Fashion
Buy and sell clothes, shoes and accessories in Guatemala.
Almost every Guatemalan town has a tailor or a seamstress who will take up a hem or take in a waist for little money, and that changes how second-hand clothes should be judged. Length and a loose waistband are easy problems. Shoulders that sit wrong, a stain that has been through the wash and cloth worn thin are not. New pieces from boutiques and used ones from wardrobes being cleared out both have a place, from a man’s wool suit to a girl’s party dress. Judge each one on what a tailor cannot change.
Women’s, men’s and children’s clothes fail in different places:
in women’s fashion most pieces are cut close to the body and high-street seams leave almost no spare cloth, so the size on the label matters more than any hope of letting something out. In men’s fashion the tailoring decides: a jacket either sits right across the shoulders or it never will, and men’s shoes with a stitched sole outlive the ones whose sole is glued. Children’s fashion is the branch where a garment is judged mostly on size and stains, because few pieces stay in use long enough to wear through.
The tailor’s bench, and the alterations it cannot make:
taking up a hem, shortening shirt sleeves and taking in a waist are routine jobs for any tailor or seamstress. Letting out is another matter. It needs cloth folded inside the seam, and most factory-made clothes are sewn with an allowance too narrow to give anything back. Tailored dress trousers in men’s clothing are the usual exception, with spare cloth left in the centre back seam for exactly this. The shoulders of a jacket are the line nobody crosses. Rebuilding them is a big job that rarely makes sense on a second-hand piece, so if the shoulder seam sits out past the bone, walk away however good the cloth. Sleeves with working buttonholes at the cuff are the other trap: they can only be shortened from the shoulder end.
What a hem adds to the price of a used blouse:
about the same few dozen quetzales a seamstress charges to take up a wool blazer or a pair of Levi’s. On the jacket or the jeans that is a small slice of what you save against buying new. On a cheap blouse or a basic T-shirt the same job can come close to doubling what you pay, and at that end of the market a piece that needs work rarely earns its place. Add the alteration to the sum while you are still haggling, not after.
Washed-in stains and sun-faded shoulders:
are the faults no seamstress can put right, which is why a used garment is worth seeing in daylight and not only in a photo. A missing button, a broken zip, a dropped hem or a split seam are cheap repairs and fair grounds for a small discount. A stain that has already been washed, a hole in knitwear, cloth pressed shiny by years of ironing and colour bleached across the shoulders stay for good. Turn the piece inside out as well: the care labels and the finish of the inner seams give away a fake branded garment long before the logo does.
Flat measurements for a clothing listing:
lay the garment flat and give the few that matter, armpit to armpit and length for a top, waist and inside leg for trousers, so a buyer in Retalhuleu or Cobán knows whether it will fit before travelling to try it on. Say whether it has already been altered and, for trousers, how much cloth is turned up inside the hem, because a taller buyer needs it to let them down. Photograph any mark in daylight and name it in the text rather than hoping it goes unnoticed. A suit or a formal dress bought for one wedding and outgrown since is exactly what buyers here are glad to take to a tailor, provided the shoulders fit, so put the shoulder width in the first line.