Babys First Year Blog
My Baby Barfs on Burberry and Chomps on Coach.
She also dines on fine French giraffe.
Ladies and gentlemen, I like nice things for my kids. Especially clothes.
Addie has 2 pairs of $120 boots. Vivi has a several $80 sweaters, and that Burberry dress? About $150, maybe $175.
Most of the time more expensive clothing is made better. Better materials, better workmanship, brighter colors and most certainly more unique.
HOWEVER.
I refuse to pay $80 for a baby sweater, $120 for a pair of kids boots or $175 for a dress (honestly, the WHAT?)
Ladies and gentlemen, I am a thrifter. Certainly not the best the world has ever seen, but certainly better than most.
There’s something about walking into a dimly lit store faced with racks upon racks of clothing crammed in tightly with hang tags that rarely have a price over $10. In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever bought something for Vivi secondhand that was over $8. That Burberry dress? $4. If you are familiar with the higher end boutique brands and their sizing (wrote a whole post about that here!) it’s a lot easier to go into these stores and unearth some amazing treasures. What’s more, most of the people who price the clothing are fresh from high school so they have no idea that a Catamini or Oilily sweater retails for $100 brand new. It’s funny to see how many BabyGap items are priced much higher than smaller boutique brands simply because they are more well known. (The Coach scarf was a gift to Vivi from a very dear friend as her own daughter took an affinity to her Coach scarf as well. Vivi really does chew on it, play with it and snuggle with it.)
I don’t go in looking only for designer, I go in looking for what I like, what grabs me. I’ve found shirts that came from Target three years ago that are cuter than anything I could find at the fanciest store full price. With all the hunting and pecking you’ll have to do it’s more fun to go with girlfriends rather than your kids, especially if you have kids around the same age and gender, twice the eyes looking through the stacked racks.
Afraid you won’t find anything good at your local thrift shop? Give it a try, some of the best things we’ve found have been in the deepest, darkest, dodgiest corners of Indianapolis.
Below are some of my favorite finds my friends and I have come across over the last few months…
Are you a thrifter? What have been some of your best scores?
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Read more from Casey on her blog, find out where she shops on twitter and say hello on facebook.
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11 Comments
Kallie Bonnell commented on Jan 16 12 at 4:20 pmWhere are you thrifting in Indy? I LOVE to thrift. Always interested in learning about new places!
Brianna commented on Jan 16 12 at 4:37 pmWow, I am impressed! So do you just go to any old thrift store or are there certain types or traits to look out for?
emily commented on Jan 16 12 at 4:43 pmI’m so glad I’ve finally been able to teach YOU something, instead of it being the other way around. :)
claire commented on Jan 16 12 at 6:40 pmI am so with you! Having expensive taste and ogling everything I’d love to have on designer blogs has helped me score some sweet deals that match up with my low budget reality. I now find it hard to shop anywhere else without suffering sticker shock, once you get accustomed to buying brand names for under $8 – that’s the high end of my price range, too! Most importantly shopping at thrift stores helps remind me to be a thoughtful consumer.
kristen self commented on Jan 16 12 at 7:36 pmi already told you on twitter but LOVE this post and LOVE thrifting!!!
I found amelia some children’s place jeans for $1.49 an adorable handmade shirt for $.49 the other day… a complete outfit for less than $3, I’ll take it!
I also found a Gymboree pajama outfit that still had the tags on it ($19.50) it was for a boy so I bought it for my sister’s little boy, it was $.99. He is in the NICU and the outfit has super heroes on it. And Hew is a little super hero. He was born at 23 weeks 4 days on December 9. He has been on a CPAP for a while now, he started off on a ventilator but he is just on the CPAP now.
Hew won’t be able to wear the outfit for a while but I couldn’t pass it up!
caseymullins commented on Jan 16 12 at 8:59 pmI’ve had luck anywhere that sells kids clothes, honestly.
caseymullins commented on Jan 16 12 at 9:00 pmAnywhere that sells kids clothes is likely to hold some hidden treasures. Ones closer to wealthy areas can sometimes be a little more reliable but the super dodgy places are where the real gems are found.
caseymullins commented on Jan 16 12 at 9:01 pmAnywhere that sells kids clothes, I may not score big every time but I never walk away empty handed!
Kel commented on Jan 16 12 at 10:01 pmMy favorite finds have been a thick cashmere baby sweater for $8, Robeez boots for $6, set of 4 Fuzzi Bunz for $10.
Digital Molly commented on Jan 17 12 at 10:01 amOH casey. how i love your humor and faboush finds.
TS commented on Jan 17 12 at 12:10 pmMy best deal was a pair of snowsuits by “La Compagnie de petits”. The company is from France, and at the time only had 2 stores in all of Canada (now though, there’s only 1 as the store in my mall closed… boo). The original price on the snowsuits was $80 EACH – I paid a mere $12 for BOTH at my local thrift shop.
Even better, since neither fit my daughter, I turned around and re-sold these on Kijiji for $40 each – netting myself a profit of $68!
When I find myself in thrift stores, I tend to check ALL labels – even if it’s not my daughter’s size. I re-sell a lot of the items I pick up for a profit – which goes towards diapers, etc.
Now I’m feeling like I need a trip to the thrift store!
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