Advice on where to find quality feminine and vintage clothes?

[The Crescent King]

I'm sure I'm not the only female Kiwi who wants beautiful, high-quality clothes fit well. I'm against fast fashion for moral and aesthetic reasons and am prepared to spend money on pieces that are worth it.

However, I've recently made two massive purchases from Seamstress of Bloomsbury (a UK based store) and Breath of Youth (US-based). I would say that both of those stores are complete scams. The former claimed to make their blouses using crepe de chine, yet the blouse fabric was completely see -through (you could literally see my bra), the zipper on one of the trousers was very cheap and practically unusable, and the dress was like wearing a tent. You wouldn't know with all the five star reviews though. The latter was even worse; they don't advertise the fact that all of their clothes are made in China, and their sizing is completely off. Worst of all it's non-refundable as all they offer is a store credit.

As you can imagine I'm very disappointed that I've essentially wasted hundreds on expensive tat; at least Shein matches the price with the quality of the garment.

I'm sure there are some fashionista Kiwis who can relate to my experience and learned from it. I'm thinking that shopping instore is probably the best option for me, but has anyone had some success with online vintage shopping?

 

[Stephanie Bustcakes]

It's really a gamble. Even big brand names sometimes sell you crappy knock offs and try to pass it off as the real thing. In store shopping where you can actually see the product before you buy it is your safest bet. The convenience of shopping online isn't worth it if you end up wasting money on garbage.

 

[Crypt Kicker]

Will this suffice? It's feminine AND vintage!

 

[Elysian]

You could always look into getting some vintage classic lolita stuff from the 2000s, it was almost all cotton/chiffon back in those days, and often less frilly than the modern stuff.

 

[missnaptime]

honestly; from experience using seamstress of bloomsbury and most other major vintage sellers: learn how to make your own clothes; get patterns and give it a go if you're willing to invest the time. if you want something period accurate that fits well and properly fits to your measurements and fabric quality standard, that's your best bet.

katie does things are a great seller of pantyhose. i really recommend them if you're looking for the proper look with stockings.

for shoes, i really like memery; i have a pair of their heeled 30's oxfords in brown and they've really lasted. worth the cost; but pricey, and actual leather.

for makeup - i cannot sing the praises of besame enough.

etsy is a really good hub for second hand or bespoke pieces using period accurate patterns, a lot of vintage wearers also have little boutiques on instagram. if you have a local vintage scene, it'd be worth checking it out in person as they often have swaps and occasionally stalls and markets. etsy and your local scene would probably be also really good for patterns! that's where i've gotten a lot of mine

 

[pork and beans]

there's a LOT of good vintage stuff on Vinted. And really good deals price wise. it's a gamble as to what brands will be more available and/or cheaper, though

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

eBay is useful for a lot of vintage stuff.

 

[Blue Gem Kosher Queen]

I've found some pretty cool items on Etsy if you want that tailor-made and/or vintage feel but aren't confident on actually doing it yourself. But I feel OP is talking about a reputable brand with at least delivery service, that's the dream tbh. I'm considering upping my skills to be the change I want to see in the world.

 

[a pissing jar]

I may be stupid, but have you tried thrift stores?

 

[invisibult plus+]

I may be stupid, but have you tried thrift stores?

In my neck of the woods they're a crapshoot. Not a lot of feminine clothing at all and they don't seem very sanitary.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

In my neck of the woods they're a crapshoot. Not a lot of feminine clothing at all and they don't seem very sanitary.

A LOT of the savers near me smell like piss 24/7

 

[There She Glows]

Where I live we have two tiers of thrift store. If you have a lot of patience and enjoy sifting through garbage you MIGHT find one gem at the first kind but probably not because all of the good shit gets bought up by the expensive boutique thrift stores.

Estate sales can have some great hauls but you have to figure out how to get looped in on when they pop up (Facebook or Craigslist ) because estate sale regulars treat that shit like a full time job. Probably because a lot of it ends up on high markup at the boutique thrift stores. All the good stuff usually gets poached in the first hour.

 

[YouDoNotHaveTheRight]

Torrid got some durable swag. Not as vintage though.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Etsy is where I get a lot of 50s dresses. You'll pay more than ebay, which is another option, but the selection and presentation is better on etsy. Make sure to click the "vintage" option in the search refine.
Also, its not a common issue but you'll run into people who tag stuff as "vintage" when it is not, so being able to recognize vintage from repro helps. I don't like to buy anything where the tag has been cut off.

 

[pork and beans]

I may be stupid, but have you tried thrift stores?

If you wear small sizes like xs or s it's impossible unless you go to the kids area (but who wants that) , plus gentrification has made it so that the prizes aren't worth it anymore.

fleamarkets still carry a lot of good stuff, though. You might have to rummage to piles of clothes, but it's a lot more worth it, lots of actual vintage clothes and varied sizes for a fraction of the prize because there's no pretentiousness. Plus it's full of grandmas also looking for good deals, and they're all very nice

 

[Chi]

Japanese second-hand market, although now with the depop scalpers it's gotten more expensive and difficult, and post-2019 j-fashion tends to be poly shit, check if the listing mentions or has tags with 綿 (cotton). If you don't wanna go full lolita I recommend you look into pink house, jane marple or even more "normie" jp brands like fint and other stuff that might have what you're looking for.

