Shopping High-End Fashion on the Cheap

In nearly three decades of visiting Paris, a highlight of my sojourns is shopping for the sort of Franco-distinct fashions impossible to find at home. Over the years, the proliferation of chain stores in Paris (and easy access to French luxury brands at home) has made finding unique pieces a challenge.

So, on a recent trip, when I noticed a secondhand shop filled with high-end designer jackets, bags, boots and jewelry — many from defunct Parisian ready-to-wear brands, I was thrilled. While paying for my haul (a cashmere blazer by Angelo Tarlazzi and vintage fur stole), I learned that there were dozens of others, a network of resale shops catering to Frenchwomen’s exacting taste and passion for a deal.

As a designer resale and thrift store aficionado, I find few things more satisfying than tracking down accouterments that whisper “Fabriqué à Paris” without paying retail. Thus began my dive into the City of Light’s lively dépôt-vente scene: upscale thrift shops that traffic in luxury goods. While tourists fork out euros on Avenue Montaigne, the ritzy shopping pocket bordered by Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Seine and the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, savvy Parisians hunt down “gently used” Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermès, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and under-the-radar French brands at designer resale boutiques.

This is no dive-for-treasures-in-the-trash thrift shop scenario. Les dépôts-ventes (which translates to “deposit and sale”) are airy and efficiently organized: rows of leather jackets, tuxedos, blazers, silk blouses, cashmere sweaters, fur and cocktail dresses beckoning from hangers; vitrines piled with jewelry, wallets, sunglasses and, of course, scarves. As for prices, the resale value of top-drawer luxury products is a fraction of the original.

Think Balenciaga for the cost of Zara. Many pieces are consigned after being worn just once; some still have original price tags inciting heart palpitations in thrift-obsessed clientele. Unlike a traditional retail environment, prices are not set in stone. Don’t be afraid to negotiate, especially if buying a few things.

The 16th Arrondissement, with its wide, leafy avenues and ornate art nouveau apartment buildings, is fertile ground for fashion deals, specifically the smaller streets behind Place du Trocadero.

Around the corner is Le Date, a boudoir-evoking jewel box brimming with cocktail frocks, furs, heels and bags displayed on vintage hat boxes. You’ll find the usual suspects: Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Hermès. But the more interesting pieces — and better deals — are lesser-known French labels like Kyros and Stéphan, as well as quality basics from Lil Pour L’Autre, Joseph and Hotel Particulier.

Diagonally across the street, Depot Vente Luxe Paris focuses on of-the-moment fashion, not vintage. The concept? Slashed prices (men’s and women’s) on items that could (give or take a few seasons) be found in the pages of current fashion magazines. Last November, I spotted a Fendi Peekaboo bag, a Saint Laurent Sac de Jour bag, a Balmain biker leather jacket and a Men’s Louis Vuitton Icare briefcase. Off the main artery, Rue de Passy, on a cobblestone pedestrian market street, you’ll find Coeur de Luxe, a small shop tricked out like the ultimate French walk-in closet: tuxedo jackets, Céline blouses, Breton striped knits and Chanel tweeds alongside Jean-Claude Jitrois leather, sheared furs by Sylvie Schimmel and no shortage of gold-buckled belts, bags and shoes.

Over in the Eighth Arrondissement, steps from Élysée Palace and behind fashionable Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, is Valois Vintage, where you’ll find a glamorous mash up of au courant and vintage pieces. It’s pricey. But swanky ready-to-wear couture and hard-to-find designer collaborations make it a favorite for magazine editors and women who like to stand out in a crowd.

Cross the elegant beaux-arts bridge Pont Alexandre III to the Rive Gauche, past the Esplanade des Invalides, for blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Defile des Marques,a storefront so cluttered that I considered ditching it for a glass of rosé at the corner brasserie. Happily, I didn’t. This small but mighty emporium produced some of my top finds:pristine Yves Saint Laurent and Loulou de la Falaise tuxedos, Akris and Balenciaga trousers and tags-still-on samples from the Riccardo Tisci era at Givenchy.

Finding La Marelle is half the fun. It’s in the Second Arrondissement near the tree-lined alleys of Palais Royal, inside Galerie Vivienne, a belle epoque, glass-roofed passageway with mosaic floors, half-moon windows and moldings of goddesses and nymphs. On the ground floor are affordable brands like Sandro and Isabel Marant. Upstairs, things get interesting. There is a wall devoted to Japanese design, a section of made-in-Paris furs, a rack of designer denim and well-priced ready-to-wear.

I’m now strutting around Chicago in my (discount) finery, delighted when friends ask the origin of my ensemble. “Oh, this? It’s from a tiny shop in Paris.”