83glt
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2008
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thrift shop I've found some nice Zileri, Zegna, Armani, Boss, plenty of Polo and Brooks Brothers, etc suits at thrift shops usually in terrific condition... you'll have a hard time coming by anything better than that for cheap on eBay anyway... I'd say your best bet is used Brooks Brothers... you should be able to get 3-5 for under 100 (before any tailoring) if you're fortunate enough edit: oh and a pretty good source for finding what thrift shops are in your area (because you may need to go to more than one to find great suits in your size) is thethriftshopper.com ... people may not say what's sold at a particular store, but you can get a general ideaOriginally Posted by illeagle
Just a note on thrift store shopping. I've found that you typically find two types of clothing at the thrift store: 1. The low end stuff that people have worn many many times, and the clothing is just tired and old, and obviously not worth buying unless it can somehow have new life breathed into it (if it's of fine quality and worth it) or you're just looking for something to wear while gardening or painting the house - about 95% of what you see at the thrift store. 2. The high end stuff that people wore a couple times, or not at all, and for whatever reason (closet cleaning, not their style, they're rich and just have too many nice clothes to wear, etc.) they've now given it away to the charity thrift shop for a tax deduction - about 5%. The really nice quality stuff that is lightly worn, if at all, is obviously much harder to find. But, if you come across a barely worn Brioni suit (which I have - for $20), you have to figure that the owner is wealthy enough to have several if not many similar suits. And it's probable that the suit you find has been worn only a handful of times. Someone who can afford to buy one Brioni suit at retail, is likely able to afford to buy many very nice high quality suits. That's the stuff you should be looking for, obviously. Look long and hard enough, and you will find it. Before I joined this forum about 6 months ago, the only time I had entered a thrift store was to look for a hallowe'en costume. Now, most of my dress wardrobe is populated with very high quality and hardly worn clothes, all found in a little over 6 months (e.g., sportjackets from Huntsman, St. Andrews, Kiton, Brioni, Chester Barrie, Cantarelli, suits from Corneliani, Barbera, Isaia, Varvatos, Chester Barrie, pants from Oxxford, J Press, RLPL, BBGF, shirts from Borrelli, Paul Stuart, Lewin, Canali, ties from Brioni, Kiton, Barbera, Dormeuil, Canali, Sulka, Borrelli, Isaia, and shoes from Varvatos, Gravati, Allen edmonds, Church's, Fratelli Rossetti, AS, and even a bunch of nice pocket squares - all sourced from thrift store shopping, and in excellent condition. I must admit that in the beginning I bought stuff that has since been redonated to the thrift store as I didn't realize that I would find much better quality items in better condition down the road. Now, I pass over a lot of stuff that I would have bought earlier on because I know that I will find something even better in time. Back to your original point about some people here who can afford the higher end stuff at retail ... good for them, I can't. So thrifting is the only way at this point that I can afford very good high quality clothing. And most importantly it's so ******* ridiculously cheap. I got that bespoke Huntsman sportjacket for $4. FOUR DOLLARS! It's ******* insane really. Good thing I have the day off today ... think I'm going to head to the Goodwill.
