Short Shrifted

It has over 1,300 locations in the United States (and outposts all over the world).

Dress shirts cost about $5, suits start around $20 (unless you wait for half-price days, which come every week).

Everything’s pre-washed and pre-shrunk, so you know exactly how it will fit right off the rack.

They even have a budget hotel in Iceland (nice place; I stayed there once).

It’s… the Salvation Army Family Store.

Sure, I’ve dallied with other shops. Gap was my go-to when I lived in the backwoods of Maine, thanks to their XS size. But who wants to look like a Gap ad? H&M can be good, but their styles change so fast and sometimes the of-the-moment stuff just looks ridiculous. Uniqlo? They’re great if you happen to live in NYC; otherwise you’ll have to book a flight to Japan. Black Fleece, Club Monaco, Rugby, Band of Outsiders, TopMan, and all the rest: damned expensive.

Nope. For me, it’ll always be Salvation Army. Over the course of my life, I’ve found more great clothes there than anywhere else. It’s my one constant. A chain I know that I’ll be able to find anywhere I live, work or travel. One that actually has affordable stuff that fits me.

Sure, any given trip to a Sally Ann’s can turn up zilch. But over the long haul it’s a goldmine. It’s all about knowing how to shop a thrift store. Tips on that here and here.

So, besides price, what makes Salvation Army unique? Sheer variety.

LABEL VARIETY
If you’re short — or really any sort “odd” size that falls outside of the narrow silhouettes of the apparel industry, you have it tough. If the couple dozen major brands at Macy’s don’t flatter your shape, you’re screwed. But at any given SA there are literally hundreds or thousands of labels. And many of them boutique, foreign, or defunct — weird, wild, under-the-wire stuff.

HISTORICAL VARIETY
Unlike every other store on the planet, Salvation Army doesn’t just carry clothes from a designer’s 2010 Spring Season (or whatever the current line is). You can find stuff from five, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. This frees you from the tyranny of the moment. You can find items from periods when cuts and styles were vastly different from the shape-du-jour. And I think that (barring Hammer pants in the early ’90s and those boxy power suits from the ’80s) most of the menswear in the latter half of the 20th century was cut tighter, shorter, and smaller than today. And arguably, the average size of the American male was probably a bit smaller. Besides shirts, pants, jackets and all the rest, it’s probably the #2 best place to score vintage neckties for this reason.

GENDER VARIETY
Sex is natural, sex is good, quoth George Michael. But gender is a social construct. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the history of men’s fashion. Towering bouffant wigs, makeup, stockings, corsets, earrings, glitter… all considered the height of male fashion at one time or another. So why should a guy feel bad about buying a shirt marked “women” in this day and age. Especially when, oftentimes, the only notable difference about a women’s shirt is that the buttons are on the wrong side. And it actually fits.

What’s nice about the thrift experience is that categories like these often begin to break down a little: I’ll zip down a row of men’s blazers, pull out a dozen with short sleeves, and a couple of them will be women’s blazers (usually on the less “effeminate” side: tweeds, not frilly, etc.).

As Michael of the LoveShip posted about a recent winter coat purchase:

“I have no problem wearing ladies clothing. At 5′4″ and a slim build, most of what I find thrifting makes me look like I’m playing dress up in daddy’s closet. Luckily, gems like this will slip by most guys and into my basket.”

NOTE: There’s a downside to this, too. Since organization is a bit more scattershot at used-clothing shops, the clerks who stock the racks use size as one of their sorting aids. I suspect there are loads of small and short men’s clothes that end up in the women’s and children’s sections. So you may have to pick through those, too.

CUSTOM VARIETY
Where else can you buy a custom-made shirt — that wasn’t made for you? OK, granted, the whole point of going the bespoke route is that you get a piece of clothing precisely tailored to your exact dimensions. So buying a second-hand blazer that was custom made for someone else may seem absurd. Still, what’s cool about it is this: With used custom clothing, you at least get a shot at finding something that fits your unusual shape. At the very least you’ll find pieces that are tailored to specs outside the mainstream. And since you find yourself in that number, the odds of finding something that fits you improve, too.

Good hunting, everyone.

Have a thrift-shopping secret you’d like to share? Know of any super-cool second-hand stores in your area? Or just want to crow about an awesome vintage find? I’d love to hear about it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Stores. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.