How Much of your Clothing is Thrifted?!

 

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I got to wondering just what proportion of my wardrobe consisted of thrifted items. I was hoping (and anticipating) that my clothing and accessories would be at least 50% thrifted.....

So I counted.... and.....

I'll tell you the total at the end of the post. ;)

First of all, I'll tell you how I did it, so you can do the same.

I made categories so I could see what items I was buying used and new, etc.

I also further marked if I bought them in Zürich or at home in Canada, or online since moving to Zürich, just to see what my shopping habits were here compared to there. But if you haven't moved, then don't worry about this distinction. ;)

I didn't include underwear or lingerie, or socks (I don't think I have anything used in these categories!), and I also didn't include purses and bags. I don't actually have that many bags, and I found it hard to group backpacks and purses together conceptually. I have a thrifted backpack, camera bag and satchel that I bought here in Zürich. I have two new purses I bought since moving here. Not a terribly exciting story, is it? ;)

The findings were interesting! Here they are:

It turns out that all of my dress pants (i.e. non-jeans) are new. This is kind of disappointing, because there are no shortage of dressy pants and slacks on the racks here! And I have tried a few on, though none of them really fit right.

I'm going to chalk up the pants-dilemma to two points: firstly, I rarely wear dress pants; and secondly, they really are something that need to fit perfectly (and are therefore few and far between).

It's also interesting to take note of what colour-ways you're tempted by. I love my neutrals and my greens!

100% of my vests are thrifted. But that's because I only own one. ;)

I am proud to say that I have a majority of thrifted items (50% or more) in the following categories:

• blouses
• long-sleeved t-shirts/casual knitwear
• sweaters & hoodies
• skirts (a whopping 70% of them are thrifted!)
• blazers
• shorts
• belts (a healthy 66.7% proportion)

I have been wildly successful with skirts here in Switzerland! The lovely houndstooth one is from Modcloth, though (one of the last things I bought new - 2014 has been almost completely thrifted for me!)

Interestingly, since moving to Zürich, my thrifted fashion acquistions were distributed in the following scheme:

• 75% of my thrifted t-shirts, jeans and belts,
• 87.5% of my thrifted sweaters and hoodies,
• 88.8% of my thrifted tanks and sleeveless/short sleeved tops,
• 83.3% of my thrifted scarves,
• 57% of my thrifted skirts,
• 100% of my thrifted jewellery, long-sleeved t's, shorts and shoes were thrifted here in Zürich.

Counting in progress...

Which categories have been less fruitful in the thrifting aspect? According to this inventory, I had greater success in Canada in the following categories:

• cardigans
• dresses*

*I had so many dresses to begin with that I've been intentionally NOT buying more.... which I fail at on a regular basis, but still - I'm exercising dress-shopping austerity! I would argue that there is a BETTER selection of used dresses in Zürich than there was at home, so this stat is a little biased/skewed. ;)
 

It's hard to say no to dresses!

Categories in which I have an equal number of thrifted items from home as I do here:

• blouses
• blazers
• pyjamas (usually in the form of lounge pants!)

There is a big caveat when it comes to looking at this data as representative of the 'thrifting scene' in Zürich, apart from the obvious one of 'personal taste', and that's my recent trans-continental relocation.
 

Of my thrifted jewellery, 100% is from Zürich! So is the stand (a candle-holder originally)

And a lot of it was given to me, so I didn't include these in the counts. Jewellery is always a good gift - so are scarves! :) Can never have too many, and sometimes someone else's taste can really add depth to your collection.

SHOES were something that I had to be very, very picky about in packing (they weigh a fair bit, so I couldn't take all the ones I wanted to bring with me, sadly). So I've been shopping for shoes here in Zürich more than I'd typically be.

I also came to Zürich in the autumn, and it's a little colder here than my coastal homeland, so I found I needed many more sweaters than I had brought with me. Again, there was a purchasing bias for SWEATERS as well.
 

For a non-American, I have an awful lot of red, white and blue! One regret I have is that the top two sweaters in the back were both fuzzy and were on super-duper sale at H&M. And I needed warm clothes, pronto! I understand why they didn't sell - one shrunk horribly, and the other sheds worse than my neighbour's cats.

And as I mentioned, I brought way more DRESSES with me than I should have. Some of them I spent a fair bit of money on (new) for some special events, so I didn't want to part with them. I love them dearly, but I rarely have an opportunity to wear them. Dresses I buy now tend to be more of the 'everyday' variety than the 'special event' types, but I still have more than I need and I'm trying to exercise restraint.   

An important note on jeans - with the exception of some chinos from MEC (not really jeans, but close enough) and a single pair of H&M jeans I bought out of necessity when I first came to Zürich, all of my purchased-new jeans come from Just USA. Just USA jeans are made, sweat-shop free and ethically, in the United States. You can buy them online through the good people at LuvUrJeans (thank you, Gudrun, for the excellent customer service!). 

But one thing I will suggest, from this data, is that Zürich has been very good to me in providing clothing in the sweater, t-shirts and long-sleeved shirts, jeans, skirts and belt departments, and has been EXCELLENT when it comes to jewellery. :) There are many t-shirts in excellent condition (and style!) that are very reasonably priced, and the jeans and skirts are very plentiful. The belts are, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best deals and thrifting categories of all here in Zürich.


So, how thrifted was my wardrobe overall?

37.7%

(less than I thought, to be honest! I'd like this to be higher!).

6/7 of these are thrifted. ;) I love patterns!

Apart from online jeans (which I bought 5 pairs of recently), I haven't bought many new items since moving here. I hope that in time the % thrifted improves to at least 50%. It was a shock to me to see such a low score!

Can I encourage you to inventory your wardrobe and report back to me (leave a comment)? :) Can you beat this score? 

Math-Phobic? Don't worry - you've got this! :) After you've counted all your categories, you can work out what % of your wardrobe (all the stuff you counted) is thrifted. Add all of the thrifted items together (i.e. all of your thrifted blouses, sweaters, vests, etc.) with a calculator. Write this number down (this is "A"). Then add all of your total number of items and add these together and write it down (this is "B"). Using a calculator, enter A, press the divide sign, enter B and press =. You will get a decimal number, for example: 0.395. Now press times (x) and enter 100 and press =. In this case, it will say 39.5 (note that the decimal place moved 2 spaces to the right - that's the only difference). This number (39.5 or whatever you got) is how much your wardrobe is thrifted. My score was 37.7, which I think is low! :(

All the best, Thrifties! Let's race to a 50% thrifted (or more) wardrobe! :)


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