Superstitions & ULs Regarding Used / Second-Hand Clothing

[chrissho]

I remember the shoe shops with X Ray machines in so that you could see the bones in your feet and how the shoe was affecting them.

Great for well fitting shoes, crap for radiation poisoning.

Still no fekkin superpowers either.

https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/what-was-a-pedoscope

Loved the X-ray machines, but no super powers either. I don't glow in the dark though. Well, at least I don't think so-had no complaints about it if I do

 

[Erinaceus]

My feet stopped glowing in the dark eventually.

 

[Coal]

My feet stopped glowing in the dark eventually.

That or your eyesight was damaged by radiation...

 

[GerdaWordyer]

Just finished watching Lucy Worsley's account of the Black Death in the British Isles in 1348. Apparently, the primary vector for transmission of the disease (aside from airborne transmission in cases of pneumonic plague) was HUMAN fleas and lice (not rat-borne fleas, as I had previously thought).

As the clothing of the deceased was typically distributed among the surviving family, you can guess the rest . . .

Check the bottoms and heels of the shoes for wear, check the inner soles for sweat, dirt, and general wear, and check local school history departments on when the last Black Death occurred. If all is well, buy the donated shoes. They are as likely from the dissatisfied as from the dead anyway.
I do love Lucy, though.

 

[brownmane]

I am eldest child in my family, but I had two older cousins (by four years) and got their hand me downs. My sisters would have my hand me downs, but they were often too big for my clothes and so got new more often than I. I was jealous.

Now, I rarely buy second hand as I don't have the patience to go through random clothes to see if something I like fits (usually no). My clothes are bought new, but I also have items that are 10+ years old. I buy fairly well made clothes that don't wear or get holes.

The general reasons that I get rid of clothes is fit or stains. My closet consists of tees and jeans. Never out of style. And I definitely am not interested in following "style".

I have never heard of any superstitions regarding second hand clothing.

Here is an article which the writer mentions the reluctance of people in China buying second hand items:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/902723.shtml

 

[bugmum]

I also have items that are 10+ years old.

I still have a couple of items in my wardrobe that were bought in the 80s when I was a teenager.

 

[brownmane]

I still have a couple of items in my wardrobe that were bought in the 80s when I was a teenager.

I did, until a couple of years ago, still have a wide belt from the '80s

 

[AnonyJ]

I worked once with a high-ish level manager earning a good salary who bought as many nice suits as he could second hand He called it "wearing dead peoples' clothes."

I also knew someone who referred to his charity shop suits, bought for weddings, funerals etc., as his "dead mens clothes"! It was probably accurate

This man's preference under his normal denim + t-shirt garb was going commando - I have no idea how that would work with a suit!

 

[escargot]

This man's preference under his normal denim + t-shirt garb was going commando - I have no idea how that would work with a suit!

His immaculate suit trousers would be skidmarked. What a waste.

 

[Stormkhan]

If the quality is good, as well as the price, I'll buy it.
The firm I worked for did house clearances, including those after a residents death with no discovered relatives. One time, I went through the two skip loads (before it rained). Snagged about 2 dozen books, a set of WW2 medals, for standard service (I really must do something with them), and a pair of nice, shiny and smart black shoes! From the soles they hadn't been worn. They were in my size.
What can I say? I happily stepped into dead man's shoes. Still got them, in fact.