Let's get RealReal
A private education in Malo, Bode, & Prada
This post is brought to you by The RealReal where I ReallyReally do some of my best work.
The RealReal is one of my favorite places to browse when I’m in the mood for something a little more unexpected. As a lifelong thrift store, Etsy shop, and Ebay girl, it wasn’t always my first stop, but if I want something I know is going come with the quality assurance of a trusted designer, I’m heading to The RealReal. The trick is to know your entry point. I start with the low-hanging fruit by visiting the designers I trust to yield something interesting: Gucci, Prada, Malo, Bode, etc.
At some point I abandon brand loyalty and move on to keywords. Suede, sheer, leather, hardware belts, kitten heel. Sometimes search terms work harder than brand categories, the good ones getting you off the main roads and into the side streets where the best things hide. Lace trousers, beaded bags, a Lilith Fair era tie-dye knit. Some of my latest obsessions below:
The RealReal is best when you let it remind you that fashion is not linear. I don’t think style needs guardrails, but it sometimes does need levers. Like the kind that shifts the whole equation with one pull. For example, the The Row sunglasses or Bode shorts below are small items, but they change the math of everything else you’re wearing.
It’s also worth exploring untapped corners of The RealReal like menswear. I’ll scan for leather jackets, fisherman knits, anything with too much personality to end up at a mall. The prices are often better than womenswear, and the silhouettes are easier to pull into your rotation. Never not thinking about JFK Jr., really.
By the way, my limited bathroom space is the only thing that let this shrimps cosmetics bag slip out of my grasp and into this post.
A note here: I like to think whoever owned this blouse was someone’s aunt, too chic to have kids of her own, and smoked only when she was traveling to Europe but never in this top.
I’m the last person who should be making this point, but buying high-end designer knitwear at full retail feels almost impossible to justify sometimes. I’d rather put my money into a bag or leather jacket. Sweaters will pill and betray you. But a vintage sweater with personality on The RealReal, returnable if necessary (if scratchy), feels like hitting the jackpot. And cut for a man no less.
xx CG
I love how you capture the art of browsing as part of personal style itself — that mix of intuition, curiosity, and restraint. The “side streets where the best things hide” is exactly what makes thrifting (and The RealReal) so addictive. It’s such a reminder that good style isn’t about chasing trends, but about finding the pieces that quietly rewrite the whole equation.
There is no link for the black alligator bag :)