fi

Armed with 10,000 yen (roughly US$81), our reporter visited one of Japan’s cheapest used clothing shops. Check out the outfit he assembled!

You can find countless second-hand clothing stores in the Tokyo area if you know where to look, but none of them can match the super-saver deals found at Tanpopo House. This retailer sells armfuls of clothing for 100 yen ($0.81) or 300 yen per piece, and some items are even marked as low as 50 yen! Is this place for real? One glance at those prices and you’d think we were talking about a bakery, and not a clothing shop.

Curious to see just how good of a deal he could get, one of our Japanese-language reporters decided to ask the staff at the Tanpopo House branch in Tokyo’s Takadanobaba neighborhood to coordinate a series of outfits for him within a generous budget of 10,000 yen. However, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Upon arriving at the store, our reporter reached out to a shop worker to make his polite request, leading to the following exchange:

Our reporter: “Excuse me, I was hoping that you could help me coordinate some outfits within a budget of 10,000 yen…”

Shop worker: “I’m sorry, but we don’t offer that kind of service.”

Our reporter: “…”

And that was the end of that. He could understand why they wouldn’t help since it wasn’t a brand-name store or anything, but it was a blow to his spirits nonetheless. But he wasn’t about to pack up and go home! There was no way he would back down from this challenge; he’d just have to do all of the outfit-coordinating himself.

Once he had strengthened his resolve, he began browsing through the racks of clothing and saw that most of the items were indeed dirt-cheap. The only downside to the place was that there weren’t as many men’s items as there were women’s, but he decided not to worry since he could fit into plenty of the women’s items. After all, he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about getting something that wasn’t his usual style since it was so cheap to begin with!

Let’s take a look at his final haul, shall we?

1. Jacket (1,260 yen/$10.22)

2

2. ¾ sleeve shirt (840 yen/$6.82)

3

3. Cardigan (525 yen/$4.26)

4

4. Denim vest (315 yen/$2.56)

5

5. Polo shirt (840 yen/$6.82) 

6

6. Baseball tee (315 yen/$2.56)

7

7. Gold’s Gym tank top (525 yen/$4.26)

8

8. Shorts (315 yen/$2.56)

9

9. Work pants (1,500 yen/$12.17)

10

10. Stretch pants (525 yen/$4.26)

11

11. Fluffy scarf (525 yen/$4.26)

12

12. Fashionable neckties (three for 945 yen/$7.67)

13

13. Fashionable belts (two for 525 yen/$4.26)

14

14. Headgear (52 yen/$0.42)

15

The above 14 items came to a grand total of 9,082 yen ($73.71). Spending 10,000 yen at such an inexpensive place was actually more tiring than our reporter thought. Perhaps you can perceive his impatience due to the presence of several slightly more expensive items on the list:

16

Naturally, the next step was to bring everything back to the RocketNews24 office and model it for the rest of the team. Of course, we would never just stand for an ordinary fashion show, so we instead made him try on everything at once. The end result? He could barely move with all those layers of clothing on him!

▼ Our reporter in his usual garb…

18

▼ …and after his Tanpopo House transformation!

17

19

20

21

22

23

So there you have it. Our reporter certainly got an incredible deal for his money, but he was also left with the impression that it takes an incredible amount of skill in order to coordinate a fashionable outfit using clothing bought only at Tanpopo House. Given the chance, he wishes that he could see someone with real fashion sense try to coordinate some outfits for him. Do you think you’d be up for the challenge?

24

Store information
Fashion Recycle Tanpopo House / ファションリサイクルたんぽぽハウス
Address: 2-8-3 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0075
〒169-0075 新宿区高田馬場2-8-3
Telephone: 03-5285-2002
Website

All images © RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]