Womenswear Specialist in Consignment and Resale*

If you sell women's designer or couture clothing, deal with upscale resale, specialize in designer consignment or better-quality resale fashions for women, here are some tips from Too Good to be Threw, The Premier Site for Professional Resalers. Make your resale, consignment, or thrift shop more profitable with these womenswear ideas and sources. 

* Interesting. In my word-processing program, womenswear is flagged as a misspelling. Suggested change? "Women swear". To make sure your women don't swear, some ideas for your shop.

Style Info: 

Confused about haute couture, better, moderate, bridge designations in women's fashion? A quick explanation.

Stylish living? Trends, fads and ideas on Fashion Net and cutting edge designers and their ideas on Atelier Designers

Online Fashion Resources (great for your blog or social media) include:
Hint Mag is SO hip
A bit more mainstream: Today Show's Style pages.
InStyle has so much, you may never leave. Unless the %^# ads get to you. (Don't you love TGtbT being ad-free?)
Want more? For a global list of fashion e-mags, see world-newspapers.com.

Ask Auntie Kate:

Q: A very good consignor just brought in a turquoise lambskin skirt. The care tags and size are on it. But the label is just a thick green leaf sewn on the tag. Anyone know the designer? --Stephanie

A: All clothing originally has a tag (not saying it hasn't been removed!) that includes the RN (for American companies) or CA (Canadian) number which identifies the manufacturer. These numbers are usually on the small, simply printed black-and-white garment care tag. 

Look up that number on this FTC site (choose "search the database").  Once you have that info, you can Google to find the company's web site, on-line sites which MENTION that name, even check out eBay etc.... all of which will give you a fair estimate of the worth/ value/ desirability of any garment manufacturer.

Wholesale Shoppin' FOOL!
Suggestions from resale friends on Wholesale Shopping Areas:

Learn what's in, before you buy: 
Accessories Magazine 
Moda Manhattan 
California Apparel News

New York: Wikipedia on the NYC Garment District
Here's the Garment District's web site, with some great info.
New York Marketcenter

Los Angeles: Fashion District 
The Fashion District's Facebook page
California Market Center

The Shows and Marts:
Emerald Expositions Shows
UBM Shows 
Merchandise Mart, Chicago
Style Max shows in Chicago
Fame Shows 
Chicago and Atlanta and Dallas and Denver and Miami and even Minneapolis have marts.

Plus Sizes are a sorely under-served market. I don't know why. Some sites to research the new-merchandise area:
Alight has less-expensive items, good for seeing "what's in."
SWAK Plus Size
eloquii  
Need wider clip hangers? National Hanger has 16" versions. 

Want to capture the teen market?

Fashion File (Canada) and Teen Vogue
Teen fashion lingo
All "About" what they're wearing
Suggestion from a fellow resaler: Fashion House LA for wholesale teen-oriented clothing

Learn about your merchandise:

Clothing! Even includes a history of underpants...

ABOUT: Style Great for gathering "chat topics" to use with customers

Designer got you confuzzled? Net-a-Porter's directory of hundreds of fashion houses. Also great to check your spelling.

Fabrics: What is Tencel, anyway? And more here.

What size are those foreign shoes you just got in? What size hat would your husband wear in Japan? Check here for US, UK, European and Japanese sizes. 

Know your furs

Love vintage jewelry? Learn more here. Vintage clothing, labels, hats, furs and more on Vintage Fashion Guild.

Make your shop worthy of word-of-mouth:

Make sure your jewelry cards enhance your selection. And here's the adhesive earring card hangers you need, if you print your own cards. More unusual jewelry display props. And some more.
Your business card can say volumes about your shop

Supply Resources

Colored dots to use for shoe sizes

Finders Key Purse is a funny name for an old idea, revived...and ripe for selling in your shop! 

Want to learn about designer, and non, handbags... the real ones? This site will send you off in the right direction.

Scads more helpful links on our Links Page.