Tales From The Thrift: New Year’s Tidings

The end of December and beginning of January were a bit of a thrifting wasteland, to be honest. I always enjoy checking out my local thrift stores, whether or not I find something neat to buy, although after a series of “busts” a bit of fear does creep in — what if I never find anything awesome ever again? Pure silliness, of course, but I’ve been spoiled with thrifting luck too long, I suppose.

all.the.shoes
all.the.shoes
So many shoes, so many Cinderella’s-stepsisters moments. I was particularly sad about the Frye boots being several sizes too small. The west end Goodwill is a treasure trove of cool shoe finds. Speaking of which, let’s take a closer look at those gingham flats in the top left corner.

Bottega Veneta!
Bottega Veneta!
That’s right. My first time thrift-spotting Bottega Veneta — sadly, not in bag form.

Max C tunic; Theory sweater dress
Max C tunic; Theory sweater dress
In the spotted-not-thrifted category, we have a couple of tunic dresses, including the Theory number on the right. The tunic silhouette is not my favourite, and both of these pieces had other drawbacks for me. The one on the left was too cutesy for this 36-year old, with the bow and the whimsical bird print, but would look darling on someone with a different aesthetic and/or age bracket. The sweater dress was a great colour, but I tend to avoid long, heavy sleeves, and I hate dropped waists.

Guinevere (Anthro) cardigan; cashmere cardigan
Guinevere (Anthro) cardigan; cashmere cardigan
Two more pieces that had potential, but did not come home with me. I loved the colour of the Guinevere cardigan, but the condition was pretty woeful. The vintage cashmere cardigan was cool just for the origin story, but it was shrunken (either deliberately or through some laundering accident) and I don’t wear that style typically. Also, it had mismatched (and missing) buttons, which would not be a huge problem except that I’m lazy; this is the sort of thing that would become an unfinished project at my house.

salt & pepper shakers
salt & pepper shakers
These cute shakers were at the antique mall, and I tried to convince two of my friends to buy them with no success. In retrospect, I deeply regret not buying them for myself. The kitsch is strong with me, what can I say.

vintage brooch; Wedgwood box
vintage brooch; Wedgwood box
I did buy this pretty butterfly brooch at the antique mall. (The pink Wedgwood box was a gift from my friend — thanks, J!) It is not secret that I am obsessed with butterflies, so this brooch fills a very important niche.

Juicy Couture charm bracelet
Juicy Couture charm bracelet
Talk about a blast from the past! Who remembers the heydays of those Juicy Couture velour track suits with writing on the arse? I am going to reconfirm my basic bitchness here and confess that I really wanted one of those for a hot minute back in the early ’00s, but was too cheap/poor to buy one. Thank goodness. This charm bracelet is pretty cute, tho.

Calvin Klein pumps
Calvin Klein pumps
I’ve mostly sworn off pony/calf hair pumps because they always end up shedding like crazy and going bald (no matter the original price point, it seems), but I could not resist this CK pair. I love the black/white combo, and the fact that the “animal print” is very subtle and unusual. The pumps were in like-new condition, which should buy me a few extra months before they start to disintegrate. For $10, that’s a bargain I’ll happily accept.

Tod's loafer pumps
Tod’s loafer pumps
I also got these cool Tod’s loafer-style kitten heels for my mom, who is lucky that my “Cinderella’s big-footed sister” syndrome struck again — otherwise I would have kept these for myself.

Phillip Lim for Target dress
Phillip Lim for Target dress
I remember the Phillip Lim for Target collection — it was the first Target designer collab we ever got in Canada, and I ran to the store early on the first day it arrived to see it for myself. I still have the cotton pieces I bought that day, although I only use them for loungewear around the house these days. I’ve been seeing more and more pieces from the collection turn up in thrift stores recently, but I’ve avoided the 100% polyester ones. This dress, on the other hand, is 100% cotton and struck my fancy for some reason. The orange will probably clash terribly with my skin tone, but I decided to indulge my $7 whim anyway.

J. Crew sandals
J. Crew sandals
These J. Crew Sydney sandals fit perfectly and may be just classy enough to wear to the office come summer. Maybe? I’ve never done open-toed footwear in a work setting before, and will probably chicken out and save these for fancy date nights and such. If you work in a semi-formal business environment and you’ve taken the plunge, so to speak, tell me all about it.

