Dress Agencies

I recently learned that a gift shop in my area, Munero, has extended their wares to include pre-owned clothing. They specify that these items will be exclusive labels: DKNY, Karen Millen, Coast, Monsoon, etc.

I dropped in a couple of weeks ago and found a number of items that tempted me. As it turned out none of them fit properly, but I was encouraged to try again another time. When we retire, our clothing needs can change drastically. Even men are faced with this. When he retired a couple of years ago, a friend said he thought the government should give a grant to help with clothing replacement for the change in lifestyle. A little drastic perhaps, but perhaps not here in the UK...

In any case, I have extremely few pieces that would qualify for this Dress Agency. That's what they call these places here in the UK. In the US it would be a Consignment Shop (Sometimes I think English is my second language). The principle is the same: take your very nice clothes in and if they can sell them for you they get some of the money and you get some of the money.

I made a note to mention this option to a number of friends who have or are about to retire. I'm still working on breaking up suits and making more casual outfits from the separate pieces. It sometimes works...and sometimes not.

What are you going to do (have you done) with your business clothes when you don't wear them anymore?