It was 'cool' to buy vintage clothes for years in Ireland and the UK
That wasn't the case in Poland - after the fall of communism there weren't many shops with clothes, let alone affordable ones and Poland was going through though times economically, so buying at secondhand shops was simply a necessity for many people. The situation changed over the years and so the perception of those shops changed too. And during communist times it was a whole different story - there was a problem with buying any clothes at all, so women often sew clothes for themselves and their family...
We all had combat jackets as we called them, and reefer jackets (sailors' jackets).
I can understand reefer jackets, but what those "combat jackets" looked like? 🤔
Actually some people in Poland deliberately scour the secondhand shops for designer label stuff at rock bottom prices and then sell it online at a profit.
That's very possible - if I'm to be honest I don't have the time to go through all those heaps of clothes in secondhand shops - I never could find anything that I would like and just wasted a lot of time... and shopping for clothes/shoes for a woman is time-consuming enough already, so... ;D ðŸ˜