Thrifting Current Trends

One reason you might hesitate to thrift is the worry that you’re going to look dated. I mean, if everyone is donating their worn-out (or never-worn, sitting in the back of the closet for years) stuff, aren’t thrift stores just full of clothes that are out of style?

Short answer: nope. And there are a couple of reasons why – both negative and positive.

First up, the sad trombone: fast fashion has made retail clothing so cheap it’s become disposable. Consumers can afford to buy a pair of kick flare jeans – that’s trendy speak for cropped & flared jeans that make you look like you had an overnight growth spurt ca. 2000 – decide they don’t like them, and donate them two weeks later. Then you find them new with tags or barely worn at the thrift store while they’re still on sale at the retailer. Not great for the planet or for workers who aren’t paid a living wage to make the clothes; but if you happen to like a current style, it’s a way you can give those items a new life instead of sending them straight to the landfill.

Behold, new with tags J. Crew light-blue-and-white striped button down. This style was making the style blogger rounds this past fall, and I thrifted mine just a week after I saw it on Instagram:

Poshmark and eBay are great for this – I saw this floral midi dress in Target, stalked it on eBay, and found it a month or so later, in time to wear in the warm-weather portion of my pregnancy:

 

Second, on a happier note: everything old is new again, so if you are thrilled to see spaghetti straps and choker necklaces make a comeback, head to the thrift store and see what 90s (or older) treasures have recently made there way to the sales floor. Your vintage finds will look on trend but also unique, because you’re not buying the mass market current version.

I give you the oversized blazer trend, in a unique vintage pinstripe style instead of the houndstooth or glen plaid I see everywhere:

And the wide-stripe shirt trend, still for sale online at J. Crew:

which I first saw styled (and fell in love with) on Frances Ayme:

 

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A post shared by Frances (@francesayme) on

My 100% cotton vintage version has long sleeves; I could keep it that way for cooler weather or decide to chop the sleeves for a hot weather look:

 

There’s also always the option to DIY a current trend out of a thrift store find. It wouldn’t be hard to take a pair of scissors to some seriously flared jeans and make your own kick flares, for example, or, if you have sewing skills, to turn a giant muumuu into an off-the-shoulder maxi dress.

What current trends have you thrifted? Were they new-with-tags, or vintage-turned-trend?

 

 

Turning Style Inspiration into Real Life Outfits – Using Clothes Already in Your Closet

Not long after I gave birth, I decided I wanted to recreate a favorite pre-pregnancy outfit formula: a white blouse under a blazer over slim pants. I was thrilled to be making my way back to some of my old standbys and knew that finding a white top that fit my postpartum chest (hello breastfeeding!) would allow me to wear blazers both old and newly thrifted, because who cares if they don’t button? Worn over maternity pants (and eventually regular pants), this combo would slide me back into my style groove.

So I went thrifting and found this Uniqlo tunic-style top:

Lovely, yes? But then I got home and opened my drawers and realized that I could have created a very similar look using this long-sleeved white J. Jill tee from my maternity wardrobe:

Sure, there would have been no interesting collar, but I planned to cover the collar up with a fun scarf anyway; same with the 3/4 length sleeves to be covered by the blazer. And yes, the split hem on the tunic had more personality than the tee’s straight hem, but I could easily fake that by tucking in the front of the tee and letting the back hang out, like this:


Ta-da!

This lightbulb moment has inspired me to take other looks I’ve been lusting after and recreate them with pieces already hanging in my closet instead of buying something new to make it happen – a particular temptation when following style influencers whose job, after all, is to try to get you to click on affiliate links. I’m scouring Poshmark or eBay instead of clicking retail links, of course, but I’d still rather get creative than consume. Because at its heart, that’s what thrifting is all about.

So here’s how I’ve been flexing the recreate-the-look-without-shopping muscle:

Catalogue your inspirationI do this in two places: Instagram, by saving images of IG outfits I love; and Pinterest, by saving images from the wider web to an inspiration board. This way I can easily refer back to a look without scratching my brain, trying to remember where I saw something or what I liked about it – or just obsessing about the one piece that stuck in my mind.

