Vintage: five websites to shop second-hand clothes
Okay, second-hand clothes are cool and thrift shopping is nice. But you don’t always have the time and patience to go to shops and look for the perfect vintage gem for hours. Let us give you a little hand and recommend you 5 websites where you can get second-hand clothes.
Article and selection by Chloé Galmiche, header picture by Outbeat London
ASOS MARKET PLACE: THE FAMILIAR ONE
No need to introduce you to the ASOS giant, one of the biggest online shops in the clothing industry. But did you know about its little brother, ASOS Market Place? Created in 2010, it allows customers to shop unique vintage or independent creators’ pieces. Market Place only plays the role of an exchange platform and allows ASOS to claim a part of the online second-hand clothing market share.
Market Place just really looks and functions like the ASOS website: a black and white minimalist design, filters (don’t forget to tick "vintage" for second-hand pieces), high-quality fashion pictures… It really feels like shopping on the original website, which feels familiar and reassuring because every article has a highly detailed description. We can tell that Market Place takes the time to select the sellers, promising a serious service. Which is something you can miss on more popular websites like secondhand.be (vague descriptions, blurry and bad pictures, and so on). Last but not least, Market Place got your back. If the article doesn't arrive or is not as described, the website guarantees a refund as soon as possible.
VINTED: THE AFFORDABLE ONE
Available on desktops or on a mobile app, Vinted counts more than 20 million members, selling women, men, and children second-hand clothes. At Vinted, you can sell, buy, or swap your clothes and accessories: everything is from peer to peer. To make sure it’s a safe place, Vinted takes a small fee on every transaction and assures you protection against any type of scam. Also, every transaction is rated by the sellers and buyers.
From very old vintage clothes to brand new items that still have the price tag, you can find almost everything in a few steps. Type what you want in the search bar and adjust the results with the several filters available (size, colors, type, price, brand). The con of Vinted would be that the presentation of the articles is not always optimum as they’re done by individuals. For example, the pictures may not highlight correctly the piece or worse: be blurry. So be patient! But buying or exchanging clothes from an individual person gives you a quite low price in return. You also have the possibility to talk to the seller, negotiate the products, and have a bargain if you buy several items from the same person.
Our little tip: find and follow the most serious sellers with good pictures, so you can have a nicer shopping session. You can follow olivier.b1998, nadege89, moka-store, tanguy.brtd and lausappes for men clothes and inkarat, yukiv, mandineclothes, oldiesarefancy and musevintagefripe for women vintage pieces.
UNITED WARDROBE: THE EASY-TO-USE ONE
Maybe you already heard about United Wardrobe through their campaigns with a few YouTubers and other social media influencers. Founded in 2014 in the Netherlands, UW affirms to be the biggest marketplace for second-hand clothes in its home country and Belgium. This website (an app is also available) seems to be a mix between ASOS Market Place and Vinted: great design and presentations and individual sellers. Here again, use the research bar and filters to find the vintage golden nugget. Sellers are verified and products have to be authenticated before being available for sale. The seller is paid after confirmation of the good reception of your order. Otherwise, you get your money back.
Be careful during your shopping spree, because you can only buy articles that are sold by someone who lives in your country, so use the filters to make sure they do. Also, United Wardrobe is a very good platform if you want to get some second-hand high-fashion items.
TRUE VINTAGE: THE DAILY REFRESHED ONE
True Vintage is a webshop and the “United Kingdom’s leader in the sell of vintage clothes online”, as they call themselves. They have one big promise: offering new products every day to their clients, so every morning you have 50 new chances to find the perfect gem. In addition to sportswear brands (Reebok, Nike, Fila, Champion, Asics…), you can also thrift some Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger pieces at True Vintage. You can sort out the products by brand and size. Recently, they launched the True Vintage app so you can shop wherever you are.
BLOC VINTAGE CLOTHING: THE STRICTLY STREETWEAR ONE
Bloc Vintage Clothing is another online shop based in the United Kingdom. Most of the thrifted clothes are t-shirt, sweaters, and jackets. You can simply scroll through the recommendations or use the menu to find what you are really looking for. Most of the pieces are streetwear from the 80s and 90s. You can find all the most popular brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Champion… The website doesn’t have any “men” or “women” category, all articles are considered as unisex by the owners. Just another proof that clothing and fashion can be above gender standards and rules...
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