Thrift Shop Hacks : After Senen

Hey there it's actually still a post about Strolling Around : Jakarta.

The stories continues to my thrift shop hunt with my friend Asta Pramesti. Actually I have told that me and Asta have that thing with second stuff here in our strolls in Semarang last year. Tapi tiap kali kita thrift shopping, pasti ada aja orang di sekitar kita yang heran sama kesukaan kita yang satu ini. Beyond words, there is an unexplained excitement tiap kali liat thrift galore hahaha

We actually heard a lot about thrift shop myths. Banyak banget pendapat yang bilang kalo belanja di thrift shop itu nggak safety karena barang nya  udah downgrading, atau bahkan sampe tanya "Emang nggak takut kena penyakit kulit, kalau pake barang bekas orang lain?". Inget kan, beberapa waktu lalu juga sempet ada desas-desus kalau barang bekas impor dilarang diperjualbelikan di Indonesia. We were so shock back then, because, why? Thrift shop cycle in another country still went super well. Melbourne dan Tokyo deh, these ex-harbour cities have a great thrift shops kalo baca-baca di site nya travel bloggers.

But after a year, ternyata masih banyak juga thrift shop yang bisa kita datengin buat hunting barang secondhand, terutama pakaian. Nah, during our internship time, ada satu tempat yang udah ada on the top of our list to satisfy that hobby. Yash! Pasar Senen. Kesenengan banget pas masuk Senen, pokoknya. But before we grumbling about our (cool) findings there, we want to share our thought about why people should consider buying things from thrift shops:

1) Good News for Earth

We do think that by applying 3R (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse). It's more complicated than plastic bag dilema ngga sih? Proses clothing supaya beneran jadi cloth takes a lot of nature's effort too.

2) Good News for Us

Tau dong pasti yah kalo harga barang-barang di thrift shop itu lebih miring daripada barang di toko. For you who likes to do mix-matching, thrift shopping is a hack to have a crossover trends from the oldest to the newest.

Nah, biar kekhawatiran yang banyak muncul itu nggak kejadian, aku sama Asta biasanya ngelakuin beberapa hacks yang mungkin bisa kamu terapin kalo pengen nyobain thrift shopping:

1) First timer, dateng kalo bisa sama temen yang udah pernah belanja secondhand stuff. Supaya tau barang yang dicari ada di mana, dan nggak keliatan bingung. Because the trader know if we 're confused, salah-salah bisa kena harga tertinggi even if we think it's already cheap.
2) Asal nya barang-barang di thrift shop kan beda-beda, ada yang dropship, ada yang personal, pelan-pelan aja milihnya. Liat barang yang kamu mau beli masing bener-bener well, atau emang kamu amazed by the cuts or the price aja. But sometimes hal kayak gitu bisa jadi alesan buat bargain the price, misalnya ada kancing yang warna nya beda atau terlepas, atau ada sablon yang nggak pada tempatnya.
3) Clean is the must. We both never judge that barang thrift shop itu nggak bersih, tapi kadang mungkin karena disimpen kelamaan, ada noda kuning yang biasanya paling susah dicuci, biasanya di kemeja bahan katun yang paling keliatan. Make sure kalo udah kebeli tu barang, cuci bersih dulu baru dipake, yah. Biar keliatan baru rapih.
4) Bring your bargainer friend! Aku anaknya agak awkward kalo nawar-nawar, lucky me I got Asta on my back. Skill nawar ini biasanya dipake buat barang yang menurut kita agak pricey, like parka / denim jacket. Kalo udah murah banget, you can consider to buy it directly sih. Liat juga kondisi thrift shop yang kamu datengin, intinya jangan nguntungin diri sendiri but do think about the trader too.
5) Choose wisely. If you think you don't really need it, then go find for other thing. Emang sih, ga nahan banget barang lucu dengan harga terjangkau (dibandingkan barang baru). But if you'll stay in tropical country, why buy a furry coat? Investment? Bisa jadi consideration sih. But again, this is a hacks so shop wisely.

Nah kemarin di Senen aku dan Asta ngabisin 2 jam buat muter-muter. Which is kurang yah buat Senen yang banyak banget orang dagang barang second :')
But here are some items that we found!

