Thrifting at Trabuco Hills High is cool, trendy and teaches life skills ...Middle East

Half of the clothes Olivia Kwon owns are carefully selected from thrift stores near her home, the other half she buys at her favorite retailers.

And, if she’s shelling out her own money for new stuff, the Trabucco Hills High junior has a set budget for how much she’s willing to spend, which, frankly, she said, is often for clothes not as cool as the vintage pieces she finds for a significantly reduced cost while thrifting with her friends.

“Anything over $25 is crazy for a T-shirt; most sweatpants should cost about $40,” the 16-year-old from Lake Forest said, adding that she’ll sometimes splurge up to $100 for jeans or sweats that are a better quality. And if, by chance, somebody gave her a designer pair of jeans for over $200, she’d be thankful, of course, she said, but she might question the person’s choices. “It’s crazy to spend that on something that could be bought cheaper.”

She shares that mindset with her twin sister, Shelby Kwon, and their friends and classmates, Sofia Kim, 17, and Chloe Park, 17, who together have undertaken a special project to create a thrift store at their high school.

In October, with help from teacher Kara Johnson, they opened Monty & Millie’s Exchange, a thrift shop set up in a classroom and open to students at lunch on Wednesdays. Besides clothes, there are also shoes, household items and toys.

Each student who shops can get up to two things for free. Since opening, the shop and its concept have been hugely popular with students, teachers and other school staff. When open, a wait line often extends outside the building the shop is in. Donations come from the school community and the broader Mission Viejo and Lake Forest communities. Word about it is spread via social media, the school’s PTSA and its Associated Student Body.

Johnson, a special education teacher, said she introduced the thrift store idea to the four girls during the summer.

The Kwon twins, Kim and Park each participate in Johnson’s unified track program, which pairs special education and general education students for sports. The four girls, who play on the high school’s soccer team in the winter, joined the track program and trained alongside students with special needs for the California Interscholastic Federation or CIF.  Johnson is also on the board for Special Olympics Southern California and the CIF Advisory Committee for Unified Sports for the Southern Section and CIF State.

The thrift exchange was created with two goals in mind: to give THHS students a convenient way to shop, thrift, and exchange clothes on campus and to provide students with disabilities some hands-on experience learning the ins and outs of retail operations.

Johnson said she was inspired by a program at a San Diego school where a thrift shop was opened to help adult students with disabilities learn useful skills. While she saw the benefit to her special education students, she also wanted to take advantage of the teen thrifting craze.

Teens see the activity as a cool way to spend time together — instead of malls, thrift stores are the hangout now — while also being financially savvy and finding creative ways to style themselves with vintage clothes. Social media and influencer inspirations are also fueling the trend.

“It played a huge factor,” Johnson said. “It was a combination of providing work skills for our students, providing a trendy shopping experience for all students, and keeping it free rather than charging students, to make it accessible for all.”

When she ran the idea by the Kwon sisters, Kim and Park, each was enthusiastic and loved the idea.

“Thrifting is just really popular because of how expensive things are, and it’s a way to get clothes and still have good style,” said Park. “A lot of it is having good style by getting something vintage.”

Park explained that what makes vintage clothes so attractive is that the items are often one-of-a-kind, not available anywhere else.

To get things going, the four teens gave up their free time over the summer to collect donated clothes. Johnson had put the word out to other teachers and school staff, and by August, they had more than 50 gigantic bags filled with inventory.

“We thought it was a really good idea and it was also a way to give back to our community and school,” Olivia Kwon said, adding that she and the others then washed, folded and hung the clothes.

As they sorted through the clothes, they discovered some highly coveted items, like anything from Free People and Brandy Melville, said Kim.

“They’re really good quality,” Park chimed in.

Other finds were prom and high school dance dresses that typically get worn once and then discarded. Some students can’t afford those, Kim said, adding that investing in one dance isn’t a good financial idea either.

As luck would have it, a nearby home goods store, At Home, was shutting down and donated tables, hangers, shelves, and a variety of retail supplies to the project. Those, Johnson said, help make Monty’s & Millie’s Exchange — named after the school’s two mustang mascots — more authentic.

The store officially opened in October and is staffed by Johnson’s special education students, who are building real-life skills through folding, organizing and decorating the store and keeping eager shoppers at bay. Students get 10 minutes each to shop.

Controlling those shoppers falls partly to Brady Sugg, one of Johnson’s standouts, who keeps the students in line while they wait for their turn to come in.

“I try to keep them from rushing the line,” the 17-year-old said, ” and I tell them to be quiet.”

Besides his other duties of sorting by size and gender, stocking clothes and doing laundry, managing the students coming in helped prepare him for an internship at Walgreens this fall.

There, he’s frequently asked to help people find something they’re looking for.

While Sugg said working with “older people is scarier,” he said the experience he’s gained at Monty & Millie’s Exchange has made him more confident. He also said he likes the “good vibes” from the happy shoppers and said the shop has a “nice smell.”

And, while he’s waiting to score some of the school’s popular spirit gear, Sugg said he’s watched a lot of students walk away with great finds.

Among those on a recent day was Ava Wong, who happily showed off a plaid skirt and knitted sweater.

“I figure I can make a cute outfit with these,” she said as she was checking out. “I usually find a lot of gems I wouldn’t find anywhere else.”

And, Keitha Stowers was checking out the racks with long dresses. Though she didn’t find any she liked that day — she prefers long sleeves, and most were strappy — she did score two sweaters.

A fan of thrifting, she really liked that it was also something she could do at school.

“Thrifting is so popular, especially among women my age,” she said. “It’s a cheap teenage activity, and you get something nice.”

Johnson said she’s not surprised by the shop’s success and credits it to the students’ hard work.

“I still think a ton of kids don’t know about it, but we wanted to start small and manageable,” she said. “Once everyone knows about it, we will get another classroom for backstock. I want to sustain it.”

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