about thrifting. Walking into a Goodwill and pawing at rack after rack of granny sweaters and oversized T-shirts and selecting the most obscure ones will not make you a fashion icon. You will not suddenly be fashionable if you decide to take some scissors to a tracksuit and call it chic. Personally, I walk into a thrift store and am instantly overwhelmed. What do I choose that will make me seem interesting or knowledgeable about current trends? How can I become hip? How will I know what is vintage or retro, or can I just thrift blindly?

I decided that for my questions to be answered I must go on a quest. I would go to three Tampa thrift/vintage stores (Sunshine Thrift Stores Inc., Second Image Thrift Stores and The Salvation Army Family Store) in order to find what’s fashionable in the world of second-hand clothing. Knowing next to nothing about this kind of fashion, I knew I would need a sage. Someone with vast amounts of thrifting knowledge to guide me on my path to the Thrifted Holy Grail. After contacting a few sources I met with a fashion guru in West garage. Wanting to remain anonymous, she kept her face hidden in shadow and referred to herself as Deep Thrift. Deep Thrift revealed some secrets of the trade that I took with me on my journey that I will now impart to readers:

Never Thrift Alone. Deep Thrift explained that going with friends not only makes the experience more fun but gives you more opinions about the clothes you will try on. An adorable jumpsuit may in actuality be a trainwreck that your close friends won’t hesitate to point out. Following this advice, I grabbed friends and UT seniors Emily Cain and Hannah Perkins. We started our trek at the Sunshine Thrift Store on South Dale Mabry. The parking lot was packed and once inside I could see why. There was a huge selection of clothing, furniture and miscellaneous items. Before getting overwhelmed I remembered Deep Thrift’s second piece of advice.

Have an Idea of What You Want in Mind. To avoid being a scatterbrained shopper it is always best to know what you’re looking for beforehand. This advice was reinforced when I chatted with Kerri Barta, co-owner of Hellhound Vintage, an online vintage store specializing in artisan pieces. “With our pieces we’re always looking for high quality,” Barta said. “You want to find really cool statement pieces…it’s not gaudiness that you’re looking for, it’s really beautiful, bold statement pieces.” Looking around Sunshine Thrift and its vast amount of merchandise I found it hard to pick out exactly what I was looking for. Emily pointed out, “Browsing is the best part of thrifting because you can find anything and everything.” Even without an exact piece in mind, I remembered Deep Thrift’s encouragement to “get the lay of the land.”

Get the Lay of the Land. Deep Thrift explained that most thrift stores are sectioned off into pants, t-shirts and tank tops. Some even divide those sections by color. She recommended starting at the very front of the store at the end opposite to the fitting room so that by the time you have sorted through the store you’re ready to try-on. Sunshine Thrift Store was organized by clothing style, where the Salvation Army Family Store on MacDill and Second Image on Kennedy added color to their sorting dimensions. After hanging around the back of Sunshine near the Halloween section’s zombie masks and angel wings, I decided to go straight to the dresses rack instead of struggling my way towards the fitting room. I tried to find interesting color palettes and unique adornments and soon found a purple evening gown that fit the bill. Emily picked out a beige and black jumpsuit that appeared to have walked its way out of the mod era. With dress and jumper in hand we started on our way to the fitting room, but white tulle and poof distracted me. Protruding from the rack was a giant wedding dress. I convinced Hannah and Emily to try it on with me for kicks. We hauled our finds into the tiny dressing room and took turns changing and judging. We soon found out that what we thought might fit us didn’t, while some clothes surprised us.

Be Size Wise. Emily’s jumper was a little baggy, so I told her to grab a belt from the accessories section. Deep Thrift advised that bringing a belt to thrift stores is a must. That way you can cinch things in so that you have an idea of how it will look when you wear it out. She said to not pay too much attention to tag sizes and to go by eye. When it came to the wedding dress, Hannah was the first to try it on. It looked regal, but the back wouldn’t lace up. I decided to give it a try. I managed to wriggle it over my hips and loved the full skirt; however, the corset must have been made for a thirteen-year-old because my waist was not having it. Emily encountered the same issues. Making sure items fit around the waist is paramount to Deep Thrift because length is the easiest element to change. Anything that can’t be fixed with a belt or a hem isn’t worth the time unless it’s a really stand-out find. Even though we didn’t say yes to the big, white dress, I did find the purple evening gown to be a perfect fit, proving that you should try everything.

