A Love of Thrifting

I often go thrifting, especially when anyone else is looking for a treasure hunter buddy. The above black and white coat is a semi-recent find on one of the various trips I've been on with Cassie since Christmas. It's 100% silk and I think it's supposed to be a dress from Liz Caliborne of the 90's but it's a little large and I think it looks cool as a spring coat. It's perfectly drapey when left open and I adore the greek looking roses on it.

Some things I've learned about thrifting:

1. Don't pay attention to the sizes. I the stuff you are digging up spans a few decades (naturally) than the sizing will be way different on each piece.

2. Most stores have things hung according to color which is quite useful because I just look through the colors that draw me the most and skip the ones I know look bad on me or black because black bores me a bit and I can't keep cat hair off of it.

3. If I am not in a look-at-everything mood then I hit the items I like to wear in vintage the most. I look at dresses first, then skirts, and finally belts and scarves. I rarely buy pants because it's a lot trickier to fit and since they don't hang according to size it takes too long. I have a massive vintage belt collection all from thrift stores.

4. I grab some pretty crazy stuff in a thrift store and just try it on (like the MC Hammer jumpsuit in goldenrod) just for fun, or because it might actually work (I was totally tempted to buy said jumpsuit if not for anything but lounging in on my couch of the same color). Either way I have fun in the dressing room.

5. Play with proportion. Something that is too big could be belted, worn as a dress, rolled, knotted, and layered. Like my above re-purposed dress as a coat. Oversize items can work if they are flowy fabrics. This works best on tall people though, so if you are petite you may want to stick with true sizing.
None of this outfit was thrifted but I just thought I'd throw it in now because I often have trouble uploading pictures here...I had to do one at a time this time and some of them were several attempts. I decided if I were to partake of the paper bag trend that a skirt would be easier to find a good fit. This one is linen (I know so wrinkly) but I love it paired with this bright coral-orange tee. I am also wearing another knotted scarf that I scored recently. This one is more retro in coloring-turquoise (why is that word so hard for me to spell?), orange, and caramel. I'll show it to you better sometime.