In the middle of Knightsbridge, less than a taxi ride from Harrods and Harvey Nichols – purveyors of fashion to the wealthy – Cheval Place is hidden away in an enclave of tiny, village-like streets. Here, within the space of 50 yards, can be found the best second-hand clothes shops in London.
These are not up-market charity shops smelling of dust and mothballs and other people’s armpits. This is high fashion, where the clothes are usually only one or two seasons old, on sale at a fraction of the original cost. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I bought an exquisite, multicoloured silk evening jacket by Versace Couture. The original price was £3,000. The price from Pandora, £117.
In spite of having been here for almost 50 years, Pandora remains largely unknown, although it advertises discreetly in Vogue. Discerning women of all ages with a surprising range of bank balances come here for bargains. Six days a week the shop is thronged with customers sifting through the racks of couture and sub-couture for a suit, coat, or ball gown at roughly a fifth of its price when new. The shop has been owned and managed for the past eight years by Bridget Hutchcroft. I asked her why rich women need, or bother, to sell their clothes.
“Women sell for all sorts of reasons. A lot of Arab ladies use clothes as currency. They won’t ever buy second-hand clothes, it’s against their principles, but they’ll sell things, often completely unworn and unused, because, while their husbands will buy them anything they want – maybe three Hermes handbags at pounds 6,000 each and half-a-dozen silk scarves at pounds 150 – they won’t give them cash. The women need money to gamble among themselves; or perhaps just money to buy cakes. But their husbands know that ready cash means freedom, and they watch the credit card receipts very carefully, so for these women, selling their clothes is a way of getting round that.”
For a brand-new Hermes handbag in ostrich or lizard, the seller is paid about pounds 600. (Bridget can spot a fake a mile off.) The handbag is then sold – usually the same day; mint condition Hermes bags are in great demand – for £1,500. The Arab seller is happy; the buyer is happy; and Pandora has made a profit of just under £1,000. Not everything has such a high profit margin or rapid turnover but status symbol accessories always sell fast: they are the recognisable couture touches that add “class” to any outfit. Garments that fail to sell within a month or two are progressively reduced until the December/January clear- out, when prices are cut by 30 per cent. After that clothes are returned to the original seller or given away to charity.
“In some cases, ladies whose husbands – or lovers – have bought them a gift may sneak it in here, hoping he won’t notice, and choose something they prefer. I had a husband last week who recognised his wife’s dress in the window and although I denied it, she had to take it home and pretend it had been at the dry-cleaners. Then she brought it back!” Other sellers are young women whose older lovers like them to look good – it adds to their own status – and will therefore give them a dress allowance of as much as three or four thousand pounds a month, but not cash. These women bring unworn clothes in to Pandora so as to get hold of some ready money.
“My regular clients spend about pounds £3,000 a year with me, though a big buyer may go up to pounds £15,000 or even pounds £20,000.” For that sort of money you get an awful lot of clothes. A suit – couture or just below: say, Ginocchetti, MaxMara, Cerruti, or Armani ready-to-wear – costs about pounds 230; coats pounds 200- pounds 300; jackets pounds 150 unless they’re Chanel or YSL, in which case they are double that; evening dresses between pounds 120 and pounds 300. Some of the best bargains are to be found in shoes and boots. I came away from researching this article with a pair of kitten-soft Gucci loafers for £35 instead of £200- plus.
Bridget says, “I reckon to charge between a quarter and a fifth of the original price for clothes whose condition is as good as you can get. The sellers will get about ten per cent of what they paid.” The profit for Pandora lies in the space between the two – and it is, make no mistake, a lucrative business, despite the fact that Ms Hutchcroft has a rota of 20 saleswomen in the shop and a fully computerised list of buyers, sellers, and the garments that pass between them. She concludes, like so many of her customers: “I’ve always been intrigued by second-hand shops … I have the hunting instinct. To me, in a shop like Pandora, you’ve got to use your imagination and make your own style, rather than just being a Chanel clone. Yes, I love my work. It’s my life.
Glenys Ievens-Brewis from Royal Leamington Spa with her daughter Dinah, who is an air stewardess with British Airways “We shop here as often as we can – whenever we’re down in London, which is five or six times a year – and we always go out with something. We time it for when people clear out their wardrobes in the winter and spring. The main attraction is the labels and the quality. Everything’s still in style.”
Dinah: “It’s the excitement of finding something – a bargain…”
Glenys: “The label gives you confidence. Knowing you’re wearing something good makes you feel good. When you get home you have the mad feeling that you’ve got something just right. I like to buy my smart clothes here – something that makes a bit of a statement. I’m actually looking for a white pique skirt to go with a lovely little YSL jacket and blouse I bought in the summer. My daughters sometimes ring me up and say, ‘Mum, you’ve got to come down – there’s a perfect dress for you!'”
Dinah, who has been in the fitting room trying on half-a-dozen garments, appears in a cigar-brown Bruce Oldfield evening dress, original price pounds 2,500, now pounds 352. She plucks at it. “It doesn’t do much for my bosom … And it’s a bit tight here.”
Her mother: “It suits you, Di. You look great!” Dinah continues to look at herself doubtfully.
Mrs Ievens-Brewis goes on, “People often say to me, ‘What a gorgeous coat!’ but I wouldn’t tell them I bought it second hand. I might tell my best friend but I wouldn’t tell anyone else.
“It’s sometimes easier to shop here than in the big stores and when I find something really nice in a style I want it’s like, ‘Wow! That really puts the spice in the ginger cake, doesn’t it?’
“You can hand things to the staff and they’ll keep them for you, so it’s like being in a private shop, isn’t it? I haven’t worked out what I spend but I’m happy because I know I’m getting good quality clothes at a reasonable price.
“My daughter mainly buys suits here, and with so many chain-store garments everyone looks the same, so it’s nice to come here and know you’ll find something unusual. The last thing I bought was a black dress by Thierry Mugler, for pounds 189 down from over pounds 500.
“I’ve got a large collection of Thirties, Forties and Fifties vintage evening gowns – I’ve always collected since the girls were children and dressed up in them. We do like creative clothes and appreciate the workmanship that goes into them.”
“I usually sell things here; normally I don’t expect to buy but I came in today to pick some money up and noticed this sweater dress. It’s nice and warm and comfortable. I can wear it for something I’m going to tomorrow. It’s by Iceberg, about a year old. It cost pounds 250 when it was new; the price here is pounds 47.
“Everybody knows about Pandora. I’m quite open about it, I tell a lot of my friends and people from abroad to come here. They don’t have second- hand shops in Italy, so the Italians go mad for it.
“I probably wear things for one season, or if I don’t like something I get rid of it straightaway. I bring things in at the beginning of each season, twice a year, in September and March and after that I pop in to pick up the money.”