Affordable and Adorable Summer Dresses

I mentioned last post that I can't stand the trends for summer and I'll be sticking to cute dresses, thank you. Here are some of my favorite affordable options!

Click the picture for the Polyvore set with bigger pictures and links to purchase. Most of these are on super clearance, so act fast! They are from Asos, Body Central, AmiClubWear, Charlotte Russe and Alloy-- all great sources for super-cheap cuteness!

Best Dresses Under $30 by WickedThrifty featuring ASOS dresses

I think the two printed versions (orange floral and watercolor pastel) are just gorgeous patterns, something I have an extremely hard time finding. The ruffly &ruched body-conscious ones are stunning-- perhaps not on me with extra lumps and bumps, but for you streamlined gals... The cobalt ruffled one would be terrific for a thicker waist as the belt creates a waistline while the side ruffles are excellent camouflage (I dare you to try to spell that without looking it up!). The under-bust band and a-line shape of the black and purple are great for any body type.

I should probably check out Forever21 at some point (I think I'm a little overwhelmed). And I do occasionally luck out with a perfect find at Goodwill. What is your go-to source for inexpensive, flirty summer dresses?

Happy Shopping!

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!

Steals and Deals: Tulle4Us

We discovered this brand- Tulle4us- in our new Lucky mag and made a note to look for comparable pieces in a lower price range, since the featured items were sooo cute but fairly expensive. But Robin at ThreadbearThoughts posted about a cute little skirt from them that was only $14.00, so we figured there must be more sale stuff! And there is.

Much of it is very much not our style, and (as per usual, sigh) , it's clearly geared toward juniors and definitely not generally affordable- except for the sale section (you can sort low to high, and skip whatever pages are out of your range!) But we thought we'd mention a few inexpensive and adorable standouts (click pics for links to purchase).

Blazers and jackets are usually priced fairly high because their construction is much more complicated than, say, a skirt. So we're excited to see these two cute corduroy ones for only $14.99 each, available in either the tangerine or the celery:

Personally we're not into brass or gold hardware (then again, buttons can be changed), and we're not sure the pocket details would do us any favors, but we think these are very cute for someone else!

And now some blue dress love!

Ruffled shirtdress, $17.20

Tiered voile dress, $18.00

Pleated cotton dress, $18.00

Terribly cute and terrific prices, right?

We also found this lovely lace-cut-out-detail slip for only $19.80, far less than just about everything at Frederick's or Vicky's; it is crazy sexy but functional, too (we have quite a few see-through skirts and this looks like just the cure). And it's made from cotton jersey, not that nasty hot nylon/poly blend most slips are!

We're forever seeking out cute cardigans for layering, and they're amazingly elusive. We're not 100% sure about the tie detail in this sweater here-- for us, that is-- but it's a linen/rayon blend (hooray nice fabric!) for $12.00 so we're sure someone needs this (shown in rose/ "berry" but also available in black and pale yellow/ "banana"):

We love bamboo but haven't seen much of it around except in really high-end stuff... it's so soft and lovely, if you've never felt it! This is a bamboo/rayon/nylon blend short-sleeve sweater in a really cute shape (again, not for us but maybe for you!) at a truly amazing clearance price of $14.00:

Definitely another site to add to the "let's-see-if-anything's-marked-down-further lists... Enjoy the finds and Happy Shopping as always :D

Are You Kidding Us? Lady Language

Many thanks to Audi at FashionForNerds for the mention of LadyLanguage, where we just discovered this Marilyn-inspired LBD for a staggering clearance price of $5.


The site could use some re-tooling (an advertised but not hotlinked clearance/sale section is nowhere to be found, nor is sorting by price an option, necessitating rifling through-- or letting the Thrifty Stylist do it for you), but there are some amazing prices here. Unfortunately the sizing is pretty limited at as well: only S, M, L (junior measurements). We apologize if this is a frustrating post for you (we've been there, girl... do you remember the store 5-7-9?)!

We're rather obsessed with dresses right now so we'll show you some more!

How about a coral strapless 50s-inspired embroidered circle skirt option for only $14?



