One of the worst thrift store shopping experiences isn’t going home without a great thrift score, but rather accidentally purchasing a horrid thrift fail.
Last holiday season I went thrifting for a quintessential ugly Christmas sweater. I scored one from my nearby Goodwill outlet that I loved and decided to wear the next day in honor of the week leading up to December 25th.
After wearing it for about an hour, I noticed pieces of fluff on the ground. Minutes later, I noticed that same fluff on my pants, too. It was then that I put two and two together and realized that my ugly Christmas sweater was shedding!
The sweater ended up being a disaster. With each move I made, more fluff fell and eventually, the armpits and sleeves unraveled completely. Because I was working at A Little Wicked that day I had nothing to wear once the sweater came off. I was stuck in black jeans (covered in fluff, no less) and a black tee. Not quite the holiday look I was going for!
If I’d had practiced some of my tips to inspecting thrifted clothing like a pro while shopping the outlet, I would have known that this ugly sweater was more than just ugly — it was pure trash.
Keep reading after the jump for my 4 tips and (many) tricks to inspecting your thrift store pieces so that you can learn from my mistakes and avoid a thrift fail of your own!