Zoom out. Instead of finding out exactly where pieces are from and obsessively tracking them on online secondhand platforms (guilty…), I try to take a broader view and figure out the general strokes of the outfit – e.g. fitted sweater + loose pants + short boot, or long skirt + floral blouse tucked in – and brainstorm what I have that could fit those slots. (Scroll down for real-life examples.) Then…

-Zoom in. Maybe I don’t need to replicate the entire look – maybe it’s just a styling detail I love and can apply to items I already have. Rolling a cuff, tucking in a pocket square, inverting a collar, or pairing sneakers with an otherwise dressy outfit – any dressy outfit, not just the one in the photo I admire – can all transform an outfit’s vibe.

Okay, let’s see how this works in real life:

Look 1
This is the first look I really thought I could replicate; my success with it propelled me to try others.

Inspiration: Keila Tirado-Leist

 

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A post shared by Keila Tirado-Leist, she/her (@keilalleist) on

Zoom out:
Blue-and-white striped button down shirt + dark blue puffer vest + plaid blanket scarf

Zoom in:
While I have a dark blue puffer vest and I want a white-background plaid blanket scarf, I realized that what I’m really drawn to in this look is the white and medium blue stripes on the shirt. So often striped shirts are white and black or white and deep navy blue, both of which feel too stark for my color palette; this variety, though, is just luminous.

My Take:

In the shirt slot, I could probably have used a solid, luminous medium-blue button down shirt I already own, but it doesn’t fit my current chest (thanks breastfeeding!). So when I spotted a new-with-tags J. Crew version at the thrift store that did fit, I “cheated” a little and bought it, then paired it with the dark blue vest I already had. Success!

 

Look 2

The Inspiration:


Garance Doré via Pinterest

Zoom out:
Colorful head wrap + light neutral blazer over light blue shirt + pocket square + sunglasses

Zoom in:
I do love a good head wrap (what is the right term for this??) but I think what really does it for me here is the dark pocket square in a light neutral blazer; it reminds me of the numerous well-dressed Southern men I encountered when living in Atlanta and how they embraced light neutral suits and played with color.

My take:

I grabbed one of my grandma’s vintage handkerchiefs and folded it so the corners stuck up, then tucked it into the pocket of my blazer. I haven’t been as drawn to my white blazer this year as I was last year (maybe because it got so much wear??), but I’m sure it will look just as good if I decide to try to replicate the inspiration photo more closely.

 

Look 3
Also in the scarf category – neckerchiefs!

The Inspiration: Adele from Simple Life Musings does this look on the regular:

 

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Zoom out:

White tee + scarf tied at the neck. It feels fresh and fun, and it’s a great way to accessorize an otherwise plain shirt and vary your look using whatever scarves you already own.

Zoom in:
I love the monochromatic + red look on Adele, but don’t like it for me. So I didn’t particularly strive to replicate the color scheme/other details, although I did decide to go for a layering piece, swapping the cardigan for a blazer.

My take:

I rolled and tied another handkerchief from my grandma (this one’s a map of the United States!) around my neck instead of using it as a pocket square. Since the scarf-at-the-neck thing is a big current trend, it’s an instant update. Success!

 

Look 4

Inspiration:


Orla Sheridan on Instagram (swipe to the 7th photo)

Zoom out:
Solid pink blazer over white tee + light blue jeans + pink velvet pumps

The shoes could be classed several ways for our purposes: pink shoes of any kind, particularly in a different shade from the blazer; velvet shoes of any kind for a pop of texture; heels of any kind as contrast to the casualness of the rest of the look, etc.

Zoom in:
I love the velvet heels and the monochromatic contrast – and could have recently snapped up pink Keds in my size at the Goodwill to fill the “pink shoes” slot – but I decided that what I really liked about this look was the combination of solid pink-white-blue up top and how the blazer elevated an otherwise casual look. Thus…

My take:

I used my existing pink blazer (hi, that’s in almost every look here…), white tee mentioned at the beginning of the post, light blue jeans with a very similar cut, and block-heel shoes which, although not pink, added just as much interest thanks to their metallic weave. Bam!

 

Which look is your favorite? Are there any looks that inspire you and that you could recreate from things already in your closet?

