Where to Find Hippie Clothing

Many options are available for finding hippie clothing, both vintage and new. It can be a lot of fun discovering some fab clothes from the late 1960s and early 1970s, especially if you enjoy shopping. Those unique items are not as rare as a person might think--if you know where to look and are willing to put in a little effort.

Features

A great place to look for retro clothing is thrift shops. Sometimes you can find hippie clothing here and it will be very cheap. Charity thrift shops like the Salvation Army typically sell clothing for $2 to $5. These are places where baby boomers bring in carloads of old clothes when they clean out their attics and closets to move to a condo in Florida. Don't underestimate the baby boomers' penchant for holding onto things--they often have boxes of stuff they wore in high school and college.

Function

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Resale shops will be listed under that category in yellow page advertising. Call the stores before making the trip, because most won't have vintage items. The ones that do will typically have good quality. They'll also be pricier than thrift shops because they are paying sellers for retro clothing, either outright or on a consignment basis.

Significance

Going to rummage sales will take more time than stopping in at thrift stores, because you may need to hit a lot of sales to locate any featuring clothing that's nearly 40 years old. Ads will mention antiques, collectibles, retro or vintage items, or unique fashion.

Estate sales are a good bet also. Usually an estate sale will have the belongings left by an elderly person, but what you'll discover many times is that when their kids moved out, they left stuff behind they didn't want anymore, and nobody ever got around to doing anything with it. This can include all sorts of cool late 1960s and early 1970s outfits, as well as costume jewelry.

Considerations

If you can sew, you might want to make your own hippie clothing with patterns from the appropriate time period. Patterns can be found at thrift shops and on eBay, and tend to be very cheap.

Identification

Do you know anyone who was a teenager or young adult during the hippie era? Go ahead and ask if they have any retro clothing they wouldn't mind parting with. You might be able to get some original boleros, peasant blouses, bell bottom slacks, hip huggers, tie-dyed shirts, peace sign necklaces and lots of other terrific things.

Potential

Ebay is a perfect place to keep an eye out for hippie clothing. You can do searches with the keywords hippie, mod, retro, vintage, tie-dye, bell bottom and any others you might think of. The website has a feature where you can get alerts whenever a new item is listed that fits what you're looking for. Ebay is a good option when you are working with a limited budget, because with some diligence, you can get some great bargains.

Time Frame

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There are thousands of stores with websites selling vintage hippie clothing, both vintage and brand new. Finding what you want has never been easier!