Work Wear This Week

We had a bit of Polyvore fun with recreating our work outfits this week. They say "dress for the job you want, not the job you have," and that advice has hit home recently since we have been trying for a job title change to something involving "manager." We want to cover up and look more professional than we usually have in the past, while at the same time still enjoying putting outfits and colors together...

Work Wear- Tuesday by ThriftyStylist featuring Forever21

Silk blouse, Victoria's Secret, Jan 2010, $35 (now on sale for $33.99!)

Tiered ruffly skirt, TJ Maxx, 2007(?), $15

Lace tights, unknown, about $5

Black pointy leather boots, Off Broadway, Summer 2009, $30

Black ruffly cardigan, H&M via Goodwill, $4.49

Work Wear- Wednesday by ThriftyStylist featuring Petite Collection sweaters

Teal-green featherweight sweater, H&M via Raspberry Beret, Summer 2009, $17

Plaid pleated skirt, Free People via Goodwill, December 2009 $4.99

Teal tights, Vera Wang at Kohl's, January 2010, $9 (do not recommend- not opaque, ran immediately)

Same black boots as above, $30

Turquoise rose/feather hair clip, Summer 2009, SweetXcessories (Etsy), $7

Earrings - similar style by me (DesireeDesigns)

Work Wear Thursday by ThriftyStylist featuring GAP tops

Grey blazer, Calvin Klein (interview emergency Spring 2009), $49.99

Pink wool straight skirt, J.G. Hook via Goodwill, November 2009, $4.99

Grey tights, drugstore or Payless (?), about $5

Magenta ribbed crewneck sweater, Victoria's Secret, Winter 2008, $14.99

Peeptoe slingbacks, Hot Kiss via Famous Footwear, summer 2008, $15

Earrings and necklace featuring vintage jet glass by me

Clearly, we still gravitate toward a matchy-matchy aesthetic, and, with very few patterns in our wardrobe, tend to colorblock one solid with lots of black if we're not matching. Not so fashion-forward, evidently... but we still really love each of these outfits! We'll keep trying to be more adventurous in our remixing and in purchasing printed garments!

How do you reconcile your personal style with needing to look professional? Any tips and tricks?

Happy outfit-planning!

Work Wear We Love: The Vest

We are semi-scarred from a childhood involving hand-me-down sweater vests, and recall with horror and revulsion the tux-inspired gold-threaded satin-backed vests of the early 90s (shudder). We have suddenly, however, begun to adore the waistcoat-style vest as an alternative to the blazer for workwear. We picked up a version by AB Studio on clearance a couple of weekends ago at Kohl's, which fits like a dream, with five buttons, a deep v neck and interesting collar detail.

Much like choosing a blazer, selecting a vest requires thought about your body type and what would be most flattering. Most of us will be looking for something more than one button, to create that "locked and loaded" hourglass. If you are concerned about your hip area, look for a vest that skims and covers them rather than a cropped version. If you are slim and straight-up-and-down, look for details like princess seaming, nipped-in waists, shiny, light-bouncing fabrics, and bustline emphasis in order to create additional curves:

Waistcoats for Three Body Types by ThriftyStylist featuring Forever21

We think vests are a particularly adorable addition to a circle-skirt and slim-fitting shell t-shirt combination, but they are equally adorable over wide-legged tweed trousers or dark-wash jeans. They really help to flatter any woman's figure as they all essentially work to create that curvy silhouette most of us are after!

Do you like waistcoats? (We love pronouncing that word-- WESKIT!!!) If you've been wearing them, what are your favorite outfit pairings?

Happy bargain-hunting and have a wonderful weekend!

Totally Not-Ugly Vintage on Etsy Under $15

We love vintage, as you know... and the idea of vintage, and the thrill of thrifting. Online vintage isn't nearly as exciting as browsing a real brick and mortar store, oftentimes, and there's the risk of things not fitting, too, and wasting time and money shipping things back (if the seller will even take returns)...

