Category: Friday ReBlog

Friday ReBlog: Two Canadian Thrifters

O Canada! (gratuitous pics of stylish and delicious prime minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, the equally stylish and delicious Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, here.)

Today we’ve got 2 Canadian bloggers who, from all I can gather, know each other IRL and sometimes thrift for each other.  Sigh.  My dream.

First off: thanks to reader Kathleen S. who alerted us to The Spirited Thrifter. (Note: you, too, can suggest your favorite thrift bloggers in the comments below or here on the original “help me find more thrift blogs!” post).

Author Nicole sounds like my soul mate.  Evidence:

“Last week, I *helped* my friend Karlynn at her excuse to buy more Pyrex garage sale, and while *helping* her drank sangria.”  (The “Spirited” in her blog title refers to her personality but also her love of spirits.)

Or: “What’s a mom to do with 3 hours to herself but go thrifting”?

Plus she makes her kids thrift and puts thrift stores on her vacation sight-seeing list.  My kind of lady.

 

The Spirited Thrifter led me to Blue Collar Red Lipstick, where Adina isn’t afraid to style herself up while living in a dress-down kind of city.  She’s got a tailored look I love livened up by lots of color.  Many of her things are consigned/thrifted, and she has a whole section on work capsule wardrobes if you need some visual inspiration on how to put together a dressier or more colorful capsule wardrobe.

 

Happy Friday, Thrifters! I’ll be back next week with a fun travel wardrobe from a recent trip to Asheville, NC.

 

Friday ReBlog: Too Cheap Blondes

Thanks to reader Kiki for recommending a new blog I think y’all will like: Too Cheap Blondes.

(A grammar pun? I’m already on board).

Pippa and Jen are Houston thrifters with a great variety of posts on all things thrift: tips, DIYs/rehabs, styling ideas, recreating trends, how to tell quality vs. quackery, capsule wardrobes, thrift makeovers, cowboy boots (the native born Texan in me is swooning), etc.  I have a feeling it’s gonna take me awhile to get through their archives.

Hint: to find their blog scroll down the home page about 3/4 of the way.

If you don’t have time to binge read right now, their list of tips for thrifting is a great place to start.  I love their point about not limiting yourself to the designer/boutique section of the thrift store; you can find great stuff there but often designer/brand names slip through the cracks and end up in the regular areas for a fraction of the price.

One personal caveat vis-à-vis the above list: they advise skipping lower end brands, and generally that’s wise.  But some of my longer-lasting thrift finds are by Merona [Target], Forever 21, George [Walmart].  I find it’s really about the quality of the fabric and construction, which oddly is sometimes good even with cheap labels and conversely is not necessarily great even with name brands.
Any Houstonians out there excited to find these local ladies?  Any other great posts in their archives to which you want to direct our attention?

Remember, I’m sharing this blogging goodness thanks to Kiki’s recommendation; do your fellow thrifters a solid and list your favorite thrift blogs in the comments below, or, better yet, in the comments on last week’s cry for help where others can find them!

As always, happy weekend, Thrifters.

 

Friday ReBlog: What Are YOUR Favorite Thrift Blogs?

Thrifters, I need your help.  The last few weeks I’ve been stuck in a rut where I’ve read all my favorite style/thrift blogs (and even ventured into some new ones that didn’t stick) and I can’t find anything thrifty enough/wardrobe edit-y enough/fresh enough to share with you in a Friday ReBlog.

So instead of wallowing in my sorrows, I’m asking YOU all to share your favorite blogs or posts about thrifting and/or creating an edited, stylish wardrobe.  Take a sec and scroll down to leave your faves in the comments so that I, and most of all your fellow thrifters, will benefit from a communal spotlighting of your gloriously thrifty/chic reads.

Thanks in advance, and happy weekend!

 

Friday ReBlog: Thriftanista in the City + Unclaimed Baggage

Did you know there is a magical thrift-like land where the insides of lost luggage goes to be cleaned and put up for (very decently priced) sale?  Neither did I!

