Dress, Anthro (thrifted); shoes, Pour La Victoire; bag, Longchamp (thrifted); hat, Aritzia
As I mentioned in my thrifting recap, I almost didn’t buy this dress. I’m glad I gave it a second chance, because it’s a nice option for a hot summer day. It’s so bright and cheerful, isn’t it? And not too twee, which is currently My Struggle. I love me a twee Anthro dress — ANY twee Anthro dress — but the reality is that I’m starting to feel a little bit silly wearing many of them. I can’t explain it, but I feel more “me” in outfits that are (relatively) more streamlined/minimalist/less frilly. The problem is that my eyes haven’t quite gotten the message, and they keep getting drawn by all the cutesy, twee things. Oof.
hot pink nailsfloral detailsback detail
Getting back to the outfit at hand, I think it worked out pretty well. At some point, I will probably try to figure out a way to wear this dress to the office, but in the meantime I’m liking it with a pair of sandals and my ubiquitous hat. This hat, by the way, has been a game changer — no more slathering an extra thick layer of sunscreen on my face every twenty minutes. Plus, no more Bad Hair Days. Win, win. I think Aritzia sells it every summer, should any of you be inclined to check it out. I’m a big fan.
Happy July 4th, American peeps! And happy Monday to the rest of us đŸ™‚
As promised yesterday, here’s a peek at my thrift loot from the past few weeks. The post title says it all, by the way: I bought All The Things. But! But! I have also been diligent about cleaning out my closet, so there are some new things listed in my Shop My Closet page for anyone interested.
DVF tunic ($9)
I loved the beautiful rich purple colour, and this seemed like the sort of easy breezy dress perfect for a hot weekend.
Blacky Dress Berlin top ($9)
The name of this brand vaguely rang a bell, and upon Googling, turned out to be a German label. The material, though not silk, has a lovely hand-feel, and I liked the soft snakeskin print. I think I can work with this, but we’ll see.
Pilcro cord leggings ($8)
Cord leggings are a preposterous invention, and all the softest things ever.
Maggy London dress ($12)
Maggy London is not normally a brand I’d single out, but I’m a sucker for a midi dress, and I liked the print of this one a lot. Those colours are right up my alley too. As a side note: it turned out that this dress was still listed on Nordstrom’s website (on sale) for $70 when I bought my version. That’s pretty impressive turnover.
Club Monaco jacket ($8)
I’ve already talked about how much I love this jacket so I won’t repeat myself. Awesome khaki jacket is awesome.
Stuart Weitzman shoes ($12)
Stuart Weitzman shoes for under $15? Yes, please. Brand new, *red* Stuart Weitzman shoes for under $15? YES, PLEASE!
Comme des Garcons top ($7)
Ugh, this top. This top made me so mad. I’m still mad about it! It’s cute, right? So cute. I was so excited to wear it (and the brand, Comme des Garçons, was another thriftspotting first for me). Well, I washed it — by hand, in cold water — and watched in horror as the red dye bled all over. It was a blood bath in my sink, you guys. I almost started crying, and then I got really mad. Who makes a COTTON t-shirt dry clean only? That is insanity.
Anthro dress ($12)
Hey remember this dress? So, funny story. I saw it again, after a few weeks, and decided to give it a try, just because. Well, it was still there, and that had to be a sign, right? Anyway, it turned out that the likely reason for its failure to sell was the fact that, while marked a size 10, this dress fit more like a 6-8. It’s a little bit large in the armpit area on me (not unusual because I’m smaller on the top half than on the bottom) but fits pretty well otherwise. Score!
Michael Kors dress ($12)
I normally don’t bother with Michael Kors (I think the quality is over-rated/over-priced), but this dress was a total Issa lookalike, and since Issa is a brand I’ve been hunting unsuccessfully for years, I couldn’t resist getting it. It’s a faux wrap style very similar to dress most famously worn by Kate Middleton at the announcement of her engagement to Prince William. It’s a very flattering style and I think it’s going to be work appropriate too once I add a snap at the front.
Nanette Lepore dress ($13)
This tweedy Nanette Lepore dress was a no-brainer as well. The original retail price was $400, which is cray-cray. It will be a cute office dress, for sure.
And that’s a (real, not faux) wrap, you guys. Tell me all about your thrift finds in the comments.
Yes, friends, it has come to this: I now have to dedicate an *entire* post to things I did NOT thrift. Never fear, there’s a separate post coming up detailing my actual scores.
What, did you think I hadn’t bought anything? Come now, you know me better than that.