There is also, apparently, a plethora of absolutely hideous silhouettes and colors to choose from, should you want them... (seriously, was the blouson-waist secretary dress, or the pleated skirt, or the double-breasted blazer EVER a good look for anyone?)... We fully admit that the search function on Etsy can be extremely frustrating, but our use of the 'advanced search' function managed to weed out most of the dress patterns and into actual clothes, and get us into the general price range we were looking for (don't forget you can sort by low to high price within any search, as well). We are here to do all of that hard work of slogging through the ugly for you, though, so today we are presenting some beautiful clothes found amidst a sea of hideousness (er, no offense intended, vintage seller readers; we're sure all of the fugly was in others' shops), all $15 or under.

We seem to be in a pink dress sort of a mood today! Here are some of the lovelies that caught our eye:

Pink scoopneck with wrap-tie detail, $5 at MaryGoodness

Pink with magenta banding trim and pearl buttons, $6.99 at LoveLoves2LoveLove

Pink floral with smocked bodice, $9.99 at RandomStuff

Pink and white floral sundress with lace-up bodice detail, $12 at TheRustySuitcase

If you're a regular reader you'll know that purple always attracts us, perhaps to a fault! But how could you pass either of these awesome tops up?

Pure silk single-breasted 4-button blazer in deep indigo, $8 at VintageJetPatterns



Short-sleeved sweater in beautiful plum decorative knit, $7 at MyStrawberryTart

We are pretty much weeping over here that this amazing piece wouldn't fit us in a million years with a trillion sit-ups, but we hope one of our tiny readers snaps it up. It is just too adorable and too cheap to sit alone in that shop! GO!

XS/S plaid shift dress in greys and purple, $10 at EnchantedFuture

The little black dress tends to be a piece that holds up well through the changes in fashion over the years, especially with simple, feminine details like these pretties:

Black microfiber eyelet-trim sheath, $8 at MyWagonette

Black stretchy-bodice a-line, $9.99 at XHereLiesBootsX

Blue is purported to be the most popular "favorite color" in the world, and it's no wonder with hues like these:

Royal blue 1950s silk chiffon, $15 at oMARITo

Light blue ruffly 70s-era two-piece-look, $6.99 at FancyCatVintage

The last of our finds today are in lovely winter white, a gorgeous, crisp look at any time of year, really:

Stretchy cotton lace-up long boho-style, $10 at DirtyBettyVintage


Cotton tie-front cardigan, $15 at WillowCreekSparrow

We hope you enjoy these picks and that if you're shopping online this Cyber Monday, you remember to support small, independent suppliers, crafters and artists and vintage purveyors, rather than just bumping up the profit margins of the big box stores! Happy thrifting!

What We Bought: Goodwill Scores Galore

Something called us to the Goodwill today on "lunch" break... of course that "something" was ostensibly the need for Like A Virgin outfit goods (we're seeking a white lace bustier and corset, crazy 80s belt, etc.), but it turned out to be the.most.perfect. leather jacket in our size, absolutely buttery-soft and in mint condition, crying out from a few blocks down for us to come and claim it!

leather poly-lined blazer, Margaret Godfrey, $7.99

Gasp! It feels like lamb or kid to us, but is labeled only "100% leather" so we're not positive. It's really quite fitted and lovely, so disregard the rather squarish shape of this photo on the hanger (and those to follow). No doubt you will see them all on very soon!

After discovering this lovely approximately 6 seconds into the store, we carried it around searching for the (elusive) Halloween items and also any pretties from the list which might catch our eye.

We tried on a wool pencil skirt (check- warm skirts) but it was a no go for our figure. (Hmm... other pencil skirts have worked alright; not this one though). We tried on a black-and-white floral blouse-type thing, but the banding "under" the bust hit us mid-boob. D'oh. Then we tried on this lovely nubbly (kind of like corduroy, only dots?) skirt, which is on the list as a "warm skirt" option, though not in a print (there really weren't any!)

cotton skirt, mac n jac, $4.99

Pardon the hanger, again. Here, have a closeup of the fabric and the lovely little crochet-lace trim:


(Much more lavender/mauve than this carnation/raspberry showing...)

