I have a beef. Since the explosion of vintage clothing on the mainstream fashion scene, there are tons of sellers out there taking advantage of second hand clothing.
While I of course encourage the wearing of vintage and second hand clothing, I do not however encourage the selling of un-washed and un-pressed clothing at premium prices.
Have a look. This dress is offered on an online store (of which I won't name). Although very pretty and I love the color, it is incredibly wrinkled. Which makes me think, "is it washed?". And for a $112 price tag, it better be.
I take great care in handwashing, dry cleaning, pressing, hanging and folding of my precious vintage clothes. I just cannot imagine selling a dress in a wrinkled, un-pressed and unwashed state. Eeewwwwww.
Would you buy such a product? And then pay shipping on top of it? And then have to have it cleaned yourself? I should hope not.
Dear readers, while this photo is artistic, appealing to the senses and sharp - look closer. (And always read the fine print.) Nowhere in the listing does it say it is cleaned. It looks like it was just pulled out of the plastic shopping bag from the store it was bought from.
This pretty dress is $410, very wrinkled. Is this how the buyer will receive it?
$388. A beautiful gown.....but the buyer should definitely ask questions about how, when and if this is washed.
Don't be fooled by pretty pictures. That's just called marketing. As an old friend who is an ex-marketing guru once said, "it's just chicken - but it's how you arrange it on the plate that matters". Caveat emptor, and do your research.
Or buy one of these:
4 comments:
Thank you for posting about this Veronica. I totally agree with your comments. How you present your vintage for sale, tells you an awful lot about the person selling it. It seems clear that a lot of these online sellers couldn't care less about the clothes. The examples you've provided are testament to this.
Being in the business of 'vintage', I also take a lot of time and effort to get my vintage clothing ready for sale. It's a disgrace to see sellers offering wrinkled, dirty vintage pieces with a huge price tag to match.
At the end of the day, it's down to the buyer, who should ask questions of the seller. If something is poorly presented, who's to say it won't arrive with other issues like odours or damage?
Eeek! If you're going to sell at those prices, for goodness sake, take the trouble of cleaning and pressing. It's not rocket science. Failing to do so shows a complete lack of respect for your customer. Who wants to receive a wrinkled old dress in the post?
Let's hope that the buying public start taking notice of these shoddy sellers and simply refuse to buy. These people give vintage a really bad name.
Thanks again for posting about this. :-)
Hello Louise! Thanks so much for your comment. As a colleague you can greatly understand my frustrations with these kinds of actions. Knowing how much work goes into preparing any item and then to see this lack of respect for clothing and customer...just wanted to bring it to the client's attention.
A more informed customer is a happy customer!
Hope all is well at Catwalk Creative Vintage :)
xoxo
Veronica
I collected about 15 vintage dresses from eBay sellers, and NONE of them were clean, let alone pressed! I had to do my research and set to work myself, carefully cleaning years of grime and spending hours pressing them. Some I had professionally cleaned, and it was expensive! I eventually sold some of the dresses and am proud to say the new owners got pressed and cleaned items! (Fortunately, I loved the process of bringing my dresses back to their former glory!) To be honest, I thought this was the norm! Thank you for confirming that my disgust upon receiving my dirty dresses was not misplaced.
Cheers,
Adrienne
Thank you Adrienne for mentioning that!
Ebay sellers need to disclose if an item is cleaned just as much as online webstores - so at least you know what you are getting. If something shows up unclean and unpressed it's because you know about it and are ready to do the work involved. However, the nature of an auction can raise prices dramatically, but you still need to know the condition of an item.
You are quite within your rights to feel the 'ewww factor' - especially if you were not expecting it!
Best,
Veronica
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