Tag: trends

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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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?

 

 

Thrifting Trends: Pantone “Evergreen”

I’ve mentioned before that I like browsing my boss’s Talbots catalogue for inspiration – go ahead, judge me.  One of the colors they featured this fall caught my eye in this corduroy pant.  Talbots calls the color “Scotch Pine,” which is a great name – and I am a sucker for well-named colors. But basically it’s just their take on Pantone’s Evergreen, one of the colors they’ve selected for fall/winter 2016-17. (For the record I like Talbot’s version better, but it might just be the depth added by the corduroy.)

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Pantone Evergreen; Talbots Scotch Pine

As mentioned above, I really dug how luscious this color looked in corduroy; since there is nary a green in my wardrobe color palette, though, I had resigned myself to admiring it from afar. But when I tried out adding color to my wardrobe via pants, which didn’t require much matching elsewhere, I realized I wanted to do it more. And why shouldn’t I give Evergreen/Scotch Pine (or its thrifted equivalent) a try?

So last time I went thrifting I made a quick run down the pants racks to see if there were any evergreen-ish pants hanging around.  It can be a bit tricky to find Pantone colors of the year/season in the thrift store since retailers are still peddling the new hues in stores.  But even though Pantone likes to make us think they invented the color wheel, the truth is these colors (or ones very similar) have made the fashion rounds before, as evidenced by the kaleidoscope of colors at your local thrift shop.

I had already spotted two great blazers in a serviceable Scotch Pine on a previous trip:

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I think Talbots called this “Hunter Green” last time it made the rounds.

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Blazer with contrast lining by Merona; I own the same one in camel.

This time around I found an overcoat by Forecaster of Boston (Made in USA) – apologies for the blurry photos!

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Wouldn’t a coat in this color make a smashing statement?

And in the pants section, I spotted these M Missoni pants (retail $300+ !!) whose color did not photograph well but was close to this:

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The M Missoni were alas, too small – and also rather lightweight.

But then I found Jessica Simpson cords (retail $59) that were just the right color, weight, and cut – if a little low in rise.  Lowrise waists, you are so tiresome.

Love this slim leg that keeps from veering entirely into skinny territory (and Holy Mirror Smudges, Batman):

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I’m bringing window cleaner and a rag to the Goodwill next trip.

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Here are some eBay photos of the same pants if you wish to view sans mirror smudges.

For $6, they came home with me so I can experiment with this color. I don’t know if I’ll love it or leave it, but this will definitely be a fun, affordable way to find out!  And lesson learned – don’t be afraid to look for current trends at the thrift store!

 

What trends have you had success thrifting while they’re still in retail stores? Flares come to mind as another surefire find these days…

 

Beyond “It” Colors: Searching for Cerulean Chinos

I’ve added tapered chinos in this color to my thrifting list:

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Not necessarily looking for Khakis by Gap, but I did love the fabric and fit…just a leetle too small

For blue pants I normally stick to navy, since it’s subtle and neutral, but this brighter, lighter hue will go with everything in my warm weather wardrobe (including navy) and liven things up a bit.   It’s almost summer, after all!

I’d call this color cerulean; it was definitely an “it” color a few (several?) seasons ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same as the cerulean featured in this clip from The Devil Wears Prada.  You won’t see it in most stores now.

Here’s what’s great about thrifting, though: you have everyone’s donated items from past seasons to help fill holes in your wardrobe, even if your preferred silhouette/color/fabric isn’t currently “in.”

Of course, that means you have to put in a little hard work to come up with your own style instead of chasing trends and the Pantone colors of the year.  But when you’ve figured out what you love (and it’s not just whatever happens to be hot in the mall nearest you), then you’re in charge instead of leaving your look up to fast fashion gurus.

And if you wear a color or cut that’s no longer “hip”?  Instead of seeming outdated,when you pair it with the rest of your purposely chosen clothes, it will read as “you” – part of your signature style.

 

Thrifting: you get to build a unique style, curating it with clothes from a much wider range than what’s currently in retail stores.

Win all around.

 

Do you have a favorite color or style that’s not “in” but that you snap up if you see it secondhand?

 

PS I’m seeing a lot of burgundy/oxblood pants currently in thrift stores…they were huge last year but if this color is YOU, don’t be afraid to get amongst it now!  Cobalt is also pretty prevalent.

 

The Power of the Words We Use to Talk about Clothing

Tuesday’s post on şalvar/Hammer pants/jupe-culotte (aka “harem pants”) got me thinking about the power held by the words we use to talk about the way we dress.

Caroline at Un-Fancy blogged last week (in a post featuring a great thrifted sweater!) about how she’s been “hearing murmurs that skinny jeans are on their way out” but that she was in no way ready to give up her skinny jeans “any time soon.”

Good on her for sticking with clothing she loves even if it’s not “cool” or “trendy” anymore.  (That’s basically my entire style strategy—and, I might note, thrift stores make this eminently possible.)

But commenter Lynn brought up a powerful point:

When women start repeating those “murmurs” it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn’t it? It’s no secret that the fashion industry – that very one that Caroline is talking about slowing down, making it work for us instead of us working for it – wants trends to change. For when women begin to believe skinny jeans (for example) are going out of style, it’s not just new jeans we’ll be buying. It’s new shoes, new tops, all to find the right new silhouette.

