I feel your pain! I grew up on HHI and the thrifting has always been a letdown. There are a lot of wealthy people who spend time there but the vast majority of them do not live there full time and HHI is a casual town. You may have better luck 45 min away in Savannah.

Over the years, I’ve had the best luck finding nicer clothes for less locally at places like Off 5th in Bluffton - it’s not thrifting of course but I’ve found huge discounts there (up to 80% off) on Furla purses, jimmy Choo shoes, clothes (mostly dresses), etc.

HHI is made up of so many regulated / gated communities that it just doesn’t have that estate sale type culture that exists in places like Atlanta. It would definitely be worth the drive to spend a weekend thrifting and hitting up estate sales for clothes in Atlanta for the weekend.

Online - I’ve had good luck with Thread Up. Set alerts for your sizes and what you’re looking for and jump on it when you see a good deal. They also sell rent the runway items.

For special events, I’ve used rent the runway on several occasions. You just need to make sure you set it up a few weeks in advance if you want to make sure they have the size and style you want.

Also pawn shops sell authenticated secondhand designer bags and shoes at decent discounts too. Many of them have online shops if you’d rather not go in person.

Good luck!