[GUIDE] Help! I'm new to /r/FashionReps AND I'm new to streetwear in general.

Intro

Did you just recently decide you want to look better by dressing better? Maybe you checked out r/malefashionadvice and it wasn't for you so you discovered r/streetwear. Maybe you like hip hop and follow your favorite rappers in IG and you want to look like them. Maybe you're in high school and you're sick of getting stunted on by rich kids. Whatever the reason, you found yourself on r/streetwear looking at inspo albums and WDYWT posts and getting really psyched about cool outfits. Then you found some pictures you REALLY fell in love with. You looked up the prices of the items in the outfit and immediately lost hope of ever looking like that. Then something led you to r/FashionReps. You're pretty new to streetwear. Your daily outfit is jeans and a graphic tee with some tennis shoes. Maybe cargos and a zip-up hoodie. Whatever. Point is, you're here to completely overhaul your wardrobe and not spend very much money.

If I just described you, this is the guide for you. If none of that hits home, you probably won't get much out of this guide. There will be zero useful information here for people who have been on this sub for a long time.

What web sites exist to buy reps from?

For our purposes, we're going to pretend that a few of the big web sites don't exist. There are lots of sites out there that buy stuff from the web site I'm going to show you how to buy from and then sell for double the price. But you're not a sucker. You're going to buy from a weird ass Chinese web site and get shit for the low.

There's Aliexpress which I do not recommend for several reasons. It's very tempting to buy stuff from Aliexpress but you will get burned. First, the site is Western-facing which means the pressure is on the site's operators to crack down on illegal activity. Aliexpress is widely used around the globe. When there's good fakes on Aliexpress and the link gets shared, the link gets taken away. The administrators of the site need to cover their asses and take down things that get reported. So the stuff that stays up usually isn't very good.

Then there's TaoBao. This is the site we'll be talking about. Here's the catch though, it's going to be a little tricky. If you don't want to put in a little work to save a lot of money, then give up on reps right now and save up for legit pieces.

I clicked on that TaoBao link and it's all in Chinese. How am I ever going to figure this out?

Chill, we got this. For now, we're not going to worry about navigating TaoBao much. That'll come later after you've done a couple orders. Use Google Chrome while rep shopping and utilize the full-page automatic translation by clicking on the translate button in the URL bar. My goal right now, however, is not to overwhelm you more because you're probably already overwhelmed so don't worry if the site looks really confusing even after translating it.

We're going to use an agent.

An agent is a third party with a warehouse that orders things from TaoBao for you then repackages all the items you buy from different sellers into one package and sends it on to you. I'm going to recommend Superbuy. They make it pretty easy for new people to buy stuff from TaoBao. Go to the Superbuy home page and paste this link into the box. You'll see that the page has been automatically translated for you via Google Translate and it looks a little less scary. Feeling calmer yet? Superbuy is going to make it almost as easy as shopping on Amazon.

Here's a video with a 1:1 cutie explaining Superbuy if it's confusing for you.

Note: I chose Superbuy because they have the best interface and reasonable fees, as far as I can tell. I do not have a Superbuy account associated with this Reddit account and I am not receiving any discount or anything like that for this post.

Alright, I've made an account with the agent. What do I buy?

Okay, so the catch here is that I'm going to give you the outline of a basic streetwear capsule wardrobe for you to build upon. A capsule wardrobe is a wardrobe made up of few pieces that are simple and can be combined in many ways to create many outfits. I'll try to include a few simple hype pieces because, let's be real, you want to get some hype shit. We all do.

Bottoms: Fear of God zipper pants & Represent distressed skinny jeans in blue and/or H&M skinny low jeans (as cheap as most rep jeans)

Tops: Layering tees in pretty much every color, Basic hoodies in black, beige (apricot), and gray, or Yeezy-style hoodies if you want to spend a little more for a different cut, Thin bomber in black and/or olive green (very thin, this is a windbreaker not a winter coat). The other tops I'll recommend are Faded Glory flannels from Wal-Mart and Hane's Beefy tees. These items are as cheap in the US as they are from TaoBao for the most part. If you're not in the US I'm sure there is a local equivalent. If you need a winter coat, I don't recommend finding a rep. Quality seriously matters if you live in the frozen north and you don't want to take any chances.

Hats: Hat store. I own 12+ hats from this store and only 3 of them have been crap. Avoid the Supreme and Palace hats, they're very bad. Very very cheap way to accessorize and get some hype. Get lots of different color hats to match with or pop out of your basic outfits.

Shoes: Getting into rep shoes is an entirely different world of shit to worry about so I'm going to recommend that you don't get into it right away. My recommendation is to hit the mall and dig through every clearance rack until you find some basic shoes that will work with everything. Adidas Superstars are very versatile and can be found for less than $50 pretty easily. Converse high or low tops can be found cheaply too, you probably already have a pair. In my opinion, the cream of the crop for budget shoes that are extremely versatile are Vans Old Skools. This is one of the easiest to find shoes and it goes with pretty much everything. For now, you can easily get away with one pair of cool shoes. If you're on a really extreme budget, Wal-Mart has Converse-style canvas shoes for about $15. There's plenty of resources available if you absolutely must have fake Yeezys right away but I really don't think you should get into that just yet.

The beauty of creating such a simple wardrobe is that you can mix and match in almost any possible combination and end up with a decent looking outfit. 1 or 2 pairs of pants, 5 or 6 tees, 2 or 3 hoodies, a couple of flannels, 1 pair of shoes. Lots of combos. And you've spent less than $250, maybe a lot less. For the price of one Supreme hoodie, you just built an entire wardrobe. It's basic, yes, but it's a start.

