The official thrift/discount store bragging thread

[Ace_Face]

Man, there are a lot of black longwings popping up. I found a nice pair of black pebbled AE Macneils today. 10.5C. Available.

 

[pnutpug]



I love John Denver.....Rocky Mountain high is one of the coolest songs ever.

He owes--owed--everything to Bill and Taffy Danoff, who co-wrote his break-out song "Take Me Home Country Roads," without which there might never have been "Rocky Mountain High." He re-paid the favor by signing their group to his label after he made it big. That group was...The Starland Vocal Band.

The best-ever John Denver album is Whose Garden Is This, not because it is good, but because it is one of the most awful, cheesy records ever made (I like bad records). There are still a fair number floating around thrifts. Definitely worth picking up.

 

[Stissius]

Just show them this.

Ha yeah. That was my first thought when I first put it on.

Nice!!!

Nothing wrong with that! Amazing singer/songwriter.

Excellent find on the reel to reel!

I love John Denver.....Rocky Mountain high is one of the coolest songs ever.

Totally agree. Learning some songs of his on guitar to show my friend what's up.

 

[Tweets]

Found 2 nice Allen Edmonds brown cap toes today...decent shape...got excited.

Looked closer, slightly different color...

Looked closer, 2 different shoes, got more excited...surely the 2 matches are around here and I'll have 2 pairs of AE's....nothing...

 

[DeadBoy]

My bad. I didn't realize you were asking for flipping advice. I thought it was for personal use.

I was talking about both, but my latter comment was regarding personal use. Haven't been blown away by what I've seen, and I've found the PS Paul Smith stuff to be insanely slim fitting.

 

[mexicutioner]



High retail doesn't always mean good or flippable. I think a lot of Paul Smith stuff is a good example of that. Mainline and Paul Smith London are tremendously popular on eBay and are great (London isn't great quality but very nice cuts). Paul Smith Jeans, PS Paul Smith and whatever other diffusions he has are pretty meh for the price.


You seem to be mostly about mountaineering stuff, so I'll ask: Are you buying for yourself because you want more tailored clothing? Or to flip? Because if you're flipping, you'd do better just memorizing labels and jacket interior tag designs, and buying whatever is newish and fancy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: thrift stores and this thread are pretty terrible places to try to learn what's cool and stylish. That should be obvious, but for some reason it isn't to many people. To thrift a stylish outfit, you need to understand style. Doesn't help that some (not all) folks here buy and brag about old **** they would look ridiculous wearing. If you don't take those posts with a grain of salt, you could really be messing up your conceptions of menswear. 

The good news: the rest of Styleforum is just a click away. It's full of people who spend a fortune on brand new stuff to look good. Look at what they're wearing, not what people here are pulling out of some dead 90-year-old's closet. Or just go buy an issue of GQ and, instead of going thrifting one day, spend a couple hours flipping through it. For that minimal effort, you'll have a much better idea of what's current and what isn't. And if you want to stay current, you'll have to continue putting the work in.

And forget quality. People here talk about how well-made garments are, how good the construction is, how much handwork there is, etc. Half the time that's because we're trying to justify why we bought some dated heap. The truth is, this is clothing you're wearing to impress. You'll look way better in a 2-year-old Calvin Klein suit than in a 30-year-old Samuelsohn suit, no matter how much better made the latter is.

Old people will look alright in old tailored clothes because they're old. If you're young and you wear old tailored clothes, you'll look poor. And that defeats the purpose of wearing tailored clothes.

+1

 

[Fueco]

The las

My bad. I didn't realize you were asking for flipping advice. I thought it was for personal use.

I was talking about both, but my latter comment was regarding personal use. Haven't been blown away by what I've seen, and I've found the PS Paul Smith stuff to be insanely slim fitting.

The last place I'd look for advice for what to wear would be on the Internet. I try stuff on and buy what I like for myself. I try to flip things I don't want/need for myself.

I'm all about plaid and striped shirts and khakis and denim. The rest seems superfluous to me. The one thing I'd like to find that might be somewhat SF approved is a nice gray Harris or Donegal tweed coat. I know it looks good on me, I just need to find one that fits right.

 

[GMMcL]



I was at a different store, returning some of the not so hot from the past haul. Also was only one shirt for one shirt, but still popped the Isaia cherry. Still need to go through some of them to weed out the true um... weeds. Time to catch up on the thread and respond to all of you.

But.... But. ... WHY ARE YOU RETURNING FINAMORE IN MY SIZE???!!!

Thrift Fit Question for followers of this thread.​

I'm about 86% sure that I started the "Thrift Fit" trend on this thread a year or so ago and IIRC,

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I stipulated back then that there should be no judgements made, just post what you bought so that we could see the stuff in action. I've really enjoyed seeing what used to be lifeless shots of sport coats lying across a bed leap to life on someone's back. Since that time, however, it seems that some folks might be seeking opinions about fit, color, appropriateness of various pieces, etc. while others might just want to show their loot and don't care about such matters. There have been times that I've looked at a fit and thought, "He's got better shoes than that to wear with that suit." or "No ties with jeans!" I'd like to add a codicil to my original thrift fit proposition that if you would like true and honest input on your fit based on things that many of us have learned here on StyleForum by following various other threads that some others of us may NOT have followed, then you should ask for that assistance at the time of each fit posting. We'd just need a basic call out that could be the standard such as (and I'm sure someone can come up with something better) ...

