The first date Interview

Here we go again, I thought, as I walked out my front door, and waved to the night doorman, Stan. Stan was my friend, and he had watched me return home forlorn from every date in the last month, except for one night when he happened to catch the end of a good-night kiss -- albeit from a man who never called me again.

Like most of my friends, I had a careful semiotic clothing code that I had worked out for different kinds of dates. Tonight I was in full date battle mode: wearing my new fitted red V-neck sweater -- the effort was to be attractive but not too slutty -- paired with Diesel jeans, to give a "casual" impression. I had avoided my usual uniform of black cigarette pants, black top, and Gucci bag (on sale, but no one needed to know), because I did not want to convey that I was too high-maintenance. Hey, I am being honest here.

Teen shop recycles clean, designer jeans and more at discount prices

With a booming stereo pumping out Top 40 hits, and designer labels like Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap and Aeropostale, the store Plato's Closet would feel at home inside any mall.

The big difference is the brand-name fashions here cost a fraction of their usual price. And, oh yes, the clothes are used.

Plato's Closet, part of a national franchise that specializes in second-hand merchandise, takes the old consignment shop idea and gives it a modern spin geared toward the lucrative market of 14- to 28-year-old shoppers.

Located at 818 Central Ave. in Albany, the store pays customers on the spot for good-quality, used clothes that a teenager or college student would consider stylish. The clothes are then put on a rack and sold for rock-bottom prices.

Take a green, embellished, beaded-tank top made by Forever 21.

Robertson paid the former owner $1.65.

It's now on sale for $5.

Teen shop recycles clean, designer jeans and more at discount prices

With a booming stereo pumping out Top 40 hits, and designer labels like Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap and Aeropostale, the store Plato's Closet would feel at home inside any mall.

That's exactly what co-owner Kellie Robertson is counting on.

The big difference is the brand-name fashions here cost a fraction of their usual price. And, oh yes, the clothes are used.

Plato's Closet, part of a national franchise that specializes in second-hand merchandise, takes the old consignment shop idea and gives it a modern spin geared toward the lucrative market of 14- to 28-year-old shoppers.

Located at 818 Central Ave. in Albany, the store pays customers on the spot for good-quality, used clothes that a teenager or college student would consider stylish. The clothes are then put on a rack and sold for rock-bottom prices.

Take a green, embellished, beaded-tank top made by Forever 21.

Robertson paid the former owner $1.65.

It's now on sale for $5.

Retail price in a mall store? $78.

There are also Express men's jeans for $18, Guess jeans for $20 and Diesel jeans for $40 (new Diesel jeans sell for $190).

Those are just some of the bargains that Robertson is convinced will bring teenagers and young adults flocking to her store when the doors open March 16. The store has actually been open for the past month, but Robertson has been strictly buying clothes to build up her inventory. Local radio and TV ads have helped spread the word.

"It's not a thrift store at all," said the 39-year-old Robertson, a mother of six children who knows what it's like to shop on a tight budget and has an infectious enthusiasm. "It's a recycled teen-clothing store."