I once gave a presentation in college about how the paintings I created revealed split personalities within myself. I believed it to be thought provoking and heartfelt, if a bit humorous. Somehow my ten-minute presentation managed to piss off one of the teachers, who thought I was mocking the project.
I didn’t take the less than impressive grade very well at all. I had not been mocking the assignment; I was very much in earnest.
The clothes we wear today, the sense of fashion that we identify with, much like the presentation topic I was assigned, ask that we describe who we are; to show it on the surface.
One of the most beautiful things about shopping at a thrift store is that, when you consider previous owners of the clothes, you reveal more personalities in a second-hand clothing shop than you are likely to find anywhere else (excepting only a psychiatric hospital and the Louvre). It is true that once these clothes hit the racks, they are just pieces of sewn fabric cut and styled, patterned and monogrammed, dyed and layered. They are no longer smaller articles that make up the greater whole. When we shop, therefore, we are looking at the potential of the piece.
In his Critique of Judgement, a philosophical theory of aesthetics by Immanuel Kant, he said that when looking at a work of art (and here, read “article of clothing”), the viewer experiences “four moments” in deciding the success of beauty in the piece:
1. Disinterest: viewing it with no personal interest. For example, look at craft, look at wear and tear.
2. Free Play: using the imagination and understanding. For example, what are the possibilities, what societal categories would we assign to the apparel?
3. The Whole: “considering the [article] as having elements that work together to form a whole.” For example, what would this pair well with to show it at its best? What would be the overall picture? Can the piece stand alone, or would it need to depend on another article of clothing, and if so, what?
4. Consideration as something others could find “beautiful”. Again, what are fashion and style without the consideration of how it places us in appearance and attitude with relation to others.
The beauty of thrift shopping is that, in addition to the wealth of options, thus improving the statistical odds of finding something “fitting”, is that it all comes at a very low price. We cannot ignore this blatant appeal. Financial possibility spearheads most of the decisions we make; that is the plain, honest truth of it.
So when we are in the thrift store, or standing at the clearance rack, or digging through a box at a rummage sale, it is not a sign of condemnation to financial despair. Instead, it is the bargain that we are taking advantage of. We are Rumpelstiltskin, where gold is an adventure of the self. The gold is the newness of how we feel about ourselves, the feeling of rebirth, in a way, as an entirely different type of person, who not only considers all possibilities, but a type of person that seeks them out. We are spinning straw into gold; we are turning cast-away threads into a prop for an experience we are determined to add to our general outlook on the world.
A friend once told me that I was a “Jack of All Trades”, and I took a umbrage thinking, and a master of none. Now I realize the fallacy: I feel exhilaration in the attempt to master the art of the “man who wears many hats”. It is a learning experience, to conform, but as a chameleon, to whatever occasion or mood suits. Is it truly conformity, therefore? Or is it a refusal to remain staid in one attitude?
When we shop at a thrift store, specifically, we are opening Ali Baba’s secret den to the innumerable treasures of personalities and identities held within. We are rich with opportunity and adventure and self-expression. We are able to find something surprising, something perfect, something unique. We are able to detail our expression of self, as a work of art. If you feel like a princess one day and a street-rat the next, then let those personalities shine.
Lots of Love and Happy Hunting!
shopclassgirl 