Or perhaps you are a girl who likes a bold, kaleidoscopic floral in a precious flocked-bodice sundress? Divine, is it not? 100% cotton and only $22.00...


...And we're pretty much dying over the exquisite eyelet-and-ruffle detailing on this gorgeous bright orangey coral tube dress, $24- which we envision with a white cardigan at the office- what do you think? (We also saw this one in a maizey-yellow).


For inexpensive work basics or layering, we found this rich burgundy dolman-sleeve pointelle sweater for $12 (check out the link for the cool back collar detailing!):


We are forever looking for cheap tights to stock up on for fall and spring since we wear so many skirts, and these sweater tights certainly fit the bill, in 6 colors, only $4! (But we're not so thrilled that their "one size fits all" says up to 165 lbs. Sorry to our taller and curvier sisters).


We also love this precious puff-sleeve tee with button detailing at the shoulders, fairly inexpensive at $17.


We hope you enjoy these finds! We'll be checking out Lady Language every once in a while to see if more of the cute stuff has gone on clearance, since a few of the very loveliest dresses are still way out of our range. Happy shopping!

Dresses and Lovelies on Clearance, Oh My!

We stumbled upon Alloy's site while styling for a friend and just chanced a look at their clearance. *swoon* $10 dresses my friends. Granted they're not natural fabric, and probably not responsibly or carefully made, but $10! We are absolutely snapping up this cute lilac ruffly scoopneck...And we think this is a very cute take on the LBD with the gathered A-line satin skirt and banded waist (nice wide bra straps and good coverage for the more modest of us, too!)! Ten measly bucks. You pay more than that for lunch some days, right?

Tragically for us, this amazing deep red-violet Grecian-style ($15) is only available for our tiny sisters (juniors S-M). *Sniff* Shop on, skinny chicas!.
For $20, here's a sexy little interpretation of the psychedelic/kaleidoscopic retro print trend for the summer:

We looked around for comparable deals and didn't find much.

Victoria's Secret did have a couple of under-$20 cotton/spandex summer cuties like this halter dress (shown in white but available in several colors) and this darling babydoll in green with bow detail (precious!) for $18.99 each.

Everything else was clearly overpriced even though it's "on sale."

We couldn't seem to find the actual clearance section this time, either, evidently due to the annual sale being on (bother!). We can usually find a few really fabulous bargains, but currently even simple tank top dresses are fetching $29; and who wants simplicity, anyway? A little bit of embellishment, like the crochet bust in the halter and the bow in the babydoll, are what femininity is all about!



We just discovered Jane'sClothing - motto "Look Fabulous For Less," which we venerate, of course- and wow... some really adorable little numbers for astoundingly cheap like this other kaleidoscope dress, in pink, $14.99, and this unusual metallic leaf-print bright magenta halter dress with no back (ooh lala) for our lucky bra-going-without girlfriends! $15.99:

We hope you're as excited for summer and flirty little dresses as we are! Now just to work off a little of this accumulated winter pudge... uh-oh...

Do you like these? Let us know if you end up buying any of them!!

Featured Etsy Shop: Poppy's Wicked Garden

Wow, just wow. We found this shop while researching the skirt blog, and we were just going to do a cute spring top blog today but we can't resist featuring Poppy and her amazing Wicked Garden instead.

YES. We absolutely adore the colors, the aesthetic, the banding, the geometry, the model - and also the prices. We picked some of the lower-cost items in the shop to show you, and for sure some of the more incredible gowns and intricate pieces aren't quite as thrifty, but we are definitely going to hit the sale section!!

Every one of these pieces is a stand-out, something that will really make an outfit amazing and that no one else will be wearing, you can be assured. From left to right, top to bottom:

Dot top in navy and violet, $23.00
Damask Elegance top, $23.00
Mauve abstract hoodie, $66
Eggplant Flower Garden top, $23.00
Convertible Indian-print dress/skirt, $33
Convertible Op-Art print dress/skirt, $33

Luscious, saturated color. Convertible skirt-dresses! (This is our new favorite trend- we have been wearing our tube sundresses over tights all winter and can't wait for them to come up above the bustline!!) Upcycled/recycled awesomeness! We are in awe, and can't wait to own a Poppy original, can you?