BONUS: I decided to stop talking shit and start posting fit. Here are some example outfits I put on to give you a couple ideas. They're not all great fits in terms of taking a selfie that goes to the top of r/streetwear but they're better than what I looked like before I found this sub. That's what matters. The zipper pants in the photos are H&M rather than the cwhat FoG ones linked above. Pants are H&M skinny lows. The skate shoes are Nike SBs which are also easy to find if you want an alternative to Vans Old Skools.

How do I know what size to buy?

This is a VERY important question. Some products will be reproduced with the same original size designations. Others will be shifted to better accommodate their Asian clients. Some items purchased from Tao could be a Large that fits like a US XS. So you really need to pay attention.

When I first got into reps, I didn't really pay attention. I took some serious Ls. Watch this YouTube video, have a friend or, let's be real, your mom help you measure youself. If you don't have a tape measure, you can find one for $2-3 at Target or any craft store, or Amazon. Alternatively you can just use a piece of string, mark it, then measure with a ruler. The most important measurement you'll take is your chest size. I'm 5'11" 160lbs and my chest is 98cm. That does not mean that if you're my height and weight that your chest will be the same size.

With my 98cm chest, I buy t-shirts with a chest measurement of 102-108cm. 102 is a slim fit and 108 is a relaxed fit for me (not baggy). For hoodies, I buy 114-122. 114 is a slim fit and 122 is an oversized fit. When you look at a product page for a top, you need to find the size chart. 胸围 are the symbols that mean "chest measurement". For a t-shirt, I will look for those symbols and then look for what size is in my range. Then, I decide if I want a slim or relaxed fit for that style of t-shirt. Sometimes the chest measurement is shown as half, so just double the number.

However, the best way to know if an item will fit well is to search this subreddit for reviews of the item. People put their height and weight in the review and describe the fit, sometimes also posting pictures of them wearing it. If they have a similar build to you, you should be generally pretty comfortable ordering that size. Keep in mind, though, that we are all different and there is no really universal way to get the right size every time. Even with all my knowledge of sizing and what works for me, I still take some Ls on weird sizing.

What is shipping going to cost?

Shipping works a bit differently than you're probably used to. You will pay a small fee (5-10yuan) for shipping when you first order the item. Then, once your agent has all the items and weighs them, you will pay them for the final shipment of everything from them to you. It is not uncommon for a $150 haul to cost $50 to ship. Keep this in mind when you are budgeting your order.

To get a more accurate idea of the shipping costs, check out this guide from u/IndustriaTenebris

But, OP I want hype shit.

I know, me too. As a general rule, get all the basics before you get any hype. If you wear too much hype or wear hype shit before you figure out how to match and create a good outfit, you'll look bad. I know it's tempting to just put on a full Supreme outfit but you will look like an idiot.

However, I can't stop you from needing to satisfy your itch for cheap hype. Start with just tee shirts. Seriously. With stuff other than tees (jackets, pants, embroidered items, etc.) there's a lot more that can go wrong and you don't have a trained eye for details yet. It will come with time and with looking at posts on this sub.

UNHS tees are pretty consistently good reps.

UnionKingdom has a small selection but it's some of the best stuff out there.

But I want a Supreme BOGO hoodie!

IMO, don't buy one yet. There is a sort of war going on right now, a race to be the first factory making really really good bogo hoodies. Lots of them are close but it's not there yet. Please, please, please if you're new do not buy a bogo hoodie. Subscribe to this sub and wait until the dust settles and there's a clear winner. I'd hate for your first rep experience to be getting a sub-par $50 hoodie.

Okay, I've got some basics and I looked at UNHS and UnionKingdom and they don't have X. Where do I get it?

The easiest way to find a specific item is to use the search bar on this subreddit. Check out links, reviews, etc. If you don't see it, your instinct is probably to create a new thread and ask for links. Please don't do this until you have already tried to find it for yourself. It is so rewarding to hunt down and find an item that no one has posted before. It also helps keep the front page of the sub unclogged with repetitive posts.

As you know, TaoBao is mainly in Mandarin Chinese. So typing in "Supreme red tee shirt" won't get you too far. So we use a function on TaoBao called the reverse image search. Here's a nice simple guide to using reverse image search by our mod u/mikeygigs18. Only addendum I make to that guide is that sometimes to change TaoBao to "Mainland China" it's in the upper left corner of the page rather than the bottom bar.

But OP I want to wear feminine clothing and this subreddit is almost exclusively masculine!

r/RepLadies is an awesome subreddit, check it out. Even if you do not identify as a woman, it is a great place find things to pickup for your friends or significant others.

Where do I go from here?

Here's a good post from r/streetwear that lists a lot of guides you can check out to keep expanding your style and trying out new fun stuff.

That's all I have for now. Please comment with any questions, I'll be happy to help. Let me know if there's anything I should add to this guide but keep in mind the point is for it to be simple.

One more thing, if you are mad or frustrated with the state of the community, the influx of new users, people being mean, whatever, just remember that we're all here for the same reason. We want to look good for the low. So just chill and don't be dicks.

Also, if you comment with a question and no one replies then your comment is being hidden because you are on a reddit account with not enough karma. Go participate in some discussions in other subreddits to build up a little so you can post and comment here.