Alex Standley is a Personal Stylist with 18 years of experience in the Fashion Industry, who runs her own styling business called Luxe Leopard Lifestyle. She started her career with a 1st Class Honours Degree from London College of Fashion and after graduating, worked as a Fashion Buyer for the likes of M&S and Amazon for 15 years. She helps busy professional women and mums who feel stuck in a style rut, to reignite their confidence through their style. Creating a sustainable and individualised approach to fashion, as opposed to looking ‘like everyone else’.
London is the most incredible city to shop preloved fashion, we have so many amazing vintage, secondhand and charity shops to choose from! I really struggled to whittle it down to my top 10, but these are the shops I find myself visiting most often, and recommending to my clients.
Often when you are new to shopping second hand, the experience can feel very overwhelming, so I have focused on shops here that have a really enjoyable shopping experience. Either because they are designed and laid out like a boutique, or because they curate a really unique collection of clothing you won’t find anywhere else.
I am also sharing my top seven tips for shopping second hand, to help you to get the most out of the shopping experience.
My Top 10 London Vintage & Charity Shops:
- Cow Vintage – Covent Garden
- One Scoop Store – Stoke Newington
- Rokit – Covent Garden
- Beyond Retro – Argyll Street or Coal Drops Yard
- Fara Charity Shop – Islington or Notting Hill
- Oxfam – Westbourne Grove
- Boutique by Shelter – Coal Drops Yard or Hampstead
- Shop From Crisis – Finsbury Park
- Mary’s Living & Giving Shop – Blackheath
- Pop Boutique – Covent Garden
Tip 1 Forget The Size Label
We’ve all become accustomed to how we shop on the high street; we’ll go to our size section, and shop that specifically. But when we are shopping in secondhand shops, we have to put that to the back of our minds. Although charity shops are fantastic, and lay things out by size, one of the things to remember is items might have been donated because they’ve shrunk or because the sizing isn’t accurate.
Vintage sizing is also very different to modern-day sizing. The more open you are, the more successful you’re likely to be. If it’s a bigger size than you normally are and that puts you off, cut the label out, nobody else will know!
Tip 2 Don’t get Swept up in the Bargains
Don’t get swept up in the fact that a lot of pieces are bargain prices because sometimes that can lead you to buy things that you don’t really need. Stay focused and be armed with your wish list if you do tend to get carried away!
Tip 3 Experiment with Your Style
This might sound contradictory to the previous point, but my next piece of advice is to use secondhand shops as an opportunity to experiment with your style. Items that you are interested in, but you’re not quite brave enough to try from a more premium brand. It might give you that extra confidence to try new things and push yourself outside of your comfort zone, particularly if you are experimenting with colour.
Tip 4 Personalisation
Think about how you could change something to make it more appropriate for you. If you fall in love with something, but it isn’t quite the right colour, or the proportions aren’t quite right – e.g. trousers too long, think about alterations. If something isn’t quite right, have a think outside the box, as we are so used to things being standardised on the high street!
It’s fun to personalise things and make them your own. For example, you might find a jumper in a charity shop in the right size and perfect fit for you, but you don’t quite like the colour of it. Think about taking it home and dying it yourself with a lovely, vibrant colour that you’ve been considering. If it’s a skirt or a dress and it’s too long for you, have a think about getting a seamstress to take it up for you. You’re probably still spending half of what you would when buying new on the high street and you’re not just a carbon copy of everyone else, you are developing your own unique style.
Tip 5 Shop the Men’s Section
Check out the men’s section, you can find the most incredible things. I went to Shelter Boutique at Cold Drops Yard recently (it’s absolutely amazing – check it out!) and they had a fabulous Ralph Lauren cashmere jumper in the men’s section. I can imagine it would be a couple of hundred pounds new, and they retailed it for £25. I was so tempted and I didn’t get it, it’s one of those things that I’ve really regretted – I didn’t listen to my own tips!
Sometimes you’ll find in charity shops that things also get put in the wrong section, so there might be a women’s jumper that somebody’s assumed is men’s because it’s the size medium and more oversized, but is in fact a ladies’ jumper. Other examples of things I’ve found before are checked casual shirts or blazers that you can get shortened and tailored to fit you. There are lots of different opportunities within the men’s wear section.
Tip 6 Plan Ahead
Being organised pays off! Often, you’ll find the best bargains and unique pieces outside of the current season. For example, in the summer, you might find amazing coats and boots. They’re also likely to be priced lower than they would normally at that time of year. There is also less competition from people coming in to buy those specific pieces. I found an amazing parka for one of my clients in the summer from Keech charity shop for £6, nearly new. Normally that would’ve been snapped up if it was in autumn or winter, but because it was in the summer, not many people were looking for that kind of product.
Also consider occasions that you’ve got coming up, for example, a wedding or a special birthday occasion. Preloved shopping is definitely more of a long game, so don’t always expect to pick something up last minute, like you can online! The main benefit of shopping second-hand and preloved is to be able to create your own unique style, so you don’t end up at a wedding wearing the same dress as somebody else!
Tip 7 Buy It or Regret It
This goes completely against what I normally tell my clients when it comes to purchasing habits. I normally suggest taking a photo, mulling it over and keeping it on your phone to think about how you might style it, and if it’s an impulsive decision or something you keep coming back to. But when it comes to second-hand shops, if you love it, just buy it! Don’t be embarrassed to take things back either. I’ve spoken about this at length with charity shop store managers, and they’re more than happy to take returns with a receipt. If there’s something that you love, often if you think about it and you go back, somebody else will have bought it! Like my Ralph Lauren cashmere jumper example earlier!
Featured Photo by Artificial Photography on Unsplash
