Get in Loser! We're going shopping!

 Get in loser, we're going shopping!

As mentioned, I'm not really in a place financially to buy clothing retail at the volume I do. It is what it is. Times be hard, but I've never let it stop me fashonwise. I feel blessed today to have some disposable income to put to to my wardrobe!

Yes, sometimes I have to work a little harder to look cool than someone who can shop designer, but in the end I think it works out with truly unique, creative outfits. Plus, in some ways I'm letting the universe be my fashion muse.

So, today, let's go over shopping and thrifting! Come with me to my favorite secondhand store, Savers.

Savers is a resale store. They take donations, salvage what's sellable and sell it. What they can't sell gets transferred to the nonprofit arm of their business and shipped to 3rd world countries.

Just to be clear, when you shop at Savers you are not shopping at a nonprofit, they just also have a nonprofit branch. 

I digress, so anyway. I found Savers back in 2015 or 2016ish when I was living in Washington state and working in freight forwarding. The company I worked for had Savers as a customer, and were shipping their containers of clothes out of country and their low cost Halloween stuff in. 

I was thrilled to find it! I couldn't (especially then) afford to buy things at Torrid and Savers finally provided some much needed plus size options. 

I had been to Goodwill stores around that time but never found much in the way of plus sizes. Savers was different somehow and had an XL/XL+ section for each type of clothing. These days they have an entire row of just Xl+ dresses, as much as most other sizes! Yay for size equality! 

Also, to be fair, Goodwill now also has a pretty respectable plus size selection.

Savers Plus Sizes

Of course that's my experience here in Texas, yours may differ. In fact you may not have a Savers in your area at all. If you don't you can search for other resale shops near you.

The strategy:

It's a lot like dating on apps. A lot of swiping until something good comes up. Bring some hand sanitizer! You're going to be pawing through a lot of hangers. 

Determine what you're looking for, for me it's pretty much exclusively dresses and accessories like jewelry and scarves. 

Grab a cart and head over to the appropriate rack and start on one end. Start swiping and who knows what kind of craziness you'll come across. Or coolness?

If you like it and think it might look good give it a once over. Are there any obvious tears or stains? If so, pass it up. If you live in any kind of Metropolitan area you'll have a number of shopping options and thus choices. I don't want to invest in more projects, so for me, if its not in good shape and can't be washed then immediatley worn, I'm passing. 

If it passes the scan test put it in your basket and keep looking. If you think you want it at all put it in your basket, I wouldn't suggest trying to come back for it for two reasons 1. Someone else may grab it and 2. It'll will take you far longer to find again than you think. That's all I'll say there. 

After you get through the entire rack/size find a less busy part of the store to check out your finds in greater detail.

You want to check:

Zippers/buttons: Are they torn? Operational? 

Embroidery: are beads missing? Does it look good as is? 

Give it a very close review for tears and stains. For purses, pay special attention to where the handles meet the bag. Also make sure that the materials aren't peeling and that the seams look good. For everything cheap your seams. Are they tight and not falling apart? 

After you've thinned out the selection by stains and tears it's time to do your final review and selection. 

Something to keep in mind, is that not all brands are created equal. Cheaper brands of clothing aren't really well designed for plus bodies. Think of your Shein's, Wal-Mart, and Target brands. Plus they're just not quality pieces, they're cheaper because they're made of cheap materials, and thus just don't stand up to much wear. 

So, basically I (generally) avoid Shein Curve, NoBoundaries, Xhilaration, Arizona, Joyspun, Wild Fable, etc.

We love anything namebrand, designer (Google image search is your friend), Torrid, Lane Bryant. Not just because it's namebrand but because it's better quality and they've invested more into R&D for a better fit for bigger bodies (in general).

Here's one downside to Savers, they don't have dressing rooms. So you've got to know your sizes (this is where buying recognizable brands like Torrid helps) and get good at eyeballing it. It's important to note Savers doesn't do returns but they do exchanges. 

Side note, each time you donate clothes (or whatever) you get a coupon worth 20% off your entire purchase. Plus, if you sign up for their Super Savers Club you get extra coupons via email and you earn points with each purchase that you can eventually use as a discount. 

Anyway, enough boring stuff! Let's look at some of the cool stuff I came across while there and what made it home with me. 

This dope hand beaded dress in a small. I was going to get this for my younger, slimer sister but after careful observation I found a stain. I don't clean other people's stains so I passed on this. 

This beautiful pink tutu like dress that would have come home with me if it hadn't been an XS. Which my body frame will never let me be.

This navy blue, hot pink, button-down Shirt Dress would be perfect for someone who didn't carry most of their weight in their stomach. I do and need a more stretchy fabric so I passed. But I can see a super cute outfit here with hot pink jewelry, lipstick and hat. 

This red and black Sheath Dress is so great. You can't really tell from the pic but the black slits on the front are mesh and kind of see through. This dress is effortlessly sexy. Again, another dress that would have come home with me if it was in my size. It was a size 10 I think. 

This dress is giving such Miss Frizzle vibes. Not my size or cut so I passed.

This black strapless maxi that almost came home but didn't because sad face, there was a stain.

This cute peach peplum dress that I liked but would be a better fit for someone who carried their weight in their lower body as opposed to waist, like yours truly.

This beaded Jumpsuite Dress which is adorbs, but not my style, and it turned out to be a Temu or other cheaper brand. 

These are what made it home with me!

Next time I'll take a picture of my before review/after review cart but basically I went from maybe 8-10 choices to 2 that I brought home. Usually I find more but the fashion resale goddesses giveth and they taketh. 

Given that it's winterish time in Texas I really needed some longer dresses that I can pair with cute jackets or cardigans. 

I found two black dresses (score because black dress =infinite accessorizing). 

This Maxi-dress with beaded embroidery under the bust. It was missing some of the beads but not in a noticeable way. 

It's Jaclyn Smith Women in a 1x.

This tank top dress that I end up wearing alot as a house dress. So much so that trying to get an on-hanger pic has been delaying this blog post lol. So here it is on. It's H&M 1x. 

What about you? Tell me about your awesome thrift or resale finds in the comments!