January 10, 2022
Rather than dressing first-hand, opting for second-hand items allows you to make personal savings, as well as relatively save the planet (as long as you don’t shop there frantically as at the same pace imposed by fast fashion).
In addition to Depop and Vestiaire Collective among the best known clothing resale sites in France, Vinted is clearly the most popular. The Lithuanian platform boasts 16 million users in France (and 45 million worldwide), which makes it a hell of a nugget. But how to orient yourself in this plethoric offer?
Know your precise measurements rather than an abstract dimension
Sacred to the point of becoming anxious, clothing sizes are not set in stone and vary not only from brand to brand, but also from models within the same label.
One size of clothing, it is a suggestion, not a definition. You are not a 40, an M or a W30 L32. The size X of a certain model of a brand at any given time may correspond to you, but this is not to be considered absolutely true, of course.
It is therefore better to take the measurements: chest circumference, waist circumference, hips circumference, arm and leg length.
The additional trick is take measurements on the clothes in which you feel best rather than your body.
Not only will it be less potentially triggering for people with eating disorders, but what’s more it will be even more enlightening to understand the measurements of other garments spotted on Vinted and have a good idea of how they would fall on you!
When faced with a garment that really tempts you, you can also ask the seller about the measurements per garment to make sure it fits you, if in doubt.
Knowing what you like, rather than going there with a wet finger
With its well-priced measurements at your fingertips, you may want to browse Vinted as you would a brick-and-mortar storefront or online. And it can be an opportunity to make beautiful discoveries by accident, of course … But the abundance of supply can also seem overwhelming and dauntingespecially on second-hand sites that do not work with collection logic that should form cohesion.
Knowing that you are looking for a sweater with such a cut, such a detail and such a color, even such a brand, rather than vaguely wanting a new sweater will save you a lot of time, without preventing you from running into unexpected things, precisely because the inaccuracy of people can lead to luck in your search!
The trick, too, is also look for clothes not necessarily by brands, but by the creators themselvesif you are really stuck in mode.
It is a technique that requires a little knowledge (but easy to acquire in a few minutes on the web) to know if you prefer the Louis Vuitton of the Marc Jacobs era or Nicolas Ghesquière, for example. Or the Chloe approximately Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, Clare Waight Keller, Natacha Ramsay-Levi or Gabriela Hearst.
Where the “Chloé” filter, in the category of clothing you want, can give many results, add in the keyword the name of your favorite art direction of the house will allow you to separate the grain from the chaff.
Prioritize filters over keywords
Also, speaking of ordering well, one of the best techniques when you start and you don’t know what you want or where to start is to give preference to filters over keywords.
For example, instead of typing “khaki cargo pants”, it is best to start an advanced search without keywordsspecify the catalog (women or men> clothes> pants and leggings> all), the sizes that generally fit you, check your colors (green, dark green, khaki), the brands you want (Carhartt and Maison Standards do great deals ), the price range, the desired condition and the search results of the order based on the lowest or most recent price (just to find the best bargains).
Filters are your best allies while keywords are superfluous and come as a last resort. It is in your interest to add only the most discriminating: “cargo” or “pocket” and not “cargo pants” or “pants with pockets” as the filters are already in charge of showing you only the pants.
The additional trick isoptionally add keywords after setting the filtersonly if you want to sort your search results further.
Because adding “cargo” risks eliminating cargo pants that would not have been inserted into the platform as such. However, many people sell nuggets without necessarily having the vocabulary or the patience to add the right keywords (e.g. seniors).
It should also be borne in mind that the platform is used in many different languages: filters allow you to sort correctly regardless of the language used in the descriptionunlike keywords that would have been written in French or English.
Personally, I would never have unearthed my best Vinted artifacts by keyword because the people who sold them were Belgians writing Flemish, long live the filters!
Take your time and negotiate
If you’ve spotted an item in major first-hand stores and clearly intend to crack, think first to check if the same or similar item of clothing isn’t already available on second-hand sites like Vinted.
Because that’s often the case, and for a fraction of the price of the new one. Especially when it comes to garments that look ultra trendy – it’s typically the type of clothing that can get tired quickly. It would also be ideal to spend your turn in front of this kind of worse-than-ephemeral fashion effects if you’re not going to love the clothes in question for a long time, but I’m not here to judge.
And since it is private resale, everyone expects to negotiate prices. So take advantage of it. Especially since the platform automatically allows you to offer only prices within reasonable limits (you cannot offer more than -50% when, from an article page, press “Send a message”> then “Make an offer”).
Nobody will die if your first interaction is “Place a bid” as low as possible. You are not required to enter the forms as the platform will automatically generate a sentence starting with hello in the right language for the seller with your price proposal.
Vintie can then accept you or respond to you with a counter offer that you can accept. But I recommend that you renegotiate again at least once. However, if the saleswoman simply refuses from the start, it will be impossible to negotiate, so it is best to take full price if you are afraid that the part will pass under your nose.
The trick, too, is to remember to look how long the article has been online : If it’s been there for months already (the product sheet clearly states this), you can also let the matter settle with someone who refuses to trade now, before returning to a price broker a month or two later. This is the game, my poor Lucette.
Sign up for Vinties that are similar to you in size and style
Finally, when you come across a nugget of your size, the chances are that the person selling it will offer other pieces now or in the future that may also suit you, or even match your style. For this I advise you to do it subscribe to his profile to be automatically notified by the platform when this Vintie will add new items.
It’s free, it doesn’t force you to do anything, and it’s no reason to shop more regularly. It is just very practical to find clothes in your size easily, in a style that might suit you, from someone you have already bought from and who have proven their reliability!
The added trick is that you can too save your “advanced searches”. If you are a fanatic of a particular designer, for example, it can be interesting to save the search for her name, in your sizes, classify them by recency, so that you can easily return to them when you feel the need.
It is all the more interesting for brands or designers who have ceased their activity because they will then be rare archives, increasingly difficult to bring to light.
Unsurprisingly, I clearly did this for Haider Ackermann whose creations I collect as treasures … So please don’t steal them from me now that I’ve given you my best advice!
Front page photo credit: Sam Lion, Pexels
Source: Madmoizelle
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
