Coats are probably my favourite thing to thrift as they don’t require going into the dressing room, are generally in pretty good condition and are a fraction of the price!
The change of seasons in general is a great time to go to the thrift store but this is especially true for coats. People take their winter coat out from storage after 8 or so months to find it no longer fits their body or their style so they donate it.
I scored this beautiful Le Chateau coat last fall for $8 which I just couldn’t pass up. The plain dark grey colour is great because it goes with everything and as the weather gets colder allows me to add any of my scarves to it! I also like this length of coat as it allows me to wear the coat with skirts and dress.
When thrifting coats make sure you look for pilling of the fabric or broken weaves. When you try on the jacket make sure you do up all the buttons and zippers. A loose button is ok as they can easy be sewn on but if the coat is missing one of the 6 buttons and it is a unique looking button that can’t be replaced you would need to look at replacing all the buttons (make sure to check the inside of the coat as a few of mine have actually still had the replacement buttons on the inside). Also make sure you check the zipper, zip and unzip it a few times as this tends to be a problem area. If it is just the zipper clasp itself a tailor can fix that for about $10 but if the whole zipper needs replaces you are looking at a $30-$40 fix, which still may be worth it depending on the value of the coat and its price (try negotiating the price too as they may not have realized there was a zipper issue when it was priced).
Hope this helps and I would love to see any coats you score!
Ps. All but my skirt and tights are thrifted in this outfit!