It’s called Unclaimed Baggage and I learned about it from Troy of Thriftanista in the City.  Also a denizen of the great metro ATL area, she made a pilgrimage there last year and recently rocked one of her unclaimed finds with a pair of originally $178 j. brand white jeans she found at Goodwill.  My kind of woman.

Troy has a great sense for color and shape and the ability to use a sewing machine to patch up pieces that need a little love.  I love seeing what she puts together on her Instagram feed and her blog.

Pretty sure Unclaimed Baggage is now on my (thrift) bucket list.  3 hours+ driving time isn’t too crazy for a secondhand pilgrimage, right??

 

Where would you LOVE to go thrifting?

Have a great weekend, Thrifters!

 

Friday ReBlog: Checking in with Into Mind

Anuschka at Into Mind wrote a great post on thinking about your closet not just a collection of cute outfits but as a cohesive wardrobe, and using those lovely, stylized images of capsule wardrobes we talked about the other week to help evaluate your own closet.

She’s also got an example of said visual inspiration for summer.  It’s a great demonstration of how to do a unified closet with more color and polish than the neutrals/casual basics vibe we so often see in capsules, so if you love color or need a more work-appropriate look, check it out.  Bonus: the broad terms she uses (chic work top, fun work top, accent pants) help you think of your closet in terms of categories that work together instead of making you lust after specific pieces some blogger loved.

Last but not least, 5 Ways to Build a More Ethical Closet tackles ethical dressing from a broader perspective than the oft-touted “save up to buy Everlane even if you don’t love grey t-shirts.”  Anuschka outlines 5 different approaches to curating a more ethical closet that remind us not to “let perfect be the enemy of good.”  Approach #4 is “shop secondhand or vintage” – yay!

 

Happy Weekend, Thrifters!

 

 

 

Friday ReBlog: Updated Wardrobe Planner at UnFancy + Year-Round Capsule Wardrobe at Paris to Go

Check out Caroline’s new and improved free wardrobe planner (printable download) at UnFancy.

If you are like my friend Caitlin and feeling a bit at sea with your wardrobe, this handy little document will help you suss out your style, starting with what works and doesn’t in the clothes you already own and building from there.

I haven’t tried Caroline’s wardrobe planners before but have used some similar concepts to help folks think through their own style revolution.  I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried her planners or something similar – what have you learned?  Do you like having a place to write it all down?   Scroll down to share what you’ve found helpful!

 

Meanwhile across the pond, Arianna at Paris to Go has updated her year-round wardrobe capsule to give you an idea of how she makes one wardrobe work in all seasons.  Her style is dressier and almost entirely secondhand, including several couture dresses.  Check it out for visual inspiration/un peu de lèche–vitrine – a little window shopping, or “window licking” as the French say.  I think it gives a sense of how drool-worthy her closet is…

 

Happy weekend, Thrifters!

 

Friday ReBlog: Capsule Closet Tumblr

Lo at Capsule Closet on Tumblr has created a visual diary of her capsule clothing experiments using clean, well-laid-out graphics that will give the visual thinkers among us great capsule wardrobe inspiration.  Her style is self-described “minimalist tomboy” but, as with many capsule blogs, the conceptual thinking behind how she combines pieces to create outfits and build a wardrobe is applicable across any style genre.

Other great features?  She assembles regular Weekend Links to help you get to know new ethical brands and find your next style blog crush.

And – this is so cool – she’ll take a retail item that’s hot in style blogs right now (e.g. Madewell flare jeans) and compile half a dozen or more ethical alternatives at different price points.  Great place to start an ethical clothes journey, one piece at a time.

 

Enjoy!

 

Friday ReBlog – “One Piece at a Time” Wardrobe in Action

Sarah at Becoming Gezellig used The Vivienne File’s “One Piece at a Time” method to build her capsule wardrobe and lucky us, she shared the process!  This is a great post if you want to see an all-at-once graphic of someone’s capsule wardrobe and/or if you’re curious about building a wardrobe by adding one piece at a time, not just buying ALL THE THINGS at once and hoping they work out.  She gives great pros/cons and thoughts about how the process will shape her future capsules.

