Featured News: Whats behind a thrifting boom?

I thought that this was an interesting video. However, I don't think it is inflation or economic pressures that are fueling the rise of thrifting. I think it is the love of vintage, and those wanting a unique style, and some eco-consciousness and those folks are (not poor) mostly middle class. I do agree that social media entrepreneur's are spurring some of this rise in thrifting as it is so easy to get drawn into YouTube and other platforms.

Our antique malls have been packed this summer with mostly younger people, not the white-haired collectors you say in times past. A new antique mall opened in my area and I have to say I was stunned by the public support. On opening weekend there were checkout lines around the entire perimeter of the store and some folks waited 5 hours to check out. You couldn't see the contents of the booths, there were so many people in the store.

 

How can I get this to happen at my antique mall?!?

 

Thanks for sharing the video.
From what I see teens wear, they love sweatshirts for everyday. And some like glam wear for when they try to get into a sorority etc.

But name brands being resold on ebay, poshmark, etsy come under fire from the companies that have trademarked their items and don't want anyone reselling due to fakes.

 

Absolutely Pot ! Sellwood & Aurora are (I think ?) the two antique epicenters of Oregon-any collector w/ any brain activity should know this

 

Some younger folks look at the way vintage clothes were made, even stuff from the millenium, and figure it's worth snagging as it'll hold up longer than Temu or Shein crapola. Treasure hunting plays into it too.

 

Older Made In USA clothing is a true part of our history. I don't collect a lot of vintage-but the late 1930's leather US Navy pre G-1 and 1960's Wrangler Denim jacket I own really take me back to those bygone days many of us remember as kids when our country was a stable middle class land full of union workers.
Seemed after we'd won the War-it'd last longer longer.

 

The guy in that interview seems to be primarily trying to sell Poshmark.

With that said, I know firsthand that there's a very real, very significant style and 'cache' about thrifting that appeals to many teens. "Oh my God, where'd you get that Depeche Mode t-shirt!!"

But so much of what the people in that segment talk about is clothing.... I'm still waiting for the explosion of interest in Native American pottery. It's eco, it's indigenous, it's recyclable, it's all-female, etc. Until that becomes a hot trend, it's still mostly white-haired old guys like me.

 

There are a lot of content producers on yt, tiktoc, etc. who hype up vintage thrifting, estate sale hunting, and yes clothes because they're made better, out of good fabrics, and are unique. Well and 90s/Y2K is back so you can still find that easily.

I'm with you @Potteryplease ...we need more content about how cool art/usable arts are. The only downside is if you promote your niche that you keep then you're potentially creating competition and raising prices....

 

Pity the video is not about antiques.

Buying second hand clothing has been going on overhere for a very long time. And yes, there is always a new generation that goes out 'hunting' for nice and affordable stuff. I was part of a young generation of second hand buyers in the 70s.
I bought a lot of second hand clothing since then (except for underwear), it always made sense to me for so many reasons. I started young, and still see young people buying second hand clothes or visiting clothing exchanges. The same with most of my friends, musicians and artists who rarely have money for new stuff. Besides, second hand is often much more 'artsy'.

The second hand clothing trade is many centuries old. Most people in past centuries simply couldn't afford newly made clothing, so they wore second-third-fourth hand, depending on how much they could spend. You can see that on old paintings. Rich folk wore bright, fresh colours, poor folk wore faded browns and greys, washed a thousand times and still wearable.

I am glad the younger folk in the US are sensible enough to continue the age-old tradition.

That too.

 

What we really need back is homemade clothing. No wonder JoAnn went under; sewing your own or tailoring your own stuff is gone. Prices on patterns and fabric went sky high a long time ago, and people literally couldn't afford to make their own. It's long due back, especially for anyone who doesn't fit into the way they currently cut clothes.

 

My family was involved in retailing. Back in the olden days, in Manhattan, we would go to the manufacturers, pick out what we wanted to put in stores and the ladies who worked for the manufacturers were busy in another room with their sewing machines turning out clothes.

That, IMHO, is never going to happen again here in the USA. Unless people are buying a made for you dress --$$$$$, kiss those days goodbye.

 

Made in USA is DOA.

 

RIP Joanne-Ours was about 5 minutes away.Believe it or not though our semi-quaint town still has a home-owned furniture store (est 1885),cafe (1929),auto parts (1935),hobby shop (50's) and this 'homey' grocery-

 

JoAnns went under because a Private Equity investor group bought it and stripped it for parts like they did with Red Lobster, Toys r Us and more. Michael's bought the line, stock and probably the industry connections. They're expanding their fabrics with JoAnn's carcass. Michael's was bought by some walmart-minded folks a long time ago though, which is why they've gone downhill as well.

If it says "Made in USA" that usually means either: They have the "Made in USA" sticker or tag placed on a foreign item when it arrives here and that's the made in USA part OR

Incarcerated people made it/farmed it for about 23 cents to 1.15 per hour, before the prison system takes their cut of the wages.

Obviously small boutique businesses may still be made in usa but our Etsy sellers are familiar with how many of those go with Chinese manufacturers too.

 

for the longest time..... if this was on it.... I didn't think twice about buying it !
I was buying Quality !

 

I haven't been in a Michael's in a decade. They had no fabric at all then. I've herd about Chetsy pieces and hope the site cracks down hard, but they won't. The only Made in USA pieces I see most of the time now are vintage. Even the dental floss I bought today was Made in China. (sigh)

 

Ditto Komo-and that's mostly all we could buy here maybe into the 80's or early 90's (?), then at some point in time they sandblasted all the giant american flags off the sides of the big Walmart stores and it was gone baby gone !
PS-Just picked up a tincloth (oilcloth) Filson Packers Hat as a sale ($10 my size XL !)-chuffed. Says 'Made In The USA' (Seattle) on it-but does that mean the cloth's made in Sri Lanka and it's assembled in Seattle, visa-versa, or WTH ?
We bought LEVIS in the 50's/early 60's- they were made fifty away in San Francisco.
That changed, everyone voted with their pocketbooks and gorged on cheap goodies China was cranking out-then blamed somebody else (say wha ?).

 

Temu 'haul videos" on Youtube are/were a thing. It used to be that "made in China" meant junk, but now it's the only game in town unless you can afford crazy $$$ prices from Europe.

 

Still means junk.... Even to the Chinese. Which is unfortunate because they've a long history of beautiful, quality made objects. But in the competition to dominate the global market their people's wages were sacrificed for the few.

People buying the junk originally didn't expect it to last anyway but who cares if you get one wear out of a $1.50 shirt. Now legacy brands get bought by private equity and their good names licensed to Chinese manufacturers. Try buying any electronics now and it's a shell game...

You know where you can always find the fake made in USA tags? On American flags. Whoomp whoomp.