Cheap Clothes for College: Thrift Stores, Clothing Swaps and More

It may seem that bargains are impossible to find when you're looking for college rags, but the truth is actually quite the contrary. Thrift stores, clothes swaps, and your crafty hands can all aid in getting cheap clothing.

The United States has a plethora of thrift stores. According to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, there are more than 25,000 of the shops throughout the country. The Thrift Shopper website lists at least 7539 of them, and they only allow the non-profit ones to listed. In fact, there are three thrift stores within a fifty foot radius of my house. Clearly, they aren't hard to find. The trick is to know which ones to go to. Thrift stores in more expensive areas, for example, are often likely to have more expensive items in stock. The Better Business Bureau is also a good place to scan, so you won't be misled by a specific store. As a philosophical belief, I don't think you can ever go wrong at Goodwill or The Salvation Army, but usually they are the most expensive.

A relatively new phenomena in cheap clothing are clothing swaps. At these events, people bring the used, but well-conditioned clothing that they've grown tired of, to trade for other similar items, or completely different ones. Some venues feature actual designers with their own sewing machines and materials. The most notable of these events is the Swap-O-Rama Rama. It focuses more on the DIY aspect of swaps, with workshops where they teach you how to "sew, embroider, bead, fix, repair, knit, etc." After you've learned the necessary skills, you can head to the clothes transformation stations and show off. The main thing to keep in mind, though, is all of this is free.

The cheapest way to do anything, though, is to do it yourself. This culture extends far beyond clothing swaps. The DIY Network, a cable and satellite channel in the U.S has a large section of their website devoted to the take-charge activity, ranging from children's costumes to garden gloves. A basic web search for "DIY clothing" returns many results, also. If you've ever had a craving to make electronically-powered clothing, for instance, the Internet will definitely cater to your needs. The punk culture of the United States likes to take much of the credit for the popularization of DIY clothing. Therefore, if you have a punk (or even a hipster-like) sense of fashion you can't go wrong with the fashion recipes on the net.

Sources:

Swap-O-Rama Rama:http://www.gaiatreehouse.com/swap.htm
DIY Network:http://www.diynetwork.com/
National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops:http://www.narts.org/