They share the treasures they’ve uncovered.
Secondhand shopping demands a great deal of patience.
Whether you’re wandering the aisles of a huge warehouse, digging through racks at a small-town thrift store or scrolling well-populated digital marketplaces, there’s often an overwhelm you have to endure to find a piece that piques
However, with a lot of composure or really good luck, the thrift crawl can occasionally be rewarding.
Recently, we spoke to a group of stylish dressers who curate a distinct look with a thrifty approach. They each highlighted a draw to secondhand pieces and detailed the bonds they had formed with their pieces.
This relation to clothing, and clothing acquired through thrift shopping in particular, sparked our interest. How do we define the favourite pieces in our secondhand selections? And what qualities make them feel special to each of us?
Below a mix of stylish dressers each share a secondhand piece that means a lot to them, revealing a little more about how we form a bond with our clothes and why they become important to us.
Courtney Dawson
Comedian and Fred Award Winner
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.I found this at Recycle Boutique Newmarket! It has a matching skirt that is too small and also hideous to me, but I couldn’t separate the sisters and bought them both. Aesthetically, I love the boxy fit and cute velvet contrast collar of this vintage coat but I also have a nostalgic connection to the brand, Christian Dior by El-Jay. El-Jay was a fashion house that in the 1950s had exclusive rights to manufacture Christian Dior in New Zealand. The store in the CBD was an exact replica of the Christian Dior Paris storefront. Although it shut its doors in the late 1980s, I used to walk past the beautiful but abandoned-looking store as a teenager and fantasise about all the glamorous ladies who would have shopped there. An iconic piece of both NZ and Courtney fashion history. I reach for it on a cold day when I need to feel like a boss.
Emma Gleason
Deputy editor, lifestyle audience at The New Zealand Herald
Of all the thrifted items in my wardrobe, this leather bomber jacket is probably the most treasured. The proportions are perfect, a shrunken blouson, and its worn materiality has been well earned. I bought it at the Aotea Square Markets (RIP, bring them back please Auckland Council) when I was around 14 or 15. I think it cost $10 or $20 — all the spending money I had in my wallet at that age, after paying for a ferry ticket from Half Moon Bay to downtown Auckland. Now, 20 years later, it’s still the most worn jacket in my possession. Putting it on feels secure, protective. When I’m having a bad day, I wear this jacket; when I’m having a good day I do too. It looks great with everything, and can be layered under coats when temperatures really dip. I lost it once, a devastating experience. It fell off my baggage trolley at Auckland Airport, and I didn’t notice until I got home, immediately breaking down sobbing. However, after three months, and much back and forth with the eternally patient and helpful staff at the airport lost property, an email landed in my inbox with a photo of the jacket. It came back to me.
Annabel Dickson
Stylist and Viva fashion assistant
Quite possibly one of my most treasured pieces in my wardrobe, let alone just my thrifted pieces, is my Hugo Boss men’s blazer that I picked up from Tango Vintage in Parnell. One of those items that feels like it’s made just for you. It was in perfect condition and looked basically new. I love that it fits slightly oversized and has a boyish feel yet still well-fitting. It is one of the hardest working pieces in my wardrobe and vetoes every blazer in my rotation. I wear it most weeks and love how it elevates jeans or relaxes an otherwise intense outfit.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.Mitchell Tan
Founder of Rubbish Bin Store
Despite not really thrifting much in recent years, the bulk of my wardrobe still seems to be second-hand. Part of that comes with being blessed with owning a store in which people approach me to sell things, but also it’s part of the fun when “buying” for the store. Occasionally things are just too perfect to give up. This sweater from Auralee is one of my favourite pieces ever. Auralee is a brand I have championed with Rubbish Bin, their focus on fit and fabrication is almost second to none. However, it is prohibitively expensive new. I scooped this off a Japanese auction site (similar to Trade Me) for pennies on the dollar and it’s too good to give up. Cotton/linen makes up the shaggy fabric, and as a dude who’s a bit allergic to wool/mohair, it gives me that great texture without sacrificing comfort. Don’t tell anyone, but I haven’t even washed it yet lol.
