By Meghan Casey Loftus
It was a Friday night late September in New York City. I was nearing the end of my walk home from work, feeling both joyful and exhausted by the end of fashion month. Unlike most people who recharge and recuperate by staying in and taking a bath or watching Netflix by themselves post fashion month, I was making plans to go out.
I planned on stopping by my Wash & Fold to pick up my laundry before heading to my apartment to change and freshen up pre-dinner and drinks with friends. If you don’t have the luxury of knowing what a Wash & Fold is, essentially, it’s an overpriced laundromat many New Yorkers drop their clothes off at for someone to wash, dry and fold their clothes for them. Because even though we pay $3000 for a tiny apartment, why would it have laundry in the unit right? As any fashion girl typically would, I try to avoid Wash & Fold and just do my loads myself at a laundromat so I can decide what hangs dry, what washes in cold, etc. But with this particularly large laundry load post fashion month I was too tired to do it myself and thought it would be nice to enjoy my Sunday this weekend. I stop in Laundry to You (my fave local lady) and hand her my ticket. She’s looking around at the sea of Ikea bags in her 200 square foot laundry mat. As two minutes pass I’m getting slightly nervous as to why she’s looking more frantically now. She turns back to me and apologetically tells me every fashion girl’s worst nightmare, “I think I sent your bag home with the person who came in right before you, maam.” She reassured me she would call me when they returned and that she would reach out to them if she could. I took a deep breath and said thank you and told her not to worry about it - it’s just stuff after all.
But as soon as I closed the door behind me I literally started crying. There were so many cute, unique pieces in there. Vintage pieces. That’s when I realized it wasn’t just stuff. The Zara t-shirt is replaceable. The Nike socks are replaceable, I told myself. But the handmade 70’s inspired lime green floral dress is not replaceable, the black linen jumpsuit is not replaceable, the Proenza long sleeve from SP18 is not replaceable. Thankfully, this downward mental spiral only lasted a block or two when I answered a call from “Laundry to You,” with good news. This whole experience opened my eyes though to the pieces in my wardrobe I actually cared about - the thrifted ones. The styles no one else has. And so that Sunday, I went thrifting.
Metropolis Vintage
803 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
L Train Vintage
204 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10009
AuH2O
84 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003
Buffalo Exchange
714 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Round Two
113 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002
Tokio 7
83 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003
Urban Jungle
118 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
The Break
41 Norman Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Awoke Vintage
16 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Beacon's Closet
74 Guernsey St, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Cure Thrift Shop
111 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
I hope you try these spots out! If you find some goodies, be sure to post them and tag us @rawandrealnyc.