In our travels through the shoe and housewares section, we also spotted a lovely little handbag; we had already fulfilled our recent wish for a teal purse, but the one we bought was awfully large and didn't have the croc embossing we were really craving, so this perfect little number is a terrific alternative:

croc-embossed faux-leather handbag, no name, $4.99

The man had suggested that we be on the lookout for a raincoat for little money, since we still have (ill-advised) plans to camp one time this Autumn... so we were thrilled to discover, in the Halloween idea racks of all things (? Sherlock Holmes?) a lovely black cotton with polyurethane (sounds gross but waterproof) coating trench by Banana Republic, $7.99. Pictures came out horrible, but trust us, it's cute. It's a black trench. You've seen them before. Our friend suggests adding a contrasting belt-- we're thinking perhaps leopard?

Whilst in the dressing room, we spied a rack of additional items. Some seemed to be tried-on cast-offs, as they were tagged, but among them was a practically brand-new and un-priced 100% silk sweater in a lovely steely blue:

silk sweater, Ann Taylor, $4.99

Perfect fit, nary a snag nor pill (who owned this? An agoraphobic?) and did we mention 100% silk?? The slate is not a color we'd normally wear, although it bears a strong resemblance to some blue-green sweaters we'd sworn not to further propogate, but here's a strong case for one-in, one-out; surely some inferior acrylic bit can go in its stead. It's not a print, either. But it is fabulous.

While we stood in line waiting to pay, a terribly amusing tourist was being rung up for a sweater and paused to ask "is this used?" And the clerk said "well, yes." And she said with a shudder "is everything here used?" And he said "pretty much." And she said "um, well, no thank you then, sorry," and walked out. And we laughed and laughed with the clerk so as to keep from following her down the street and berating her about the state of the world and her ignorance and stupidity and snobbery. Anyway, once she was done and it was only the crazy lady asking the poor man which section of collectibles she thought she could sell her new crap in, we were able to ask him if we could try on the simply gorgeous purple suede jacket hanging up behind the registers. And oh did it fit. Ours. Thank you.

plum suede jacket, Live a Little, tags still on for $89, $10

Our grand total was just under $40. Easily a tenth of the retail price for these brands (and especially the suede and leather). We love Goodwill!

Happy thrifting!

What We Wore: Aubergine Explosion

Outfit-planning for today began with our favorite poufy silk taffeta skirt with flouncy gusseting; taffeta isn't exactly a summer fabric, so it's been hanging up, awaiting a day when it could be released to rustle like the leaves as we walk. A delightful TJ Maxx score, under $30.

Then came the tights. Which tights?! We quickly decided on the aubergine/burgundy Givenchy patterned silky sweater tights (from Marshalls, $5 on clearance, down from jaw-dropping). They're so divinely cozy and soft... We bought three pairs even though they were only available in the one color!

We could have color-mixed, it's true, but we went totally matchy-matchy. We do love purple more than anything, after all. Top: sequined aubergine mesh, $14.99, Filene's Basement (~5 years ago?); eggplant sequined mohair-blend sweater, no clue (?) but probably Marshall's~ under $15. We like how this makes a twinset-- a flashy one, which keeps it out of the preppy-soccer-mom arena-- even though the pieces were purchased totaly separately.



We made a couple of changes to the outfit, both as pictured and as originally envisioned... we had planned to wear the new teal trench coat, but discovered upon donning it that with the poufy skirt we just looked... um... big. Ack. Observe:



Wethinks (teehee) the trench will work better over trouser jeans or a slimmer skirt-- there is just too much volume going on!

Much improved, with shorter leather jacket (if you missed its story, read this!) instead:


These faux-patent buckle boots (Famous Footwear, Etienne Angier, ended up being $8 with BOGO half off plus $10 customer rewards!) thoroughly cut us off in the leg, making us look stumpy and linebacker-calved, so as soon as we got to work we switched them out for our Hot Kiss peeptoe slingbacks (thoughts on tights showing through peeptoes or even *gasp* sandals? It's all over the magazines. We remain somewhat skeptical). Doesn't this work much better?



