This Instagram Account Is Dedicated To The ‘Luckiest’ Thrift Store Finds (50 New Pics)
InterviewIt’s no secret that thrift stores are real treasure troves. Many enjoy hunting for sustainable and affordable garments, statement pieces and unique artwork. However, if you've ever been to one, you know that there's plenty of weird stuff as well. In fact, so much of it, that someone even created an Instagram account to showcase it.
Enter "Thrift Store Art", a place where more than 213K followers enjoy questionable decorative objects people find while thrifting. From the most eccentric T-shirt designs and weird cat paintings to sequin pillowcases with Nicolas Cage’s face on it, you’re bound to see something entertaining.
Continue scrolling and check out the top posts we have collected from this Instagram account. When you’re done with this article, don't forget to check our previous posts about it here and here.
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“Here’s a picture of me with my thrift store find - a photograph of an unknown woman who basically looks exactly like me with a beehive.”
like the title says, these are all from instagram... youre not going to get a reply from the person on bored panda, they didnt post it here.
Load More Replies...It's a lucky thrift store find because now she need not experiment with a beehive or cats eye glasses to know how they'll look.
Thank God for those cosmic fashion police. I croaked when my white GoGo boots and all my hippy dippy weatherman clothes made the vintage designation. The seventies gave us some clothes that just never should have been on anyones bodies.
Load More Replies...I found a photo album of my mothers father. He was a handsome young man who chose to work in logging up in Seattle. There he was with all these women in leather what we call culottes , and no boots, taking a hit on a big old cigar. There was one picture of a women with long hair and big eyes wrapped only in a blanket. She had let the blanket fall off her shoulders so her hair and promise of what was under that blanket could not be hidden. And her face looked like mine had been superimposed on hers. Very weird. This man went on to work on the first Indian motorcycles, was involved with the first electric wheelchair designs, married a woman he took a train cross country with, took pictures of Indians, and ending at the Santa Monica Pier. A place I knew so well. Maybe walking over where is footsteps walked decades earlier. Sadly his bride was killed when his teak houseboat blew up on Lake Michigan years later. My mom was to young to go but her sister went. Only she and grandpa survive
I've been following these people who are studying personality types and they're finding that many people who share the same type/traits look very similar to one another. If anyone is interested, Objective Personality System.
I worked as a nurse assist when I was young and an elderly gentleman showed me a photo of his wife who looked very similar to me. It was so strange, my only guess is that the lady is a distant relative, as some of my family came from the same city.
You should tell people it's you 50 years ago and you're immortal. Lol
You should frame it acc tell ppl you're immortal, while looking dead serious.
Are you sure your not adopted? Age of lady in picture could be your mother’s or grandmother’s age. Maybe a long lost cousin? I’d try looking her up. You could find out if the store you found it at keeps a record if when or if they picked up her items. It might be interesting who she is. Did you run it past the local tv stations? Sounds like a good human interest story they would like. Someone might know her. Or a classmate might see picture cause it looks like a school picture from 50’s or so. Good luck.
My brother spent hours trying to figure out who we came from. My one grandfathers Swedish family was given the surname Johnson upon arrival. My dads dad was polish and I'm not sure if Novack was given to make some other polish surname simpler. One of the things A cape hung in a closet for years that was worn by a distant relative during the Lewis and Clark expedition. I gave it to a relative on my dads side of the family tree who had some uncle or cousin that was on the same expedition. We also had a Nazi in there somewhere. My dads dad was amazing. Read all the classics after having to drop our of scoop at 14. Became a printer for high flyer kites, which we always were eager to get, and printed the first Mylar kite. My moms dad brought us really cool leather bullwhips. Indiana Jones embodied in two little kids. We wore those welts we gave each other like the Medal of Honor. Faint shadows remain.
I read that you have around 5 people around the world that looks like you and I think it's true. I have seen serveral people that especially from behind I thought was my mom. Same style of clothing, hair etc. I live in a different city, and once I called her out on the phone for going to my town without telling me. She has no business here, it 's a much smaller city and only knows me here. She said she was at home, so I took a picture of this woman and sent it to her thinking I caught her but no, it wasn't her. That was chilling 😱 It has happened before too.
..and people wondered why I wanted a DNA test done to find out who I'm related to that I didn't previously know..
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LOL you are just an unpleasant person aren't you?
Load More Replies...While for some, thrifting offers a way to express creativity in a much more sustainable way, for others it’s a place to find essential clothing at an affordable price. It’s a big industry that generates about $10 billion in market size per year. According to research by IBISWorld, "As the economy recovers from 2020, industry growth is expected to increase slightly as consumers seek to make more permanent saving habits in their retail shopping."
Bored Panda reached out to Jennifer Le Zotte, an assistant professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and author of From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies, to talk about the background of thrifting and why it is so favored today.
