Thrift store chic refers to a style of dressing where clothes are cheap and/or used. Clothes are often bought from
thrift stores such as the
Salvation Army
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
,
Goodwill, or
Value Village. Originally popular among the
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
s of the late 1960s, this fashion movement resurfaced during the mid-1980s among teenagers, and expanded into the 1990s with the growing popularity of such music and style influences including the grunge band
Nirvana. Thrift store chic can be considered as an
anti-fashion statement because it does not follow
fashion trends and does not attempt to look expensive or new.
Thrift store chic is often composed of
vintage T-shirts (striped tees and anything with vintage graphics, in particular), sweaters,
flannel ‘lumberjack’ shirts, and worn and torn jeans. This laid back, nonchalant, and aloof look became fashionable and trendy without attempting to. Originally worn for a variety of reasons, which include an homage, or attempt to resurrect earlier styles, or even in protest to the exploitation of
third world child worker
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
s in
sweat shops. By the late 2000s many of the younger
indie kid
Indie sleaze was a fashion aesthetic popular in the United States and United Kingdom from approximately 2006 to 2012. Often called equivalent to the hipster, indie sleaze has been described by some as an optimistic response to the Great Recess ...
s wore thrift store clothes primarily for its ironic anti-fashion connotations.
Thrift store chic is also popular among people who enjoy creating their own outfits from pieces of used clothing. This DIY (do-it-yourself) approach creates original articles of clothing that can be very personalized. For example, in the 1986 movie ''
Pretty in Pink'',
Molly Ringwald’s character, Andie Walsh, is fond of taking clothing from thrift stores and creating a unique and eclectic wardrobe. One very memorable article is the prom dress she creates, made from merging two separate dresses.
During the 1990s, singers such as
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...
,
Courtney Love, and
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and one of four guitarists of the rock band Pearl Jam. He also appeared as a guest vocalist i ...
promoted the look. Kurt Cobain’s style included uncoordinated and non-brand-name items of clothing that created the look of a carelessly cool
grunge rock
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of pu ...
star. Clothes often had holes or tears in them and were worn in many layers, which hid the body. Cobain’s modest style contrasted from the aggressive and glamorous style of bands such as
Guns N’ Roses. Fans of Nirvana found it easy to emulate his style, thus identifying themselves and the grunge movement. His thrift store style also reflected an ironic stance against corporate culture.
Entering the 2000s, this look because associated with musical scenes including
indie rock and
emo
Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...
gradually spreading to the
hipster movement. The hipster movement is popular among people in their 20s and 30s whose style attempts to reject mainstream trends. The hipster movement embraced thrift store chic because of its love for vintage items, especially clothing. Items that became popular for indie girls included flowery cotton dresses, cardigans,
keffiyeh
The keffiyeh or kufiya ( ar, كُوفِيَّة, kūfīyah, relating to Kufa, link=no), also known in Arabic as a ghutrah (), shemagh ( '), (), in Kurdish as a Shemagh ''(''شهماغ'')'' or Serwîn (سهروین) and in Persian, as a ...
s, and eyeglasses chosen deliberately for their unfashionable connotations. Hipster-thrift-store-chic embraces
nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
and irony by combining old trucker-caps and vintage bowling t-shirts with worn luxury goods like
leather jackets, old military
dress uniforms as a protest against the war in Iraq, or used business wear, such as
tweed cloth
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...
sportcoat
A sport coat, also called a sport jacket (or sports coat or sports jacket in American English), is a men's smart casual lounge jacket designed to be worn on its own without matching trousers, traditionally for sporting purposes. Styles, fabric ...
s.
With the stock market crash of 2008, shopping at thrift stores became more widely accepted. Bragging about how much an item of clothing cost was no longer about how expensive it was, but rather how cheap it cost.
Showing off a six-hundred-dollar pair of shoes when people were losing their jobs was no longer tactful. In the United States, resale stores experienced an average of 35% increase in sales. Purchasing used clothing has lost much of its stigma also due to the growing
environmental movement towards consumption.
In 2013, the
Macklemore and Lewis's single "
Thrift Shop" reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song glorifies shopping at thrift shops and denounces expensive brands, such as Gucci, as "getting tricked by a business."
See also
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Vintage (design)
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Vintage clothing
Vintage clothing is a generic term for garments originating from a previous era, as recent as the 1990s. The term can also be applied in reference to second hand retail outlets, e.g. i''n vintage clothing store''. While the concept originated ...
*
Mitumba clothing
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Garage punk fashion
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1970s teenage fashion
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1990s in Western fashion
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2000s in Western fashion
*
2010s in Western fashion
References
{{reflist
Fashion aesthetics
1970s fashion
2000s fashion
2010s fashion