Yes, you can buy happiness (if you know where to shop)
remember when shopping was fun?
This post is in partnership with The RealReal
Do you remember the very first time shopping made you feel something? I don’t mean the rush of shoplifting nail polish at Limited Too on a dare (sorry mom!), or even the excitement of hitting the mall with friends after school, Orange Juliuses in hand. I mean the first time you felt a genuine thrill, the kind of feeling that made you realize shopping and fashion should feel ✨FUN✨. Thankfully, I’ve moved past Forever 21 followed by Sbarro’s as the pinnacle of my consumerism, and have moved on to the more sophisticated option of cocooning myself in vintage luxury. The wisdom that comes with having my mall days in the past is knowing that if you do it right, the real fun is as much in the ritual of shopping as it is in the purchases themselves.
I remember my first time feeling that thrill, vividly. It’s a core memory that can be picked up and followed, thread-like, to how I approach fashion today. I was 12, and it was the first time I went thrifting with my mom at our local Salvation Army. I had so much fun digging, sifting, and hunting for those diamonds in the rough, that over twenty years later, it is still a high I chase daily (specifically, at 10am and 7pm EST - iykyk). I still own some of those early grails, like a bonkers embroidered Ungaro sweater and a thick cognac leather belt that was an early indicator of a future Chloé fixation.
As with most things in the year of our tech overlords 2026, the thing shopping has made me feel the most is the urge to throw my phone in the garbage disposal and live off-grid (in a chic Henry David Thoreau way, not in a doomer hermit way). I could basically rewrite the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” listing the reasons why (🎶 global warming, price pain, Shein bought Everlane 🎶) - not that you need reminding!
Which brings me to my partner in today’s letter, my non-spousal life partner, in fact - The RealReal. Despite all of the reasons we have to feel cynical about shopping, TRR has an answer to all of them. Environmental and economic anxieties? Social media driven trend cycles and the enshittification of brands? The phenomenon of “wear once” culture and fast fashion cheapening taste? The RealReal is where it doesn’t have to be this way, where you can go to have fun shopping again.
Here’s how I make my The RealReal shopping experience capital-F ✨FUN✨:
Go down the rabbit hole. If there were a Bottom Feeders Anonymous Ten Commandments, #1 would be: Thou Shalt Stay Curious (right next to Thou Shalt Save Thine Searches). Shopping with curiosity means shopping with intention - you must be an active participant, which is much more fun than being a mindless scroller. There are so many amazing rabbit holes to enter on TRR, from rare vintage designers to museum-worthy pieces to bits of juicy fashion history - you don’t even have to be in the market for any of it, you can do it just for the pure joy of seeing something beautiful and interesting.
Make it about the thrill of the hunt. I still love thrifting, but it hasn’t been the same since fast fashion started flooding in, and TRR has been an amazing successor. It is positively brimming with attainable grails. My ultimate high is the trifecta of a beautiful piece that is suitable to me and is not only affordable, but an insanely good deal. For you, it might be the bag you’ve been coveting at a bargain, or maybe an Elsa Peretti Bean necklace that’s an heirloom piece at an accessible price. No matter what it is, it’s probably on TRR, and the journey to finding it is half the fun.
Be a kid in a candy shop. TRR is the well-dressed woman’s Wonka Factory. One way to find the joy of shopping again is to allow for child-like pure imagination to take over and buy the impractical thing for no other reason than that it makes you happy. The challenge is in following where your joy leads without going full Augustus Gloop (except with Miu Miu instead of chocolate).
Consign to take the pressure off. When you start to see your closet as fluid and ever-evolving rather than stagnant, it relieves so much pressure to get it right all of the time. It’s impossible to have a perfect shopping track record - regardless of how much money and styling help you have, you can still flop (Met Gala, anyone?). Whether it’s too-small shoes, a trend you’re leaving in the past, or simple buyers remorse, consigning allows freedom to take swings.
An uncluttered closet is a happy closet. To piggyback off the previous point, consigning isn’t just about “out with the old, in with the new”. Not to get too Marie Kondo, but satisfaction doesn’t just come with things that spark joy, it also comes with letting go of the things that don’t spark joy. Consigning to fund a purchase great, but so is consigning for the sake of a harmonious closet.
Have a system, make it a ritual. In my opinion, the unfathomable depths of volume on TRR is it’s greatest strength, but it’s also the thing that can make it feel overwhelming. Sure, you can dive into “New Arrivals” without a plan like it’s the deep end of the pool, or you can soak up your thought-out saved searches like it’s a relaxing bath. I like to have my saved searches organized geographically by designer (for example “Italy” has Prada, Marni, and Versace and “New York” has Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera and Tory Burch) - I find this way much more immersive than random groupings. There’s several other tools that you can utilize to stay organized, like a First Look membership and the often overlooked “Featured Shops” and “Trending Now” tabs (oh, and by subscribing to BFA, duh).