Denim Jacket (with patches on it!)
Price offered : IDR 125k
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well, jahitannya kuat dan warna nya nggak shabby sama sekali.
Lack : Ada noda kuning di kerah yang ngga ilang pas di laundry, I think it needs more special treatment.

Actually this is not my love at first sight clothes pas jalan ke Senen kemarin. Ada yellow parachute jacket yang aku suka banget but eventually I ended up leaving that for some reason. Abis itu aku dan Asta nemu lapak yang barangnya denim jacket semua. And I fell for this one. Denim warna ini menurut aku bisa dipake di bright colors karena kebetulan aku nggak terlalu punya banyak pakaian dengan warna basic. And besides I am crazy over patches dan ini satu-satunya denim jacket yang ada patches nya so this is so far one of my best thrift shop found!

Nah, here's the deets. Warna jaket denim ini agak washed but like I said, nggak shabby.
Sebenernya baby pink hem (hem ternyata Dutch version of shirt loh!), yang aku pakai di dalam jaket juga dapet di Senen kemarin. So that's the second finding!

Baby Pink Shirt (UNIQLO short sleeve clothes)
Price offered : IDR 35K
Price after bargain : IDR 20K
Quality : 90% well, bahannya adem dan tebel. And the color is so Japanese street style tone :')
Lack : So far nggak ada sih, tapi karena agak kaku, jadi setelah dipake gampang lecek.

Kebetulan aku dan Asta masing-masing beli 2 item di tempat yang sama, dan baju ini tandeman dari boyfriend shirt nya Asta. Lucu aja awalnya si pedagang bilang harga pas banget meskipun si Asta nawarnya udah kayak sama-sama dagang. Di kios William Collection's ini awalnya aku cuma lewat, and somehow di Senen tu banyak cara berdagang yang lucu. Si abang penjaga toko pake pantun yang lol abis but we left karena awalnya ngga nemu yang kita suka. And after we go back, and pick 2 clothes, we met the boss yang eyel-eyelan harganya nggak bisa dikurangin. But after a minute of silent there's a song and he suddenly -randomly- asked who's the singer, the song was Counting Stars. I answered, "One Republic, kan ya?" and he accept our offer! Yeay thank you so much abang bos William Collection's.

Forest Green Boyfriend Shirt (worn as outer)
Price offered : IDR 65k
Price after bargain : IDR 50K
Quality : 90% well. Warna nya nggak shabby, warna ijo tuh rawan banget jadi shabby apalagi bahan nya tebal (mirip American Drill but I am not sure hehe).
Lack : Nothing much. Lack ini personal sih and since it's Asta's pick aku nggak terlalu liat ada kekurangan.

Dilema is one thing that usually came up during thrift shopping. Waktu ke Senen kemarin nemu jaket denim dengan warna Olive Green dengan harga IDR 50K pas, nggak boleh ditawar. But, that jacket was too shabby jadi keliatan kayak over washed a.k.a buluk. So, Asta memutuskan buat nggak beli dan akhirnya nemu denim yang doi banget, dan boyfriend shirt yang bahannya tebel gini. Meskipun pas pulang kebayang-bayang juga tuh jaket denim olive hahaha.

Denim Jacket #2
Price offered : IDR 125K
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well. Jahitannya kuat, jenis denim lebih berat daripada foto denim pertama.
Lack : Pocket button sebelah kiri atas ternyata udah bukan yang asli hahaha we missed checkin' this.

I am saying this one a lot more 'country' than mine soalnya warna nya lebih muda. The thing is nyari jaket denim buat Asta kemarin agak susah karena nyari yang ada kantong dalem dan cut nya sesuai yang dia pengen, which is not too short, for she likes the oversized one. Anyway meskipun nawar, better kalau temen yang dateng sama kamu juga mau beli barang yang sama. Kita dapet harga segitu karena pake embel-embel "kan, kita ambilnya dua pak...". Oiya, kadang ada hal yang bikin kita mikir banget misalnya kayak kantong dalem jaket ini yang kena jahitan kantong luar, jadi sempit buat masukin barang. Do ask the trader kalo ada hack yang bisa dipake buat ngakalin kekurangan itu, ya!

Despite all of the clothes we've got, the feeling of accomplishing thrift shopping mission di iconic place nya seconhand stuff is a feeling we can't barely tell!

We hope you'd try thrift shopping too, if you haven't :)

xx

Avi

P.S. All picture captured by Asta Pramesti