Put This On, Season 2, Episode 2: Thrifting with Street Etiquette from Put This On on Vimeo.
Long distance friend by proxy Jesse Thorn of Put This On went thrift shopping in New York City for this installment of season 2 of their web series. It's a fun watch. Jesse shops like I do, for the same things, so take his advice as you would mine. Travis and Josh of Street Etiquette have a more urban street style in mind, but it's a cool and eclectic one. They remind me that it's not only old farty fuddy duddies like me who can do well to shop this way. One thing we share in common is the ability to see a used garment as raw material and envision it altered, so take their advice as you would mine too. Bonus points for the Hudson Bay coat.PTO Man: Sean Crowley from Put This On on Vimeo.
This video is an older one, and well worth watching if for no other reason than our man Crowley's last line, which is the mantra by which I live my daily life.p.s. That Turnbull & Asser shirt Jesse picked up for $7.99 is a find, but you know I'd have gotten it for $1.99. Just sayin'.
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20 comments:
...and everybody knows there's no such thing as a real thrift store in new york city. just sayin'.
Myabe, but they did visit a Salvation Army.
"Some thrift store types get all territorial and hate to see anyone else pick up a "good score". Not me."
Right in line with your long-standing practice of never divulging trad-friendly Boston-area thrifting spots.
Child please.
It's cool that they got John Waters to play Jesse.
You're not territorial and want others to find scores? Awesome -- I look forward to the next post sharing all your favorite thrifting haunts.
Just kidding, of course. It's more fun to figure them out from context clues, anyways.
Outrageous! There is definitely good thrift to be found in NYC. I just hit the salvation army in the video (on 4th ave) yesterday and found a stunning handmade Dunhill hopsack blazer. it made the bottle green Polo cords, Zegna double breasted jacket (double vents, 6/4 buttoning) and cordovan tassel loafers seem pretty crappy in comparison. Round that off with two beautiful 1960's voile cotton shirts by FR Tripler (probably from the same rich, deceased New Yorker) and I think that was $35 well spent.
I found my spots years ago in the pre-internet days. Honestly, ever heard of Google? Is it that hard for you to do your own homework, or do I have to hold your hand?
Who's being childish? Please indeed.
An athlete can be happy to see a worthy opponent win, but that does't mean he should throw the game.
Tiny Tim,
I suspect Jesse will take that as a compliment.
The lady doth protest too much too much.
I live in California and am highly unlikely to ever poach your precious territory. It's about the talkingoutofbothsidesofyourmouth-ness of the first sentence of your most recent post.
Why don't you man up and admit how that statement directly contradicted one of your most adamantly-defended "principles of thrifting."
When did I ever declare it a "principle of thrifting" that no one else should ever find anything? I thought the whole point of my blog was to encourage thrifting. But I simply will not do all the work for you.
Go to the Salvation Army website, click store locator, and enter a zip code. Then, get in your car and drive to every one you can find within resonable distance of where you live...repeatedly and often.
I fail to see the contradiction here.
As someone who has asked you in the past for help finding a decent spot to someone new to the area and receiving no email reply at all...I also found this post interesting.
AAW, Nov 2009: "Anyone will tell you, the first 'rule' of successful thrift shopping is keep your mouth shut. No one ever told me where the hot spots were...I found them myself through perseverance and hard work."
Then, in Dec 2011 you posted about eavesdropping as a means to finding out about new thrifting spots...would this fall under perseverance or hard work?
I'm not suggesting you shouldn't have acted upon the information you heard in that line, but there is a tinge of hypocrisy in your post today. Either Jesse or the gents from SE shared those spots with the other (I assume SE shared with Jesse)...and everyone "won". Why are you unwilling to do the same?
You claim it's the mantra you live by, but it doesn't seem to bear out in reality. You also may find other benefits to helping your readers (fans?) not waste valuable time and fuel costs going to places near and far that aren't worth it and direct them to places that are. They may reward you with AAW Shop purchases or supporting Top Shelf Flea as a way to say thank you.
Not in NY you wouldn't have gotten that shirt for $1.99.
Actually that last shop they were in sometimes has special $1 sales. I got a nice Thomas Pink shirt there for a buck and a pair of Brooks Bros. slacks, same price.
Giuseppe is right. Plenty of good places to be found using Google search. I had a great thrifting excursion through New Hampshire and Connecticut, both states I seldom visit. All these thrift stores are public places. The real secret is the time and effort commitment, and coming up bone dry is part of the game, and leaving empty handed doesn't mean the thrift store isn't a "sweet spot" it just means you should come back tomorrow.
Our host may not be in the mood to share some of his secret spots, but I have no such compunction.
Without further ado, the Boston Globe's definitive guide to thrift shopping in the Boston area.
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/thenextgreatgeneration/gallery/thrift_stores_boston_area/
Based on some of his earlier posts (no, I'm not going to find them for you), I think that G has gotten burned by sharing specific thrift store names/locations (i.e., they got cleaned out of all the good stuff). Considering that he now runs a business that depends on his being able to find thrift store treasure, I neither blame him for not sharing his "secrets," nor do I find it hypocritical in the least that he does not reveal the names or locations of his favorite shops. Y'know, give a man a fish, and all that stuff.
I'm eternally grateful to him for turning me on to thrifting. Thanks to him, I have gotten Brooks Brothers, Robert Talbott, and even Sulka ties for $2 a pop; brand-new Italian kiltie tassel loafers for $7; a variety of nice jackets for a fraction of their cost new; a wide selection of pocket squares for the cost of one new one; double-backed mother of pearl cufflinks for $5; and, perhaps my most impressive find, some lightly-worn Brooks Brothers gunboat longwings for $3 (i.e., for about 1% of their cost new).
Complain all you want about his not sharing. I think he's extremely generous in how much he's shared.
Randall proves that with relatively minimal searching, all of this info is readily available. My point exactly.
I don't give a flying f%@k about the Boston honeyholes, and if the blogmaestro doesn't want to share his locations, that's his decision.
My beef was and is with the self-congratulatory and,I believe, disingenuous statement I referenced in my first post.
"Not me"? Yeah you.
Yesterday I found a Brooks 3 patch blazer, J.Press Harris tweed sack, 4 brooks ties, and a 60s Rogers Peet tweed sack. Boomerangs in west roxbury.
If you don't find anything good sometimes it just means that Giuseppe got there first.
I never once claimed to be indignant that other people should do well in a thrift store. You're simply not making sense. In any case, I will not allow the comments section to become a petty argument on an unrelated issue. Their are fora for that. This is not one of them.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/doonan/2012/04/how_common_are_tattoos_too_common_.html
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