The only hand-me-downs I ever wore were my grandpa’s Korean War-era army dress pants and Eisenhower jacket, which fit my 11-year-old body alarmingly well. I had no older siblings or even any older cousins (my immediate family was so totally removed from my extended one that I never would have had the opportunity to get them even if I did have older cousins.) I was a pretty spoiled rotten kid anyway, although I hate to put it in those terms because I don’t think parents being generous should be a negative thing. If I have a son I will give him lavish presents all the time, like a little suit of armour, or a vintage record turntable with Zager & Evans’ complete discography.
Hand-me-downs from two of my cousins were the best. My cousins were stylish, and their parents had a lot of money, and therefore the clothes were trendy and in good condition. Occasionally Mom would get other boxes of random hand-me-downs from other people that were definitely not trendy or in good condition, and those, I hated. I usually had enough decent stuff that I didn’t have to resort to wearing the grody hand-me-downs, though.
They were a fact of life and I didn’t much care… except for the times I got a hand-me-down coat that had actual Kleenex in the pockets :rolleyes:
When I got taller than my older sister in my early teens, however, she absolutely refused to wear hand-me-downs from me, even the stuff I’d only worn once or twice.
Younger Son now gets barely used hand-me-downs from two older cousins. Since they are particular about their clothes, these become the coolest things he owns, and he gets excited when he sees one of the aunts approaching with a bag of clothing. He liked getting a pile of hoodies his big brother has outgrown, too.
As the only boy with 2 sisters, I got some horrible hand me downs, like girls bicycles and POS cars.
It also didn’t help that my sister was a spiteful bitch, so when she knew I was getting something of hers, she would find a way to break it before I got it.
I’m 20 months younger than my brother, and it seemed that as soon as he quit wearing something, it was mine. I didn’t like this at all, but it beat wearing the shirts that my mother would make from chicken feed sacks. My father would take me along to the feed store, and I would pick out my next shirt. True story.
Today I really don’t like to wear used clothes.
Loved them. So much better than going clothes shopping with my Mom.
One family had all sorts of tracks for hand-me-downs, so that when it became clear that I was not going to fit into my petite and curvy older sister’s stuff, it was passed onto some neighbor girls while I inherited from a tall and willowy cousin. (I actually wasn’t tall and willowy, but “scrawny” wasn’t a size option.) The cool thing was that my cousin (a) lived in another part of the country (exotic!) and (b) had a mother who made her clothes (originals!). My favorite outfit from her was the mint green crinkle cloth button fly bell bottoms with a matching short jacket. I tried and tried to get her to give me the green and blue plaid kilt with yellow yarn trim, but she was too fond of it. 
I got tons of hand-me-downs from my aunts (who were not much older than myself), and I worshiped my aunts, so I loved getting hand-me-downs.
I’m the oldest, but I sometimes got clothes from girls at church or school since all my friends were taller than me. I loved it. Free new clothes! Some of my favourite outfits, including the dress I wore to my graduation, were second hand.
My mum is in her fifties, and she still gets clothes from her sisters. She likes it better than buying her own, partly because she hates shopping and partly because they have better taste.
The worst hand me down was the wool army blanket dad brought home. It would get put on my bed and I would remove it, because of how much it made me itch and I broke out in red welts. Freezing was better. The next time the sheets got changed it would be on my bed again.
Last of 9 kids. Got a lot of hand me downs. Got a lot of pre owned clothes. And also got smoe new. Never had a problem with any of it.
I would have loved hand me downs.
There were three girls in our family so close in age that we all wore pretty much the same size from about middle school. I was the youngest but also the tallest and my sisters are only 11 months apart.
We also wore uniforms for school so we didn’t have many other clothes. I usually had, at any one time, two or three uniform shirts, one uniform skirt, two pair of play pants, five or less shirts, something to wear to church and some socks and underwear. On non-uniform days at school I had to pretend I forgot because I didn’t have any other clothes to wear to school. Once in a while I would find something good in the lost and found at school and take it if no one claimed it for a long time.
I don’t think it ever occurred to me to have any thoughts about hand me downs, they were just where you got your clothes. My mother was the youngest of a large family and felt as though she never got new clothes, so she made sure that now and again everybody got some new clothes that they really loved – the red converse high tops, the gloria vanderbilt jeans, whatever.
