The case for shopping your next vacation secondhand
When every trip comes with a new activity or dress code, Poshmark is where I go to find the missing piece
Today’s newsletter is graciously sponsored by Poshmark.
When I have a trip on the calendar, a very specific problem of mine rears its ugly head: I need at least one new outfit for every trip I go on. Here's the other problem: I've been on 28 flights so far this year. The year's not even half over, and that's already more than I've ever taken in a full year. When I wasn't traveling this much, my shopping-for-a-trip habit was a manageable quirk. But now that I'm gone more than I'm home, it's become something I've had to get smarter about, because buying something new for every destination adds up fast, especially when you're packing for places you've never been and doing things you've never done.
That’s what made planning for my latest trip to Ireland interesting. It was my first time in the country, and I didn’t fully know what I was walking into. Most of my travel these days is for work, which means press trips and pre-planned itineraries with activities meant to highlight the destination I’m visiting. In many cases, this often means doing things I’ve never done before. For this most recent trip, it meant a fly fishing lesson on a river somewhere in the countryside and high tea in a grand hotel. I wasn’t going to spend a fortune speculating on outerwear and fancy blouses I might only wear once. So I did what I’ve been doing since 2011: I went to my favorite secondhand shopping site, Poshmark.
The case for shopping secondhand before a trip
Shopping secondhand for any special occasion seems like a no-brainer. But there’s a specific kind of pre-trip shopping itch that Poshmark scratches better than anything else. It’s not just the price (though that helps!) it’s really the thrill of the hunt. Finding one perfect piece before a trip, knowing it’s not going to show up on every “new arrivals” page (and therefore on at least five other people you know) feels good. And when you’re shopping for a specific destination or occasion, the search function becomes almost like a personal stylist. You can get hyper-specific.
For Ireland, I knew I needed a few things: practical outerwear that actually looked cool, and something with that slightly undone, tuxedo-shirt energy I’d been craving for a while: something silky and a little fluid, not stiff like my other button-ups. Both of those are the kind of searches where Poshmark really shines because the inventory isn’t dictated by what’s trending.
What I found & wore on my trip
Here are the two pieces that anchored my trip:
A vintage Ralph Lauren tuxedo blouse for $20. I’d been wanting something exactly like this for at least a year now: slightly drapey, a little formal but not stuffy, something that had a little extra pizzazz. This was exactly it. I wore it to high tea at The Shelbourne hotel in Dublin, which was, appropriately, the most elegant thing I've ever attended in my life: porcelain teacups, a caramel éclair topped with actual popcorn, finger sandwiches, the works. I felt perfectly dressed for all of it, which is a lot to ask of a $20 blouse. This and this are both great similar options, and this vintage silk blouse is also on my wishlist.
A Norba expedition anorak for $90. This one retails for around $200 new. I needed something like an anorak for fly fishing (very much a first for me!) and I had absolutely nothing in my closet that made sense for standing in the middle of a river without looking like I’d borrowed gear from a stranger. The anorak was practical, weatherproof, and looked intentional rather than accidental. That’s a rare combination to find, and I found it for less than half retail. Plus, it’s genuinely a useful thing to have in my wardrobe. If you’re in the market, this is a great fashionable alternative, or this one that’s under $100.
Both pieces took maybe an hour of searching total. And because I sell on Poshmark too, I was essentially funding the purchases with pieces I’d already moved out of my closet.
The bigger principle: dress for the trip, not the mood board
What I’ve learned since using Poshmark for buying new-to-me pieces for my travel wardrobes is that it’s actually better suited to trip-specific shopping than traditional retail is. Retail is built around selling you a specific season, whereas Poshmark lets you search for a fly fishing lesson or high tea or somewhere in between, and find exactly what those occasions call for without committing to a full-price piece you may never wear again.
But that's really what it comes down to. When you're traveling this much, the way you pack starts to reflect how intentional you are about everything, and shopping secondhand forces a kind of intentionality that panic-buying something off a new arrivals page never does. You're hunting for something really specific. You find it, or you don't, and you try again. But when you do find it—whether it’s a $20 blouse that's perfect for high tea or an anorak that's perfect for fly fishing in a river—it feels like it was always supposed to be in your bag.
And it all adds up, trip by trip, to a wardrobe that actually means something.
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Tori Simokov is a Travel Writer and Graphic Designer/Strategist based in New York. To get in touch, email tori@v1projects.com. Want more? Check out Instagram, TikTok, or shop her curated favorites.
You fly fishing in Chanel sunglasses and a perfect bouncy ponytail is iconic!!!! Love the two pieces you found on Poshmark, that blouse looks like it was tailored to your specific proportions!
I have the same affliction which is why I love Rent the Runway.