The language we use to talk about what we wear has the power to shape not only our attitudes and behaviors, but to reinforce global realities like the fast fashion industry, which is unquestionably damaging to millions of women (and men, and children) around the world who work in dangerous, vastly undercompensated conditions to make the clothes that fuel the changing trends—“harem” pants, skinny jeans, or otherwise—which we embrace and reject with such regularity.

(If you’re still not sure you think words have power…Google “slave bracelets” and tell me why it’s okay to normalize women’s slavery with trendy jewelry in a world where it’s still all too real.  Thanks, Ginna, for this lead as well!)

 

What do you think about the power of words to describe clothing or to talk about fashion?  Any other instances you can think of (besides rompers and playsuits) where we problematically label clothing, particularly women’s clothing?  Scroll down to comment!

 

 

Can I Wear Harem Pants? Or, Thoughts on Orientalism, Feminist Liberation, and M.C. Hammer

Ask me a question! (6)

Reader Ginna at Feet Chic sent me an email last week. (Head right over to her visually arresting blog chronicling chic street style footwear of all kinds!)

She asked what I thought about “harem” pants.  She had seen them named as a trend in a style blog she reads and immediately felt “sick to [her] stomach.”

No, it wasn’t the baggy crotch or visions of MC Hammer dancing in her head that gave her the heeby-jeebies.  These ladies sporting various street style takes on the pants in question look lovely, yes?

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Source ; source. Even Emanuelle Alt got in on the trend – source. 

Continue reading “Can I Wear Harem Pants? Or, Thoughts on Orientalism, Feminist Liberation, and M.C. Hammer” →

Strategies for Thrifting Trends

The Friday re-blog a few weeks ago about thrifting runway trends got me thinking about thrifting trends in general.

In some ways, I like to think of thrifting as a second-run theater where all the movies show up 2 months late but the tickets are $1.50 so you don’t mind waiting; plus 2 months is enough time to hear from other moviegoers whether that new blockbuster is really worth your money. (This is how I ended up seeing Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1 only last week.)

So it goes with clothing trends–there’s a definite delay in their arrival at your local thrift shop, but you get them for a lot cheaper AND there’s a buffer between you and any short-lived, ill-considered trends (personally I’m thinking of all things neon).  You have some time to let new trends, colors, etc. marinate and decide whether they really fit your style, instead of just succumbing to fashion peer pressure–“everybody’s wearing military parkas, so I must, too!”

Military parkas--a trend I've studiously avoided
Military parkas–a trend I’ve studiously avoided

Full disclosure: I tend to be a late adopter for the reasons stated above plus the fact that sometimes it just takes a while for something to grow on me (slim-cut pants come to mind…), so I’m biased.  You may not be as patient, or you may be more adventurous or spontaneous, or you may just want to be able to do the fashion equivalent of talking about The Martian in the staff lunchroom the Monday after it comes out.  No judgment here!

So if you want to enjoy trends but also shop secondhand, how quickly do trends cycle through the buy-donate-resell cycle–that is, when can you expect to find them in thrift stores?  Well, it varies.  A really popular trend can take awhile to show up on thrift racks because EVERYBODY is buying them and actually wearing them, and the greater the trend’s staying power, the less likely folks will want to donate their own pair (I’m looking at you again, slim-cut pants and skinny jeans–took forEVER for them to show up in thrift stores).  On the other hand, the more popular a certain style, the greater circulation and the greater chance you’ll see it come through eventually, and probably not before the trend has completely jumped the shark.  But it’s a guessing game.

My advice to navigating the trend/thrift rollercoaster?  First, since (almost) everything old is new again, look for donations from a few years (or decades) ago and repurpose those vintage items for today.  I guarantee you that chambray existed before J. Crew picked it up, and flared/wide-leg pants have definitely cycled in and out a few times just since I’ve been paying attention to clothes–which is not counting the bell bottoms of the 60s and 70s.  Thrift stores can be the best places to find those newly-repopularized items because it’s the first place they go after they’ve been evicted from someone’s grandma’s closet or childhood bedroom.  Maxi dresses, cross-body handbags, cashmere sweaters, sequins, velvet, palazzo pants, silk scarves, riding boots…this ain’t their first rodeo.

Second, if you’ve discerned what your style is really about and what colors/cuts/fabrics/detailing are your jam, you can determine, with a certain amount of cool-headedness, whether a trend is something you even care about at all.  If this year’s Pantone color doesn’t do it for you, but you’d buy one of everything in 2013’s color Emerald if given the chance, then avoid this year’s trend and snatch up all the donated Emerald merchandise you can find.  True style is knowing what’s you and wearing it with confidence; if you truly love something but it’s no longer “on trend,” it’ll stick in your wardrobe and become your signature; when people see you wearing it, they won’t think it’s behind the times but rather see it as part of your look.

 

What trends have you skipped–or wished you’d skipped?  What trends have you embraced because you know you’ll love them forever?  Or do you embrace new fashions, using thrifting to add some inexpensive trendiness to your closet?