For previous generations, finding a bargain pair of pants or shoes in an out-of-the-way thrift store was its own prize. Just ask your mom—no conversation about fashion is quite so satisfying as responding to the question “Where’d you get that?” with a casually unattainable “Oh, I thrifted it.”Today, the art of the thrift has more urgent undertones. Resale shopping is often described as a green solution to the well-documented hazards of fast fashion: overflowing landfills, growing textile waste, and outsized CO2 generation. But buying pre-owned clothing doesn’t have to be a sorry consolation prize for forgoing the alternative of quick-turn, trendy polyester.Thrifting can also be a crash course in cultivating style. Sifting through mountains of threads is much more conducive to honing your own fashion identity than picking up an ultratargeted, of-the-moment trend piece after it’s been served to you one too many times on Instagram. There’s something inimitable about rocking an outfit you...
