Thrifter as a profession

Hello, my name is Xenia Semenova, and I am a thrifter.

Self-portrait in the thrift store Talize September 2024. Photo by Kseniia Semenova.

When you don’t know how to control your hobbies it can become an addiction. 

It took me 23 whole years to realize that and sculpt it into a masterpiece skill of a thrifter. 

Nowadays I am helping my friends with their looks and I have Instagram page where I share my thrift finds and my own looks. 

Unfortunately, you cannot put “thrifter” with two decades of experience into the resume, but maybe we should. 

Real thrifters are people with huge knowledge of different brands, textile quality, best sales, also with qualities like determination, persistence, precision, of fashion and style and of course fast scanning and time management. Just like that you can become a buyer of some nice brandsBut what is a buyer of a brand? Wiki tells us  it is a person who works closely with designers, brand representatives, who needs to attendfashion shows and negotiates with fashion sellers, selecting merchandising, having understanding in trends and things like that. 

And now you tell me, if you are really fond of fashion, shopping and things like breathing into fabrics, with a desire to touch the texture, even scrub your cheek in a tweed jacket and looking what people are wearing on the streets, loving magazines, maybe this is what you need to do? 

I don’t want to brag here, but I used to work for Ukrainian fashion weeks and for fashion magazines and it was one of the best times in my life and my back up plan for what to do in life. 

Did this all come after the years of thrifting? Maybe it came with a love of affordable shopping and different apparels, not just what the shopping mall stores and the same trend is offering us. Because thrifting is digging into the time machine of fashion. In the same rack or pile of clothes you can find something from the late 80s, something from yesterday with a tag and sometimes something that people sewed themselves.  

 How the famous brand would say “I’m lovin’ it” and my opinion is that people with thrifting experience deserve to put “thrifter” into their curriculum vitae and it shouldn’t be any more underlined in Word with red as an unknown word.