Jewelry: All gifts (and therefore free); Amethyst handmade beaded necklace from mom; the ubiquitous David Anderson leaf bracelet, and moonstone/amethyst earrings from the bro (traded for at barter fair at the Oregon Country Fair).

Handbag: FREE faux leather plain black tote from Lucky magazine for subscribing :D
We love free. This isn't the best bag-- nary a pocket-- but its lovely streamlined shape and plain color are perfect for toning down an outfit with a lot of elements already!

Hope you like it... let us know what you'd do differently!

Happy tweaking-until-it's-perfect!

What We Wore Today: Funked-Up Black

We felt a little bit funky today (OK, we feel a little bit funky every day, and we don't mean stanky; but today, especially so). This is probably due to a combination of factors, not the least of which was attending a Nashville Pussy/Motorhead show on Sunday night, where the entire House of Blues was awash in a sea of black. Folks after our own heart, awww.

Outfit 9-8-09 by ThriftyStylist featuring Franco Sarto shoes

We love the Tarina Tarantino feather earrings shown in this set, which are way out of our price range. We snagged ours at the barter fair at Oregon Country Fair over the summer for $15.

The rest:

"Lux" brand asymmetrical flouncy layered skirt, TJ Maxx, $15
Rampage square-neck short-sleeved sweater, $10
Marshalls Purple lace-trim cami, $7
Mudd Fake Fryes, Famous Footwear, $20
Glitter tights, CVS? $5? Honestly no clue where we got these, and we've only worn them twice. They're awfully sparkly. Not a terrible thing, but not the most flattering, either.

Hope you enjoyed your long weekend! We may be mourning summer with this outfit today, hmmm...

What We're Wearing Today: Hippie... Zebra Chic?

Another long skirt. We're aware it's not the best length for petites and yet we love it so.

How do you like the uncropped mirror view for a change? (Still promising real photos in mere weeks...) You get a glimpse of the extra-purple condo and some of the power tools lying around during demo (cutting out walls to open up hallways to make the place a little bit more livable and that sort of thing).

Here's the zebra-striped scarf we got free with a black t-shirt at Marshall's recently, with a turquoise Mossimo tee and a linen skirt from TJ Maxx we've mentioned before, with a new slip (also from Marshall's) since it's a wee bit see-through.

We wore turquoise sparkly flip-flops (sorry, A, who hates them) for some super matchy-matchy (aaahhhh), until we got to the office, when we changed into these embellished silk with suede and wood heeled slides (OK, still matchy):


...except then we walked a block in them and they gave us the biggest blister we've ever had (seriously! Ever! One block!) so we went back to the flip-flops. Sadly, these ones are destined for the bin, however cute. We kind of despise both wood and kitten heels anyway, and can't exactly figure out why we would have purchased these in the first place (they've been under the desk for a long while now). Oh, right-- they have sequins. And they're teal! Case closed.

Accessories: earrings by us (silver/turquoise mini chandeliers in Swarovski and Czech glass) and a turquoise butterfly charm stretchy bracelet we probably got in an egg in some machine or something... Really :)

What We Wore Friday: Roses and Peonies

It was a flowery day. We've posted about this lovely circle skirt from Vicky's before... oh how we love it! (We think this print is peonies? Anyway, it's gorgeous. The mirror streaks are lighting-related. Pardon)

We paired it with too much black (probaby), but the rose-embroidered Chinese slippers (from Rocket Dog via Famous Footwear for less than $10) are just precious, right? We felt the need for flats after too many days in high, high heels!

Earrings are by us, something that was intended for the shop but ended up making its way into our own jewelry box before ever being listed, as things are wont to do :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

What We Wore Thursday: Dressing Down

We don't mean casual exactly- we were just trying to take this dress we wore to a wedding a few weeks ago and dress it down enough for the office, since it was one of the only things available in our scant at-the-man's-house-wardrobe!


