The Pink Muse: Ukay? Okay! How Thrift Shops Can Fill Your Fashion Needs

When I'm bored with my current wardrobe but I don't want to spend too much money (thus feeling guilty) on buying clothes, I go to the nearest and biggest thrift shop or ukay-ukay in our area. The biggest one is located at the ground floor of Starmall Alabang and basically all around the said mall. If you are not familiar with these kinds of shops, ukay-ukay is a depot of pre-owned clothing and accessory items with very affordable prices (with prices even as low as 10 pesos!). If you have an eye for good and beautiful items, if you have the patience to browse around hundreds and hundreds of hangers (which is a good arm workout by the way :D), and not picky or sensitive in using preowned items, then maybe you will enjoy being an ukay shopper.

3 for 100 area, spotted! Now time to browse through those hangers!

It always excites me when I find something I really like with a bargain price, and looking over through thrift stores always makes me happy. I'm not really picky or maarte when it comes to brands of clothes I wear because I believe I can still look nice without having to brag about where I bought my things. I know fashion trends come and go, and it's better for me to spend more valuable money on things that I know are not practical to be stingy on (e.g. electronics, appliances, etc.)

Look at ALL these clothes! Exciting much!

Shopping in an ukay-ukay is not a walk in the park-level kind of shopping though. It's not enough that you find something that you really like, you should also be keen enough to inspect what you picked to see if there any holes, stains or any other kind of damage. If it's worth your time to repair or do some modifications with it, then fine. I hope you don't make a mistake of buying tons of clothing only to find out later on that they are tattered with holes and infested with stains. Oops. So be careful!

So after a couple of hours browsing through the ukay-ukay, here are some of the items that I really liked. I shall also list down how much I bought them.

I'm more of the sweet and feminine type, so these are the ones I found: 1. Pink long blouse with lace details - 55 pesos, 2. Leggings - 80 pesos, 3. Pink high heeled peep toe shoes - 75 pesos

This attire can be both for work and date days. I found: 1. Pink wooly-ish cardigan - 70 pesos, 2. Black top with sequins - 60 pesos, 3. A-line skirt - 80 pesos. Where else can you buy a complete an attire at only around 200 pesos?! Yes, I am kuripot at heart, but proudly kuripot! (sounds familiar? Haha!) As much as I love to shop in boutiques and malls, I couldn't resist having the same kinds of clothes with the same quality and style but only with a lower price, so I think that shopping in a thrift store is always worth it.

Do you also love ukay-ukay? Where do you go? I would love to hear your experiences and knowing the awesome finds you discovered! :-)