FASHION : Thrifty Parents Shop Resale for Children’s Wear
If there is anything more astounding than the rate at which children outgrow clothes, it is the high cost of replacing those clothes.
John Tugman of MRCA Information Services, a marketing research company based in Stamford, Conn., says the nationwide average cost of clothing a girl age 15 or younger was $420 in 1989. The average cost for a boy in the same age group was $345. For families with several children, the total could throw a budget off track.
But there is a less expensive option: secondhand clothes. They’re called hand-me-downs if they come from an older sibling, but when they come from resale shops, some parents call them great deals.
A recent foraging through secondhand shops for children’s wear in the Los Angeles area yielded T-shirts priced at 25 cents, infant sleepers at 98 cents, pants, skirts and sweaters at $1.99, and winter jackets at less than $5. And many garments--including designer labels such as Baby Dior and Esprit--were in good condition.
The lowest prices--usually less than $5--are found in thrift stores run by charitable organizations such as Goodwill Industries, the Salvation Army and local churches. The quality varies from worn-out to nearly new.
In these stores, clothes are rarely separated by size, and items without original tags indicate no size. At some stores, clothes are on hangers; at others, the merchandise is piled on tables in a tangled mass.
Consignment shops sell used clothing and divide the sales price, usually 50-50, with the original owners. Their clothes are generally more expensive but in better condition than thrift-store garments, and the sizes and prices are clearly marked.
Joan Rehnberg, owner of the Make Room for Baby consignment shop in Mar Vista, asks: “Who wants to pay $40 for a (new) dress a little girl will wear two times?” Her secondhand party dresses sell for less than $15. School clothes for preschoolers are big sellers, Rehnberg says, because mothers don’t mind if $2 shirts and pants get spotted with paint.
Zora Speert, a Bel-Air psychotherapist, shops the resale stores for her children ages 4 and 7. “I won’t spend my money on new clothes,” says Speert, who shops in secondhand stores for her clothes as well. “We dress beautifully. Maybe two years behind what is on the racks, but beautifully.” She enjoys the savings and says her children like the fact that they are wearing recycled clothes. “Recycled clothes fit the concepts of usefulness they are learning in school.”
Linda Farkas-Jones, 37, admits she has never bought a secondhand garment for herself, but eight years ago when she was expecting her son, she started buying used children’s items. The Los Angeles mother is expecting her second child this month, and she has been shopping for baby clothes at a consignment shop. “Infants never wear out their clothes, so baby clothes are usually in good shape,” she says.
Farkas-Jones says many items are in such good condition that no one can tell when her son wears used clothes. “I’m choosy about what I buy. It has to look new or like it has been worn only a few times.”
Store owners say that successful shoppers go without a list and look for good buys in their child’s current size or the next size up. Hard-core enthusiasts will also browse through the smaller sizes, to see if any garments have been erroneously marked.
More than a year ago Farkas-Jones found a pair of Converse high-tops with a Magic Johnson logo. Price: $2. They had never been worn, and even though they were four sizes too large, she bought them. This fall she unearthed the shoes and gave them to her son, who had requested $137 Reeboks. The shoes with Magic Johnson’s endorsement took the sting out of his mother’s refusal to buy him the more expensive pair.
Parents and store owners say that as children grow older, they become choosier about their wardrobe. Rehnberg finds that toddler and infant sizes move quickly in her store, but sales of larger sizes are slow. By the time most children wear Size 7, they are quite opinionated about clothes, she says.
Says Vicki Morgan, co-owner of Little Orphan Overalls in Pasadena: “By the time girls reach Size 12 and 14, their mothers have quit trying to buy for them.” Unless the girls come into the shop and pick out their own clothes, there is little chance the Size 12 and 14 items will sell.
For younger children there is an abundance of coats, sweaters and party dresses available at most stores, especially after the holidays when some parents clean out closets to make way for presents. Morgan also suggests looking for skiwear, raincoats and Scout uniforms.
The one hard-to-find item is boys pants, especially sizes 4 to 8. The original owner usually wears out the knees.
