Three Dresses: A Thrift Story

While visiting The Family Jewels Vintage Clothing, I was drooling over this 1920s era blue print dress, with its adorable red trim and red buttons on the back. I even admit to going back and considered purchasing on it. The price: $109, less 10 percent off.


I didn't. Party because those cute red buttons would be impossible for me to button by myself. I could just see myself knocking on my neighbor's door asking for help in the morning.

Buttons aside, I passed for another reason. I've bought many $100 dresses in the past. I used to think I was "treating myself," worked hard and deserved nice things. But eventually, I've tired or don't fit into every $100 dress I've purchased. I've donated some to thrift shops, brought others to the clothing swaps. With almost all of them, I experienced regret over the money I spent (especially when adding it all up).

Well, I knew the thrift world would deliver more budget friendly options.

White cotton dress, $8, from Our Thrift Shop in Westwood, New Jersey, which benefits a local arts school. It has the label cut out, so I'm not sure of the brand.

Forever dress, $8, from Revived Attire, a consignment shop in Hillsdale, New Jersey.

Once you catch the thrift bug, it's almost impossible to go back to conventional retail or justify paying high prices in vintage shops or for eco-fashion. The Sierra Club's The Green Life blog had a post about $180 organic jeans. I pay $5 at my local thrift shop for jeans, and think those jeans are just as good, if not a better, choice as a shopper mindful of the environment.

I no longer get seduced by ads showing models in rustic farmhouses or lush fields. I don't buy $500 vegan coats or $200 vegan shoes because Natalie Portman or Emily Deschanel does. I don't listen to female bloggers telling me I should covet these things. I scoff at the term "must have." I don't ask relatives or my sweetheart to spend their hard earned money buying me these things for birthdays or holidays. I don't feel I'm depriving the economy, as I'm still supporting businesses like consignment and thrift shops as well as local charities. Above all, I feel no personal deprivation. I only feel empowered as my bank account and sense of financial security grows.

Find a consignment or thrift shop the ResaleShopping.com, or a charitable thrift store through TheThriftShopper.com.

Browsing, Not Buying, at Family Jewels Vintage Clothing

Images of this are all over New York City. Women, repeat after me: we shall not wish to wear $500 shoes because some fictitious character wears them and clever product placement tells us we must. We know better.

Meanwhile, I popped into The Family Jewels Vintage Clothing, a vintage store where you can find everything from Victorian garb to eighties fashion. Hmmm, maybe I should have saved my pink day glow purse from the eighties and sold it?

Let's peek in the window. Love the apron.

Cute bandana. Note the laundry hang drying in the background.

Project Laundry List is one of my favorite grassroots groups. I hang dry everything - clothes, towels, sheets, blankets - on a drying rack and on hangers in my one bedroom apartment. It can be done!


Check out this video by American Josh Soskin living in Spain. He calls the act of hang drying "beautiful," "meditative" and "a small difference in how we live" and wonders "if these small details aren't ultimately what will make or break us in the future." I completely concur.


Glamour, why did we abandon it? The Notebook was on television this weekend and my sister and I so admired Rachel McAdams' feminine, classic style. In New Jersey, I've seen far too many people out in their pajama pants. Unless you've just gotten out of surgery, I'd say it's a "fashion don't."


A Victorian era top that was hanging in my dressing room. Adorable, but not at over $100.


Okay, so I coveted something expensive. But the key: I didn't buy it. I thought I looked quite fetching in this hat, but at $109, I couldn't justify it. There was a store wide 10 percent off sale, but even still.


I was just thinking how many of my skirts are too short, when I came across "A Long, Lean Backlash to the Mini" in The New York Times style section that longer hem lines are coming into fashion.

Bow ties, and instructions on how to tie a tie. Love a man in a suit.

Well that was fun. But thrift shops are far better hunting grounds for vintage clothing or at least recreating the look for those on a budget. More about that next.