Be it in the center of San José or around the corner in your neighborhood, you may have come across stores called “Ropa Americana” which offer clothes for as little as ¢1000. If you haven’t explored any of them so far, this article might encourage you to give it a try – especially if you believe that being stylish is a privilege reserved for the well-to-do. It doesn’t have to be!

Above all, don’t be prejudiced. It’s true that Ropa Americanas mainly sell used clothes, accessories and home textiles, but those are far from being trashy. Among them, you can find many pieces that have never been worn, and some even still have the tag from the shop they came from. Those practically new items are unwanted Christmas and birthday gifts, or leftovers of outdated collections that ended up in big plastic sacs, were shipped to Latin America and are now waiting to be discovered by you.

Visiting Ropa Americanas is a great option if you enjoy dressing well, but are not willing to commit financial harakiri for it, or if you would like to try some new styles without risking to spend lots of money in choices that later turn out to be wrong. If you are an individualist searching for cool vintage garments, you are probably already a frequent customer at Ropa Americana.

The following are a few tips on how to shop successfully at a Ropa Americana stores.

Make sure you have time to shop in detail

In order to dig up a Ropa Americana’s hidden treasures, you should go there when you have little else to do. Ideally, fulfill all your duties early in the day and let your shopping trip have an open end. In a Ropa Americana, all sizes, materials and styles are randomly mixed, so you will need patience to go through all the stuff and try a number of pieces on.

Don’t let the price categories fool you

Most Ropa Americanas are divided into departments with different price levels. “Boutique” sections will have the most expensive and, presumably, best clothes (from ¢2000 upwards), the “tienda” department is an intermediate category both in price and in quality (around ¢1000 to ¢1500), and the “ofertas” section is the cheapest one – clothes there can cost as little as ¢400. I have found that, although this division is supposed to mark differences in quality, you can find awesome stuff even in the “ofertas” department. For example, among the clothes I have bought for myself at ¢400, are: two brand new 100% silk négligés by Victoria’s Secret and GAP, as well as two equally new and beautifully worked jackets by J.Jill and Hanü Y. For ¢1000 I got gorgeous, never used mini-dresses by Exhilaration and Mossimo. I could go on like this forever, as roughly 60% of all my clothes are from the Ropa Americana. Across all departments, you will find brands like Old Navy, Cherokee, Mossimo, Ann Taylor, LOFT, GAP, Charlotte Russe, American Eagle, Free People, Esprit, Zara, Land’s End, Express, and so on.

Pay attention to the details

How do you know that something has never – or seldom – been used? Have a look at the labels and tags inside each piece. They don’t resist much use without getting yellowish or greyish stains, and they don’t stand much washing without wearing through. If the labels are clean, the brand name and washing instructions don’t look faded and the labels’ fabric has an intact surface and neat edges, the garment in your hands is likely to be new.

Thou cannot search, thou can only find

This metaphysical sounding principle means as much as: you won’t find what you’re looking for, but you will find many things you hadn’t even dreamed of. Don’t walk into a Ropa Americana thinking: “I want a black, casual cotton cardigan with a zipper,” because you will find everything but that. Be open minded, and you shall be rewarded for it.

If you feel like doing the experiment, start at any Ropa Americana you know of. Most neighborhoods have at least one of them. Another good place to start is downtown San José, especially the Cuesta de Moras on the Avenida Central. There, you will find several Ropa Americanas you can check out. Renowned chains are Tiendas Cleveland, Tiendas Sinai and La Paca Loca (which offer pre-selected clothes in good conditions and prices are a bit higher than the average Ropa Americana).

So, stop cutting down on food and fun because you want to dress well, you can dine out and still afford to dress the way you wish!