Skip to main contentDeciding just where to turn last season's disco discards into cold, hard cash can dizzy even the most styling gals, guys or teens worth their weight in fashion magazines.
Not to fret, "niche resale" can fill up one's piggy bank while helping to empty out your closet. But specialty resale boutiques, like Well Suited and newcomer Plato's Closet, don't want every slack T-shirt and scuzzy shrug you can scrape off your bedroom floor. They cater to specific tastes in the shopping swampland that is resale. Well Suited seeks designer suits and sportswear, while Plato's Closet craves teenage trendwear. And even though their pickings are slimmer, if you play it just right, you might earn a sweeter margin sloughing off your seconds to them than you could hawking your used wares to the hipsters at Buffalo Exchange and Red Light. Plus you don't have to endure the faint humiliation of having your Marc Jacobs (OK, Old Navy) pawed by an appraising stranger as all of Hawthorne looks on.
Plato's Closet is so deep in suburbia, no one cool will ever see you. Occupying an anonymous-looking box in the behemoth Tanasbourne Town Center, Plato's Closet has struck a new vein. The smallish store offers all the labels that send teens into seizures of brand bliss (Abercrombie & Fitch, Roxy, Guess) in a resale format. That Tommy Hilfiger shrunken polo that would run a cool $50 off the rack goes for only a 10-spot at Plato's. And as long as you don't shudder at the stigma of "gently worn"(and what self-respecting Sex in the City-watching fashion follower does anymore?) you can have it all. On my weekday visit, I saw teens struggle in lugging Banana Republic shopping bags bulging with castoffs. Recent acquisitions clogged the shelves behind the caisse.
And the wares for sale? Miles upon piles of shrunken polos. I did find a couple of street-worthy pieces in perfect shape--like an unworn shell top with chic puffed sleeves and a jaunty waist-tie for $6. But style-seekers unimpressed by mainstream brand cachet will have to dig through racks of pilling pullovers that just happen to have celebrity hangtags. Fashion asks: Are teens really this boring?
Yes. Plato's stuff is undeniably selling. Owned by Winmark, the same company that franchises Play It Again Sports and Once Upon a Child, Plato's Closet is the latest bright idea in the growing trend of niche resale--an eBay-like barter movement where businesses profit by skimming a margin off what are basically peer-to-peer transactions. Think of it this way: It's like Dad taking five bucks when you give your best friend a pair of your old jeans (Plato's pays 40 percent of eventual sale price for items that are worth over $15, and 20 to 25 percent for smaller potatoes). Though chains like Buffalo Exchange have harnessed the power of hipster resale, hooking teens is the hot new game.
On the cooler side of hot, Northeast Broadway's Well Suited is now taking women's consignment. Long associated with high-quality men's consignment, the 6-year-old resale boutique is dabbling in finer women's wear. The big difference between consignment shops and places like Plato's is that it takes longer to get paid. Owner Henry Goy says he chose this narrow niche because there's so much competition in women's resale. "I don't want to get into sundresses." Stocking solid professional brands like Anne Klein and Liz Claiborne and some classic Italian pieces (including a suede and wool Gianfranco Ferre suit for a mere $40), Goy says his knack for knowing what will sell is improving.
"I've had four pairs of Prada shoes come in here, and they last a day" (call me next time, Henry). That saucy pair of Kate Spade plaid mules ($30) won't last long either. Consignment doesn't deliver the instant gratification of cash resale, but there are other perks. Consignment is the ultimate in discreet discarding--bring in that wedding suit you never wear, and if Well Suited sells it, you get a check for 40 percent. Just how and where you got those Kate Spades is your (free) little secret.
All proceeds from this one- day sale benefit Buffalo Field Campaign, a nonprofit group devoted to raising awareness of the plight of the last free- roaming buffalo in Yellowstone National Park.
1420 SE 37th, 234- 1302. 10 am-8 pm Saturday, April 20. Open 10 am-8 pm Monday- Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday.
WWeek 2015