Just the other day, I searched through racks and racks of used clothing and found no treasures. The resulting frustration led me to go have a second look at the funky purple pants that I know I won’t wear and the black shirts that I have too many of already. I managed to pass up both the pants and the shirts, but wound up bringing home a soft, cuddly, brand new and beautifully made sweater that’s in a rust color that unfortunately makes me look like I just threw up. I’m not exaggerating about how the color looks on me—I wore it for the first time and my husband asked me if I felt OK.
When I look and don’t find, I am usually happy walking out the door with my hands empty. Next time I have the urge to linger and keep looking, I’ll remember the rust sweater.
October 21st, 2008 | Category: Mistakes | Leave a comment
Manufacturers often put their names, slogans and logos on clothing, but this time Tommy Hilfiger really went overboard. I was sniffing around one of my favorite secondhand stores when I found a tee shirt with the following printed on the chest:
Tom-my Hil-fig-er 1.: American 2: quality tailored clothing, sportswear, jeans and athletic apparel for men, women and children adj. 3: fun, free, spirited, a desirable addition to your wardrobe 4: a group of people who demand distinctive style ＜~ customers have an eye for details ＞ v. 5:to twist tradition, to reinvent the classics to create FASHION FREEDOM 6: to chuck convention, but with panache syn see Duke and Dutchess of Windsor 7: Whoever you are, whatever you wear, TOMMY HILFIGER is you.
This whole issue of logos/slogans/names of companies prominently displayed on garments raises an interesting question for me. I understand that the companies benefit when people wear this stuff, but why do consumers go along with it?
October 9th, 2008 | Category: General Secondhand Wardrobe Thoughts | Leave a comment
If one of the things you love about thrift stores is the often-ghastly collection of knick-knacks lurking on the shelves, you’ve got to check out Thrift Shop Horrors, a community on Live Journal. I can’t visit the site every day because I need to have time for things like eating and sleeping as well as writing blog entries, but when I go there, I practically fall out of my seat from laughing at the pictures and the comments.
October 6th, 2008 | Category: Secondhand Wardrobe Wierdness | Leave a comment
My blue blazer brought to me by the secondhand wardrobe spirit.
I love a casual jacket in the cooler weather, so last Wednesday, when I went to my local thrift store, that’s the first rack that I checked out. At this particular place, everything is arranged by color, and I perused only those colors that I know are flattering, skipping over light brown, maroon and orange, which make me look like I need bed rest.
Eliminating all jackets that looked either too big or too small, I found two possibilities. One was yellow cotton duck and the other was blue heavy flannel in a traditional blazer style. The yellow duck looked great on the hanger, but the blue flannel, I just wasn’t so sure about. I’m usually not crazy about blazers because they’re too stuffy for my taste. But when I tried them on, the yellow fit terribly and the blue looked smashing. The casual color and fabric balanced out the stuffy style. For $3.50, I took it home and saw that I can wear it with most of my pants and 5 of my shirts. Bingo!
Regular retail stores tend to have lots of sizes but not a lot of choices in terms of style. Secondhand stores are the opposite—there are many styles but scattered sizing. That means I need to look more to find something that fits me when I’m shopping secondhand. It also means that I am more open to just about anything that fits, even if it’s unlike anything I’ve ever worn before. It is precisely because of the wealth of styles and the paucity of sizing that secondhand stores have opened me up to a world of style possibilities that I never would have considered. And this is another reason why I love a secondhand wardrobe so much—whenever I visit a thrift store, there is always the chance that I’ll find some new, wonderful thing I’d never thought of before, until that moment when the secondhand wardrobe spirit placed the garment in my hands.
October 2nd, 2008 | Category: Secondhand Wardrobe Shopping, Secondhand Wardrobe Style and Fashion | Leave a comment
They say that 80’s fashions are back. Whenever it happens that an old style is re-introduced, I start thinking about how those of us who appreciate a secondhand wardrobe are at a distinct advantage. As long as the new fashions reference a time period that’s within the last couple of decades, chances are good that you’ll find a selection of the real thing (of course, at the cheapest of the cheap prices) at your local secondhand store.
Whenever designers start borrowing from an earlier trend, they change things around a bit. Today’s 80’s fashions are less monumental in the shoulders, don’t include big hair and do mix bright flashy colors and prints with neutrals. If I wanted to wear this look today, I’d seek out a few bright 80’s pieces to wear with other, more obviously current items. Notice that I said if I wanted to wear the look. I think other people should enjoy the trend, but for myself, well, I actually lived through the 80’s, and once was enough for me.
(Note to readers: I haven’t written for the last few weeks because I’ve been preoccupied with changing my blogging software. I hope that the change will provide more flexibility as well as more visibility. Sorry to disrupt the flow!)
September 29th, 2008 | Category: Secondhand Wardrobe Style and Fashion | Leave a comment
