How to Get Authentic Designer Clothes for Less Than Lookalikes

There's lots of advice in the blogosphere on how to get designer looks for less, but why settle for that when you can get authentic high end designer clothes for less than look-alikes? I'm not talking about EBay-the true bargains there are few and far between these days-and I don't mean designer lines for discount stores, like Karl Lagerfeld for H&M. While those lines are fun for cheap thrills, they're basically authorized designer knockoffs. The best place to get real designer clothing for pennies is estate sales.

The terms estate sale, garage sale and yard sale are sometimes used interchangeably, but a true estate sale is run by someone other than a homeowner, and all of the contents of the home are being sold, usually due to a death, divorce or relocation. The distinction is important because if you're at a garage or yard sale, the owner of the items will be setting the prices. If she knows she paid $3,000 for that Gucci halter dress, she's not going to let it go for $30. An estate sale manager might, though.

He or she has been hired because someone doesn't want to be bothered with cleaning out the house. As long as everything is gone at the end of the sale and a decent profit was made, both sides are happy. But "used clothing" rarely sells for more than $5-$15 per garment, no matter what the label. And few estate sale companies are specialists in designer clothing, so they don't know that it has more value than that, even at resale.

If the idea of buying secondhand clothing creeps you out, get over it. In most cases these items come from the closets of rich women who bought them for some special event and wore them once or twice before tiring of them-they're really not any more used than clothing from department stores, which dozens of people may have tried on before you purchased it. Sometimes they still have tags on them, which means they were bought and never even worn. And when actresses on the red carpet are asked what they're wearing and their answer is, "Vintage?" You guessed it-high end secondhand clothes.