Intentional Shopping Diaries: Ralph Lauren Capsule, part two

Last week I promised you an epic eBay story and I am a woman of my words. In my ongoing project of curating my own personal Ralph Lauren capsule, I scored a big win last month and I’m here to tell you all about it. Maybe “epic” is a bit of an overstatement, but this was an exciting purchase for me — the online version of the “start the car” moment — so I hope you’ll forgive my enthusiasm. There is also maybe a moral of sorts to the story, but I’ll leave you to decide that.

I’m not going to try to keep you in suspense about what piece of clothing is the protagonist of this saga. It’s this skirt:

Some of you may remember it; I posted it a few months ago as an example of something I coveted but had decided not to purchase based on a kind of cost-benefit analysis. I had been watching it for months already by that point, having first found it in the course of my search for the floral skirt I posted last week. Both of them are from Ralph Lauren’s Country line, which was only around for a short period of time in the late 80s and early 90s, and was the aesthetic predecessor of the current Double RL line — a mix of English country and Americana. I’ve become a little bit obsessed with Ralph Lauren Country, because it captures a lot of the aesthetics that I currently love, but that’s neither here nor there. Suffice to say that, of all RL lines, it’s one of the rarer ones to find secondhand.

This particular skirt immediately captured my imagination. I love the Pendleton-inspired pattern, and the colours being so vibrant was the cherry on top. I also love this style of wrap skirt a lot; the column silhouette is one of my faves. I was able to find 2 listings for the skirt; one at around $400CAD (yikes) and one at over $800CAD (double yikes). There is also a mini skirt version, available in a greater number of listings at lower prices (around $200), but I didn’t love it because, as a result of the shorter length, much of the pattern — the blue and red part — was lost. For me, the pattern *is* the skirt, so it was a no go.

So I waited. For months, I kept a running search for this skirt, hoping one of the listings would come down in price. No luck.

And then, one day, my luck changed. A new listing popped up and it was less than half the price of the next cheapest option. I was, like, whoa! This is it. Having thought a lot about this skirt for a long time, I had a good sense of 2 important things. One, the general market value of the skirt. This listing was a comparative steal. Two, a definite idea of how much I would be comfortable spending on the skirt. The listing met that threshold. So, even though it was the most expensive piece of clothing I’ve purchased in the last 2 years, I bought it without hesitation. I’m glad it took months to find this listing because I needed that time to clarify in my own mind how I felt about the skirt and what it meant to me. And that was an important lesson to me, vis-a-vis my Ralph Lauren capsule project. I am not going to rush my future acquisitions. I am going to do a lot of research and a lot of reflection before I commit to a piece. It’s not clothes shopping as usual.

I ended up paying $230CAD, shipping, taxes, and customs included. Did I mention that the listing was from Japan? That brings me to another interesting part of this story. This wasn’t the first time I’ve purchased something from Japan on eBay. Years ago, I sourced a few of my high end designer bags from Japan, which has a huge and well-regulated secondhand market. Always do your research, of course, but reputable Japanese resellers offer some of the best deals, IMO, on used designer bags. At least, that was certainly true a decade ago, and while I’m not in that designer bag game anymore, I’ve no reason to think anything has changed. In my experience, the ratings used by Japanese resellers to describe their bags reflect a much higher standard than is common in North America; the bags I bought were described as being in good but not excellent condition (so, like, B+ not A) and, honestly, they looked much better than I expected when I got them – here, they would have been described as “excelled used condition”. The price reflected the condition as stated by the seller, so it was more attractive than comparable U.S. listings. All of that to say: I’ve had good experiences buying from Japan via eBay.

Except. The day after I purchased the skirt, I received the floral one which had shipped a few weeks prior from the U.S. It was delivered via USPS and Canada Post and, for the first time in recent history (or maybe ever), I had to pay customs on it. And it was not a minimal amount either: $30 on a skirt that cost around $100CAD after conversion. CBSA uses different rules for calculating customs on used clothing, and while I haven’t been able to figure them out, I have the feeling that there is a certain threshold under which they don’t charge anything. I had bought 2 other vintage skirts on eBay (from the U.S.) in the last 6 months and neither of them had customs charged on them. I think two things might have been in play here. One, the seller of the floral skirt didn’t indicate on the customs form that it was a used item. This, in my opinion, is really poor form for an experienced seller. Two, the price was slightly higher than the other 2 skirts; only about $30-40CAD but perhaps enough to go over the customs threshold. I don’t know … but I wasn’t pleased with that surprise.

And it got me really worried about my Japanese purchase — which had cost even more and was being shipped via FedEx. I’ve heard horror stories about brokerage fees on top of customs, so I resigned myself to getting another bill, amount TBD. I know this sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the rest of the story is the opposite: one happy surprise after another. Despite coming from a much greater distance, the skirt arrived within less than half the time it took my other skirt to be delivered from the U.S. (The cost for shipping I was charged on eBay was the same.) And, despite all of my trepidations, my bill was only … $19CAD, total. How does that make sense? I have no idea, but I’m not complaining.

The last happy surprise was waiting for me when I started to inspect the skirt:

A union label! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew the skirt was vintage — though it is in such amazing condition that it’s hard to believe it’s more than 30 years old — but I had no idea it was old enough to have been made by union employees in the US. I did some research, and this particular style of label was used up until 1995, which lines up with the chronology of the Country brand.

I had taken a calculated risk with the size; unusually, the listing didn’t include measurements and I did the thing you should never do, and bought the skirt without asking for measurements. I am familiar with RL vintage sizing, though. This skirt is one size smaller than my usual size in vintage RL skirts, but I was irrationally optimistic it would work. It kinda did and didn’t. Not surprisingly, the waist was snug. Uncomfortably snug. The hips fit fine, thank God. I want to wear the heck out of this skirt so snug wouldn’t do. Luckily, there was a feasible and easy fix: I was able to move the button and inner hook and eye closure, and give myself an extra 3 inches of breathing room. The fit of the skirt wasn’t negatively impacted, though the pattern alignment did change. I can live with that.

And there you have it. Another fabulous addition to the capsule.

I have a few ideas in mind for my next intentional purchase, but I need to do a lot more research first. And I need to stay off eBay for a bit 🙂