In my 20’s I did not have much money, who does, so I started shopping for second hand clothes in the local charity shops. I was amazed at the bargains you could pick up; designer clothes for 5.00 are not bad! And choice of where to buy second hand clothes in the UK has increased over the years.
Second hand stores do not always have a wide range of clothes in the size you are looking for so my strategy has always been to have a circuit of charity shops in which to search for clothes a couple of times a month. Popular buys for me were jeans and dresses. When I started having children I continued to rely on charity shops for temporary larger clothes for after the births and for baby clothes and toys too! Another great place to look is the classifieds in the local papers and car boot sales.
But times in the UK have changed. As the Internet and its services have evolved over the years, so has the choice of online stores which include second hand clothes stores. Of course, when talking about second hand online, one cannot omit Ebay.
Ebay is a large online auction site which sells anything and everything. This includes second hand clothes. The great thing about Ebay is that it is widely used so the selection is very good with clothes from Tesco to top designers. Searches can be filtered to narrow down size and type so you can search easily for that plus size bargain. However, a word of warning… As it is an auction site you have to bid for what you want, which can be addictive in itself, and you have to pay postage on top of the final bid price. Make sure you know what your top price is and don’t be tempted to bid over it and research to ensure you are not paying over the odds. That said you can get some great plus size clothing bargains. Visit Ebay at www.ebay.co.uk.
Another online store is Preloved. Preloved is a web site for people that love some of the older things in life and don’t want to throw them away, rather offer them to someone else. Preloved was started in 1998 and has grown to become one of the largest classified advertising sites in the UK with hundreds of thousands of adverts in over 500 categories. Visit their site at www.preloved.co.uk to find out more and browse their plus size clothes.
The Clothes Agency at www.clothesagency.com is an online store which has a great selection of second hand plus size clothes such as the Black and Gold JOSEPH RIDKOFF Pant suit which is beautifully embroidered and in a size 16. The Clothes Agency sells designer clothes and is “the sensible solution to beating the credit crunch and the chicest community in which to trade fashion online!” You can buy and sell designer clothes for the whole family in a simple and safe environment. Membership is free but you need to register to buy clothes. However, with over 100,000 members the choice is fantastic.
Oxfam (who can be found online at www.oxfam.org.uk or on your local high street) have been selling second hand clothes for generations and have been building on their expertise. Not only can you buy second hand clothes in their store but now you can do it online too. And to add to their mix they also sell new Fair Trade clothes. The great thing about buying from Oxfam of course is that the money goes towards excellent causes across the globe.
Another great way to procure second hand clothes is to join one of the many swapping parties that are spreading over the UK. Swishing [site:www.swishing.org] encourage friends to get together to swap gorgeous clothes and party at the same time. Every lady must bring at least one good quality, clean item of clothing, or an accessory, that she’d feel proud to hand on. To see upcoming parties visit their web site.
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