Why Thrifting in Hong Kong is AMAZING | Secondhand Shops You Should Know

They just don't make them like you anymore. We're going thrifting! It's so fun! Oh, this is so cute! I feel like I need to wave to someone. Until the First World War, the soldiers thought, okay, I can give this to my sweetheart. I want to get married again! I want to wear this! Hong Kong is home to an abundance of thrift and vintage shops, with stuff stores locally, a wide selection of stuff from Japan and Korea, and kind of just from all over the world. I think this is German. All at different price points. My main purpose today is to find things that fit in with the Spring-Summer 2021 trends. I noticed a lot of the popular items are very 70s, 80s, 90s, even early 2000s. So I figured why not go straight to the source of when these concepts were actually made? Now, when it comes to shopping secondhand, there's a bunch of choices depending on your location and your budget. Some overlap each other and some are very different. For example, vintage isn't necessarily thrift, then thrift isn't necessarily vintage, but there is a category of vintage thrift. Today, we're going to be visiting thrift stores, vintage shops, luxury consignment vendors, and online resellers. It's going to be a mixture. If you want to do this semi-efficiently, the very first thing you want to do is come up with a list of items. One of the things that I like to do in order to create a list, specifically when I'm looking for trends of the season, is look through different websites for their trend predictions according to the runway shows and just see what I like and see what I think would work well for me. I have the sudden urge to just wear bright colors. I just want bright colors all around me and this website, WhoWhatWear, captures it perfectly. Rediscovering the joy of getting dressed. I want a trench. I really love this look. All right, my list is complete. I am stepping out of my comfort zone here and I'm going for things I normally wouldn't go for. I'm going to have fun with this. So I want some crew neck sweaters. Those aren't out of the ordinary, but just like the colors and stuff. I want bold collars, graphic tees, bright florals, bright pants, skirts, shorts, a trench coat, button-downs, corset, and I'm looking for the colors yellow, bubblegum pink, and blue. I am a big lover of black as you can see. I wear it a lot. There is a purpose to this outfit. Actually, I can explain that right now. So the next step you want to do is dress for the occasion. And this is because a lot of thrift shops don't allow you to try things on or they don't even have a change room, but they do allow you to layer things on top of your clothes. So wearing something that's tighter fitting will be really helpful. You also want a nice phone case to frame your list beautifully. Mine is from Casetify who is so kindly sponsoring this portion of the video. I've gotten a bunch of really cute phone cases that match the spring aesthetic that I'm going for. You can see here a lot of my thrift list is actually really similar. So yellow, pink, blue, florals, bright colors, bold. This is who I want to be right now. I just love how many designs they have to choose from and their collaborations. Recently, they did one with NBA and my husband has a basketball obsession. So I bought it for him. Not only do they look great, but they're made up of 50% recycled material, have an antimicrobial coating, and they offer military-grade protection thanks to their two-layer G-Tech technology. So these guys, these little guys here give extra protection. Head to casetify.com to check out their website and get 15% off your purchase. I'll leave the link below in my description box. Thank you, Casetify. And with that, let's get to thrifting. The route we're taking today is through Western Hong Kong Island, then we'll move to TST before finally ending up in Jordan. But first, let's fuel up with some local-style breakfast. I went for the continental breakfast. It's interesting because in Hong Kong, they'll serve this with a chicken fillet or pork chop or beef fillet. So I went for the chicken fillet. And of course, the classic milk tea. Another popular and traditional breakfast dish is macaroni soup. I'd say it's similar to a simple chicken noodle soup with ham instead of chicken. This set comes with a side of scrambled eggs, ham, and toast with generous amounts of butter. With a happy stomach and excited eyes, I made my way down to our first shop. Me & G has many locations across Hong Kong and is known as the city's holy grail of thrifting. There's items for as low as $5, and I especially love their selection of jackets. So fun. $150. Looking for some funky collars. I was looking for yellow. And I love the little details. The yellow pokes through here. Yay, item one found! Blazers, leathers, and t-shirts. Ah, so cute! You can find Levi's jeans here at 70% to 90% off and a ton of Korean and Japanese fashion. Should