In an ideal world, actually living into this process slowly makes a lot of sense to me: start with one outfit you love, then slowly add a piece here and a piece there that complement and expand your starter outfit.  Sticking to this patient pace would help you discover where your holes are (“hmm, it’s getting chillier and I only have one thin cardigan…I’ll select a sweater as my next add-on”) and how pieces play together (“I love this luscious blouse…what if I mixed it with the cardigan I already have and tried it with the skirt I own in addition to pants?”).

It’s how I live into a capsule during the season I’m wearing it – for example this summer I’ve been looking for the “perfect” blue sheath dress to go with my 2 pairs of summer work shoes and the white denim jacket I love and already wear – since I own one in white know it would be my style and would go with oodles of accessories.  I don’t need to go out and buy 5 different dresses or blouse/skirt combos to scratch that itch.  I can take it slow.

On the other hand, when you’re restyling a section of your off-season wardrobe to escape the urgency of “it’s freezing out, I need a sweater NOW,” this gets harder.  You aren’t wearing the clothing day to day, so you don’t get to “know” it – how it lays, whether it’s warm or cool or itchy on its own, if those snug pants are going to feel like sausage casing by the end of the day – and you don’t know how it’s all going to play together.  You have to make educated guesses based on what you *think* you want and how things look in your mirror at home (as you try not to sweat while layering on sweaters and corduroy in Atlanta June heat).

I’ll give you a peek next week on how that non-one-piece-at-a-time winter restyle is going – I think for now, other than tailoring some of the pants, I’m going to hold off on adding anything else until the weather is actually cool and I can see how the whole coalesces (or doesn’t! yeeps).

 

What do you all think of “One Piece at a Time”?  Helpful concept or are you too impatient/in need of clothing stat?  Scroll down to comment, and happy weekend Thrifters!

 

Friday ReBlog: Spring Capsule Wardrobe Additions via ThredUp

Erin at Reading My Tea Leaves showcased some spring capsule wardrobe additions in March (just seeing it now, whoops!) but I think her advice works for any season.

She used ThredUp to find these pieces, which is a great tool for anyone who a) hates shopping in person or b) doesn’t have the time to scour the thrift racks for that perfect piece.  I just bought my first piece on ThredUp and I’ll be sharing why I did it and how it went it arrives.

My favorite part of Erin’s take on the process:

“Here’s my best advice: Don’t try to build a [seasonal] capsule wardrobe from scratch. Make slow, careful decisions in every season about what additions make sense for your closet, and search until you find just the right thing. Right, mostly, because you love it.”

It can be hard to wait while you slowly, carefully build your wardrobe (and I’ve definitely succumbed to the temptation to just get it all over with NOW).

But what I love most about taking my time with building a capsule is that I can feel out what works and what doesn’t, growing into it instead of impatiently buying 10 things I *think* I’ll love and that I *think* will all go together only to find out that I only love 2 things – or, horror of horrors, none of it really flows, it’s all one big hot mess, and I have to start over.

And it’s always a good reminder that the “right” clothes for us aren’t the ones anyone else tells us to wear or what we think we *should* wear – they’re just the ones we love, pure and simple.

 

Do you like to just get it all done at once or do you savor finding “just the right thing”?

And what do you think of Erin’s additions?  Scroll down to comment!

 

Friday ReBlog: Drew Barrymore on a Clean Closet

Drew wrote an editorial for Refinery29 last year about going on a closet “diet” that turned into more of a lifestyle, and it’s a perfect piece for anyone who’s going through an identity/style crisis because of life changes.  She writes about putting away the funky vintage pieces (“I still respect them, I just can’t wear them anymore”) and reaching for a more minimalist palette spiked with some florals and sequins.

At first it felt like she had lost herself, but then realized her “cleaner” closet was simply a reflection of who she was becoming as a mom and a nearly-40-something.

Take a read for some great tips on dramatic closet purging and also some great writing about clothes and identity.  Oh, and some tripped out squirrel-person illustrations.

Have you ever gone through a style crisis provoked by a major life change? How did you come to a place of peace about it – or are you still struggling to adapt to a new identity? Share below!

Happy Weekend, Thrifters!