We decided to start our secondhand shopping tour at a chain store on the outskirts of Moscow. It is located in the basement: to get inside, you have to descend a steep staircase (as we will understand later, basements are a classic place for second-hand shops). It’s dark inside – no windows, dim lamps. There are very few people – mostly old women with cars, slowly clad in clothes, looking down at the tracks.
In this second-hand store, clothes are sold “by weight”: products of unknown origin – 2.7 thousand rubles. per kilogram, “brands” – 4.7 thousand rubles. The latter are presented in the assortment: from Zara and H&M, loved by the masses, but leaving Russia, to the luxurious Burberry and Escada. There are scales in the hall so that buyers can immediately evaluate what they like.
The outfits here are for all occasions, from basic tees and sweatshirts to evening (and sometimes ruffled) dresses. But not so much with jeans: despite the rather large selection on the rail, we did not find anything relevant. And no Levi’s jeans.
We collect the things we love in baskets (they’re exactly the same as in grocery stores) to connect with other buyers. Our personal “top” includes: Zara summer pants, an H&M trench coat (new, with tags), Betty Barclay blouse, Patrizia Pepe suit, and our main find is a black Escada vintage jacket.
We couldn’t leave without shopping: we go to the cashier in an H&M trench coat and Betty Barclay blouse. After weighing, the marketer sets the prices – 550 rubles. for a blouse and 1.7 rubles. for the ditch.
The Escada jacket was nice, but it didn’t fit either of us. Nevertheless, they learned the price: an old product of a premium German fashion house will cost us 3 thousand rubles. If you are looking for a new Escada jacket, prepare 100 thousand rubles. Even better, more.
At the checkout we talked with the marketer: everything is brought from Europe, the deliveries are regular, there are no problems with the deliveries. After the departure of popular stores, there were no more buyers – the second-hand store has its own “rooted” audience. To our timidity: “well, here’s Zara, gone …”, the marketer confidently replies: “They are not coveting Zara here, we have much more interesting brands.”
We go up the stairs in the basement, go to the next second-hand store in the suburbs. On our way down to the next basement, we hope to find valuables and even saint Levi’s here. But already on the first track, we understand that diversity is here completely different. If everything secondhand on the network is more or less well-known brands, then no name prevails here.
In an extensive search process we find Zara, Pull & Beer and Stradivarius jeans, but all the models are old – the collections are at least 5 years old. Prices are stable and seem higher than in the previous store – for example, a trench coat from the large Russian brand O’Stin costs 2 thousand rubles. The shoe rack is impressive: it looks like it was mounted on iconic models from the late 90’s. There are stilettos, wedges and sandals with rhinestones, and even openwork Cossack boots. But the “icing on the cake” was a countertop that was totally fake—niche scents, Chanel bags, and New Balance sneakers.
We decided that there is nothing to catch here, but the feeling that you are “stuck in a clothing market 100 km from Moscow in the 90s” makes you sad.
The next stop on the shopping tour was a selective second-hand store that was officially a vintage boutique. The door-to-door salesman says that Moscow skaters dress here. Well, I must admit, skaters in Russia in this case earn very well, because the clothes of J. Barbour & Sons, Prada, Aquascutum, Comme des Garçons hang around, and the Lacoste brand seems to be the most “budget”. of the whole sample.
While trying on a Max Mara coat and a Burberry trench coat (for fear that summer won’t come to the capital), the same skater came into the store and started looking at jeans like Diesel.
In the boutique, outerwear can be found at affordable (by segment) prices. The Max Mara jacket of the second line can be bought for 14.3 thousand rubles, and the Burberry trench coat for 17.8 thousand rubles. The main batch of the Kitai-Gorod collection is Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga dress. We all desperately tried to fit in, but it didn’t work – Georgian designers sew very thin people like Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner.
Failure happened in Burberry woolen trousers – flared directly to the knee and to the bottom. If someone broke into them, they would leave with fashionable British brand trousers for 6.4 thousand rubles.
We conclude that the buyer of this store is a person with excellent taste, who knows what a basic wardrobe is and follows fashion.
The clothes here go through a dump via a page on the now-banned social network – if you want to donate something, you post a photo, then the buyer decides whether to go up for sale and offers a price.
Leaving the vintage store, we urgently decided to lose weight, but to no avail. In the next second, the things we liked on the hangers turned out to be big.
It turned out that the thrift store in Chistye Prudy was the only one outside the basement with a large and beautiful display window. As proof of prestige, there are many stickers on the glass with the logos of famous fashion houses such as Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford and other Valentino.
Now we go in, inspired by the fact that we will enter the new “TSUM”. And right at the entrance we see a fake Dolce & Gabbana Sicily bag. And what always betrays the fake? Low quality pipes. And, of course, its price is 5 thousand rubles. (the original model costs about 80 thousand rubles).
But apparently, “Baby Sicily” got here by accident, because all other branded bags were genuine and the prices were affordable. For example, a Prada customer will cost 62,000 rubles, and an old Louis Vuiiton Ellipse model will cost 123,000 rubles.
The stickers on the window did not deceive: really only famous brands have things. There is also a black Prada skirt and top set for 8,000 rubles, and a “ala fishnet” Escada cardigan for 10,000 rubles, and a Max Mara business suit for 14,000 rubles and a dress with Versace T-shirts for 5,000. . By the way, the same model of Levi’s 501 jeans was finally discovered on a large rail with jeans for 4.6 thousand rubles. We were very interested in them, but slightly elongated knees still frightened. Although the seller is confident that Levi’s jeans are of such a price and quality, we will not find them anywhere else. But they can still be ordered abroad.
The final chord of our secondhand tour was a vintage store right in the heart of the capital – Stoleshnikov Lane. While all the boutiques in “Stoleshka” are closed, unexpected products from Europe and America are waiting in the courtyards of fashionistas.
I must say the range is here really weird – more for themed parties than everyday life. Probably for this reason, the store offers not only to buy, but also to rent the presented clothes. And Chinese silk kimonos and Christmas sweaters from American movies, and sequined dresses and old Hollywood-style blouses.
Prices are different: basic t-shirts and sweatshirts – from 500 to 1.5 thousand rubles, jeans and jackets – from 1 to 3 thousand rubles, old branded products will cost more – from 5 to 20 thousand rubles. By the way, only in this store we found things from Uniqlo, which fashionistas love.
The conclusion is simple: you can (and should) dress up in second-hand stores and for very little cost. And the idea from the past that only old and worn things were sold in commission shops has long been out of date. It all depends on buyers and suppliers. In addition, many stores already have beautiful accounts on social networks, where you can look at a virtual showcase before making a live purchase. If you want to upgrade your base, look for network enclosures sourced from Europe. You need to please yourself with a branded bag or coat – go to the second-hand shop in the center. Hoping to buy something unique, go to a vintage boutique.