 

Embracing Color and Saying No to Neutrals on Instagram (aka Swimming Upstream)

I mentioned a few months back that part of what I was looking forward to about my new Light Summer color palette was embracing color again:

This palette made me realize that I had let myself get seduced by the neutral-heavy palette of minimalist Instagram style mavens. Although there’s a lot to be said for playing with texture and silhouette within a very muted, narrow palette, I came to recognize it just didn’t feel like me. (One of my favorite shirts is bright blue snake print, for Pete’s sake!) When I posted a muted peach skirt on Instagram asking for color suggestions to dye it, someone suggested “rust!” with enthusiasm and I just wanted to run the other way.

It’s been a breath of fresh air leaning back into color with this new color palette and embracing PATTERN beyond just a neutral stripe or dot. (Can you tell how happy those floral pants make me?) I’m excited to share more with you as I finish building my spring/summer wardrobe – whenever spring finally arrives!!

If you scroll through my Instagram feed (on the righthand sidebar, or at www.instagram.com/thriftshopchic), you’ll see I’ve run straight into the arms of the Light Summer color wheel and have barely looked back. Although I wisely followed advice posted early into this journey and got myself some neutrals to pair with my newly found multi-hued treasures, those neutrals have been mostly white and denim/chambray. When I’ve tried to jive with the minimalist-inspired style Instagrammers, the pieces just haven’t worked out. (See the first two rejects in this post.) They feel too…muted for me now.

But I realized a few weeks back that my Instagram feed wasn’t reflecting my rediscovered enthusiasm for color. I was still following cool girls with a heavily edited, highly stylized neutral aesthetic – partially because neutrals tend to make great capsule wardrobes, and partly because the ethical brands I want to, at least in theory, support seem to be allergic to color. (What’s the deal, Eileen Fisher & friends? Give us some rainbows already!)

I will always love the sight of a chic, slimmed-down wardrobe (like this one who is starting to introduce some color to her closet or this one, who isn’t and that’s fine). It makes me unaccountably happy to gaze at a thoughtful, selective wardrobe where you can see all the pieces and dream of future outfit combos – I guess because it exudes contentment: “This is more than enough and I’m happy with it.” Wardrobe goals, as the kids say.

And people who love color? Well, on Instagram at least, they tend to be maximalist rather than minimalist. A few folks I’ve followed recently have a great time with color but do so through repeated trips to outlets and/or internet sales. Splurging on retail ain’t really my thing – and honestly, giant thrift hauls aren’t, either. How do people keep track of/wear so many pieces? To each their own level of wardrobe volume, I suppose!

But if I can skip over the shopping aspect of how folks arrive at their cute looks (hint: don’t watch Instastories!), I find myself a lot more inspired, and having a lot more fun, following color-filled accounts. They rarely convince me to go hunt for specific pieces – I just enjoy the aesthetic, and the inspiration to pair together colors or patterns I haven’t yet thought of on my own. Starting off Friday with a picture of someone’s flamingo-print blouse just makes me smile in a way that cognac + cream + black capsule wardrobes do not.

So without further ado, here are a couple of colorful IG accounts I’ve started to follow recently:

Frances Ayme – a J. Crew-loving mom of 3 who calls Bermuda home:

A post shared by Frances (@francesayme) on

A post shared by Frances (@francesayme) on

A post shared by Frances (@francesayme) on

 

Tarilyn – a 50-something Mainer with a passion for skirts and making life in New England look like vacation in Florida:

A post shared by Tarilyn (@talizat) on

A post shared by Tarilyn (@talizat) on

A post shared by Tarilyn (@talizat) on

 

Alice – a midlife mom with a flair for pattern:

A post shared by Alice (@happinessatmidlife) on

A post shared by Alice (@happinessatmidlife) on

A post shared by Alice (@happinessatmidlife) on

A bonus: these women reflect a greater diversity than the young, hip white women who dominate the IG neutral/ethical game. And it’s nice to see women who don’t blog or Instagram for a living wearing their real clothes!

Who are your favorite colorful Instagrammers (or bloggers)? Share the wealth!

Living into Light Summer – Four Months In

Hey all,

It’s been four months since I got my colors “done“; time for an update!

I’m settling into this new season; I see when my face “pops” with a good color; I can now see plainly that a few old pieces I initially thought were Light Summer are not; and it’s becoming a lot easier for me to pick out some of the Light Summer colors at a glance (I then confirm with my handy dandy color palette).

Greens and purples are probably the easiest – they jump out at me:


Can you tell I’m having fun with this?

