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2 DAYS OF THRIFT STORE SHOPPING: Giggling, Gagging, Gasping, and Regreting

By: Bethany Walter

20-07-2012

What I love about thrifting is I never know what to expect. During these two days of thrift store shopping, I was looking for giggles and hoping to find bizarre vintage pieces similar to those in my posts A Prince Inspired Outfit and To Boldly Wear What No One Would Wear in Their Right Minds. A hour of laughs for $7 or as little as free makes this a worthwhile adventure.

Day 1 with Kelly

Wranglers button-up shirt with sequins, crystal like buttons, and embroidered roses
Rampage suede cowboy boots

Score! I love an outfit that is a total contradiction to my persona. I purchased the shirt and left the boots. The boots were $22 and were not the best of quality. Most great finds I’ve found are usually only $10. It has to be super special for me to spend more than $10.

Silk? scarf

It is blazing hot in Idaho which makes me feel pretty comfortable baring my whole back as I wear this scarf as a shirt. Kelly suggested a bandeau bra might be a good idea. Probably so.

Striped leggings
Cotton tank
Lounge coat?

Nothing is sexier than 90’s attire and a backdrop of VHS.

Keyhole sleeve dress, Forever 21

Kelly decided against this one. Not that we would never buy Forever 21, but really we wouldn’t. Thrift stores are full of inexpensive, quality clothes and Forever 21 makes most clothes to only last a few months if you are lucky.

Size 4x women’s shirt / cape / XS dress

Why don’t you stay the evening
Kick back and watch the TV
And I’ll fix a little something to eat
Oh I know your back hurts from working on the tractor
How do you take your coffee my sweet
I will raise the children if you pay all the bills

Paula Cole – Where have all the cowboys gone

Kelly was having fun posing me throughout the thrift store. When she took this photo, she reassured me that she wasn’t meaning to imply that I was on sale or could be bought for as little as 75¢. What do you think?

Day 2 with Jessica

Velour jumpsuit with star zipper

Score!

Business jumpsuit

Jessica is going through a jumpsuit obsession. They are made for her body, at least the first of these two were. Jess isn’t a big fan of looking like a carnival cruise worker. She also doesn’t like the fact that zippers in the backs of jumpsuits make it impossible to pee. She only tried on this one because I wanted to see how bad it looked on.

Full length linen dress with embroidered roses

What I love most about Jess is her abundance of positivity and kindness. The first thing she said to me when she saw this dress on the hanger was that it was a great find. When I actually tried it on she exclaimed how lovely it was. She simultaneously and accidentally confessed that when she first saw it on the hanger she didn’t care for it.

Score!

Like Jess, I’m going through an obsession, a yellow one. Nostalgia is probably what first drew me to this robe. It reminds me of my grandmother, Nana.

Vintage 70’s/80’s Anthony’s cotton polyester robe/dress

Then I started thinking about how Nana liked to keep Kleenex in her pockets, sometimes clean ones and sometimes the used ones. I got perversely curious and had to check the pockets. The previous owner was her kinder soul.

Vintage 80’s/90’s red leather full length coat

Regret. A leather coat is amazing, but a red leather coat is one to remember. I didn’t look at the price tag. Probably should have. My guess is this coat was close to $18. The great thing about thrift store shopping is it is okay to walk away from a good find because I’ll find another awesome score the next time. If it weren’t for my budget I probably would have gotten it. It is very likely I will never find a 80’s/90’s red leather coat again.

Lacey full length underskirt

Jess had to try on this underskirt and a few other layers to see how it looked. Romantic, no?

Ver Maria lace Chinese dress with side slits

Wowzars! At first I thought the Ver Marie lace Chinese dress was just a sweet girl frock until I tried it on, slits all the way to my hips. I’m not sure how I’m going to wear this. It makes me giggle and gasp all at the same time. I think it would be easiest if I use this dress as motivation to start running and doing squats.

Le sigh. The key to happiness and de-stressing is 1 hour of thrift store shopping. Happy Friday!

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Inspired by…

By: Jessica Holmes

16-02-2012

Jessica

Steal like an artist.
So yeah, this outfit may not be art, but it certainly is stolen, erm…inspired. After all, there is nothing new under the sun. And all is vanity. So what you wear becomes a catalogue of what and who you come into contact with — and how those combined forces creatively, often subconsciously, synthesize in the daily act of dressing.
The Tibetan turquoise, coral and beaded breastplate ($140, Armor Bijoux) is inspired by… • Bethany’s beautiful and frequent displays of breastplate glory. • My instant envy for Kim’s breastplate gift (hubba). • The ceremonies of the Ladakh tribe, as apparently this is a necklace made for the occasion. • The western US, as I find something so Santa Fe about this piece too. Overall, it makes me think of the soul, and vast open spaces, and mountains, and east meets west, and general bad-assery.

The Carlisle silk shirt (thrifted gift, somewhere in Oregon) is inspired by… • An undying love for labels that read 100% silk. • An undying love for gold. • A sort of mobius strip of inspiration that started with the one-by-one induction of the FU ladies into thrift store fashion fetishism, that in part led to this blog, that led my friend Amanda to start thrift store shopping in Oregon, that led her to buy and give this to me. Boomerang.

Made in the former British Hong Kong, this shirt is beautifully made for women with personal servants. It has intricate buttoning up the back, even hook-and-eyes up the nape of the neck.

The Bonnie and Norma vintage velvet riding pants ($3.75, thrift store) are inspired by… • Anna’s love for vintage velvet, which inspired me to start eagle-eyeing thrift stores for the exquisiteness. When I found these riding pants, she told me she had been on the search for a similar pair for years. Just recently, she found her own, and smokin’ hot. Now if I could only compete with her collection of velvet skirts.

