Color Me Stylish, Officially!

As of late I have been enjoying reruns of What Not To Wear, and after seeing the commercials for Stacy London’s new show Fashionably Late, I decided to take my chances on her style quiz. I was a little nervous, I have to admit, because as much as I enjoy those shows I always wonder what kinds of things “S&C” would have to say about the things in my closet. Maybe I should stop worrying, because my results were: Excellent! It is clear that you are the go-to girl for style and fashion.  (*Yay*)

 If you’d like to see what Ms. London has to say about your style, click here.

Color Me A Hunter Of My Own Kind, Part 2

To accompany the last post, here are some of the outfits I came up with after my last Goodwill “hunt”:

Color Me A Hunter Of My Own Kind

When people find out that most of my clothes are from one vintage store, clearance rack, or another, the next thing they ask me is to teach them how to shop. “What do you mean?” is my initial reaction, because unlike Stacy London, I’m not sure what rules there are, if any, of shopping to share. “I mean, how can you go into a second hand store and know what to pick out? How can I put my outfits together? If I tried to wear what you’re wearing now, it would look terrible. Teach me.” is what people tell me next. (Can you tell I’ve had this conversation on numerous occasions?) So this is what I have finally decided is my one shopping-tip to share, and what I am going to start telling people when they ask me to teach them “how to shop”:

Shopping is like hunting: you have to enjoy it enough to be patient and persistent, and without a good attention span it doesn’t really work out too well. 

For example, Goodwill. When most people think of this particular charity shop, an abundance of unpleasant things probably comes to mind (I’m thinking dirty, unorganized stores, hard-to-work-with sales people, broken things, frumpiness, and all sorts of odd odors). Well, if you look hard enough, there is a way around all that. I have discovered the new best thing: a local branch of Goodwill that is — *gasp!* — cleanly, organized, staffed with pleasant salespeople, lacking the smells usually associated with second hand stores, and full of good finds. Many long hours I have spent in this Goodwill sifting through endless racks with friends and finding unique pieces that people think I actually paid lots of money for. (They are mistaken! You could probably buy a pair of Marc shoes with what I have spent on my wardrobe in the last few years.) Just like any other girl, I love to shop; but what I love even more is the challenge of going out to a vintage or resale shop with X amount of money and saying ‘I am going to come out of here with something good for this much money’.   I like The Hunt.

When you go vintage/secondhand/Goodwill shopping/hunting, the big things to keep in mind are patience and persistence. If you get bored really easily or can’t shop for more than three hours in one store, going to Goodwill might not be such a great idea. (Regular vintage stores can most usually be managed in a much smaller time, but Goodwill being what it is usually takes longer. At least, that is my experience.) Here’s how I do it: I go to Goodwill. I pick a rack. I start on the left. I flip through it piece by piece, and imagine what colors I could mix it with and if it’s really ugly how to make it look good with what I own (that is the fun part!). If I’m not sure about something, I pick it up anyway, because you can never tell from the hanger what a piece will look like on your body. I’ve realized that it’s pretty worthless to go to Goodwill with a list of really specific things because you never know what will be there or not there. Then after I’ve conquered a section, I move on to the next section (ie, tops, pants, shoes, accessories, etc…) and finally, it’s off to the dressing rooms to decide what works. Another thing to keep in mind: just because it’s completely hideous, don’t disregard it. Take it off the rack and try it on, I dare you, because it’s the ugly pieces that you integrate into normal outfits that get the best reactions.

 Some other Goodwill tips: bring friends with good taste/style/eyes and get yourself a cart. If you’re anything like us, you will need it. Every square inch.

(Not only can “Goodwill Hunting” be good for your pocket and style, but it can be good for laughs too…)    

                                                                                    

     MMM…success….

So if ever you were having too much anxiety about the general grossness of certain secondhand shops and difficulty of finding worthwhile things, buck up and get yourself out there! You never know what you’ll find if you are patient, persistent and bring the right people with you.

Have fun. Be creative. Don’t be afraid of mixing and matching colors, prints, etc, and by all means, fear not the hideous.                                                         

 

Color Me At Tiffany’s

I met Holly Golightly for the first time a few nights ago and fell in love with her. I had never seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s before, and it made me want to:

Wear Little Black Givenchy Dresses and eat breakfast at shop-windows…

Adopt a homeless kitten and call it “cat”…

Sit in a big window singing ‘Moon River’ and looking effortlessly chic in houseclothes…

 Galavant around the city in a big black hat…

Maybe I should. What a fun day that would be!

Color Me White

White shoes. You know the rule: between Memorial day and Labor day, and that’s it. Personally, that rule is something I have never understood. Maybe I’m just naive on certain nuances in fashion, but why the white shoe restriction? I mean, they’re white. They go with everything. And don’t tell me the rule is because white is too ‘summer-y’ a color for the fall and winter months because if you haven’t noticed, for most people winter=snow and snow=white, unless you happen to be standing near a busy road. White snow, white shoes. Voila!

There are certain rules of fashion that I choose to break (see earlier post on ‘the basics’). Case in point, my “staple” pairs of shoes are white, and they are worn all year round.

 

A friend brought up this question a few weeks ago, because she wants to wear a pair of white shoes to school but doesn’t want to commit a fashion faux-pas. I told her to disregard the fact that it is currently after Labor day, and to enjoy wearing her white shoes out in public! Why not? If she puts them with an amazing outfit, nobody is going to care that her shoes are ‘out of season’. Your thoughts on the ever pressing question of when to wear white shoes would be gladly accepted. ^ _ ^