You can have your trends and eat them too. Social media driven comparison culture is already a lose-lose - you are being influenced a dozen different ways to buy certain trendy items, but if you do you’re unoriginal, and most of us can’t afford them anyways (but buying the Zara rip-off isn’t a great option either). I believe strongly that if you want to partake in a trend, you should be able to guilt-free, and TRR is your one stop shop to having it all: sustainability, affordability, luxury, and singularity. And if algorithm-proof shopping is more your thing, TRR has got you covered there, too.
Retail as Therapy. Remember that shopping is supposed to be FUN. TRR is fun for me because it’s simultaneously weirdly meditative and exciting - knowing that at any moment I might scroll past anything from an avant-garde vintage hat to the exact pair of jeans I’ve been manifesting gives me LIFE. It has yet to replace actual therapy for me (I’m patiently waiting for Dr. Orna to reply to my emails), but it is my online happy place. Genuinely, if shopping ever starts feeling like work, what’s the point? And if you stop having fun - wherever you choose to shop - close all tabs, touch grass, and remind yourself: it’s not that serious!
Below, some amazing TRR finds using these methods, tips for how to get there, as well as some of my personal most fun buys1. HAPPY shopping!
The Rabbit Hole 🕳️🐇
🕳️🐇 Rabbit Hole hot tip: I’ve written about some of my favorite search terms in the past, and nothing has yet to top “as worn by” / “as seen on”. True, they can be very hit or miss2, but when they do hit, they’re an endorphin goldmine. If you’re a vintage runway junkie like me, there’s some archival pieces that have been worn by legit Supers - like the Ozbek jacket featured below - modeled by Yasmeen Ghauri (my favorite underrated 90’s supermodel). There’s also things like a Jil Sander sweater that Beyoncé wore for her 31st birthday on a yacht in the South of France, and a 1983 Bob Mackie dress seen on not one but two iconic magazine covers, worn by Brooke Shields and Daryl Hannah.
Top Row: jacket $293 // jacket $247
Middle Row: sweater $276 // sweater $237 (more here and here, this one and this one could be mistaken for $1000 Bode sweaters)
Bottom Row: dress $237 (if you read Lena Dunham’s incredible TRR post you know she also stans Mary M.) // pants $156 // dress $220 (anyone looking for a wedding guest dress?)
🕳️🐇 Rabbit Hole Hot Tip: Here’s a delightful birthday gift idea for someone you want to spoil: instead of the “wine from the year they were born” cliche, find a designer piece of the same vintage by searching their birth year. For example, this 1991 Gianni Versace blazer (if any of my friends or family are reading…). Searching by decade is another way to time travel: you can go back over a century, to things like this possibly haunted Victorian-era dress.
The Dopamine Hit 🍭
🍭 Dopamine Hit Hot Tip: Many items on TRR have an approximate origin date listed in the description - if you ever see one, it’s worth looking up, either by reverse image search or somewhere like the Vogue archives (unlike above, this isn’t something you can search for, it’s one that you have to stumble on). This is worth doing because 1) it’s always fun to see an item in it’s fully realized form, and 2) it’ll give you so much perspective on things like fit and styling - there’s no comparing seeing an item static on a mannequin versus fluid on the runway (if you really want a serotonin boost, look at this vintage YSL dress on the runway in 1987).
Top Row: jacket $1780 // ring $124 // ring $2895 // sweater $235
Middle Row: jacket $94 // sweater $84 // top $1000
Bottom Row: bag $287 // earrings $196 // shoes $129 (marked “fair” but two words: shoe 👏🏼 repair 👏🏼) // earrings $178 // bag $118
The Thrill of the Hunt 🔍
🔍 Thrill of the Hunt Hot Tip: Pay attention to the littlest details. This goes hand in hand with Thou Shalt Stay Curious: do not let the details slip past you. If you notice something - say, “tie-dye” in the item name - guess what! That’s your new favorite search term. If you search for a designer and start seeing a bunch of their diffusion line pieces pop up, explore what’s there. If you see an unfamiliar brand, don’t scroll past, check them out. You might find yourself 30 minutes later reading the Wikipedia page of Geoffrey Beene instead of shopping, but I consider that a good time.
Clockwise from top left: bag $206 // watch $262 // ring $308 // top $316 // skirt $213 // bag $268 // watch $204 // necklace $177
That’s all - thanks for reading! And big thank you to The RealReal❣️
xxKarina 🦐
quick disclaimer: this is not a post where I’m able to share everything I want and keep to my usual $125 price cap, but that’s kind of the point! Shopping doesn’t have to always be about the intention to purchase, sometimes it’s about the simple joy of browsing
I recommend sorting by “most obsessed” and filtering for clothing only