Carmel High School Communications, 520 E. Main St. Carmel, IN 46032

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Interview with Reid Watson

I see senior Reid Watson every other morning, and I can honestly say that I’ve seen him wear ties more often than a lot of the adults I regularly encounter. I don’t know how he has the effort to get so dressed-up every morning, but I wish somebody would bottle it up and sell it to me.

1. Why do you get so dressed-up every morning?

It actually started last year because I started working at a Web development company that required me to dress nicely. I just felt more professional and productive in nice clothes, and it was just easier wearing nice clothes everyday than changing when I got out of school.

2. Why do nice clothes make you feel more productive?

One of the side effects of dressing nicely is that people treat you differently. Adults are nicer to you when you dress up; I think it’s a matter of respect, and I think they respect you when you’re in a nice shirt and pants more than (when you’re in) cargo shorts.

3. Where do you draw style inspiration?

I don’t really have a style inspiration in the complete sense of the (phrase), but I do wear a lot of sweater vests and ties. I guess all that matters is for me to like what I’m wearing. I also wear a lot of vintage items (from my dad).

4. How can I get the Reid Watson look?

My closet is a mixture of new and vintage. I’ll go out to the mall and buy brands like G by Guess and Tommy Hilfiger (from stores like Macy’s), H&M and Gap. I also have a lot of my dad’s old clothes from when he lived in Australia, and I do thrifting at Goodwill and other resale shops.

5. Any last words of advice?

Always remember who you are. (Style) and clothes aren’t things that should dictate who you are. They should rather be a reflection of how you perceive yourself. Basically, I guess it’s important to never let the clothes wear you.

The Thrift Shopper’s Dictionary

When venturing into the wonderful world of resale shopping, it is important to understand the differences between the different types of stores that fall under this category.

By Tim Chai and Rosemary Boeglin
tchai@hilite.org and rboeglin@hilite.org

First, there are thrift shops, which are shops that sell used articles, especially clothing to benefit a charitable organization. Examples of this would be Goodwill, Thrifty Threads or Salvation Army.

The next type of resale shop is a secondhand, or sometimes derogatively called “junk” shop. These shops sell miscellaneous secondhand goods or antiques. Examples of this would be antique malls or pawnshops. They are often smart to avoid, as their clientele and aura can often be smarmy at best, while the owners/ employees of these stores do well to overprice and exaggerate the quality of their goods. This is not true of all secondhand shops, though. For example Plato’s Closet, Rag-O-Rama, Broad Ripple Vintage and Value World all have strikingly different merchandise and attract different clientele, but remain respectable shops. Secondhand shops have the unique feature of illustrating all different types of business models. For instance, Rag-O-Rama and Plato’s Closet get their clothing by buying from people, but are not consignment because they pay outright for the clothing. Broad Ripple Vintage finds the clothes by going out and looking for items and then resells them at the store for a profit, while Value Village gets its merchandise from donations. They are all considered secondhand shops because they are for-profit, non-consignment resale shops.

Finally, consignment shops are resale shops with the provision that payment is expected (to the provider of the goods) only on completed sales and that unsold items may be returned to the one “consigning.” Basically, it means that people bring in their goods, often clothing or accessories, to a consignment shop. This shop then agrees to sell some, all or none of the items the consigner has brought in. Once an item sells, the consignment shop receives part of the profits from this sale, while the consigner receives the remaining portion of the profits. These shops are typically more expensive than the previous two types of resale shops, but the items are generally newer and of higher quality than those found at the other two types of stores. These shops are also often better organized and give the shopper a more retail-like shopping experience. Consignment stores around Carmel include In Vogue, Carmel Consignment, Designer Outlet and Out of the Closet.

Goodwill

1122 Keystone Way, Carmel – (317) 587-0281

1617 E 151st St, Carmel – (317) 844-1021

10491 Walnut Creek Dr, Carmel – (317) 876-0096

Thrifty Threads

1501 W 86th St

Indianapolis, IN 46260

(317) 802-9612

Salvation Army

234 E Michigan Street

Indianapolis, IN

Plato’s Closet

8238 Rockville Road, Indianapolis, in 46214- (317) 271-1234

8966 E 96th St Fishers, IN 46037- (317) 585-0868

Rag-O-Rama

1067 Broad Ripple Ave

Indianapolis, IN  46220

(317) 475-0870

Broad Ripple Vintage

824 E 64th St.

Indianapolis, IN

(317) 255-4135

Value Village

1201 Prospect St

Indianapolis, IN 46203

(317) 322-1867

In Vogue

11546 Westfield Blvd,

Carmel, IN 46032

(317) 580-0058

Carmel Consignment

13686 North Meridian Street

Carmel, IN 46032

(317) 573-4400

Designer Outlet

1349 W 86th St Indianapolis

IN 46260-2101

(317) 255-3228

Out of the Closet

8517 Westfield Blvd

Indianapolis, IN 46240-2369

(317) 202-0319

HOW TO: Be an Economically Conscious Thrift Shopper

I recycle my wardrobe on a pretty regular basis. Clothes flow in, I wear them five or six times, and clothes flow right back out. Of course there are staple items that I’ve kept for years, but my closet is more or less in a perpetual state of transition.

This sounds expensive. But on the contrary, I feed my insatiable hunger for new and different clothes by letting the habit pay for itself. This leads us into the first step to thrift shopping:  don’t hoard your clothes.

Shopping in (relatively) cheap stores, such as thrift or consignment shops, makes people buy more than they would at retail stores, where higher prices prevent such behavior. Therefore, the discount diva often finds herself with more clothing and accessories than she needs or has space for. The solution:  let your habit pay for itself. Sell your clothes once you’re done with them to resale shops, such as Rag-o-Rama, Plato’s Closet or The Toggery. And as for what isn’t bought or consigned by these stores:  DONATE! In doing this, you can recover some of your earnings (and with some experience and strategy, you can even make money doing this), gain space back in your closet and allow someone else the opportunity to stumble across your ex-belongings and make them their own.

The important thing to remember while thrifting is that your closet doesn’t expand proportionately to the number of new clothes you buy. Don’t fall into the trap of hoarding your clothes or folding them in drawers in your room to make it all fit. If you do, you’ll never be able to see what you have to wear in the first place. So rule number 1:  if you’re thinking “in with the new” you first have to be “out with the old.”

Style Spotting

Senior Abisola “Abi” Ibrahim

Style Spotting

Senior Eric Van Scoik

Style Spotting

Junior Keana Byam

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