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business newsDress For Less
By
Laurie Petersen May 16, 2008 9:30 am
The joys of going secondhand.
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Before the age of two my daughter was already showing signs of a clothes horse, albeit one who could create her own style by taking any scrap of fabric within reach and turning it into high fashion.
I may have unwittingly nurtured this talent in her formative years (as opposed to, say, an ability to do mental math problems) by stocking the closets to overflow with clothes I found for next to nothing on eBay (EBAY).
Early on I learned the joys of successfully bidding on a “lot of dresses in size five” and getting back a box filled with little girls’ outfits lovingly wrapped in tissue paper.
Midwestern moms -- particularly ones from Kansas for some reason -- were most likely to throw in more than described and pictured in their auction listing. So a successful $10.25 bid for six sundresses might actually result in the delivery of twice that number. Sometimes they even came with a handwritten note.
During my daughter’s Mattel (MAT) period, I also found eBay to be an especially economic way to buy Barbie and Ken dolls and create instant wardrobes. My all-time greatest score was a treasure trove of “vintage” clothing dating back to the days when I played with Barbies - but priced as if it were current. Six dolls and 100 pieces of clothing, all for $50 or so.
My eBay sprees came to an end around the time my daughter hit size ten. She’d somehow grown into someone (totally unlike her mother) who revels in shopping in stores. Plus, a “tween’s” attention to how clothes actually fit meant that a size ten really needed to be a size ten.
Fortunately, I’ve managed to pass along to my daughter an appreciation for the right used clothes - and we still have a hand-me-down feeder chain supplying sweat pants and sweat shirts and all those boring but necessary staples it seems a shame to spend a lot of money on. Occasionally a bathing suit, a good winter coat or an outfit tailor-made for a holiday still springs from that source.
Like a growing number of budget-minded households, we patronize thrift and consignment stores and know which blocks in town have the best gate sales. My daughter is learning to sew and has gotten good enough to create items she gives away as gifts.
Every year our town throws a huge clothing swap that lets kids and their parents trade in old stuff and spend an afternoon rummaging through racks and racks of castaways for new sartorial treasures.
I may be raising a clothes horse, but at least she’s not busting her budget. And now we’re even trendy!
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No positions in stocks mentioned.
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