"Here's my thrift fit for today. Please critique it."​

Allow me to post two examples of what I mean with something that I actually wore last year. In Example A, I am just posting a thrift fit pic and don't desire any opinion but in Example B, I am using the call out phrase.

Spoiler: Example A

Hey guys! Here's a quick thrift fit.

BB SC PRL shirt Levis 505 Converse All Stars (Chuck Taylors) Maui Jim Polo (Green bottle) After you have admired my pic(s), you would scroll on to the next post and be done with it and no one thinks the less of me for not asking for a critique.

Spoiler: Example B

Hey guys! Here's my thrift fit for today. Please critique it.

BB SC PRL shirt Levis 505 Converse All Stars (Chuck Taylors) Maui Jim Polo (Green bottle) This time, since I have specifically asked for input, several of you might be tempted to say (along with any positive comments, of course) something like, ...and I'd be like, "Wow! I never realized. Thanks! (or some such)."

I'd still maintain that critiques should be about the clothes and not about how much weight someone needs to lose or gain, etc.

Too much to ask? I dunno. I want to help sometimes but I don't want people to stop posting thrift fits for fear of hearing less than glowing feedback.

Yes you did, and I'm totally good with this. I think complements should be fair game though, which is probably the majority of commenting people do on fits anyway. More stuff today. May post later tonight or tomorrow. Could go either way.

 

[barrelntrigger]

High retail doesn't always mean good or flippable. I think a lot of Paul Smith stuff is a good example of that. Mainline and Paul Smith London are tremendously popular on eBay and are great (London isn't great quality but very nice cuts). Paul Smith Jeans, PS Paul Smith and whatever other diffusions he has are pretty meh for the price.


You seem to be mostly about mountaineering stuff, so I'll ask: Are you buying for yourself because you want more tailored clothing? Or to flip? Because if you're flipping, you'd do better just memorizing labels and jacket interior tag designs, and buying whatever is newish and fancy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: thrift stores and this thread are pretty terrible places to try to learn what's cool and stylish. That should be obvious, but for some reason it isn't to many people. To thrift a stylish outfit, you need to understand style. Doesn't help that some (not all) folks here buy and brag about old **** they would look ridiculous wearing. If you don't take those posts with a grain of salt, you could really be messing up your conceptions of menswear.

The good news: the rest of Styleforum is just a click away. It's full of people who spend a fortune on brand new stuff to look good. Look at what they're wearing, not what people here are pulling out of some dead 90-year-old's closet. Or just go buy an issue of GQ and, instead of going thrifting one day, spend a couple hours flipping through it. For that minimal effort, you'll have a much better idea of what's current and what isn't. And if you want to stay current, you'll have to continue putting the work in.

And forget quality. People here talk about how well-made garments are, how good the construction is, how much handwork there is, etc. Half the time that's because we're trying to justify why we bought some dated heap. The truth is, this is clothing you're wearing to impress. You'll look way better in a 2-year-old Calvin Klein suit than in a 30-year-old Samuelsohn suit, no matter how much better made the latter is.

Old people will look alright in old tailored clothes because they're old. If you're young and you wear old tailored clothes, you'll look poor. And that defeats the purpose of wearing tailored clothes.



And now, here's my thrifty poor man's version of caseyfud's awesome cardigan fit:




Cardigan - J Crew, eBay, $60
Shirt - Club Monaco, thrift, $15
Jeans - APC, outlet, $40

Where are the shoes?

 

[grendel]

Where are the shoes?

Vibram five fingers in pepto-bismol pink

 

[Nataku]



You know I'm a BB brand whore and you did this on purpose, didn't you?



BTW, is that Brioni more black than white and does it have a pocket?

It is mainly black with brown and gold mini stripes. No pocket. Spread collar w/ barrel cuffs. I think 16.5

But.... But. ...

WHY ARE YOU RETURNING FINAMORE IN MY SIZE???!!!

+1. I hope it wasn't the solid green spread collar Finamore.

 

[Fueco]

Where are the shoes?

Vibram five fingers in pepto-bismol pink

Invalid if not thrifted!

I wore my thrifted Vibrams running tonight...

 

[DeadBoy]

Yes you did, and I'm totally good with this. I think complements should be fair game though, which is probably the majority of commenting people do on fits anyway

Where are the shoes?

Heh, I didn't get them in the shot so left them out. Shoes are Blundstone boots (the dressier ones), bought on sale a couple years ago. Not quite as elegant as side zips, but I think they go alright.

Vibram five fingers in pepto-bismol pink

I mean this.

 

[eazye]



He owes--owed--everything to Bill and Taffy Danoff, who co-wrote his break-out song "Take Me Home Country Roads," without which there might never have been "Rocky Mountain High." He re-paid the favor by signing their group to his label after he made it big. That group was...The Starland Vocal Band.

The best-ever John Denver album is Whose Garden Is This, not because it is good, but because it is one of the most awful, cheesy records ever made (I like bad records). There are still a fair number floating around thrifts. Definitely worth picking up.

I like the Toots and the Maytalls version better.


About fit and vintage clothing.....I'm too drunk to comment now, maybe tomorrow.

 

[size 38R]

My bad. I didn't realize you were asking for flipping advice. I thought it was for personal use.

haha +1000