Blues don’t jump very much but there’s some flexibility there. I’m getting better at yellows and pinks (which are really mostly corals); and I’ve even found a few good browns – though I haven’t thrifted them:


Too big.

 

I see when my color palette (the actual samples of colors I take with me when I thrift) pops against colors in my season when I didn’t used to:


Pop! As always, take photos of the palette with a large grain of salt due to lighting etc.

I thrifted these Bermuda shorts even though they’re more where my style 8 was years ago. I couldn’t help myself – they were so perfectly Light Summer. That’s actually been a challenge – it’s still novel and exciting for me to find something that’s a perfect palette match that I sometimes buy things I normally wouldn’t because IT IS MY PALETTE. Working on that.

 

Amazingly, I’ve even had success finding my colors online, which can be a tricky proposition since lighting and monitor settings affect things. Knowing it’s hard to match colors in some ways makes me more restrained – I’m less likely to buy something unless I’ve seen it in person.

Otherwise, I piece together a variety of photos from the seller and the original retail site (these are usually pretty accurate) and make an educated guess, which is how I ended up with these pants – SUCH a good match for Light Summer:


Glorious. The Pixie pant from Old Navy via Poshmark.

These also were a perfect match, which is great since I’ve been looking for pink pants to set off my warmer weather tops:


Also Pixies from Old Navy via Poshmark.

 

As far as denim goes, I’ve been happy to stick with my darker Paige jeans because we so easily read jeans as a neutral; plus pants are far from the face, where it’s most obvious if you’re wearing something outside your palette. And I had found some “Best Girlfriend” jeans that were right in my color palette; but they are baggy, weekend, laze-around-the-house jeans that don’t give the cleaner silhouette I like for more polished outfits.

Lo and behold, the thrifting gods sent me the first pair of J Brand jeans that didn’t feel like sausage casing around my legs; they have some stretch (I know that’s antithetical to denim purists and I don’t care). They are a lovely light blue wash that is squarely Light Summer denim territory:

They’re a tiny bit cropped but since I plan to wear them now through fall, that should work just fine.

 

I think I mentioned before that this palette made me realize that I had let myself get seduced by the neutral-heavy palette of minimalist Instagram style mavens. Although there’s a lot to be said for playing with texture and silhouette within a very muted, narrow palette, I came to recognize it just didn’t feel like me. (One of my favorite shirts is bright blue snake print, for Pete’s sake!) When I posted a muted peach skirt on Instagram asking for color suggestions to dye it, someone suggested “rust!” with enthusiasm and I just wanted to run the other way.

It’s been a breath of fresh air leaning back into color with this new color palette and embracing PATTERN beyond just a neutral stripe or dot. (Can you tell how happy those floral pants make me?) I’m excited to share more with you as I finish building my spring/summer wardrobe – whenever spring finally arrives!!

15 Seconds of Thrifting Fame

I had the slightly surreal experience this week of being recognized in public as a thriftstagrammer.

Here’s how it happened.

(Prepare for a short story to be made long.)

I’d figured out rather recently that I should be tagging not the brand of my clothes in Instagram posts, but the store where I thrifted them.

I started off tagging brands because I thought people would be inspired to thrift by seeing the great brands that can be found secondhand. This was…pretty pointless. If people search IG for, say, Banana Republic or Vince Camuto, they’re likely looking for retail looks they can buy now, not thrifted looks they’d have to scour online secondhand stores to find.

BUT. Thrifters want to know where they can find great stuff, regardless of whether they nab a specific item I showcase (which, after all, is pretty unlikely). And for people who do want to search for one of my finds, they can ask me for the brand in the comments.

Plus, it’s more fun to be connected with the people behind store brand accounts – they’re more likely to leave comments and to invite you to special events, and if you develop a relationship with them, they might be willing to hold an awesome find from their IG feed for you.

And as I discovered last Friday, they might even recognize you when you patronize their store:

I was browsing the racks at Sister Thrift in Watertown when an energetic blonde woman came up to me and asked, “Are you Leah?” As a pastor I run into people I know every time I get groceries, but I had no idea who this woman was. “I’m Tiffany, one of the co-founders. I saw you shopping and thought, I recognize her from Instagram!” She proceeded to thank me for mentioning Sister Thrift whenever I sport items from their stores.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Thank YOU for having such awesome stuff at really good prices.” (True. I visited another store after them and was not impressed, price-wise.)

