Spending Habits Now and Then

I just found the most excellent article featured on Etsy's front page - it is about "The History of the Cheap Dress." After reading it, I thought about my own closet and what it consists of. In an attempt to be cost effective, I try not to buy anything full price, unless it is impossible to do so. Most of the solid cotton t-shirts I wear are sale rack finds or from the closing sale of a store. My sweaters are a mixed bag, some from Nordstrom's preview sale in the fall or their sale section as well as Target or Kohl's. Only when I get to the other items does it get tricky. As I type, I am wearing shorts from American Eagle last season (which were on sale), a yellow Aeropostale shirt (that was free when presenting a magazine cover a couple years ago), and a pair of silver Havaiana's flip flops (which I bought full price at school the day we made a trip into town and my shoes were giving me blisters). So it does tend to depend on my circumstance. I also frequent TJMaxx and Marshalls (but have much better luck at the former), and have had great luck. My best finds were two past season Nanette Lepore pieces - an eggplant textured boiled wool coat (which I wear all winter) and a navy semi-formal dress (that I wore to my high school graduation). Although my wallet seems to hate the prices, I know that an investment (especially in an expensive piece that was marked down) will help my wardrobe in the long run.

Back to the article, I am a bit appalled by the number of people who shop at places like Forever 21. Their clothing is made horribly and out of cheap fabric, then marked up for people at "cheap prices." I just don't understand it. My bitterness could be a result of the clothes hardly fitting me, but also looking quite sad in comparison to anything more expensive. I do realize that this store is supposed to be good for those trying to cut costs, but I suggest trying another store.

This way of thinking is far from what drives my love of retro and historical clothing and my passion for sewing. No, that is driven by my urge to create beautiful things for others to view both onstage and in my everyday wear (this much less so as I trend towards fanciful costumes). If I had the confidence, I'd wear retro clothes everyday, but I haven't worked up to that yet. Maybe sometime soon.

Charity Begins at Home

In light of the recent tornadoes in other parts of the country, my mom's company was asked to help one of their software clients by donating any extra items they could. The clients are a company that currently has 300 employees without homes or a place to work. Very distressing. So in the spirit of giving, my mom and I went up to the attic and purged any old clothing we no longer wore. After pulling down boxes, I managed to empty 2 whole boxes of old t-shirts. My mom also added to the pile a number of cotton "Fresh Produce" dresses and some other shapeless late nineties outfits. I personally am really glad I got rid of all the shirts, because I am constantly telling myself that I don't need anymore clothing (yet I insist on making more costumes to wear - you can NEVER have enough, in my opinion). Letting go of all the memories attached to the clothes is a bit hard, but good to do.

The massive pile of clothes getting ready to go to new homes!

As well as pulling clothes down to donate, my mom also showed me a couple dresses she wore in the late eighties/early nineties. One was a mock Laura Ashley dress made of blue corduroy and trimmed with lace at the collar and cuffs. The skirt was full with tucks adorning the lower half. It almost reminded me of a prairie dress, but was way too strange to wear. The other was a black floral dress with a hint of fifties (crinolined skirt) and a shawl collar on the back. If the dress had had a shawl collar on the front or been smaller at the bust, I might have liked it better.

My mom also pulled down from the attic a number of short, narrow scarves that she used to wear to work with her blazers and button down shirts. Most of them were darker mauves and muted blues, but I managed to save a couple colorful and neutral colored ones for use in future costumes (the bright blue one might make a great sash to match my 1930's dress or the red one might work well as a headband in Godspell). Hopefully you'll see them in future photos!

Found this

via my college's twitter site. Pretty interesting considering todays social economy. Click here.