This past weekend, some of my friends and I headed down to Williamsburg, Brooklyn for some good old fashioned thrifting. When you get the chance to leave the bubble, you should definitely put Brooklyn on your list of places to go.
Before I get into the question “to thrift or not to thrift?” I’ll run through the spots we went to:
1. Beacon’s Closet
88 N 11th Street
2. Buffalo Exchange
504 Driggs Ave.
3. MONK Vintage
496 Driggs Ave.
It was my first time thrifting, an activity that now seems to have been claimed by privileged people who are hungry for fashion steals. There are few things that make me happier than a good buy, besides maybe lentil soup at Ferris and feminists, but while in Brooklyn, I found myself pondering the concept of “thrifting.” Did my friends and I really have the need to be “thrifty” or were we unintentionally popularizing a necessary source of clothing for others? Or does the entire thrift shop industry simply exist by name and as an activity for the privileged? After going to the thrift stores and seeing some of the price tags made me think that the latter speculation is more of the case. I decided to take my speculation a bit further and search the websites of the thrift shops that I had visited. (MONK does not have a website).
While browsing the Beacon’s Closet site, I came across a quote that they “have received an array of local and international press including features in vanity fair…italian vogue, french vogue…” These publications all focus on upscale fashion or pseudo grunge fashion that has also been commercialized into upscale fashion. Nowhere on the site does it mention charitable intentions. However, it can be said that this isn’t their duty and that they can exist in their own right as a trendy haven for the even trendier mavens looking for leather and sherpa treasures.
Buffalo Exchange on the other hand made space for some charitable talk on their website and stated they are “a sustainable business that works to protect the environment by reusing and recycling clothing.” However, their concern for the environment doesn’t translate to or encompass the needs of underprivileged people. It appears that their greatest priority is “sustainable profit”. Once again, as a business they are allowed to have their own goals or concerns but it still made me wonder where the places are with cheap clothing and charitable intentions.
After my trip, I came to the conclusion that there should be a distinction between Goodwill and thrift shops such as Beacon’s Closet because although these types of thrift stores emerged from the same ideology that initially created stores like Goodwill, they have become fashion oriented constructions for the more privileged. Perhaps it can be summarized as the “gentrification” of the charitable secondhand clothing industry.
I think I headed back onto the L train feeling that the decision to thrift is a personal one and I can’t police other’s decisions to do so. All I know is that when I asked my friend Tyler, “To thrift or not to thrift?”
….he decided to thrift.