Goodwill, of all sorts

So I live on my own and my main expense, after internet, electricity, heat, wine, and dinner ingredients, is clothes. I've got a banged-up sewing machine and a number of spools of thread and even a few needles, when I can find them, and I'm capable of doing my own alterations to some extent and certainly my own repairs. Until a couple years ago, though, my clothes came from mall stores, and this meant every six months or so staring wide-eyed at some ludicrous demand like $30 for a pair of not-very-nice jeans or $19 for a T-shirt. I have two Tahari suits from Macy's for which I had to take a deep breath before handing over the credit card. Not only were the clothes overpriced, they weren't very interesting, or very well-made: I shopped at Forever 21 and Rave.

Then a friend pointed out that not only was there an excellent grocery store over in Locust Point which would save me driving out of the city to get food (or to the Ghetto Safeway by the train museum, an even less enticing prospect), there was also, right next to it, a Goodwill Superstore. "You should check in there," she said. "Sometimes they have good stuff."

She lied: they always have good stuff. Every weekend I go in there before my grocery shopping and it's a very rare Saturday that I don't walk out at least with a movie or a book, and generally at least three items of clothing. It's dreadfully luxurious to be able to do that, and probably very bad for my character, but I finally understand what retail therapy means.

Almost everything I wear comes from that Goodwill. Ann Taylor suits (one of these is white silk, the most absurdly impractical garment I have ever owned), two pairs of Armani trousers, Badgley Mischka trousers, innumerable Express and The Limited silk tops, Diesel jeans, corduroy pants of the sort that make your bottom look fantastic, structured Express Design Studio blazers, a Calvin Klein jacket, Mizrahi shoes, Nine West shoes and boots, Ann Taylor Loft flats, the list goes on. Rarely have I bought anything from there that individually cost more than $15, and the worst I've had to do to the clothes I buy there is dry-cleaning and lengthening the pants legs.

Now when I go to the mall it's rather enjoyable to look through the real stores and sporfle at the prices they're asking. After months of buying work clothes for $4.50 a pair of pants or shirt, cheaply made Career Separates costing $40 and up seem like daylight robbery. When I tell people I shop almost exclusively at Goodwill, they tend not to believe me; Goodwill is where you send your things that can't be repaired or that you've grown out of or that you've never really liked all that much but can't bear to throw away. It's more than that: as the ads all over the shop say, every purchase you make goes to help other people. You get gently used designer clothing at a breathtaking price and the whole community benefits.

So give Goodwill a try. The one I visit is in the Southside Market Place shopping center, next to Shoppers Food Warehouse; there's a bunch of others around the area, including a "boutique" Goodwill outlet in the ground floor of the University of Maryland BioPark garage. You never know what you'll find, but it's worth a look.