According to her, the popularity of thrift stores relies heavily on factors that have always made second-hand desirable. "Thrifting has seen periodic fashionability since the 1920s, akin to any ebb and flow of cool pastimes. So, Gen Z is a generation that has seen massive disruption of some kind—like the youth following, WWI, WWII, during the Vietnam war, economic crises of the 1970s, and the "culture wars" of the 1990s."
The professor is talking about the global pandemic and growing climate crisis that we face today. In these times, thrifting scratches several itches: "It's at least seemingly more environmentally responsible than buying new things all the time, and it is a way to connect (sometimes even through online shopping) materially with others' lives," she explained. "At a time when the economic prospects are uncertain, thrift shopping feels anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist."
Thinking about the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure", we wanted to find out why certain people see things that others give away as amusing. The professor mentioned that the surrealists might be the ones who made thrift-shopping cool.
"In the 1920s, avant-garde artists—surrealists and dadaists especially, like André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst and the Baroness Esa von Freytag-Loringhovenl—embraced the artistic possibilities of discarded objects."
"In his 1928 semi-autobiographical work Nadja, Breton, the 'father of Surrealism,' describes secondhand shopping as a transcendent experience," she continued. "Discarded objects, he wrote, were capable of revealing 'flashes of light that would make you see, really see.'" The question is, why did they feel that way?
Jennifer Le Zotte provides us with a couple of possible reasons. First, they might have viewed different cultures from an elitist perspective, or in other words, "poor people go to flea markets and try to find something they can use for cheap." And artists got too excited about queer objects and how they are removed from their original intentions.
Another generous interpretation would be that "it's amusing because it's like an incomplete story that the viewer gets to imagine some of the parts for. Why was this object made? Who bought it? What was its original context? I think there's a real urge to connect across cultural, spatial, and temporal divides."
When it comes to thinking about the younger generations and why are they so into thrift-shopping, the professor said that it could have something to do with the world Gen Zers saw while growing up. For example, facing the problems of global labor practices, climate change, and consumption. "Also, the rapid pace of production in the past fifty years means there's more cool 'old' or aging stuff out there to be creative with or about! So they have the motivations and the tools," she mentioned.
However, the pandemic also had its effects: "The way that thrifting has escalated specifically during the relative isolation of the pandemic indicates to me that this is a way to connect without connecting. First, it's almost like spying, to see the stuff other people got rid of." Also, thrifting has grown as an identity marker, "something you can participate in with others from all over. I think that accounts for the social media accounts and so forth that have an almost cult-like following. I really think things are, in this case, about people."
A year ago, we talked to the author of "Thrift Store Art" about the project and the inspiration for it. Bryan Dickerson, the man behind the account, is a freelance content creator from San Francisco. According to him, the idea of Thrift Store Art is "not to bash art but to expand what can be considered as art—clothing, album art, book graphics, vacation souvenirs."
What inspires Bryan the most is the level of absurdity that such weird thrift items carry: "It is something I would never make. But someone out there thought it was the best idea in the world and spent the time to see it through." To a certain extent, you’re able to "experience what they feel is important in a benign and non-politically-charged way," he explained.
Bryan also told his side of the story, why he’s such a fan of thrift stores and how they promoted his creativity. "Before punk rock moved to the shopping malls, all we had were thrift stores to find and create a look, decorate the apartment, or construct some kind of aesthetic," he said. "Table cloths became fashion ponchos, Ronco food dehydrators became wall art, and crocheted doggie pants became beer koozies."
So in this version terrorists stole Christmas and Jesus is comforting Santa? And why are Santa's gloves off? Is it a metaphore? This has so many layers.
"You had no right to possess me." "Possession is a strong word. I'd like to say 'Borrowed you.'"
Is this actually a thing that people do? I've never painted my cat!!
I'm going to choose to believe it's a candle because all other possibilities are unacceptable.
I grew up with TV ads for "the man they called Reveen" always on his farewell tour, or comeback tour.
Note: this post originally had 99 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Oh my!!! This was hilariously bad art and... so many questions left unanswered
We conclude with new knowledge: thrift shops worship ET and Nic Cage.
I thought this was going to be about people who found great vintage or valuable items in thrift stores.
Omg... these would make PERFECT white elephant at the company Christmas party when you get that 1 coworker. They would never know where it came from.
I guess I'm the freak who would thoroughly enjoy having every single thing on this list except the finger candle. Weird is beautiful. I would definitely be passing down these objects to future generations.
my questions are left un answered and i had the same question every time....................WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Oh my!!! This was hilariously bad art and... so many questions left unanswered
We conclude with new knowledge: thrift shops worship ET and Nic Cage.
I thought this was going to be about people who found great vintage or valuable items in thrift stores.
Omg... these would make PERFECT white elephant at the company Christmas party when you get that 1 coworker. They would never know where it came from.
I guess I'm the freak who would thoroughly enjoy having every single thing on this list except the finger candle. Weird is beautiful. I would definitely be passing down these objects to future generations.
my questions are left un answered and i had the same question every time....................WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY