The sound of shoes clicking, the rasp of hangers scraping against metal racks, and the soft chatter are louder than the storm outside. She is almost buried among the dozens of clothing racks, but she is determined.

A striped shirt, a bright red blouse, a green blouse, and a see-through top start to pile up as her trained fingers delicately slide each garment that doesn't appeal to her heart to the left side of the metal rack.

Different designer pieces, from brands like FCUK, Guess, and Bebe, are rejected without so much as a second glace. She is on a mission to find "the one" and she will not let high-end brand fashion slow her down.

After about twenty minutes of digging and scavenger hunting, Linzy Ross, twenty-four, who only buys clothes from thrift stores and secondhand stores, finally finds "the one" that she will wear to the next going-out event.

An elegant, creamy, and silky nightgown with a beautiful embroidered flower pattern and spaghetti straps for less than five dollars.

"This can be worn as a dress with belt and boots," says Linzy, an SF State student, as she imagines her new outfit that was once someone's old sleeping gown.

One of her favorite thrift shops is the gigantic, two-story store on Mission Street called Thrift Town. It has been around for thirty-five years and has fifteen different locations nationwide.

The blue polo shirt, multi-patterned gray sweat jacket, dark blue skinny jeans, and red rain boots she's wearing at the moment scream out "vintage style: made in San Francisco." Her colorful outfit blends perfectly with the various styles, colors, and patterns of the clothing at Thrift Town. "Matching is not an issue for me," Linzy says. "I don't like to match."

Thrift style is one of the most popular fashions in San Francisco. A sprinkle of creativity and originality, a dash of patience, and a few dollars are all that's needed in order to find the trendy outfit that will break a neck in this city, where uniqueness and self-expression are constantly challenged.

"With such a diverse culture and rich roots in art and self expression, it makes sense that vintage fashion would be so popular in the Bay," says Liz Baca, a vintage clothing dealer and stylist in the Bay Area, who has her own independent shop in Oakland. "Vintage gives you an opportunity to stand out with items that no one else will have, and clothing is an important form of self-expression, so vintage helps to take that expression to another level with unique, one-of-a-kind items."

"A lot of these clothes are outdated and old," says Nicole Portaro, twenty-one, another fashion scavenger, as she rigorously goes through a rack of clothing. "You have to dig, but when you do find the one you like, no one would have it."

"The fashion industry makes clones out of people," says Linzy, who fell in love with vintage style and thrift shopping at the age of six. "I don't understand why people want to wear what celebrities are wearing. You should wear what you want to wear. You should be you."

As Linzy, who loves silky and lacy materials, and shoulder pads from the eighties, rummages around the store, Nicole, who is studying creative writing at SF State, fills her hands with colorful and different pieces of clothing.

"I can never say I am a certain style," Nicole states as she takes a last glance at the blue skirt, the light blue raincoat, and the pair of black shoes in her hands before heading to the cashier. "I can go back and forth between really feminine and vintage retro."

Unlike the flashy and glamorous fashion of the mainstream celebrities, vintage fashion at thrift stores gives new life to unwanted and unfit pieces of clothing.

"When you go thrift shopping, you need to be in an emotional state where you want to dig with an open mind," Nicole explains, who goes thrift shopping once every couple of weeks. "A skirt can look ugly on a hanger, but it can look better on you."

Vintage style differs between the two coasts. The New York version is considered avant-garde, whereas in San Francisco, casual vintage style is much more appreciated.

According to Liz, who hunts down vintage items and resells them to boutiques around the world for a living, the perfect vintage outfit today is composed of worn boots, like Dr. Martens, a well-worn, paper-thin T-shirt, a zip hoody, or a worn-in, soft flannel, an over-sized eighties leather hobo bag, and a pair of authentic vintage "boyfriend jeans."

Even though Thrift Town offers a variety of clothing styles, vintage is one of the most popular. Seventies and eighties-era clothing styles are the most wanted pieces, according to Debra Miller. This includes tops with ruffles, brightly colored flowers or fabrics, chunky shoes, striped shirts, and pinstriped suits or coats.

People often donate their old and "unwanted" clothing to an organization that will resell the items. Therefore, a lot of the time these old and vintage items end up at a thrift store, Liz describes.

"What fashion defines as vintage is something that is at least twenty years old," Liz says, who would rather wear an original Victorian blouse than a new one that looks "Victorian."

According to Liz, designers from all over the nation are constantly looking toward the past for design inspiration.

"History does repeat itself and in the fashion world, it makes a full circle," said Miller, who has been the manager of Thrift Town for thirty-three years.

A good forty-five minutes is well spent for Linzy as she walks out of Thrift Town with a beaming smile on her face and a bag full of goodies in her hands. She has spent $6.49 on a silky gown and slip.

But the hunt is not over yet. As she opens her umbrella under the rain, she is already planning to continue searching for more clothing that expresses her individuality and highlights her vintage style, and in a neighborhood like Haight-Ashbury with a rich selection of thrift shops, the possibilities abound.