Chapel Street Op Shop
Photo Credit: Hellblazer!

One of my favourite Australian fashion bloggers, Lady Melbourne, was featured on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair last night. ACA did a feature on op-shopping, on how much $100 can get you. It was fun to watch, and looking at all the swell clothes and accessories she and the other volunteers bought, I bet it was even more fun for them to shop.

Op-shopping, or shopping at op-shops simply means shopping at secondhand stores. Or, as they like to put it these days, buying preloved items. Op shops are more popular for clothes, shoes and accessories although you’d also be able to find kitchenware, electrical goods, furniture, etc.

The first time I went op-shopping was in the UK. Initially I just bought books, but after a while, I started buying clothes too. It’s surprising how much good stuff you can find in shops like these.

My mum’s completely against buying secondhand clothing though. When I bought a jacket for my dad at the secondhand store (no point getting him an expensive new one since he was only going to be visiting me in the UK for a few days), my mum was horrified. I can still remember her words. “What if the jacket’s a DEAD MAN’S jacket? EEEK!”

Asian parents. Gotta love ’em.

Tim and I occasionally scour op shops in Melbourne. It’s fun, and you never know what you can find. He once bought a pair of Hugo Boss jeans for 8 bucks, and a pair of Country Road shorts for a fiver. Ever since the Hugo Boss find, he’d hit the men’s section of op shops immediately as we enter, hoping to score another designer goodie. Unfortunately, up till now, no such luck. Still, it’s heaps of fun for us, going through the racks and racks of clothes.

Photo Credit: Smurfie_77

Here’s my take on op-shopping:

– Strategically speaking, if you want the good stuff, or the ones more suited to you, hit the more popular op shops nearer to the city (or in popular suburbs with a demographic of young working adults to middle-aged ones). I live in an “old” suburb (i.e. there’s a lot of old people around :P), so most of the stocked items in the op shops in my suburb are suited to the older generation. Difficult to score much goodies there, although if you’re lucky, you might stumble upon a gem or two.

– You may not be able to get designer clothing at op shops that cheap anymore. Sure, once upon a time when op shopping wasn’t popular and nannas price items so low just to get them sold, you’d be able to score designer goodies very cheaply. Nowadays, vintagewear is such an in thing, and you have young ‘uns running the store, that chances of you scoring that Yves Saint Laurent jacket for 30 bucks is very low. Unless they don’t know what YSL is (*gasp* BLASPHEMY!).

– Not all items in op shops are secondhand. Sometimes you might be able to find overstock, obselete or faulty items from commercial stores. As these items would be brand new, they are often more expensive than the secondhand items in store. For example, the Salvos I frequent was selling a few pairs of Pepe jeans at $40 a pair. Cheap by Pepe Jeans standards, but expensive compared to the secondhand jeans on the same rack (which normally sell at about $10-$15 a pair, depending on the quality and brand).

– Op shops generally do not clean the clothes that are donated to them. They receive so many donations a day that they simply do not have the time nor manpower to do so. If you’re thinking of donating any unwanted clothes to an op shop, please do them and the people who’d be buying them a favour and clean them first.

– Most op shops I go to have a certain oldish, musty smell about them, mainly due to the clothes and old furniture. Just give your preloved clothes a good wash when you bring them home (remember to check the clothing care label first!), use a lint shaver on any rolled-up linty bits, and the items are good as new.

– Just because the clothes are cheap, doesn’t mean you have to buy a lot of them if you don’t need them. Buying another person’s clutter doesn’t mean you have to create clutter for yourself too. Think of it as a shopping experience, not an OMG-it’s-so-cheap-let’s-buy-buy-buy moment.

Other than Savers and {also} Fabulous Op Shop as mentioned on A Current Affair, there’s also Salvos, Australian Red Cross, Vinnies, and other smaller op shops in Australia. Just Google “op shops in [enter state]” and you’ll find a variety of op shops around your area.

Who knows? You might be able to bag that nondescript, forgotten-and-shoved-in-a-corner Christian Dior piece somewhere. Just let me know when you do 😛

Have fun!