Vintage Ridiculous

Visiting second hand shops can often feel like you’ve just entered a potential serial killer’s home and are trying to play it cool for couple of minutes before you try make for the door. And unless the shop has a good ventilation system the smell of forgotten garments doesn’t campaign for your presence either.

Most of the items that fill second hand stores mystify you as to why they were ever manufactured, let alone passed on for second acquisition. And sometimes you’ll stumble upon items that appear as if they’ve never had a use or could ever be purposed to another for that matter.

Although in many regards, you could sing Bounty Hunters’ praises, there are certain things that -although contribute to the never-ending mystery of the shop- seem completely useless. Most items, relics of someone’s previously more eccentric existence, and others strange collectables that beg the question as to how they lasted through their own era and somehow managed to continue through others.

And like most thrift stores Bounty Hunters Charity Shop has their very own set of peculiar items, some useful since gold shurikens enclosed with a picture of thy enemy is a great birthday gift, and others simply astounding like a bloodstained handkerchief. Or though perhaps that could go along with the shuriken set.

You know, to mop up the blood once your giftee finally gains the courage to use those babies in person.

Top hats

Asian Clogs

Gold shurikens

Didgeridoos

Pill box hats

Capes

Embroidery art

Green lipstick

Tiny handbags

Blood stained handkerchief

 

Second hand art reimagined by the second hand

 Most great thrift stores have second hand art hanging from the rafters. And bounty hunters charity shop is no exception. Whether it’s a tenuous imitation of Egyptian hieroglyphs done in embroidery, or your classic rolling hills-blue sky-green grass affair, there are many versions to pick from.

Thrifting is quite special for one real reason; we can nip & tuck any of the quirky items we acquire to become something different and more contemporary. Changing it to really make that item yours, sometimes completely denying it its previous personality. But somehow one wouldn’t think that of thrift store art .It is what it is, just a painting.

Until it isn’t.

 

With the recent growth in popularity of second hand shops, many have been acquiring thrift shop art. And not because they’re connoisseurs of mediocre acrylic landscapes or embroidered still lifes.

+1 artists have started to insert their own peculiar visions into artworks, transforming them into otherworldly, incongruous scenes of pop culture reference amongst mundane landscapes and portraits.

And for those with artistic integrity, who wouldn’t dare rework an original “Steve’07”, take care to paint their work over the glass instead. No harm done.

Bounty Hunters Charity Shop: The second hander’s darling of Johannesburg

Second-hand surprises

 You don’t always find what you’d come looking for, but when you do make a find, it’s always that right something. Thrifting has always had the quality of searching for lost treasures long forgotten. And you can always find something to love, whether it’s ironically, truly, for the same reason as the previous hand, or for one completely different.

You cannot help but imagine the previous life a garment had when you notice“Gloria Fischman” scrolled across a collar in laundry marker, or behold the dusty collection of special edition coke cans that had been accrued painstakingly over years and were subsequently never kept because the previous owner died from drinking the first can in his collection.

Not just vintage clothing

Bounty hunters Charity Shop has a jumble of to die for forget-me-nots imbedded ever so fondly with the personality of their previous owner. And you cannot help but treasure it more for the perceived value it had to its first hand.

The upper level jumble section of second hand bits and bobs

Aside from clothing, Bounty Hunters has a second floor filled with kitchenware, books, luggage, material, art and even sporting goods dating back to before squash rackets were redesigned. Interesting technological relics can also be found, harking back to a time where the pinnacle of technological convenience was an automatic tea maker and video machines had crystal clear display.

Vintage automatic tea maker.In working condtion.R250,available in store.

At Bounty hunters charity shop you’ll find yourself leaving with more wants and needs than when you arrived, every quirky item suddenly climbing the rungs of the ladder to the top of your wish list.While still allowing your wallet to carry some weight in your pocket.

The casual connoisseur

 In with the vintage,out with the new.

Many of us have stumbled out of some department store in a rush of euphoria, having bought an item you think only your quirky sense of style would suit. But as soon as you wear it out, the first room you enter is littered with the optical illusion that is your paisley one piece. And suddenly you no longer feel so quirky; unfortunately tonight you may serve as an eye scratcher rather than an eye catcher.

With the globalisation of fashion it’s become easy for any suburban guy or gal to have a decent sense of style, so unfortunately every look available becomes overly saturated, and your left cutting yourself awful bangs to compensate for your feelings of insignificance.

Play the second-hand hand

It’s difficult being a connoisseur of unique casual wear when most stores have been franchised and others too set in cheap Chinese production. Play your cards close to your chest and lay down your second-hand hand. When finding a unique look starts to become a problem because of lack of choice, Bounty hunters charity shop may spoil you for just that. Whether your style is mod formal or wave racer casual, there are rails you could effortlessly dedicate to your look with the added benefit of having the only 80s leather cutoff jacket that hasn’t been died in. Although with thrift stores there are no guarantees of that either.

The most important thing to consider when buying casual thrifted clothing is not to overdo it. When buying more classic second hand items you can’t go wrong. Good cuts, clean lines, and fantastic fabric. But the opposite is true for vintage casual wear and striking a balance is essential. Pairing thrifted fashion with more simplistic classic items not only makes the garment stand out, but also keeps it all from blending into one unsightly mix of nylon and irony.

So the next time you visit Bounty Hunters Charity shop, don’t be overtaken by all the R5 blouses. Be discerning about how you wear second hand items, if not only for the good of the public.

 

A matter of taste

Thrift flop

Many blame pop culture and media for popularising second hand clothing and thirft shops. Most glommed on to the idea of vintage second hand clothes by imitating their personal style from whatever may be currently trending on Pintrest. All the ill-conceived thrift shop outfits trolling around consequently seem like a gimmick. Simplistic peacocking of feigned fashion culture that’ll leave your bowler hat levitating in shock, and your nostrils flaring from the pungency of a fully thrifted outfit, same-day-bought.

Thrift stores have been around for decades yet have only experienced a resurgence recently. Before, one’s mind would recoil in horror at the idea of sliding oneself into a stranger’s hand me downs, yet is currently the wet dream of any average chain store shopper. Perhaps this is intrinsically linked with the time of fierce individualism we’re experiencing, where every mundane thought should be tweeted and every other experience the near illiterate cannot describe, instagrammed. This is why you tend to see more and more people wearing those “one of a kind Hawaiian shirts” that everyone binned after the nineties

 For the discerning vintage shopper

But for connoisseurs of thrift shopping there is an understanding that not all that is old glitters. Many have incorporated second hand shopping as an alternative to new overpriced trends, and dress in thrifted items as a matter of taste.

The seasoned trifter is distinguishable from the jumble rail novice for one simple reason, they dress for themselves. While others are swimming in badly cut tweed blazer+skinny chino combinations, your aficionado will understand where a little ill-fit can look fitting and when to balance a look out, because they dress for their own expression and satisfaction.

Fashion enthusiasts often live vicariously through the clothing they wear, projecting a different part of themselves in each look they choose. Handing over fractions of their personality only to endow it to mere thread and cloth.For the discerning second hand buyer Bounty Hunters Charity Shop is heaven. Get raptured.