I get this? With like a satin slip dress underneath. So tight in here. I don't know if you can tell by the camera, but there's not much room. It's easy to find a lot of stuff here. And if you're not sure on something, they do have top fashion deciders in-store to help you out. Mine, mine? Yeah. Yeah? Okay. Two for two. Okay, so I did it. Our first shop was a big success. I bought a full bag of clothes and we're gonna head to shop number two. Oh, you're so cute. How much time do we have? I want to spend like all afternoon in here. I feel like I'm in my grandmother's closet. This is so nice. I make vintage. In the past like 10 years, I start to realize that the vintage style that I'm into is very elegant, timeless. I've made the name Vintage 1961 because 1961 was the year of Breakfast at Tiffany's and that is like the most classic look. We get a lot of Italian jewelry, Italian handbags, our clothing, they are Japanese. And then we have a lot of German ones as well. Czechoslovakia as well. So it's basically all over the world. What are your three favorite items in the shop right now? Right now? Okay. I actually, this just arrived like a couple of days ago. It's a top hat that I wanted to show you today. Oh, okay. It's a top hat from like 100 years ago. Wow. The size would fit you, I think. It's velvet? Yeah. Oh, wow. Very small. It just fits me. In the 20s, 30s, the Hollywood movie star, they start to wear top hats as well when they wear pants and yeah, put on like a gentleman style. The second one would be like a sweetheart bracelet. It was initially designed in late Victorian period and it was made for little girls initially. And then until the First World War, they sort of got really smart and they thought, okay, I can give this to my sweetheart before they go to the war. And then during the Second World War, like 1930s, 1940s, different brands, they start to get really smart and they start to promote it as a sweetheart bracelet. So it becomes sort of like a commercial product. So you can find quite a lot of this from the Second World War, more than First World War. First item, I would say it's a twinset. It's a 1960s twinset. Oh, it's a dress. Yeah. So cute. Could I maybe carry it on? Yeah, okay. Thank you. I'm actually like smiling and making a face out, but you can't see that. Just know I'm smiling inside because I really like this. Oh, there's pockets too. So cute. Would you like to have a comfy look? Yes. My delicate hands. I feel like I need to wave to someone out of the car. Did you know? It's the gloves. There's so many around this area. Tucked behind an assortment of temple charms. I'm going to have a harmful year. Decorative items, souvenirs, historical pieces, weapons, and all sorts of antiques that belong to a street called Cat Street Market is our next stop, Hipster Nine. Hipster Nine is a luxury vintage clothing shop with items sourced from Japanese auctions and the owner Helen's friends, many of which happen to be local celebrities. I came up with the idea and opened a shop so I could collect my friends' best clothes, whatever, and share with someone who cannot afford this price. You spend a little bit and you get this good quality secondhand bag. I especially love their selection of shoes and bags such as this Chanel cooler. So cute. It's for ice. Yes. It's a cooler. And pastel pink backpack. It's a great place to find unique statement pieces to add that final touch to any outfit. After about five minutes of walking, we arrived at our next shop, which was located above a Japanese restaurant in a very unassuming building. You can't even see anything from the window. And it makes me feel like I know something. Now you know the secret too. This one is by appointment only and that's because the owner Sam is a popular stylist. So she's not always at the shop. Hi, I'm Sam. I'm running the shop Xiao Shi Guang since 2013 and I'm mostly selling vintage from clothes to bags and jewelry. The stuff mainly from France. I collect from antique during the Victorian period and Edwardian period to 1980s or 1990s. My most favorite designers Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. This is the signature silhouette from Yves Saint Laurent. Very boxy. Yeah, he is so amazing. This is my favorite actually. See this is a museum collectibles items and it's a limited edition from Cartier. And then you can see the jewelry design is really really beautiful and the color. I didn't even know Cartier made these bags. Yeah, because most of the people they know they have the jewelry but they do they make bags. Maybe I can show you this box. I love this starfish. This is from Yves Saint Laurent and the period is like around early 1980s and is made by the very great French jeweler Robert Gaussin. I really just love the simple and very dramatic design from him. Christian Dior is so different. The jewelry is very ladylike and for the elegance and this is from they have the stamp at the back. It should