Styling and Saving With Back to School Thrifting

Start this school year off trendy by thrifting your way through back to school shopping. If you're looking to save some cash this school year or just want to be at the top of your class when it comes to fashion, check out your local thrift stores for fashion finds.

Here are just a few benefits to thrift shopping for school clothes:

1. Uniqueness

You are likely to find more unique styles at a thrift store, rather than your local department store. Thrift stores typically don't have bulk clothing items, therefore, you're sure to be a showstopper in the hallway wearing a graphic tee that no one else has.

2. "In" Styles

A lot of the trends that are in style right now were popular in a different era. For example, velvet, leather, and flannel didn't just become popular in the past few years. The styles were recently brought back and have continued to be a trend amongst young consumers. Shopping for these styles at a thrift store allows you to get original pieces that were designed when they first became popular, and for a much lower cost than what you'd pay at any other store.

3. Get Creative and Make It Your Own

When shopping secondhand, you may find clothes that aren't exactly what you're looking for but similar. Make these clothes look the exact way you want (or if you're just a creative person), by revamping the pieces to add your own touch of personality. There are many places you can go online for ideas on how to do creative things with clothes, like adding fabric under distressed jeans, creating socks out of sweaters, and using shirts to create bags for school books.

4. Better Quality/Lower Prices

This benefit, to some, may be quite obvious. You will certainly find better quality clothing (that's why it made it to the secondhand shop and not into the trash) and brands by thrifting than at your major fast fashion shops, where clothes are often of low quality and do not last much longer than a few wears. You will also save much more money thrift shopping, even more than you'd save at the fast fashion retailers. This can be a huge benefit, especially when it comes to families that have multiple children to shop for. Saving money clothes allows you to spend money on other things, for example, shoes, supplies, sports equipment, school lunches, and much more!