The Frye Boots ($200, after parental gift-discount) are inspired by… • Peer pressure, because like, all the FU ladies have them, practically. • Cowboys. • The Civil War, which apparently inspired the whole boot-making venture in the first place.

All made in the USA baby.

The Leonardo Riva black leather oversized tuxedo jacket ($10, thrift store) is inspired by: • Kelly and Nicole’s fascination with menswear and tuxedo jackets. I love the oversized tuxedo feel of the front. And the yards of leather. (No offense, PETA.) • My Harley-riding dad, and the added, full-body protection this will give me when on the back of a motorcycle. • My bicycle, and the semi-full-body protection this will give my outfits in the muddy spring. • Some puff sleeved leather jacket I saw on a runway recently. • The f*cking neurotic weather.

In the end, it’s me on a weekday, with the things I carry. Even people, even places, even love.

Photos by the glorious Bethany Walter, FU-ing tomorrow.

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Scanning for Soul Mates: 2 Antique Store Scores + 2 David Cronenburg Scares

By: Kelly Lynae Robinson

16-01-2012

Kelly: This is the face I made when I saw it.

Nicole: And this is the face I made out of jealousy when I saw it:

K: The vintage coat of my dreams at Acquired Again Antiques in Hyde Park for $40.00. Obviously the 70s are my spirit decade, but this gray leather, shearling-trimmed coat has a lot more going for it than its date of birth.

K: I love the high-drama silhouette. I wouldn’t have fallen for this coat if the collar was one inch shorter or if there were one panel of shearling on the hem, rather than two. An interesting neutral like this stone gray is also a huge plus.

N: Goldilocks’ dream coat…juuuust right.

K: I’m very inspired by menswear, especially of the 70s and 80s. This coat is an amalgamation of two coats that I love in David Cronenberg’s 1980 film Scanners.

K: With the collar down, it looks like the khaki trench with a rounded shearling collar worn by the protagonist, Cameron Vale, played by Stephen Lack.

N: In a perfect world, I will find a coat like Jennifer O’Neal’s and we can recreate scenes from the movie.

K: If you haven’t seen it, Scanners is a science-fiction horror film about a group of people (good and evil) who have telepathic abilities. It’s developed a bit of a cult-following due to it’s graphic special effects. Talk about gore galore.

K: With the collar up, my soul-mate coat reminds me of the camel coat Cameron wears to track down a fellow scanner in his art studio.

N: I’d also like to point out how similar your hairstyles are in these two pictures.

K: If you’re going to brutally intrude in the minds of others, you might as well match your scarf to your necktie.

K: Anna found these vintage Chanel crocodile pumps at a thrift store in McCall for $8.00 (no foolin’). They’re only mine because she couldn’t cram them on her feet, despite considerable huffing and puffing. I am very grateful.

K: Another Anna-sponsored accessory, I bought this vintage barrette at a cocktails-and-costume-jewelry party at Anna and Dustin’s on Friday evening. This is my first attempt to branch out into more interesting hairstyles (not that we don’t love a top-knot).

K: What would I do without Jason Andrew Willford, who takes my pictures when it’s below-freezing?

N: I wore this weeks outfit to be an extra in a film a co-worker of mine is directing/producing/co-writing/starring in. Her impressive resume also includes professional styling. I sense a potential Frivolous guest…

K: Ooo, I hope so!

N: The coloring and stripes of my vintage Summit Sportwear wool skirt remind me of the pinstripes on this suit from Scanners:

N: Instead of a boring white collared shirt, I’ll pair my pinstripes with a denim bustier that used to be a dress. (Note the pairing of the slutty top with the ultra conservative bottom.)

K: Perfect time to drop our newest FU-aphorism: subtly slutty!

N: I got the dress at Lux and wore it one time. It looked like this:

N: It was way too short and had a weird frill on the bottom. The decision to cut off the skirt to make full use of the awesome bustier was one of the greatest I have ever made.

K: Are you sure the weird frill was the only reason you couldn’t wear it after that night? Have you forgotten?

K: Or, dare I remind you?

K: Ahem, excuse us. It’s really not fair to show Jeff Goldblum like that. He’s really beautiful for the first half of David Cronenberg’s 1986 body-horror film, The Fly.

N: His hair is an inspiration.

N: Since I don’t have an awesome Scanners coat to keep me warm (yet…), I have to top my outfit off with this vintage wool sequined sweater, also from Acquired Again. This sweater is definitely a soul-mate piece. It’s 100% wool and sequined everywhere…such cozy armor! In spite of being made 50’s, it is still holding up pretty well. Or maybe I should say because it was made in the 50’s, when people cared about quality, it’s still holding up pretty well.

Here is a closer look, along with thrifted black and bronze belt and my bustier-ed boobs.

N: The Ladies Garment Workers Union label, size 8 tag, cut and detailing tell me this skirt was made sometime in the mid-to-late 70’s.

K: I love knowing that my clothes were made by someone making a living wage, even if it was almost 40 years ago.

N: The sweater is also vintage. The tag at the antique store said 50’s.

N: Check out the awesome detailing on the bottom of the skirt.

K: You should let me borrow this one, now that you’ve blogged it. I have a teal silk top that cries out to coordinate with that piping.

N: Details, details, details: black textured tights and black boots and black drop earrings and black and bronze belt When combined with the sequined sweater, the black accessories help make the denim and wool suitable for evening wear.

N: The bustier top may not seem winter-friendly, but paired with the heavy wool skirt, tights and the cozy wool sweater, I was sweatin’ before long indoors.

K: All black accessories could be boring, but the interplay of the different textures (denim, wool, suede, and sequins) is totally unexpected. Love the muted color palette.