Staying Fit
Your New Year’s resolution is zero clothes shopping for 2024? Be realistic. Who isn’t having a post-holiday uh-oh moment? If winter splurges are catching up with you, know you’re not alone. Everyone wants to backpedal their budget, plump up their wallet and stretch their spending dollars in the months ahead — all while maintaining their fashion chops. Here are six ways to minimize the cost of clothes, maximize your looks and save a bundle:
1. Shop secondhand clothes and accessories.
Call it pre-loved, resale or consignment, but buying gently used merchandise is now a major shopping trend. According to resale giant thredUP, the secondhand apparel market (which includes shoes and accessories) in the U.S. is expected to reach $70 billion by 2027, and that demo includes those 50-plus.
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If you’re a newbie to shopping used fashion, realize that the “yuck” factor is gone. No need to sift through stinky bins and racks of stuff; the clothes are freshly cleaned. Plus you’ll be saving money and the planet in a sustainable alternative to the endless cycle of shopping new. Some sites focus on skimpy, sexy clothes for Gen Z and millennials and others emphasize very pricey luxury goods, but giant resale sites like thredUP and Poshmark are very appealing for mature women. They have enormous virtual inventories of stylish mall and department store brands in the mid-tier range and the merchandise is organized by brand, size, item, price, color and design details to simplify browsing.
Where does the stuff come from? It’s a mix of unsold retail inventory (also known as overstock or dead stock), customer returns and previously owned items being sold again on a consignment basis. Also worth a look: smaller brand-specific resale sites like J. Crew Always, Madewell Forever, M.M. LaFleur Second Act, Eileen Fisher Renew and Michael Kors Pre-Loved. On a cautionary note, resale can be exciting so do your budget a favor and put a cap on the amount you’ll spend even before logging in!
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