My kids claim that I have no idea what is cool but love getting hand me downs from their cousin in the US and from an auntie here in Holland because apparently my sister and my husband’s aunt have better taste than I do. I expect they are right abotu that, it is not a subject that interests me much.
I thought they were awesome. I was the oldest of four girls. I didn’t get hand-me-downs from sisters, just neighbors. Looking back, though, I got a lot of weird stuff. Like old lady-ish wool skirts, but I wore them in the third grade.
Most awesome hand-me-down ever (to a 10 year old girl): Our neighbor gave me a full-length mink coat that belonged to her mother. (Her mom was tiny.) I wore that as my dress up coat and loved it until I outgrew it. My sisters were jealous as hell.
I was the oldest so I didn’t get hand-me-downs, but almost my entire wardrobe was thrift store bought. It never bothered me at all and I loved finding something for $1.00, like a London Fog overcoat that would retail for over $100. Why get one pair of jeans for $50 when you can get several complete outfits for that?
Understood it, didn’t really like it, but didn’t have a big problem with it either.
Oh, no you don’t need to wonder - unless you were wonder how much I’d drunk before I created that awkward construction!
I’m a boy and I had my own clothes till about age 9, then we had money problems at home so I had to wear my sister’s hand-me down till 15 or 16, I do not remember exactly. During the week after school, to keep my only school uniform neat I had to remove it immediately after school and to put my sister’s old school uniform for the evening (white blouse, blue cardigan, grey pleated skirt). I thought that her uniform was much more comfortable than my own boy’s uniform, so I did not care about that. I also received a lot of hand-me-downs from two girls cousins about my age whom I was very close. I never made a mess about it, I preferred to wear nice girls’ clothes my age and size instead of boys’ clothes that were too small, too tighten and totally worn-out !
Without these hand-me-downs, I would never have discovered the softness of all the different fabrics and clothes avaiable for girls while boys were so restricted in clothing.
Now, more as 40 years later, my two cousins still keep their most beautiful clothes for me when they are tired of them, but most of the time I have to share them with my wife who’s just picking them out from my wardrobe 
Clothes are clothes, if they are nice and beautiful, who cares if they are hand-me-downs ?
That is why I chose to be the oldest. There weren’t any hand-me-downs. I got a set of fresh parents, grandparents and everything else. My younger brothers screwed up the whole situation when they showed up but it was great while it lasted. I hope they enjoyed my used shit.
I hated getting hand-me-downs. I’m the oldest kid in my immediate family, but I’m one of the youngest of my cousins on my mom’s side. I was a tall kid, so the clothes that fit on my body had inevitably been purchased for someone several years older, making them both “too mature” AND unfashionable. I’m also VERY picky about how fabric feels on my skin, and this was the 1970s, so the no-longer-fashionable castoffs usually felt nasty, too. Fortunately my mom realized that this wasn’t a good way to economize and she started buying me new clothes or making me clothes from fabric I liked.
As an adult, I have no problem wearing secondhand clothes. A significant portion of my wardrobe comes from thrift shops or lucky finds in the alley (nice thing about working near an expensive private college - kids throw out good stuff). As long as it looks the way I like and it feels good, I’ll wear it.
I used to get 'em from a cousin, and occasional family friends. Didn’t care about clothes, so I honestly can’t remember what I got from where. I look like I lived in a hedge in most of my childhood photos; ripped clothes that didn’t fit, hair that looked like something was nesting in it. Other kids tried to bully me for it a few times, but failed, because I really didn’t care (“Your clothes look like pyjamas! You’re wearing pyjamas to school!” “Huh, yeah, they do look like pyjamas, don’t they? Never noticed. I like 'em. They’re really comfy.”), so they gave up. Being a head taller than the rest of the class probably helped.
The only really awkward hand-me-down I remember was a family friend handing on to me a bunch of (very pretty) lacy bras her 19 year old daughter had barely worn but had outgrown. They were AA cups. I was 13, and something like an E at the time. I wasn’t sure how to react, really. I kept them for years anyway, as they were far too pretty to throw out, and I had no-one else to pass 'em on to.