i'm over here in the green section, see you by the hats

saddle soap is the best

speaking of leather, just scored this sweet orange suede hoodie spring jacket for 95 cents!
it does not smell (and i think i have either gotten used to my purse or the smell has been solved)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8622601500_f9ac9a7e8b_z.jpg

also that green wool sweater had to go because it was the worst kind of dog hair magnet and fit really badly
oh well!

Update: Spending time in the furniture department is fuuuuuuun. Also digging through boxes I've had closed for a decade is also fuuuuuunfunfun but arranging little dioramas of my favorite things? Honestly that has been the best. I've been putting photos on flickr if anyone cares. AT&T can eat shit but other than that clearly things are v v v pleasant way up here.

:D

my new neighborhood is full of yard sales and the wealthy folks putting perfectly good lawn furniture out with the trash

oh god that reminds me that the brown & risd dorms are going to be emptying out in a couple weeks -- for a few magical days, college hill in providence is a trashpicker's paradise

i'm hold a yard sale this weekend coming up, too. all of the dregs and remnants and accumulated unloved junk from the move will get put out on the table, and good riddance too

Yaaard sales this summer for sure!! I need to ~furnish my guest room~.

Ok I'm done furnishing, but yesterday I finally gave in to my mad craving for a paisley dress and looked online. There were some things, but nothing really stood out as MUST HAVE. Today I was walking to the store to get some stuff to make a food item, and I stopped at a local consignment shop and realized that I am living blocks from my personal motherlode. Will def go back, but today this paisley blouse/shirt combination that was clearly hand made to fit someone who is exactly my size had to be mine. And now it is mine. Can't wait to have new work clothes that I like!

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3682/9255671213_0dd282fcc6.jpg

I love that style of shirt! They always look so elegant but effortless

i wore that shirt just a few days ago!

recently i got a nice green paisley scarf that will make my boring sweaters look a little less boring as well as a high waisted dark grey polyester skirt with two nice rows of buttons down the front. it could go with almost anything and will be good for 3 seasons at least.

my LA vacation which was partially spent looking for vintage housedresses
damn that sounds like so much fun
i don't have any tattoos and i think some people expect me to be more square than i am (maybe) but that's their problem

― Florianne Fracke (La Lechera), Friday, June 12, 2015 3:36 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the most noticeable thing about LA vintage stores vs. SF Bay Area ones -- LA stores are so much bigger!

― let he who has not approved of the ronaldinho bottle opener cast the (sarahell), Friday, June 12, 2015 3:40 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i bet the clothes were really outlandish too -- i love to try on ridiculous costumey things and LA seems perfect for that
i did some thrift shopping in maine and it was pretty great -- i got a shirt + some earrings in belfast and was wowed by the selection in bangor even though i didn't have any room in my luggage :(

― Florianne Fracke (La Lechera), Friday, June 12, 2015 3:43 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i forgot there's a thread for this!

― Florianne Fracke (La Lechera), Friday, June 12, 2015 3:43 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark

i seem to have lost that skirt btw
no idea where it went!

this is one of my favorite thread titles ever

ha! it was intended to simulate the experience of being at the thrift, one of my favorite places to be

also that was sarahell's LA vacation, not mine btw

a week later, i questioned my strategy and thought, maybe i would have been better off looking for sweaters and coats with the logic that lots of people move to LA from colder places and then donate/sell their sweaters and coats that are rarely needed.

eh you can't overthink it -- did you get anything you love?
i forgot to mention a lot of the good stuff i've found in the last year, including a female friend who will pick something up for me if she sees it in my size. she got me nearly new frye boots for $25! <3

now that is love

she's awesome. she recycles fabric to make other stuff and i gave her one of my favorite dresses from my 20s (a blue toile shirtwaist that just kinda always looked just right no matter the occasion)
it was sorta hard to say goodbye to it but i'm glad she will make something out of it.

i got this vintage 50s(?) (looks a bit like something out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) green nurse's uniform dress that I plan to wear on stage w/band

oh shit
yes
that sounds soooooo cool

do you have tips for making pre-worn shoes comfortable? I always find that they have a worn in pattern that isn't compatible with my feet.

you could always try fitted insoles? i dunno much beyond that. i've bought a few pairs of used boots recently but they're all not used heavily enough to have a foot pattern yet.

the odor in the shoe section of the bangor maine salvation army was so bad i had to walk out. lots of heavily used shoes in there.

but there was a whole ROOM of them
i bet there was some good stuff in there but i wasn't looking for shoes. there was a whole wall full of ice skates for hockey!

also, i am a bit weirded out that vintage stores have 80s sections now.

Yeah that's bonkers. Are they like teen clothes or adult clothes or both?

I forgot I bought 2 skirts in Bangor at this tiny place across the street from the place where we ate lunch.

a combination of both: dresses that look Jessica McClintock-y that were worn to proms, dresses that look like something out of Dynasty or Falcon Crest, and dresses that look like something out of my mom's closet -- suburban office casual.

