Details: Toni T dickie, Supply & Demand tee, Chicwish skirt, Banana Republic belt (all secondhand), Zara boots (retail)

Thoughts: Wednesday Addams meets 90s grunge meets my obsession with greyish blue. The colour isn’t the only reason I thrifted this graphic tee; I am also obsessed with cherubs. Weird, I know. Or maybe not so weird, considering I am a younger Gen X and had the mandatory poster of Bouguereau’s kissing cherubs on my wall at a certain point in my life. Were you even a teenager in the mid-90s if you didn’t? Anyhoo. This outfit was based on the simple idea that this black tulle skirt never met a graphic tee she didn’t like. I added the white-collar dickie because I like how it changes up the vibe of a basic tee. And voila, outfit.

Details: Banana Republic turtleneck, Uniqlo sweater, Ralph Lauren trench, Banana Republic jeans, Coach bag (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I am utterly obsessed with this Uniqlo sweater. UTTERLY. I want to wear it with everything, and it wants to be worn with everything. The colour is sheer perfection, 10/10, no notes. The sweater itself is lovely: 100% wool, good weight (not to heavy, not too thin), not too scratchy, perfectly cropped length, very nice quality. I have been very impressed with the quality of some of the Uniqlo knit pieces I’ve come across at the thrifts lately, this being only one example (albeit my favourite). I layered the sweater, as I do all my wool sweaters, over a thick, cotton turtleneck — the colour of which just happens to be a fantastic match — and that provided enough insulation to help me carry off wearing my fave trench instead of a bulkier jacket. It was snowing that day, but not especially cold, and I refuse to concede it’s winter until Mother Nature beats me into submission. Not literally, I hope. Also, we haven’t talked about that bag yet … but we will.

Details: vintage shirt, Ralph Lauren sweater & skirt & jacket, Coach bag (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Just all the Ralph Lauren things.

Details: Babaton turtleneck, Everlane sweater, Jones & Co. jacket, Banana Republic jeans, Coach bag (all thrifted)

Thoughts: Okay, guys: that bag. I haven’t been moved to buy a shoulder bag in aaaages, but something about this one immediately spoke to me when I spotted it at Value Village. The colour accounts for a lot of its appeal; it’s not a deep deep red, but it’s pretty saturated and very, very red. Love that. And there is also something to be said for the shape, which is surprisingly appealing given how committed I have been in recent years to small crossbody bags. Ok, moving on. This jacked: also amazing. I am really into cropped, boxy, collared jackets, and this one checks all the boxes, with the added bonus of a fabulous houndstooth pattern. Love me some vintage Jones!

Details: Ralph Lauren shirt, InWear dress, Manolo Blahnik shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I thrifted this dress because it totally set off my nostalgia radar; the 90s vibes are strong with this one. I am not wild about the length, and which it were longer, but I am determined to try to make it work for me. Paired it with a white shirt, it came over very 90s corporate creative chic.

Details: Gap shirt, Benetton cardigan, Ralph Lauren skirt, MaxMara belt (all secondhand)

Thoughts: The colour of this vintage cardigan spoke to me and it said “buy me, Adina”. So I did. And then I remembered that I thrifted this Y2K Gap washable silk shirt (remember those?) a few years ago, and it matches the colour of the embroidery almost exactly. And then I added a brown skirt, because I am convinced that brown is always the answer, assuming the question involves sartorial matters.

Details: Bozzolo tee (retail), Tahari shirt, Limited cardigan, Brighton belt, Levi’s jeans (all thrifted)

Thoughts: Denim on denim, with brown to keep things interesting. See what I mean? These 80s Levi’s are the original mom jeans, and I’m pretty pumped about them.

Details: Babaton turtleneck, vintage sweater, Chaps pants, Tough Duck coat, Coach bag (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I’m not entirely sold on these red corduroy pants. I love the colour and I love corduroy, but the cut … hmmm. However, I gave them the old college try and paired with 2 very solid pieces (the sweater and this amazing vintage preloved barn jacket), the result wasn’t terrible by half. I’m not ready to declare the pants a permanent addition to my closet, but they passed the first test.

