Friday 10th April 2026 | Second Hand Conversation Episode 1 | Written by Rachel Simmonite
Introducing The Second Hand Conversation ✨
We've been wanting to do this for a while. Here at Déjà Vu Wales, we talk about second hand fashion every single day with customers, with each other, and honestly, with anyone who'll listen. So we thought, why not actually sit down and have those conversations properly?
That's exactly what The Second Hand Conversation is. A series of chats with the people around us who love preloved fashion, shop consciously, and have genuinely interesting things to say about it all from how we shop, to how we feel in our clothes, to what it actually means to build a wardrobe you love.
No scripts. No agenda. Just good conversation, good people, and hopefully a few ideas about preloved that stick with you.
For our very first episode, we sat down with Tabby, a content creator, self-confessed tailoring obsessive, and the proud owner of a Burberry kilt she got right here in our shop (more on that later).
Rachel, Tabby & Jess (left to right).
So, who is Tabby?
Tabby is 35, a content creator on the side, and works full-time in a pretty corporate, male-dominated industry. But you wouldn't necessarily know that from her wardrobe. She's spent years carving out her own sense of style within the constraints of office dress codes and she's not apologising for it!
"I try to have as much fun with my clothes as possible," she told us, "even if that goes against the grain a little bit."
Her go-to? Tailoring. Mini skirts. Wide-leg trousers balanced with a fitted top. She knows her silhouette, she shops for her body, and (as she put it with a laugh) she'll still be in a mini skirt at 50 and she genuinely does not care.
From haul queen to slow fashion convert
Tabby's relationship with second hand shopping didn't start overnight. In fact, she used to be deep in the world of haul content, ordering bags of clothes, filming herself trying them on, sending them all back. She's refreshingly honest about it.
"I started to see the backlash in my comments and it made me think twice — what was I actually influencing? Consumerism wasn't what I wanted my impact to be."
Eight years into creating content, she'd grown up. And her audience had too. Rather than chasing brand deals with high street names, she started re-wearing her clothes, shopping on Vinted, and buying quality over quantity. The result? A more engaged audience than ever and a much more authentic corner of the internet.
The "spending tension" theory we can't stop thinking about
One of our favourite moments in the whole conversation was when Tabby started talking about money and specifically, about the tension we've lost from spending.
"Spending has become so easy and there's no tension in it anymore. There should be tension in your spending — to make you stop and consider whether this is something you really want."
She even uses cash for most of her purchases, because physically handing money over forces you to feel the weight of the decision. And she pointed out something we think about a lot here at Déjà Vu: when people come into the shop, they're so much more thoughtful than when they're shopping online. They pick things up. They put things back. They debate. They leave and come back. That friction? That's a feature, not a bug.
Tabby's 50-wear rule 🔁
Before buying anything, Tabby asks herself: will I wear this at least 50 times? If she can't honestly say yes, she doesn't buy it. It's turned shopping into a game she actually enjoys and it's made her wardrobe a lot more intentional.
Online vs in person: it's not as simple as you think
We asked Tabby what she thought about second hand shopping online (Vinted, eBay, the whole lot) compared to shopping in person. Her take was a bit more nuanced than a simple "one is better than the other."
Online platforms are brilliant for accessibility, she said. They've brought a whole new audience to second hand shopping who might never have set foot in a charity shop. But there's a catch: if you're shopping Vinted the same way you used to shop ASOS (mindlessly scrolling, tapping, buying) you haven't really changed anything. You've just transferred the habit.
Shopping in person is different. You're physically present. You're handing over money. You're part of the experience. And that changes everything about how considered your purchase is.
Above is an image of inside the Déjà Vu shop in Pontcanna, Cardiff.
When clothes have stories
This is the bit that really got us. Tabby talked about how, when you slow down your shopping, your clothes start to carry memories. She has a blazer she found in the men's section of a charity shop (she can't even remember which one) but she can picture it perfectly, and every time she wears it, she feels proud.
And then there's the Burberry kilt.
She found it here, on her first ever visit to Déjà Vu. She wasn't sure. She went for a coffee to think about it. She asked us to hold it. She came back (pretty quickly, she admitted) and she bought it. And she says she can see herself keeping it forever.
"The whole thing is a lived experience versus just sat doom scrolling at night. You don't remember what you bought when you buy it online."
Shopping for your body (and actually meaning it)
One of the most honest parts of the conversation came when Tabby talked about body image. She used to buy sizes that weren't really her size and then never wear those items because they didn't quite fit. Now, her wardrobe ranges from a 12 to an 18, and she genuinely doesn't care what the label says.
She gets online comments sometimes, particularly about her mini skirts not being "appropriate" for work. Her response? "Until HR have a word with me, I'm absolutely fine." It highlights a broader issue: people’s choices are often judged very differently depending on their appearance, and that is a much bigger conversation in itself.
But the point she was making is this: when you dress for how something actually fits you and makes you feel, you wear it. And when you wear it, you keep it. It's as simple as that.
Her favourite second hand find (besides the kilt)
We ended by asking Tabby about her favourite second hand item ever and she gave us a genuinely lovely answer. A few years ago, she realised she could go back through Vinted and find the Warehouse and Oasis dresses she'd worn and loved in her twenties, the ones she'd long since got rid of, but in her size now.
Her current favourite? A simple burgundy Warehouse mini dress she picked up that people stop her on the street to ask about. Fashion really does go full circle.
Tabitha (above) in her beautiful preloved Warehouse dress.
Thank you so much to Tabby for being our first ever guest on The Second Hand Conversation she set the bar high and we loved every minute of it. You can follow her over on Instagram at @takeheartuk. And if you fancy being part of the series yourself, you know where to find us. ☕
Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel here - https://youtu.be/XDJxRXl6hGo?si=Ii4rmXBpwa1EE703