My fever for Gunne Sax has waned somewhat but even seeing the name Jessica McClintock makes my pulse speed up!

I wanna see the nurse uniform!

oh yes, Gunne Sax, way too many square feet of Gunne Sax dresses

Now I know where they've all disappeared to.

totally scored at my hometown thrift over the weekend! got the following:

-- small cross-body purse for going out
-- gold sequined j crew miniskirt w/ elastic waistband in my size
-- diagonally striped button up rayon shirt in pastel ice cream colors
-- really cute pink and green summer dress with cute details on the pockets

and a teacher's discount = total cost $12.51

Nice! I'm not good at thrift stores. I need a tutorial.

First step: stop telling yourself you're not good at thrift stores :)

i totally forgot about this thread a few months back when I got my ironic baby blue "super bacon" t-shirt and grey sweater with a french bulldog with a rhinestone studded collar on it.

also the useful thrift store staple: black knit mini-skirts with elastic waists from the 80s

i have a theory that thrift store stock has really improved with the increase in people buying clothes online. i definitely recognized more than a handful of modcloth items on the racks.

the quantity of wacky dresses/other is definitely higher than it was 10 years ago or so. i'd credit forever 21 and places like that too. i honestly can't believe the range of styles i see when i do enter a retail store, which is rarely but enough to remind me why i don't go more often (too expensive for such crappy stuff!) i've worn other people's hand-me-downs a lot lately too.

grey sweater with a french bulldog with a rhinestone studded collar on it.
O_O amazing <3

i also feel like the selection at your standard thrift store: goodwill, out of the closet, etc. is often better and more interesting than the "curated" vintage stores. Maybe it's just because I live somewhere where real estate is expensive and vintage stores have less space? But I went to LA in May, and their vintage stores were so much larger, and my theory still held.

Being a larger sized person definitely makes a difference though. If I were a size 8 again, maybe I'd feel differently ...

Every so often (but not often enough) I have the idea of having a vintage/thrift store for larger women's clothes because I'm sure there'd be a market for it.

i think that's a great idea - consignment shop!!

yeah sometimes the curated vintage stores have a lot of old 60s party dresses or whatever but that is not what i'm looking for -- i just want everyday clothes for the most part. of course it's good to find a comfortable sequined skirt at the thrift because i wouldn't want to pay $40 for it, but i already have a pretty good selection of ridiculous party dresses. why shell out for another one? that's just me and my needs though.

also ljub i wasn't trying to be dismissive of your request -- i do genuinely think that is the first step to success in many (most?) endeavors at learning how to do something new.

you're not wrong! And I need to find some stores I actually like. When I come across those stores it tends to be in hipster areas, and I feel all wrong in there and everything in me screams 'leave'.

it's actually something I've thought about -- thrift store strategies -- and it of course depends on how you feel about buying clothes, in general, and what your values and anxieties are.

exactly -- everyone has different priorities/needs. if you can figure out what yours are, you are most of the way there.
if you feel the need to leave, you should leave!

that's how i feel at virtually every retail clothing store
get me OUT OF HERE NOW

Have definitely had that experience in retail stores too. They are harder for me in N America than in the UK, because of the solicitous attention... I enjoy clothes shopping about 200% less in general than I did ten years ago.

does anyone here have feelings or opinions about thredup or swap.com?

The wife loves thredup. Haven't tried swap.com

I'm sure they are useful websites. Personally I try not to look at anything that will allow me to buy used clothing on the computer -- I can't control myself! I only eBay specific things and rely on irl swapping and thrift shopping for unplanned purchases.

i bought a few vintage items from an etsy store a few days ago -- I don't know whether it's the limitations of the etsy storefront architecture but there wasn't any way to select by size. I was reminded yet again why I spent so much money and bought so much used vintage clothing when I was in my early 20s and a size 8, and of course now, most vintage clothes are too small for me. So it was a lot of scrolling --- so cute! waist size ... uh, no.

Thredup is cool in that not only can you sort by size, but you can pick designers/brands you like and that's what it will show you -- most of the time. It also does the standard try and predict what you would like thing based on what you click on or buy. There was an interesting looking gray skirt that I clicked on so that I could try and figure out what the fabric was like, and then Thredup gave me a page of gray skirts, and nothing but gray skirts. Which made me think that as far as clothing goes, there are so many different criteria and factors that make me like an item of clothing that aren't just "gray" and "skirt" and made by a certain company.

I scored some good stuff today.

* Spring green velvet blazer that's slightly too big so it doesn't look overly fussy/can be worn over things
* cropped patterned wool sweater w short turtleneck, "made in Scotland"!
* red cotton cable knit cardi for a friend
* brown sweater vest & western-style dress shirt for mr

Good day!