The Worst of Summer 2010

Dudes. Ack. The trends for Summer 2010 are so friggin' hideous! I didn't think we could get worse than double denim, acid wash, boots with cut-out toes and shoulder pads, but have a look at what the ubiquitous "they" are touting for the warmer months!

Short shorts aka hot pants

Show me a woman over 14 (who isn't paid to be thin) and I'll show you a woman who should probably not be wearing hot pants. Some of these "short shorts" really look like knickers. None of us are Lady Freakadeaky Mind Control so honestly, put some actual bottoms on.

Can you see my camel toe? No?! What if I hiked these a little bit higher? Now?

Rompers, "playsuits", even blasted OVERALLS!

Those of us who grew up in the 90s remember with possible horror and deep regret the overall trend (how about only one-shoulder-strap done up?) Can you believe Ralph Lauren is showing them again? Augh. If you're not farming, skip it, for the love of all that's holy. Thankfully, fashionising says "while we saw denim overalls on the Ralph Lauren Spring/Summer 2010 catwalk, this was really an exception." Phew!

Hey, even though we've never seen a farm or dirt we can pretend to be down-to-earth!

Similarly, though, while a select few ladies may look cute in a one-piece jumpsuit or shorts set thing, the rest of us will look dumpy, ridiculous or pathetic. Seriously. There is a reason they're called "playsuits" and "rompers." They are for playing and romping; i.e. for children.

Patterned pants

Any of you pear-shaped girls learned long ago that the best way to emphasize thick thighs or a wide booty is to swath them in a great big, loud pattern. If you love prints, try a floaty skirt instead- so much more flattering- and watch that the pattern doesn't get too gigantic or you'll look like someone's curtains. Not in a good way.

Apparently the psychotic, trashy Florida grandma look is pretty hot these days.

"Boyfriend" blazers

This trend takes the ultimate figure-flattering piece and completely ruins it. I mean, wtf? The whole point of wearing a blazer is so you get that "locked and loaded" emphasis on the hourglass figure. If you make it baggy and boxy and too big and roll up the damn sleeves at the waist (creating a wider horizontal line), you're just making yourself look thicker. Does anyone want to look thicker?

Does this girl even have a waist?

Personally, I don't give a flying nun whether or not I'm "on-trend" for the season and I certainly won't be subscribing to these suggestions. I'd prefer to spend the summer in cute dresses like this incredible beauty InStyle suggests, by Elizabeth and James, which I could never afford in a million years but still covet...




So the next post will be on cute summer dresses that are affordable!

Happy summer!

Trends We Love: Lace Pencil Skirts

This month's Lucky Magazine presented an Arden B. lace pencil skirt that's absolutely gorgeous, yes, but as we recall was also very expensive (and is no longer available, anyhow). Here it is:

We absolutely adore lace in any form, and this silhouette is just awesome. But... since you couldn't have this one even if your wallet said yes, let's turn to Etsy!

$17 at Happy'sVintageCloset, marked size 12P/31" waist
(we might snap this one up, yowza!)



$24 at RetroRenegadeVintage, size small/24" waist



$7.95 at Nuttinover20Vintage, size small/28" waist
(what a price! Major sale in this shop, too...)



$20 at LotusVintageNY, XS/S/26" waist (we die at the hotness)



$24 at ModPod (with matching jacket!) xs/26" waist



$16 at RedoRedux, M/L/30" waist



For the bold, $25 at Yesterdazed, Med/29" waist
(We think this could be very modern if styled a bit differently)

While we are really big on vintage for the obvious reasons of thriftiness and environmental soundness, we did come across a bunch of other inexpensive new options via this site TheFind.com, which we'd never heard of! You can search for anything and sort by price, relevance, etc., and so many options come up... We even found our own Etsy picks here! We're a little bit confused because the prices shown are lower than those when you actually click on the items... something to do with coupons, it appears.