be 1967. So it's very old but you can see this is very nice. The craftsmanship is very beautiful. For clothes, I have my dress. It's from 1970s when Karl Lagerfeld still working in Chloe. You can see his work. Actually, it's very very elegant and very soft. Oh, wow. This is a Christian Dior. It's actually for men. Yeah, it's from 1970s as well. Items like this are so classic. They never go out of style. Yes. I could pass this to my son or daughter. I want to get married again. I want to wear this. I want to give birth to him. What? I'm just thinking of my next special occasion. It's going to be his date. Elephant. Yeah. So cute. It's one of the trends for spring and summer. Vertical skirt. This is 80s. Still made in Hong Kong. This one from 60s to 80s. The garment industry in Hong Kong manufacturing is so amazing. When I keep collecting the things that I found in Hong Kong, it's much more sentimental. I will treasure this. Yay, thank you. Thank you. As long as I live and have my children. This and my coat. Yay. Across Victoria Harbour and up three flights of stairs is Little Dot. Hello. Thank you. This shop primarily sells women's vintage clothing and accessories from the 70s and 80s since the owner, Emmy, really loves those times. Fits. I mean, I wouldn't wear this together necessarily, but yeah, I really like it. Okay, today I've learned two things. People of the past have really small heads. The size is quite small. So tiny. I guess we got smarter. I think so, yeah. We need more space for all of our brains now. And they have a really strange ability to be able to do up all their buttons in the backs all the time. Small heads, long arms. I like this skirt a lot. It's like a muted orange. This skirt is so fun. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. And yes, it's from the USA. Ding, ding, ding. Okay, I've decided. I'm gonna go with the pants. I think I'm gonna get the orange skirt. It's not something I would normally purchase and not a colour I've ever worn before. But I'm gonna try something new, something a little bit bolder. And I'm gonna get this one. One station over in Jordan is our last shop. Hi, my name is Jeff Rotemeyer. I'm founder and CEO of ImpactHK, a charity in Hong Kong empowering the homeless community. This shop is called One of a Kind. It's our first ever retail shop. It employs individuals who previously experienced homelessness. It provides great quality clothing at extremely low prices and saves high quality stuff from ending up in our landfills. One of a Kind teams up with retail companies and brands to get their off-season samples. So you can find really affordable, high-quality items that are brand new. I love them. Ted Baker. These are so cool. This is literally Sagittarius behavior. Like, I can't pick an aesthetic for my life. This is my true personality. The price range here for adult clothing is $40 to $200 and they also have a good selection of kid stuff for $20 each. Besides clothing, they have books, their own products, including their own coffee beans from their cafe that also helps to get people off the streets by employing them. And sometimes, if you go at the right time, they have really fabulous in-store models. Success! That was a great day. All right, so it has been a few days now. The clothes are washed, dried, and I also grabbed one more thing from an online shop. This is from The RealReal. It's an Escada tweed jacket. I love the classic cutting. I love the color. So yeah, there's just that too. And with that, may I please introduce you to my spring-summer 2021 lineup. I'm ending it off with one of my favorite items of the day, this trench coat I got. It's really interesting because on the inside, you can see that it's from Dior Monsieur. Christian Dior Monsieur was a men's line in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. It was then changed to Dior Homme when LVMH Group took it over. And then more recently, I think in 2018, they changed it to Dior Men's. So they just don't make them like you anymore. The owner left the original tag on it. It kind of looks like one of the school projects you did as a kid when you would use tea bags to make something look old. Thank you so much for coming shopping with me today. I really enjoyed hunting for new treasures and talking to the shop owners who are really passionate about what they do, whether it's from a more historical fashion aspect or a sustainability aspect or a community outreach aspect. I hope you found some new shops to check out if you live here in Hong Kong, and if not, the next time you visit. I know some do have online shops, so I'll link all their information below in the description box. If there is any outfits you really like, please let me know. I'm still trying to figure out how to style them. Or if there's a particular piece and you have an idea of how to style it, help me out and let me know too. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you in my next video. Bye!