What’s Old Is New Again

Cardigan, Nougat (thrifted); top, Banana Republic (thrifted); skirt, Anthropologie (via eBay); bag, Arcadia (via eBay)
Cardigan, Nougat (thrifted); top, Banana Republic (thrifted); skirt, Anthropologie (via eBay); bag, Arcadia (via eBay)
I was going through the 2012 archives recently, and was struck by how different my style was back then; at the same time, you can definitely see the DNA of my current style in those old OOTDs — the love of prints, colours, and sparkly things like brooches. The irony was that, even as I was looking at the old blog posts and marveling at how my style had “evolved”, I was wearing this outfit … which would have fit right in with those very same posts. I guess I’ll call it a BCRL revival?

skirt detail
skirt detail

other details
other details
All joking aside, let’s talk skirt. I hunted this one on eBay for months and months before finally nabbing it at a decent price, right before Christmas. The reasons for my devoted stalking were two-fold. One, I love the print. It reminds me of a Marc Jacobs dress I fell in love with after seeing it on Jess, which I have never been able to find in my size on eBay. Two, I liked the vaguely 70s vibe, which was rather in vogue last year — or was it the year before that? I lose track of these things, and time, really quickly — and which I thought might work well with some other pieces in my closet, both in terms of aesthetic and colour palette. Well, in the time it took me to finally hunt down this skirt, the 70s fell out of favour and the 90s came back with a vengeance. No matter; I’ve never been “on trend”, except by pure accident, and I’m OK with that. I am still really excited to have this skirt and can’t wait to remix it. It *is* rather longer than I had expected (most skirts described as midi fall just below my knee, but this one is a true midi on me), which creates an extra little challenge, but also the opportunity to play around with some new silhouettes. Fun, fun!

librarian chic
librarian chic

2017: Shine On

For the past couple of years, I’ve participated in the trend of choosing a “theme” for the upcoming year, largely as a way to focus my mental energy and to think in a very general sense about the things I want to accomplish in the next 12 months. In 2015, I thought about my theme (“soar”) throughout the year, and used it to inspire myself to keep working on the specific goals I had subsequently set for myself. In 2016, I hardly thought about my theme after deciding it, until it was time to write this post. What struck me at that point was how, despite my year going completely against my expectations and plans, my chosen theme – “accept change” – had been almost prophetically poignant.

I wondered if I had had an inkling, this time last year, that 2016 would be a year of fundamental shifts and changes (as it happened, both in the personal and the socio-political sphere). Turns out, not really. I was prescient, however, in understanding that one of the key things I would have to do this year was to learn to embrace or at least adapt to change, no matter what feelings that change evoked. Also, to learn to see the possibilities for growth in change, no matter how painful the process. 2016 was a year that asked for much forbearance from all of us, and I am not usually equipped with much of it at the best of times; this year, I had to learn to dig deep for reserves I didn’t know I had.

So, what next?

I pondered my choice for a new “theme” throughout December, and ultimately chose a simple one.

Shine.

With the benefit of no crystal ball, I see it as having two meanings – twin themes for 2017, as it were. On a personal level, I see 2017 being the year when all of my work and achievements over the past decade of my professional life will (hopefully) start to coalesce into the beginnings of a new chapter. I see it as a time for me to embrace and show my full potential; after the (long) dress rehearsal, it will be time to, well, shine. Believe it or not, I don’t consider myself a “natural performer” so this whole idea is somewhat uncomfortable. However, I have worked hard to get people’s “eyes on me”, so I don’t want to squander my opportunities. To varying degrees, this is true for other areas of my life as well, so the same perspective would apply there.

On a different level, I also want to focus on being positive in 2017. In difficult situations (and there is no reason to believe 2017 will be any kinder to us than 2016, though here’s hoping), I want to resist my instinctual urge to turn inward, away from people. As hokey as it sounds, I want to shine with hope, encouragement, patience, compassion. In some ways, it’s a selfish goal; I think it’s good for the soul to channel one’s energies into that sort of expression. Again, it’s not something that comes easily to me (I’m a skeptical pessimist, after all) but I think it’s the direction of growth.

If any of you have picked a theme or inspiration for 2017, I would love to hear about it.