So we added the jacket from the suit we wore to the interview yesterday, and our beautiful new red stacked heels (see this post if you're not familiar!)

Here's a fairly decent representation of the outfit in its entirety:

Outfit Thursday June 25 by ThriftyStylist featuring Miss Me shoes


The jacket is really much more grey and the dress clearly has a different print, but you get the idea. We would feel a little boring in all of these neutrals if it weren't for the fantastic shoes!

Do you ever wear something that isn't really for the office but make it work with structured layers? We have been dying to do so with our lace-overlay dress from the consignment shop trip with a cardigan or blazer, but with the nude lining we're not so sure. Thoughts?

There's No Place Like... Marshalls

Much to our man's dismay, we were not able to stay out of the shops this weekend. It was rainy; we had nothing better to do-- and besides, we are going on vacation in a week or so and needed to round out our wardrobe! We got some lovely bright basics, like three lace-trim camis in hot pink, kelly green and this deep purple here!

Plus, as you may notice peeking out from the pants there, these amazing, gorgeous red patent pumps!

*Dies*

They were on clearance at $25! They're real leather! They're by Me Too (never heard of 'em but who cares?). We have red shoes!!! We feel a little bit like Dorothy, and they're so horrendously high as to require a change into the fake Vans when walking any distance at all, but oh how we love them.

Other scores: two t-shirts with built-in removable scarves, $7 each (two free scarves! One turquoise/black zebra, the other lilac/white tie-dye; both we'll totally wear!), quite a bit of adorable underwear and a purple bandana-print pashmina we just couldn't say no to ($7.99 didn't hurt that much).

We're wearing black corduroys from Kohl's (which should be illegal in June, but it's bloody freezing and drizzling nonstop out there!) and our little lace jacket again. We really need to find some more cardigans and blazers, stat.

We couldn't resist a little bit of matchy-matchy, so we have purple eyeshadow and red glass butterfly shoulder-duster earrings by us (one of the first pairs we ever made!).

Sunday Experiment: Dress over Jeans

One of our co-workers rocks this look all the time and we decided to give it a shot for a hanging-out-with-the-fiance-while-the-kiddo-spends-Father's-Day-with-his-dad outfit.
This is not the thriftiest of ensembles, as the dress was an Etsy purchase and is a soy/organic cotton blend- it's by Dancing Tree Creations of Eugene, Oregon, and we wanted to support what was then a brand-new shop. We are so pleased to see her doing so well! And sometimes handmade and eco-friendly trumps bargain. It's a versatile little piece which looks great over a longer, heavier skirt and thermal longsleeve in the winter, adorable on its own when it's nice out, or evidently pretty decent over jeans during this questionable June we're having in Boston.

Jeans are Vicky's fancy backlifters (on clearance for $30 and in our opinion not as advertised, as the nylon panel in back does nothing but make them hotter) which we don't really like because they're too light and emphasize our thighs, but they work pretty well here.

Scarf, from a street booth in Salem, $15. It has little smiling skull & crossbones all over it! But it can be reversed to pure purple with merely a hint of a black print, for the office. Peeptoe slingbacks by Hot Kiss, $15 at Famous Footwear.


We think we'll do this again... unless our dear readers advise otherwise. Thoughts?

Thursday Splurge Vs. Steal: Get Drew's Look

We have loved Drew Barrymore for as long as we can remember... she is beautiful and elegant but always retains a playful personal style even when she glams way up... Here, we're imitating (yes, although we advocate finding your own look, sometimes we do encourage taking direct inspiration, if it's as hot as this!) this look from Drew's recent appearance on Regis. The dress is Narcisco Rodriguez, the bracelet Tom Binns (we looked him up. Expensive.) and the platform slingback peeptoes from Miu Miu. We, like Stacy and Clinton, love a red shoe.


