Getting to the Bottom of ‘Thrift Store Smell’ (Published 2018) (2024)

That vintage store smell: We all know it, that musty, grandma’s attic-y smell that licks your nostrils the moment you cross the threshold of any vintage, consignment or used clothing store, no matter how high- or low-end. Where does it come from? And more important, how do I get it out of my purchases when I get them home?

John Mahdessian, owner of Madame Paulette, a dry- and specialty-cleaning concern in New York that restores high-end vintage garments, says of that smell, “It’s a musty odor, a smell of decay. It’s funky!”

Katie McDonnell, owner of Nomad Vintage in Manhattan’s East Village, differentiates between good and bad vintage smells, and steers clear of buying anything that falls into the latter category.

“Good vintage smells a wee bit musty, but more like a whiff of wool or your grandmother’s attic,” Ms. McDonnell said. “Maybe just the slightest hint of a cigarette smoke from a party; more like a life well-lived than anything gross.”

Vintage items that truly reek, she warns, “can, like bad-smelling food, portend all sorts of other problems — damage, moths or other bugs (shudder)." She also notes that the garment may simply be made from a fabric that retains odors, holding onto them stubbornly even after washing.

But what makes those smells so universal? To find the answer, it turns out, we must only turn to Depeche Mode’s 1984 classic, “People Are People,” because that smell? That smell is us.

The Science of Vintage Smells

Modern prophets though they may be, Depeche Mode can take us only so far in explaining why should it be. Enter Science. Specifically, the analytical scientists at Procter & Gamble. P & G, the parent company of Tide, Gain and Downy, devotes no small amount of time and research dollars to the issue of awful smelling clothes, or malodor, as it’s more formally known.

I sent a bundle of vintage clothes I purchased at random to be tested at the P & G labs. Mary Johnson, a principal scientist at Tide, explained the testing methods: “Each item was placed into a headspace sampling bag and sealed. Then, using an automated headspace sampling system, the bag was filled with nitrogen to equilibrate at room temperature for two hours before headspace was collected onto a thermal desorption unit (TDU) tube packed with 35-60 Tenax-TA adsorbent resin. The headspace samples on TDU tubes were analyzed via thermal desorption in a chromatography mass spectrometry system. Chemical identification was performed using mass spectral libraries.”

Did you follow all of that? Me neither. Essentially, they put the clothes in a big resealable bag, shut it up, pumped it full of some nitrogen and then did a bunch of tests on the resulting gas to determine what the smells were coming from.

Here’s what they found: 12 of 18 of the key malodor molecules that contributed to the bouquet of that vintage smell were derived from body soils, which is a gentle way of saying your skin, your sweat, your oils. Distressing! But, perhaps, not nearly as distressing as the list of odor descriptors that accompanied the compounds. Sweet, sour, oily, herbal. Fatty. Whiskey, nutty, cheesy, sweaty. Stinky feet. Fermented. Bready.

The source of the remaining compounds that made up that vintage smell were environmental contaminants like car exhaust, gasoline, dry cleaning solvents, food and perfume or, as the team at P & G put it, “the odor molecule peaks form a record of the odors” that the garments were exposed to over its life.

So How Do I Get Rid of It?

When it comes to removing that vintage odor, machine- or hand-washing is ideal. While it may be tempting to outsource the work to a dry cleaner, it’s a temptation you should resist. Dry cleaning is simply not as good at odor elimination as wet cleaning, and that’s especially true when it comes to odors caused by perspiration and other body soils.

Mr. Mahdessian explained that “cleaning and odor remediation are two different processes. Cleaning will remove all residue dirt and debris from textiles of most compositions whereas odor elimination involves either masking, encapsulating or changing the molecular structure of the odor molecule that attaches itself to the fiber.” Ms. McDonnell said she had not found dry cleaning to be effective in removing strong odors. Her advice? “If it smells bad, don’t buy it unless it will hold up to a rigorous washing.”

There are some best practices to follow when laundering vintage clothing, or anything that’s especially rank-smelling. Machine washing will be the best choice for most garments, and if you go that route, stick with cold water, don’t overstuff the machine and opt to air dry the clothes, or machine dry using the no- or low-heat setting. High heat drying can amplify lingering smells.

If the first washing doesn’t completely eliminate the vintage smell, fear not! The team at P & G notes that particularly smelly clothes may need more than one washing. They suggest using a detergent designed to combat malodor, like their own Tide Sport Odor Defense. A better, if offbeat, choice is Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap. Dr. Bronner’s is excellent at removing strong odors of all sorts from clothes — I’ve recommended it for washing everything from hand-me-down baby clothes that smell strongly of perfume to coveralls that got soaked in gasoline, and it has worked every time.

Dr. Bronner’s is also an excellent choice for hand-laundering, which will be the best option for very delicate or highly embellished items. I recommend a specialty product, Engleside Restoration, for badly yellowed, very delicate or especially old items like wedding dresses or vintage linens.

One quirky way to de-funk accessories like beaded clutches, leather jackets and shoes that can’t be machine- or hand-washed is to bury them in kitty litter. Clean litter, please! An ingredient commonly found in kitty litter formulas is active charcoal, and it is an excellent odor absorber. If you are cat-free, you needn’t rush out to buy a giant bag of litter; loose active charcoal can be purchased at pet supply stores in the section devoted to the housing of aquatic life, or even easier, at Amazon.

That vintage store smell, complex and bready though it may be, can certainly be removed from your clothes. The bigger challenge is to force your brain not to think about what this means your clothes will smell like when they turn up in a vintage store 30 years from now.

Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist and host of the podcast, “Ask a Clean Person.”