The center of the youth fashion scene of Tokyo is without a doubt, Shibuya–and Harajuku, for its concentrated subculture fashion phenomenon. Harajuku is a district located in Shibuya, and more famed for its quirky fashion with bursts of never-before seen styles and unique fashion items. Simply being in the midst of the pulsing, vibrant, and ever-evolving vogue can be quite overwhelming—in a good way. Just by existing in the midst of the crowd of Shibuya is an experience in itself.
The most popular one-stop shopping when it comes to youth fashion in Shibuya would be the iconic cylinder-shaped building, Shibuya 109 (read: Shibuya Marui) with its Shibuya 109 Men counterpart. A huge number of fashion brands own their headquarters in Shibuya and the area could be your one-stop shopping location the whole time you’re in Tokyo. By walking, you can reach Harajuku fairly quickly—in fact, the borders between Shibuya and Harajuku is often blurred. You don’t go running to the Shibuya Marui for the cheapest of the cheap deal you can find, though. If you love a good hunt for good quality clothes with a dirt cheap price tag, then make sure to give these shops a visit.
Bingo
BINGO is a part of the Book-OFF franchise, and it’s one of the most
The ambience of the store is calm, with warm light and warm-hued wall paint encompassing the whole store located in the basement of the Book-Off building. It has an impressive collection of secondhand items of both your everyday fashion items as well as some luxury goods. They have a pretty solid men section—the men shoes are particularly a collection one should take a good look at. For the price range, short skirts and shorts are anywhere between 300 JPY to 1,000 JPY, while the long skirts are approximately in the range of 700 – 2,000 JPY. Jackets and coats start from 800 JPY and up. Most of the item looks as if they’ve barely been used. BINGO is an excellent place to shop for used clothing, whether you’re looking for an emergency change of clothes or simply looking for a couple of new cardigans.
390 Mart (Sankyuu mart)
Just as the namesake suggests, this shop has most of their items priced at 390 JPY. The 390 Mart is located at the famous Takeshita Dori. The name is a play in the word “thank you”, where “3” is pronounced “san” and “kyuu” is the short for 90 (kyuuju), exactly how the Japanese pronounced thank you with their accent. It’s a good place to shop for accessories as they have a corner for chokers, cute necklaces and bracelets, quirky thigh-highs and pantyhose, hats, and many others.
Kinji Used Clothing
Kinji is another used clothing store that’s one of the favorite options of both locals and tourists alike. This store is spacious and boasts over 20,000 items in its Shibuya store. The price is from 960 JPY and up—definitely not as dirt cheap as Bingo, but still very affordable. Unlike Bingo, Kinji also has a large section of accessories (a lot of them don’t seem to be secondhand). There are also pieces for lolita getups such as the sweet lolita blouses. The opening hours for Kinji is 10 am – 9 pm. There are also a number of teddy bears and character toys for sale lining up the walls. Kinji Used Clothing is only 10 minutes walk away from the south exit of the Shimokitazawa station.
Don Don Down on Wednesday
The name of the store is reflective of the store’s business model, where “don don” is an onomatopoeia that means “steadily”, in this case, steadily dropping of prices. The prices of each item drops each week every Wednesday depending on how long they’ve been sitting at the store. They could go for as low as 105 JPY—that’s less than $1, which is a pretty big deal for the super cheapos.