Here are two interpretations, high-end and thrifty. We actually think the thrifty version is a little bit more fun! We took some liberties with the texture on the shoes and the drop earrings; Drew's are much more understated, but the little zebra hearts here picked up the dress's pattern so well that we couldn't resist!

Splurge vs. Steal: Get Drew's Look by ThriftyStylist featuring Miss Selfridge

Which outfit do you like better? Do you think the high-end version is worth $2800 more?

What We Wore: Lace Overload

These pics are horrifying. Our apologies. Our man's mirror sucks even worse than ours for proper lighting. But we wanted to share anyway...


We're wearing the green lace skirt we discussed in this blog, a white shelf-bra spaghetti strap tank from Vicky's ($30 for 3-pack), and a little black lace ruffle "jacket" (really more like a cardigan) that we bought on sale also at Vicky's, several years ago- we think we paid $30, down from $79. We thought it was going to be cold (it's not) so we threw this pashmina around our shoulders before dashing out the door (TJ Maxx, for a wedding last month, $12.99).

The jacket thingy is one of the most versatile pieces we own and it was a great investment (at $30; $79 was just obscene). It can be worn as a dressy dress cover-up, with jeans, with skirts... it really just looks great with everything. It's a nice summer tattoo-cover-up for the office, as well (we have a gigantic dragon on our bicep and while they don't mandate that it be covered, we prefer not to answer too many questions about it!)

We are not wearing any of our own jewelry today (for shame!) Our earrings are from Target. Shh! (If you don't make your own, it is a great place to find inexpensive accessories... but they do tend to fall apart).

There's a lot of lace going on here, possibly an overload, but we like it anyway. Do you?

What we wore today: Professional Dress part II

Another day of forced conservatism. A bit sad, but it was OK. We wore this terrific floral circle skirt from Victoria's Secret London Jean collection, which we got on clearance for about the same as this ebay listing for it!

It's lovely, super comfortable, lined, cotton, with pockets (but they're hidden so it's flattering), such saturated color and lovely print... it's honestly just perfect, down to the cute cotton ribbon tie. We wouldn't normally wear such a print, or really any print at all in a skirt, but the black/white/blue was striking and we do love it.

A few more circle skirts we also love:

This one from BarriePace is certainly not inexpensive- $79, but down from $148-- and we personally never wear brown nor white-- but it's definitely a fun look (could use a some bigger jewelry, in our opinion, though), and the little faux shrug here is actually not that gouging at $29 on clearance.

We seem to be finding a lot of brown lately, which we'll gladly pass on to our sisters! We found a great deal in this cute printed skirt and jacket set, $33.94 if you join some sort of shopping club... not sure about all of that, but it's a cute look to seek out. We would enjoy a periwinkle scarf and peridot chandelier earrings and a cute brown suede platform peep-toe with this. But we're into matchy-matchy.

A few incredible one-of-a-kind looks we loved... this skirt is just amazing...  If you find a piece like this, who cares what it costs?! You can only be thrifty most of the time, you know? 

We also love this turqoise circle print skirt at right, rom Weezi in Canada, found on flickr, although we can't quite figure out how to purchase it. She's certainly one to watch, though. We love the light, summery feeling her clothes evoke. 

However, since it's not summer yet, we paired our circle skirt with a black sweater- ribbed, with faux shrug detailing like the white short-sleeve above... While looking for something similar, we found this adorable ruffly cardigan that is on clearance for ONE DOLLAR for our full-figured sisters. We have one just like it and it really dresses up and (well, to be honest) goths out a simple sheath or jeans and ballet flats. (OK, so it's Fashion Bug, but whatever, it's a dollar!), or check out this lovely detailed pullover on clearance at Soft Surroundings for $19.99. 

Now... we hate to tease you with something that's discontinued, but we'll leave you, perhaps salivating like we are, with this incredible version of the faux shrug in teal velvet by Boston Proper, one of our favorite catalogs to cut pictures out of for "someday" sewing projects... Oh, the sadness that it's gone... We'll hope for happy thrifting karma, that we may find something as wonderful.