You could always look into getting some vintage classic lolita stuff from the 2000s, it was almost all cotton/chiffon back in those days, and often less frilly than the modern stuff.

Don't send a newcomer to the trenches of oldschool bidding wars, with its popularity right now tiktok girls are willing to drop an entire month's paycheck on a 30 old skirt.

 

[Dubya's Cat]

eEbay and Vinted are great if you avoid resellers and if you can take advantage of search options and filters on these platforms. Downside is that you need to know fashion of your favorite decade well if you don't want to use keywords. Which are abused by scalping vermin. I usually type in a pretty vague term like "wool skirt" and I filter down it by size, color, price, condition etc. and I go through all of listings to pick things from my target era, that I like and would totally wear.

Someone already said it earlier but I recommend learning how to sew. You get complete control over entire process. From picking a pattern, fabric and notions to using specific finishing techniques. You can alter the fit of pattern too, by sewing a test garment before cutting into your fashion fabric. It's also an excellent way to practice your skills as you'll be using cheap fabric and if you fuck up, you won't regret it that much.

Sourcing vintage patterns isn't hard but it depends on your location. Burgers have big 4 pattern companies, which sometimes put out some reprints once a while. You can find uncut envelopes in thrift stores and on Ebay/Etsy. OG vintage patterns might be pricy depending on a patterns and your target era, designer patterns (like Vogue Pattern Designer series) will be more pricy. Euros have pattern magazines which have 20-30 or even more patterns in one issue, but downside is that you need to trace them from a big sheet. There are tons of them available second-hand. Most known and most reliable is Burda, which is German but published in many languages. It has archive dating back to mid 1950s. Spaniards got Patrones, but it tends to have more dresses, tops and skirts compared to jackets and pants. Certain public Russian tracker has both Burda and Patrones, but mostly 1990s and newer issues.

Getting quality fabric in curent year is hard, but if you watch eBay or Etsy, local listing sites you can find beautiful deadstock fabrics but you won't be always able to get yardage you need. I especially recommend looking for wool, old suiting wool was thicker and lasted better. Same for cotton, old cottons didn't have elastane and were made from longer fibers. Linen is great if you can find it for reasonable price in fabric stores. I'm viscose hater myself but there are some good viscoses. I'd take viscose crepe or chiffon over polyester, if real silk is out of picture. Some fabric stores, ones who are specialized in selling leftovers from factories and from fashion houses are worth watching. They get rolls with decent amount of fabric still on, so you can get bigger amount for more pieces or more fabric consuming pattern that way.

You could always look into getting some vintage classic lolita stuff from the 2000s, it was almost all cotton/chiffon back in those days, and often less frilly than the modern stuff.

Old school lolita dresses were from really nice cotton, especially velvet which is expensive as hell, especially in amount you need for a JSK or OP. Unfortunately zoomers discovered old school, there are so many edgy zoomer old-schoolers and demand skyrocketed. So many pieces got scalped and resold for insane prices, even if they are really damaged or faded. Zoomers seemingly don't mind this and they don't repair them or DIY anything as much as girlies in og 00s LJ comms did.

Don't send a newcomer to the trenches of oldschool bidding wars, with its popularity right now tiktok girls are willing to drop an entire month's paycheck on a 30 old skirt.

I knew that things got bad. I didn't know that it got that bad.

 

[Otterly]

Collectif just went into administration but they were ok. The problem is that all the modern vintage stores don’t make to the quality you used to get.
If you want well made vintage style you’re going to have to pay a fortune, be very lucky at a car boot sale or thrifting or sew your own. Worth thrifting anyway simply to be able to cut buttons and fixtures off stuff to reuse.

Euros have pattern magazines which have 20-30 or even more patterns in one issue, but downside is that you need to trace them from a big sheet.

That’s fine - you just buy pattern paper on rolls and it lets you easily grade between sizes and keep multiple sizes or alterations if needed. Look for swedish pattern paper. Comes in big rolls.
Now fabric is going to be a tough one. Your best best for good quality at low price is places that buy overstock from the fancy places. Fabric godmother and ditto fabrics are two that spring to mind. Støfdepotet in Denmark can have some good ones too. Croft mill in the uk often has overstock and the staff are v helpful and knowledgeable.
Ask older relatives if they have patterns - the cliche about the Danish cookie tin full of buttons and boxes full of patterns is dead right. But the big four often do reprints and there are quite a few vintage type indie pattern stores online these days.
One other idea that just struck me is to get in touch with groups who do the larping of whatever period you’re into. They’ll know where to get stuff.