Second-Hand in Shuangjing: Trash 'n' Diamond Lets You Swap for High-Quality Wear

For Fang Fang, there was something more satisfying about digging through a pile of someone else's unwanted clothes at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, California, than shopping at the high end malls in Los Angeles. But “finding the diamond in the trash” wasn't something her Chinese friends could get on board with.

“I would never consider buying anything second hand,” a friend told her when Fang Fang proposed the idea of bringing the flea market concept to Beijing. This was true to such an extent that, when she had to unload 21 boxes of her own untouched garments and invited her friends to join in a clothing swap, it flopped.

“It didn't work as well as I expected because most people took my clothes and didn’t bring their own,” she said.

Still, Fang Fang was determined to go through with an idea that was five years in the making, a shop she dreamed to see succeed despite cultural style differences. She appropriately named it Trash 'n' Diamond.

Fang Fang's shop is like America's Buffalo Exchange went and put on a little black dress; clean, white walls adorned with three racks of color-sorted clothing surround a table of recycled, compressed cardboard – the shop's most expensive attribute at RMB 10,000. Neatly organized second-hand accessories and unusual trinkets crafted by local designers cover the table. Hanging overhead are 450 glass bottles her and Cao Pu, husband and Queen Sea Big Shark's guitarist, collected from friends, School Bar and Jam Bar.

“Since our name is Trash 'n' Diamond, why don't we have diamond lights? We decided the recycled bottles were better,” she said, referring to a diamond-shaped light bulb by Swedish designer Eric Therner, which can be purchased in the shop.

But the real gems, of course, are the clothes. Items brought in by local rock stars, models and stylists are available for a range of prices that dip as low as RMB 30. Most clothes are priced around RMB 200, and can be bought at a discount in exchange for your own unwanted clothing. Just be prepared for a style assessment from Fang Fang.

“We want to keep the quality high and try to keep the price as friendly as possible,” she said. “We try to quicken the speed of recycling by making everything cheap, so we can buy it more often and you can bring in more often.”

Fang Fang gives regular WeChat updates (ID: TrashnDiamond), so you know what's new in the shop everyday. And if you don't bring your own bag to carry away all of your er shou de steals, don't worry: Fang Fang collects second-hand shopping bags too, rewriting her shop's name in a red marker over the bag's label.

Trash 'n' Diamond
Daily 10am-9pm. 22 Baiziwan Lu (5826 3995)
朝阳区百子湾路22号

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