Try Everything. Pick up anything that remotely looks interesting because you never know what it’s going to look like on. Deep Thrift mentioned that there is a thin line between really ugly and really cute in a thrift store, but do not forget the ways one could change the clothes like by cutting or sewing. My purple gown had a few imperfections in the skirt, but, overalll, it was worth the $6 I put out for it. Moving on to the Salvation Army Family Store on MacDill, Hannah experienced what it was like to try anything. “My mom would fight me for this jacket,” she remarked, pulling the hanger off the rack. The jacket was hunter green leather and flowing with fringe. Emily and I begged her to try it on since this jacket was absolutely made for her. A passing shopper noted that the jacket would be priced as high as $250 in a retail store. Hannah snatched it up for $25. “I thought you guys would hate it,” she said.

Always Look at Accessories. You’ll find expensive lookalikes at marked down prices. Emily found a pair of floral Steve Madden wedges in the shoe section of Salvation Army marked for $10 while online they sell for anywhere between $99 and $130. Hannah bought Candies boots from Salvation Army for $9.99, regularly priced at $70 online. I fell in love with a mysterious trench coat that looked brand new but lacked a label other than “Made in Korea.” It was marked half off of the regular price, and after shelling out another $6 it was all mine. These accessories were great finds, but getting unique odds and ends is definitely not limited to clothes. Moving on to the Second Image Thrift Store, Hannah and I discovered rare-looking vinyls selling for under $2. A 1964 Disney album caught Hannah’s eye. She summed up this thrifting venture as being “its own little world, listening to old music and looking through old clothes.” Behind her I noticed a shelf of board games, one of them titled Sexual Trivia. It was the tagline that got us to open the box out of curiosity: “Over 1,440 Stimulating Questions That Prove Sexual Facts are Stranger Than Fiction.” Made in 1993, it was as vintage as I am (est. 1991) but was still an interesting find that we kindly passed up.

Find the Deals. At each thrift store we visited, most had a white board that outlined the specials that day. Color coded tags denoted half off and quarter off prices, and Second Image even had a calendar posted of all their sales events for the month. Barbara Gawthrop, a Tampa business banker and 13-year Sunshine Thrift Store patron spoke to me about thrifting. “It’s easy to get addicted,” said Gawthrop as she pulled and tried on different suit jackets from her cart. Deep Thrift warned that going to a mall after adventuring into the world of thrift stores would be jarring and could even be painful for the serial thrifter. Gawthrop advised us to look for thrift stores in nicer areas where the wealthy donate their high-end clothes enabling the smart thrifter to get them for a steal. When I visited vintage clothing store La France in Ybor, I skipped the higher priced vintage inside and browsed outside the storefront. La France sports a bin outside that challenges the thrifter to fill a brown paper bag with miscellaneous, and possibly vintage, items for only $10. At Second Image, Emily ended up with four gorgeous dresses just under $33. Regularly priced each would have cost at least $20. Though we quickly became enamored with these awesome deals, Gawthrop reminded us of the flip-side of only taking the clothes. She said that she likes to donate as many clothes as she buys from Sunshine Thrift Stores. She does this for her sister who is on dialysis and Sunshine Thrift’s history of philanthropy includes giving proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation.

After a long day of thrifting, Emily, Hannah and I left with our bags full of clothes and wallets still relatively full as well. I found that this strange world of thrift wasn’t so hard to infiltrate after all. But what are the possibilities of vintage and retro clothing to beef up my Forever 21-laden wardrobe? “At this point pretty much anything that’s 20 years or older is considered vintage and then retro in my mind is more reproduction stuff,” said Barta. “The thrifting really is just second-hand in general. It’s where you go to find vintage.” Once Barta explained the differences between vintage, retro and second-hand, I decided that there is no right or wrong to thrifting fashion. The avant-garde is born out of individual taste in this case, which brings me to Deep Thrift’s last piece of advice.

Don’t Be Afraid. When all is said and done you just have to go for it. You can’t make a mistake in a thrift store. The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll pick something up and it’ll look terrible on you. The best thing? You walk away with an interesting, perhaps even valuable find, or fall in love with a one-of-a-kind piece you can call your own. In the immortal words of Deep Thrift: “Thrifting is like a treasure hunt––you have to search through a bunch of nos to find that one yes.”

Amanda Sieradzki can be reached at asieradzki@spartans.ut.edu.