Well that had already made my day – how delightfully unexpected! And then Tiffany asked the cashier to give me 20% off my purchases. Uh, yes please! The thrifter’s dream.


What I found that day – Gap & J Brand.

So if you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth it to post all those outfit pics on Instagram – it could earn you celebrity status and a discount. Just be sure to tag those hard-working thrift store IG accounts!

The end. :)

Putting Together an Outfit: Cords + Popover Tunic + Duster

Nicole from The Spirited Thrifter wrote a few weeks back about helping a client discern how to put together new outfits from her existing clothes  She included some handy rules and tips along the way, which got me thinking about how *I* put decide what goes into an outfit and whether blogging about it would be useful for others to read about.

So today, I’m going to grab an outfit pic off of Instagram and walk you through how I put it together.  I’m no expert, but I do love clothes and am usually pretty happy with my looks, so if you struggle with how to finish off an outfit, how to pair accessories or top layers with base clothes you’ve already chosen, or what “goes” together,  I hope reading about my thought process is helpful.  And if it works out I’ll do it with some more outfits.  Maybe you can even request faves from my IG!  Whoa, getting carried away here.

The outfit in question:

A photo posted by LeahLW (@thriftshopchic) on

 

And now, how I got there:

Weather? Cool in the morning, warm by afternoon – I’ll need to layer.

Any activities at work that require specific clothes (e.g. big meetings with outside clients or funerals or cleaning out storage rooms requiring a dress (fancier) or pants (more casual/flexible)?  No.

So what do I feel like wearing for my base piece (the skirt/pants/dress I’ll use to build my outfit)?   Yesterday was a dress so today I’ll go with pants for a little variety.  I haven’t worn my newly tapered cream cords yet, let’s bust those out!

What top would go with that?  Hmmm…I haven’t worn my dotted cotton popover tunic in a minute, and that pattern will contrast nicely with the solid cream down below.
Now to add that layer… The shirt’s patterned, so let’s get my one and only solid cardi out – a blue duster.  That matches the darker blue in the top and will keep the outfit from feeling all over the place color-wise.

What shoes do I want to wear with this?  Hey, those blue-grey boat shoes I just painted would be perfect for the  chambray color of the shirt.  Plus this outfit is on the casual-but-put-together side and nice boat shoes can do that.  I’m still wearing them in, though, so I need some socks…these striped ones perfectly marry the colors in my top and cardigan.

Jewelry?  An open neck means a standard-length necklace and I don’t feel like making an earring statement today. But I will choose my cream drop earrings instead of my go-to gold studs because my cream cords are starting to feel lonely; picking up the pants color with my earrings will make the whole composition more harmonious.  Bracelet/rings?  The usual – my grandma’s cuff and my wedding/engagement rings.

One last styling adjustment – pulling the collar and cuffs of my shirt out past the cardigan, then popping/folding them back respectively will add a touch of interesting on the edges of that big block of color that is my duster – and make some room to show off my bracelet.  

Et voilà!  Done.

 

The above process probably took about 5 minutes to decide/put on my body.  Scroll down to tell me if this kind of analysis is helpful, and if so, whether you like reading it in present tense or if that’s just annoying.

 

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Love It or Leave It – or, Learning to Say No to Clothes at the Thrift Store

I went thrifting with my friend Caitlin the other weekend – she racked up several items to try on and I struck out, so I ended up in the very spacious dressing room (thanks Newnan Goodwill!) giving her picks the thumbs up or down.

(Shoutout to my mom for training me to think it’s fun to help someone else try clothes on – Ma, you would have been proud of my re-hanging garments and sorting into yes/no/maybe piles while my friend kept zipping through her selections.)

My friend mentioned at the beginning of the process that she always tries things on twice, to give herself some time to marinate on a selection before sealing the deal.  I nodded in agreement – sometimes you just need to revisit a piece to decide if it’s coming home with you.

But then she found this purple, leopard print dress by Soprano (retailed for around $50).  My friend’s face lit up and we both oooohed and ahhhhed – it was love at first fit.  “I won’t have to try this on a second time!” she gushed. Continue reading “Love It or Leave It – or, Learning to Say No to Clothes at the Thrift Store”