Katie Harris
Social issues reporter at The New Zealand Herald
Nearly a decade ago, after being humbled by the West Coast waves, a friend and I cut our surf short and headed to an op shop in Cobden. Following the usual “you’re brave” remarks that people tend to make when your hair is still dripping from a mid-winter dip, we got straight into the racks of discarded garments. Mixed in with the school uniforms and cardigans was this heavy woollen coat that I now call mine. It’s special because I grew into it. Personal style is one of those things that is always evolving. Back then, I was a first-year student who took fashion cues from the board-riding world (which the coat didn’t really fit into). If it wasn’t so cheap (from my recollection, it cost somewhere between 50c and a dollar), I would have left it on the wire. Although it didn’t get much wear those first few years, I now take it for a spin at least once a week over winter (when Auckland drops below 15C). Every time I put it on I’m reminded of that trip.
Madeleine Crutchley
Multimedia journalist, Viva and The New Zealand Herald lifestyle premium
I’m an avid thrifter, and I love the ritual of an opshop hunt, but in recent years I’ve been drawn to digital platforms more and more. These cyber-spaces afford a valuable contemplation over secondhand buys — I have made many a panicked purchase in my local brick-and-mortar stores. I agonised over this black and white leather bag (“I should just buy a practical work tote”), listed on resale platform Designer Wardrobe, before finally purchasing it for $30. In the time since, I’ve worn it to death, carting it to both casual and formal events, with my keys, wallet, phone, notebooks and novels all spilling out of it (it’s not a signal of disorganisation, just a stylish nod to Jane Birkin). I’ve come to think of this bag as a formative piece in my wardrobe. It’s a little odd and slightly referential — I spotted a comparable mod antique at the Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary exhibition — but I wear it while running around town. It might seem silly, but it’s created a logic for building a wardrobe that I love and really wear. It makes me ask: Is this item special? Will it affect the way I move through the world?
Ashleigh Cometti
Viva beauty editor
Tasked with pulling together an outfit for a Y2K-themed dress-up party last weekend, I stumbled upon this shimmering find when shopping at the SPCA op shop in Howick. It felt like a full-circle moment for two reasons: I was an avid HBK shopper in the early Noughts and just about everything in my wardrobe was a high-shine silver shade; not to mention my mother-in-law volunteered at this op shop for almost three years so I always love to pop in to support. It set me back $6 (which is less than the going rate for an oat milk flattie these days) and I’ve already worn it twice. It’s surprisingly spacious inside — I can fit my wallet, phone, keys and all five of my favourite lip products (yes, I really do tote around that many).
Dan Ahwa
Viva creative and fashion director
The best thing I ever thrifted came from Central Flea markets in Balmoral in 2020. I’d just come off from curating Moana Currents: Dressing Aotearoa Now with the New Zealand Fashion Museum’s founder Doris de Pont (now online), and lo and behold at the markets was one of the pieces we had lovingly just included in the exhibition — this Overstayer graffiti print shirt in cotton drill from a capsule collaborative collection between award-winning Samoan/New Zealand hip-hop artist Bill Urale aka King Kapisi and Farmers. Yes, Farmers. Can you imagine a major retailer producing something as political as this in this day and age? It was the first “urban” clothing picked up by a major department store in 2003, and also caused a stir when the collection came down the runway at Air New Zealand Fashion Week that same year.
My friend and colleague Emma Gleason saw this on the rack at the flea market and snapped it up immediately and came over to show me. It fitted me perfectly and is now a part of my archive, which will one day have its own exhibition — because I think future generations should learn more about our history through the very free act of deciding what we choose to put on our backs. It was an honour to have arts photographer Edith Amituanai document this for the exhibition too.
Knowing the dark history of how Pacific Islanders were mistreated in New Zealand during the era of those Dawn Raids during the 1970s, I appreciate how Bill used this derogatory term and turned it on its head as an act of defiance and empowerment. My grandparents came to New Zealand legally, but they still faced prejudice as they tried to establish a life and home in New Zealand. This shirt, to me, represents all the brown faces and voices that have had to exist in systems not built for them, but persevered with dignity.
More thrifty style
From personal style to expansive vintage collections.
How to look good on a budget? These stylish people have some tips. There’s no need to spend a fortune on fashion when all that’s required is a little sense and sensibility.
Vintage vs second-hand: Why getting the semantics correct matters. Dan Ahwa offers a simple guide for separating the wheat from the chaff.
My Style: Painted Bird’s Stephanie King is a vintage expert. Stephanie King of Painted Bird shares her history with style and fashion.
Didier Ludot is the man who all but created vintage fashion. Fifty years ago Didier Ludot opened his couture resale boutique in Paris and changed style forever.