I’ve also started to do a bit of thrifting for friends, and I have to say I’m enjoying it tremendously. It’s really fun to try to spot things other people (with different tastes and needs than mine) might like. It’s a whole new kind of challenge … and you know I love me a good thrift challenge.
eShakti dress
Speaking of which, I now kinda regret not getting this eShakti dress for a friend — I just found out she loves owls. This was the first time I’d ever run into this brand locally. I call that “thriftspotting”. There’s always a first time for everything, as they say.
J. Crew Collection dress ($20)
This J. Crew Collection was cute, but two sizes too big and also strapless. I don’t do strapless. I have no idea why Goodwill priced it individually as a “special” piece, since far better brands have ended up on the regular rack. Maybe because this looks vaguely bridesmaid-y, and those sorts of dresses tend to get marked up at GW.
J. Crew Factory top ($5); ReneC skirt ($7)
Cute separates (that kinda go together!) but not really my style.
Geox wedges ($15)side-view
Brand new Geox sandals — very cute, but a little too girly for me.
Anthro dress ($16?)
I have a funny story about this dress, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear all about it. For now, I will say that I was sad to see that this dress was a size 10, because I’m not.
Gap blazer ($8?)
I have this blazer in the coral version, and the green would have been tempting but, alas, wrong size again.
Joe Fresh blouse ($6)
This was super cute (and 100% silk), but I’m generally not big on pussy bows, so I passed.
J. Crew blazer ($8)
Wrong sizeitis strikes again … but I talked Nicole into buying it.
Plenty by Tracy Reese blazer ($8)
… but I was not able to talk her into this Plenty by Tracy Reese blazer. I’m sure it found another good home.
Aryeh dress ($13?)
I think Aryeh is an Anthro brand — correct me if I’m wrong, peeps — but this dress was definitely not my style. I’m proud of myself for resisting the Anthro lure.
all the denim
VV’s denim-pricing strategy eludes me. I’ve bought Paige, J Brand and AG denim for under $8 (without discounts), so I have no idea why old True Religions would be going for over $30. Boggles the mind.
DVF dress ($3.50)
You know what else boggles the mind? The cut of this DVF dress. That was … very unfortunate. I like to think I have a reasonably good figure, but this dress did it zero favours. I would never have thought I’d pass up DVF for $3.50, but I couldn’t think of a single person who would look flattering in this dress.
Twilight dress ($7)Legit
This dress might look like something your toddler would wear (reluctantly, after ample bribing if she’s like MY toddler), but it’s in fact a Very Special Dress. The label is legit — I googled it and it does appear that a version of this dress was worn by one Bella Swann in some Twilight movies. By which I surmise that Bella Swann has terrible fashion sense.
eci dress ($7)
Another dress that fit weirdly around the middle. Not as egregious as the DVF dress, but not great either. I can see this being cute on someone else though.
Eleanor Prime scarf ($3?)vintage & made in Japan
This scarf caught my eye because of the print, and I googled the signature just for fun. (I always look for signatures on scarves — you never know what treasure you might find.) It turns out this is a Canadian designer, whose vintage scarves sell on Etsy for $25-30 a pop. If I was in the re-sale business, I might have been tempted.
Miz Mooz shoes ($25)
I’ve been waiting to find a pair of Miz Mooz shoes in my size for ages … so it figures that when one finally turned up, it would be a pair of peep toes. Sigh. I have sworn off peep toes for good, so I couldn’t let myself buy these, but they were very cute.
Saint James cardigan ($7)
Another thriftspotting first — Saint James!! I was pumped to find this cozy cardi-jacket, and even more excited to buy it for my mom.
BCBG dress ($22)
I ended up buying this without trying it; I was in a rush, it was new-with-tags, and I remembered it from eBay (having been tempted to buy it before). Sadly, when I got home, I realized that I was not crazy about the fit on me — too straight up-and-down. It’s a nice dress (BCBG knows how to do an interesting print), but it’s better off in someone else’s closet. I returned it.
Zara dress ($70)
This was wasn’t a thrift find, but I figured I’d add it here. I impulse ordered this floral tunic from Zara, and then hemmed and hawed for a week over whether to keep it or not. I loved the print (it reminds me of the Gucci Flora print I’m obsessed with) and the fit of the dress, but I hated the side slits and the slight sheerness of the material. Not to mention that it was 100% polyester fast fashion. Oh, and $70 to boot. Do you know how many dresses I can thrift for that amount? Needless to say, this dress went back. It’s Gucci or bust, baby!
If you’re not experiencing thrift overload, check in tomorrow to see what things did end up finding a home in my closet. Spoiler: it’s gonna be another long post.
