I fell in love with a statement piece I would only find at a resale store.
The peacock jacket caught my eye when I visited the Second Serve Resale showroom in 2024, shortly after we opened in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I was drawn to the color, a rich, dark green somewhere between kelly green and forest green. Emerald green.
Before I even got to the peacock jacket and saw it up close: the details, the quality tailoring, and its unique beauty, I was planning to buy it if it was my size. It was!
The wool fabric, softened with a bit of nylon, was smooth to the touch and emblazoned with, wait, are those embroidered peacocks? They were. The 100% cotton liner bore the same peacocks, regal and unapologetic of their beauty.
Then, five gorgeous buttons: royal blue with flecks of green, like a peacock’s feather, with silver rims. Finally, did this jacket have pockets? Yes, it did.
The brand was Olivia Annabelle, and, according to the fabric tag, the jacket was ethically made in India.
I will never stop being astonished at how many unique, high-quality, beautifully designed clothing pieces end up in the secondhand market. Some are carefully hung on wooden hangers at Second Serve Resale, while others are buried in Goodwill bins amid the fast-fashion throwaways, the last stop before the landfill or the overseas market. Thrifting a statement piece, a true showstopper, an item that will hang in your closet for years, is an attainable goal.
Finding a small-brand gem in a resale market awash in fast fashion
Olivia Annabelle describes itself as a “slow fashion fairytale.” Its unconventional clothes celebrate “craftsmanship, sustainability, and conscious consumption.” Every piece is a statement piece. Each piece is meticulously designed, inspired by the elegance of bygone eras but somehow still modern. A typical piece’s carbon footprint is 80% less than the carbon footprint of a pair of jeans.
Second Serve Resale, which does not stock fast fashion, has several pieces from this brand, donated by a loyal donor in Massachusetts, who always keeps us top of mind when she releases gorgeous, one-of-a-kind clothing items into the resale marketplace. Most Olivia Annabelle pieces are too romantic for my style, though I admire the craftsmanship in every piece Second Serve has acquired.
The peacock jacket, though, was somehow not too much for me, not too romantic. The peacock jacket was somehow just right.
Yet I didn’t buy it. Quality clothing takes time, especially when the brand is committed to fair labor practices. Quality, ethically-made pieces should cost more. An Olivia Annabelle dress, purchased new, costs about $450.
Amy, Second Serve’s fearless leader, priced the peacock jacket at $300, as it showed no signs of wear.
It felt like a lot to spend on a single jacket. I was about to start a new job requiring me to report to the office every day, so I needed more practical work attire, not statement pieces. I grabbed a no-frills fitted green jacket and left the peacock behind.
Then, just as I was walking out the door, having spent the whole day measuring armpit-to-armpit as we put more clothes on the site, I spied something I had somehow missed.
A pale pink, lightweight bomber jacket with hot pink embroidery down the sleeves. At $55, I jumped to buy it, and I’ve worn it many times since. It evokes the Pink Ladies, soft as a milkshake at the drive thru, but a bit feral. I couldn’t love this jacket more.
Still I could not get the peacock out of my mind! Second Serve has sales during all the slams: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. Every time there was a sale, I checked on the peacock jacket. When I visited the showroom, I tried it on, marveling at the perfect fit. But still I didn’t buy.
I enjoyed the longing.
I loved the peacock jacket, but would I ever thrift this statement piece?
Meanwhile, I acquired practical work attire through the secondhand market: a black cropped jacket, gray wool pants, a forest green collared dress. It was all so appropriate. So very appropriate. Throughout 2025, I swam in appropriateness. I pulled a wine-colored boiled wool jacket out of my closet one day and deemed it “a bit much” for work. Feeling that if I wouldn’t wear it to work, I wouldn’t wear it at all, I got rid of the wine jacket and several more jackets that seemed too vibrant for the 9-to-5. I wanted to be part of the team and not stand out for anything other than being reliable, skilled at my craft, and appropriate.
I tossed more and more of my clothing into the secondhand stream. I mostly stopped buying, preferring to let my closet vibe for a while.
When the holidays hit, I didn’t go thrifting with my daughter or wander over to the vintage store down the street with my husband. I checked in on the Second Serve Resale site, but I didn’t put anything in the cart.
During the glorious, slow week between Christmas and New Year’s, the SSR team decided we wanted to make some sales so we could send more money to our wonderful nonprofit partners. The time was right. I bought my statement piece for $300 and designated the proceeds to Invisible Food Pantry, a wonderful nonprofit whose board I chair. We were psyched to receive $255 for grocery store gift cards for hard working college students.
The peacock jacket arrived early in 2026. My daughter watched me take my time opening it and said it must be something special. It was. I had wanted it for so long, and it was worth the wait. I tried it on immediately and modeled it in front of my full-length mirror. I had my statement piece, at long last.
A few nights later, I wore it to my game night, an inappropriate choice for playing Mexican Train at a brewery. When it wasn’t my turn, I looked down at the bell sleeves and admired the beautiful buttons. I modeled the jacket in the brewery bathroom mirror, preening like an actual peacock. The peacock jacket wasn’t appropriate for the occasion, and I didn’t care.
10 tips for thrifting a statement piece in 2026
1. Go to the thrift, the vintage store, or the online resale store with an open mind and a block of time. The quality of a thrift haul generally trends alongside the time you are willing to put into it.
2. Focus on jackets. There are amazing thrift finds in every clothing category, but jackets seem to have more statement pieces hanging on the racks than pants and blouses, and even dresses and shoes.
3. Look for quality: fabrics like wool, linen, cotton, and leather, labels requiring “dry clean only,” small bags with extra buttons, fully-lined pieces, pockets, and buttons sewn on securely. Check the seams and make sure they are fully intact. If you see broken threads, it’s a matter of time before the item falls apart.
4. Don’t be too brand-conscious. There are so many small brands putting out innovative, beautifully designed clothing. And on the flip side, many high-profile luxury brands have licensed their name to fast fashion companies.
5. Use the Gems app to check the value of items you are interested in, to make sure you are getting a fair price. It’s hard to know what’s fair when the piece is a little different than everything else out there and from a lesser-known brand.
6. Make sure it fits. It’s torture to have an amazing jacket hanging in your closet and not be able to wear it because it’s too small. I’ve made this mistake many times.. The woman who donated the peacock jacket did so because it didn’t quite fit.
7. Don’t overlook wear and tear. A beautiful silk blouse with a faint stain or a missing button on the sleeve will feel less than special when you get it home.
8. Think about how the statement piece will fit in with the clothing you already have and the style you have already cultivated. If you have to buy all the clothing pieces to wear with your statement piece, you might not ever get around to doing so and might not wear the piece.
9. Think about where you will wear your statement piece. If you’ll probably never wear it, you could probably make better use of the closet space with something you will wear.
10. Don’t talk yourself out of a statement piece because it’s too young, too bold, or too different than what you typically wear.
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