We had so much fun with the last Style Flashback, we are doing it again. I am using the royal “we” and you are along for the ride. Fun, fun! This time, we are going back to 2012 and my back-to-work outfits following my first maternity leave. Bonus cameo appearance from my ill-calculated “new toddler mom” pixie haircut that was definitely not lower maintenance than my previous shoulder-length bob and took entirely too many years to grow out.

Let’s go!

First of all, yes: that is the same brown cardigan and belt from 2011. I didn’t choose the outfit for that reason; it just happens to be one of my favourites from that era. In fact, I’d probably still wear it now – the skirt is a touch short for my current taste, but it has the right ideas. As you might be able to tell from these outfits, I was beginning to experiment with pattern mixing and some bolder styling. These are all outfits I wore to work. At the time, I was a research lawyer in private practice; because my role wasn’t generally client-facing, I had a fair bit of leeway when it came to dress code, and my outfits ran the gamut from business casual to almost-business formal (not pictured here because, let’s face it, it tends to be pretty boring).

Apart from the outfit on the left, the styling and proportions wouldn’t work for me today – and neither would most of the clothing. Apart from the Louis Vuitton bag, I don’t own any of it anymore. I do wish I’d kept that pretty, patterned silk blouse from the first outfit, though. I love the collar! Otherwise, there are various design elements that don’t suit me anymore:

• Fitted blazers with “fussy” details
• Knee-length (or just below) skirts
• Dropped waistlines (middle photo)
• Peep-toe shoes

Here are some 2024 iterations of the same outfits:

The key changes here, for me, are the length of the skirt and the shoes. Look how much taller (and longer legged) I look when wearing a high-waisted midi skirt! But, like I said, the 2012 outfit is still pretty solid.

To be clear, if I were to put together a blazer-and-pants outfit today, it would look nothing remotely like this 2012 version. Indeed, if I’m wearing pants these days, it’s more likely to be with some combination of vest, men’s shirt, sweater, and (outerwear) coat, rather than a blazer. But in the spirit of the exercise, I tried to find the closest approximation of the 2012 outfit, black pants included. I also tried to stick to a restrained colour palette. You will notice the waistline is a lot higher and the pants are belted. The blazer is longer, less fitted, stripped of embellishments; visual interest is, instead, added via a textured, patterned fabric.

Finding a current version of this 2012 outfit was the most challenging of the lot. My lifestyle is completely different now, and I rarely dress to this level of formality for work. The outfit on the right is the closest I could find – something I wore to the office on one of my rare in-person visits. My current role is in-house, and most of my colleagues are, like me, working remote, so the office dress code is about as relaxed as it gets in the legal profession. My corporate goth era is long past, so I rarely wear head-to-toe black at the office; there are always at least a couple of other neutrals in play (white, cream, brown, and blue being some of my usual go-tos). There are still “embellishments”, but they are more subtle: coloured tights (not patterned), a jewel collar, a simple belt. The skirt is longer, but a less traditional style. The blazer is also longer and less fitted, almost a bit boxy. And the textural contrast has been dialed up, between the tweed blazer, the cable-knit sweater, and the corduroy skirt.

I will leave you with this thought: none of these outfits are objectively worse or better – they are simply different. It’s not necessary to completely disavow the things I once loved in service of the things I love now, nor hold them sacrosanct simply because I once loved them.

Details: H&M turtleneck, Limited cardigan, Nine West jacket, Sonoma belt, Office London shoes (all thrifted), Acne skirt, Marc Jacobs bag (both eBay)

Thoughts: Having established most definitively that blue and brown are a fail-proof pairing, it’s become something of a hobby of mine to try out different shade combinations. This aqua colour is one of my favourite blues and, look, it pairs beautifully with a both a cool-toned, medium brown (jacket and cardigan) and an orange-toned brown (boots). Throwing 2 different browns into the mix, and piling on layers, is one of my ‘hacks’ for adding depth to an outfit colour palette, which in turn makes the whole thing look more luxe. I mean, apart from the skirt and bag, none of the pieces here are particularly bougie, but I like to think the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. I loved this one.

