Ba&sh is a great French brand, even if it’s annoying to type and too expensive. I do have a solid fix for the second issue, even if there’s no addressing the first: Ba&sh Second/e Main, used Ba&sh pieces that have been authenticated, thoroughly cleaned and repaired, and re-presented for sale at meaningful discounts. At least in France. We’ll get to that.

Bad news first: The Paris Seconde Main pop-up, at 7 boulvevard des Filles du Calvaire in the 3rd, is only up through November 2. And the Ba&sh Seconde Main, online edition, only offers delivery in and around France. But! There’s a U.S. edition: Ba&sh Second Hand, and it’s full of absolutely terrific deals, especially for coats and dresses. (This link surely won’t last long, but here’s the Tym camel wool/polyamide coat, new with tags, reduced to $252 from $720.) This dress? This is a great-looking dress, marked down from $335 to $151. At French Ba&sh, sellers submit their pieces to the retailer (via its handler, Faume) for authentication, cleaning, and resell; the U.S. version is closer to Depop, and sellers handle shipping and estimations themselves. In France, prices are set by the retailer, at between 25% and 60% of the original value; in the U.S., Ba&sh will suggest a price based on the item’s original price and condition, but sellers are free to put it where they like. All of these differences are meaningful reflections of differing cultural ideas about the institution versus the individual.

But anyway. Here’s a look at the shop:

Ba&sh is expensive, but I’ve found their clothes to be well made — I’ll shop there maybe once or twice a year, usually for a dress to wear to a wedding or a coat.

That’s the thing about French fashion — it’s famous for a reason, and that reason is that its built on a foundation of small iterations. It’s endless tweaks on a narrowly defined look. What that means here is that many French brands make clothes that look good year after year. On the negative side, French brands are expensive. On the plus side, they’re made to last from a materials standpoint but also from a design one. On the negative side, that practice — of small iterations on durable themes — mean that they all sort of look alike (at least relative to their American or English counterparts). On the plus side, that means you’ll get more years out of them, so your cost-per-wear will be lower, despite the added expense.

And buying guaranteed-authentic second hand is an excellent way to make the most of the situation above: quality pieces designed to last, at prices about one-third what they were. If you’re open to the concept of minimalist dressing — which I practice, and endorse, and I would like to mention that when I worked at a very popular fashion magazine a couple floors down from Vogue, I got through the first three months with exactly 12 items of clothing — it’s better for everybody than an armful of Shein from Goodwill.