Second-hand

I was eight or nine years old before I realized that clothes for children could be purchased new, and that there were stores specifically designed for the purpose. My mother was an avid garage sale and thrift store shopper, and I guess that's where I thought children's clothes came from -- if I thought about clothes at all, which didn't happen often.

By the time I was in high school, I thought about clothes a lot more -- and I could finally choose for myself where to shop for them. As you might imagine, I was influenced by the years of enforced second-hand shopping. I could easily have resented wearing old clothes, especially as my family could have afforded to buy new ones, but that's not what happened. While I did begin buying some of my clothes at the mall, mostly I embraced thrift store fashion with renewed fervor. I had the following reasons:

• I wanted to look cool, like someone in a New Wave band (well, it was 1983)
• I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, finding something terrific buried among the junk
  
• I liked how every item was unique, knowing that I would be the only one wearing it
  
• I was unwilling to spend much money, and so was my source of funding (that is, my mother)

Speaking of my mother, she grew to regret the fashion lesson she had inadvertently taught me and my sister. She hoped to teach us economy, and we learned about uniqueness. As time passed, our outfits became less and less mainstream, and our mother at one point bemoaned our crazy clothes and wished out loud that she had taken us back-to-school shopping at the Gap instead of the Goodwill. For many years my sister and I continued to buy second-hand clothes, even as they evolved into "vintage" and became nearly as expensive as new clothes. Now I mostly buy my clothes new from the Gap because I am lazy, and because there's not much chance of my looking cool no matter what I wear.

However, I buy nearly all of Isaac's clothes second-hand. My reasons remain the same as they were in 1983, minus the New Wave part and with the addition of his rapidly outgrowing everything. I think I could count the number of brand-new clothing purchases we've ever made for Isaac on two hands, maybe three. In fact, I think the only new items that he currently wears are socks, shoes, and one pair of pajamas I bought at T.J. Maxx. (This doesn't include the gifts of new clothes we are occasionally given. Thanks, everybody!)

Unlike my high school days, however, I don't want to waste a lot of time shopping, so I try to find quick and easy sources for second-hand clothes. Between the ages of three to 12 months Isaac mostly wore clothes I bought from one woman I found through a parenting email newsletter, but of course he has long since outgrown those. My main clothing source these days is a children's consignment store in the town next to ours -- they have two five-foot racks devoted to boys' size 18-24 months, and I always find something good. (We've also gotten some toys there -- remember the Jumperoo?)

Isaac doesn't have a big wardrobe -- would all this be different if he were a girl? -- and certainly he's much too young to be affected by my shopping choices. But what will happen when he starts school? Will I start to see his second-hand clothes as embarrassing and shabby instead of cool and economical -- or if I don't, will he? Will he embrace his roots and become some kind of thrift-store radical -- or will he turn away and want to do all his shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch (or its 2020 equivalent)?

Chances are, he'll want to wear whatever will most horrify his parents.