Details: Gap turtleneck, Tommy Hilfiger sweater, Banana Republic jacket, Tristan belt, Eclat skirt, BareTraps shoes (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I took a similar approach with this outfit, using differently textured layers to give depth to a 2-colour palette. Black and brown work together very well, as long as there is enough contrast between them; warm-toned browns, I find, are best. I thrifted the jacket, sweater and skirt within days of each other, and seeing them hung next to each other, post-laundry, I knew I had to wear them together. Sometimes, inspiration comes by happenstance. Actually, it usually comes that way — just the universe, working in its mysterious ways. I have a feeling this skirt is not long for my closet, however; as soon as my daughter saw me in this outfit, she started eyeing the skirt with a speculative look I know well. I guess I’d better enjoy it while I can.

Details: H&M turtleneck, J. Crew cardigan, vintage jacket, Fossil belt (all thrifted), Banana Republic pants (retail, old), YSL bag (eBay)

Thoughts: I initially put this vintage leather jacket in my cart as a bit of a joke; the colour drew my eye, but I figured it would be too bright, and the cut of the jacket too 80s, to actually work. But then I tried it on and both my daughter (who happened to be thrifting with me that day) and I had to admit that, actually, it looked rather cool. It was only $25, so I decided to take a gamble on it; it’s sufficiently unique to be the kind of thing I’d never find again, and nothing haunts a thrifter more than the one-of-a-kind things she didn’t get. Anyway, at home, I ran into the problem I often have with (bright) purple clothes: a lack of ideas about how to pair them with the rest of my closet. Black is an option — insofar as black is always a safe enough last resort — but I don’t super love how it looks paired with purple. In the past, I’ve enjoyed the pairing of dark plum and dark green, so I decided to look for a shade of green that might work with this mauve-ish colour. And after some deliberation, I came up with olive green. I liked how that looked, but felt the outfit needed a third colour to balance it out. Brown was my first thought, black my second, but I’m glad I went with the third, which was this mahogany colour that sits at the intersection of red, brown, and purple. Now, for my next trick (with this jacket) … I’m gonna need to some time.

Details: H&M turtleneck, Ralph Lauren sweater, Fossil belt, Banana Republic jeans, unbranded vest, Coach bag, Office London shoes (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I thrifted this furry vest because it was giving me 70s boho vibes, and that intrigued me. I think it has possibilities vis-a-vis certain aspects of the Ralph Lauren multiverse, which I plan to explore in the future. For this inaugural outfit, I kept things very simple, using the vest to add some flair to a minimalist combo of jeans and cable-knit sweater.

Details: Free People sweater, Wilfred skirt, Manolo Blahnik shoes (all thrifted), silver ball necklace (Poshmark), Rafael Alfandary necklace (consignment)

Thoughts: I love collecting pottery, so I knew I’d have to buy this skirt as soon as I saw — much as I don’t need another skirt in my closet. But the heart wants what it wants, and a pattern of cute vases? Definitely WANT. And, as it happens, the rest of the skirt is also practically tailored to my preferences; it’s the perfect length and tiered, two things I can never resist in skirts. I’m also a big fan of the colour scheme. The background is a purplish grey, with various blues and purples in the pattern; these colours open up a lot of styling possibilities for someone whom the thrift gods have been blessing with a lot of purple clothing lately. Like this vintage Free People sweater. Don’t they look so good together? Also, no, I haven’t started calling everything I thrift “vintage”. I looked up the tag and found an old Reddit post about the same sweater (in a different colour) in which a former Free People employee confirmed it was from around 1992-1994. How neat is that? God, I love the internet! And thrifting!

Details: Tommy Hilfiger shirt, Ralph Lauren vest & blazer, Fossil belt, Banana Republic pants (all thrifted), Timex watch (Poshmark)

Thoughts: Just some Ralph Lauren bizness. Brown and blue. You know how we do.

Details: Emmy Deveaux bodysuit, Ralph Lauren shirt, Italian belt (all thrifted), Margiela skirt (swap)

Thoughts: This outfit was inspired by a photo of Linda Evangelista in an outfit from a 90s Donna Karan runway collection that came across my Instagram feed. A column of black with an oversized white shirt, and a statement accessory. The original outfit featured pants and a chunky necklace; I subbed in a maxi skirt and chunky belt, plus my beloved cuffs. I felt almost as cool as … well, not Linda, who is a goddess and a legend, but one of the not-quite-super models of my teenage years. I’ll settle for that!