$19.99, BisouBisou at JC Penney


$30.80, NYC Collection at Macy's



$24.99, INC International Concepts at Macy's


$17.99-$24.99, Worthington at JC Penney

$29.99, Newport News

Do you love or hate this trend? Hope you enjoy these picks if you do like it :D

Happy Shopping!

End-of-Summer Trends We Ended Up Loving

We bought a maxi dress! We had questioned the sanity of such an item on our short little frame, but we found the perfect one that we don't step on (even in flip-flops). It has a Grecian-inspired, drapey empire-waist bodice with adjustable straps (woot!) and in an absolutely divine peacock print. Really, we just love it-- and best of all, it was half off at that dreaded T-conglomerate, for $14.99. It was marked a size 2, which is possibly why it was the only one of its kind on the clearance rack. Remember, never believe the label- try it on if there's any possibility it could fit!) Here's a really terrible picture:


The print is turquoise, teal, periwinkle, spring green, bright violet and seafoam. Luscious:



We also thrifted a statement necklace back in June at Raspberry Beret, which we paired with (our first wearing of) our new psychedelic flower-patterned mesh surplice v-neck at the office on Friday (on the bottom, our orchid tiered hippie skirt). We doubt we'll be owning a bib necklace or anything else enormous in the near future, but layers of chains and teal-and-sea-green glass beads are just fine by us. We're flouting the petites-can't-wear-bold-jewelry rule:


It seems like the big-necklace trend will still be huge (ha, ha) for fall, and we recently saw (in September's 15th Anniversary InStyle) teal referred to as a fall color (? really?) so hopefully this will last us a while before we look hopelessly out-of-fashion. (Like we'd really care...)

What are your favorite trends that are continuing on from summer to fall? We discovered that our maxi dress looks adorable over a body-conscious teal sweater (from the same thrifting trip as the necklace) as a jumper, with our fake Frye motorcycle boots from Famous Footwear beneath, so we'll be wearing it well into the colder weather (it's also a magnificent just-hanging-around-the-house dress, as the empire waist and cup-and-strap construction mean braless is a possibility even for those of us who are more largely endowed and can rarely enjoy the non-constricted luxury).

While we usually advocate vintage thrifted and/or handmade, we have to admit that we're drawn to the clearance racks at the demonic T. Aren't you? Definitely hit them now, as they're transitioning out for fall items, so you can probably find a lot of cute stuff. Also, some of the dorm decor isn't so awful-- we just grabbed a microfiber "storage ottoman" in black, for $19.99, which is now housing our dumbbells so they're not just lying around the living room waiting for us to do something about this teacher arm! Check it out (bottom left/center):


(Yes, we are obsessed with purple).

Ooh! We forgot to mention that our Tar-geigh has all of their house brand (Prospirit) Balance Balls on clearance for $5. We got one for home for an office chair, and we're thinking we're going to go back and grab a blue one for the office, if we can convince them it's professional enough! Hooray for working the abs while you're required to be sitting on your arse!

Enjoy the last of your weekend!

Fall Footwear For Less (of course)

We're really not interested in thinking about fall yet, being as we've barely made it to the beach yet this summer (to be remedied further tomorrow) ... But we suppose it's time to start at least considering it before it sneaks up on us too much.

There are a bunch of boot trends happening for fall, including victorian/granny boots, western-inspired, knee-highs, foldovers, over-the-knees, and booties. Bold color is big, as are retro and innovative shapes.

We found a few cool affordable pairs on Etsy, which you might want to snap up if they're your size, as they're all singular vintage! (Most of the fall recommendations we've seen have topped $200 new, so be green and thrifty and find something unique).

Paisley Pointy-Toe Tie-Back Foldover Booties, $14, at AshasVintage, size 9



Knee-high Leather Boots, $14, at Trends4Today, size 7



Hot mama 80s boots, $14.99 at AufDeMaur, size 8



Crochet-vamp victorian granny boots. $18 at Reruns, size 8



Western-inspired bootie, $18, at VintageOrphans, size 7 1/2



Cherry Red Foldover Flat Boots, $20, at HellCatVintage, size 6


Totally Awesome 80s white strappy boots with RHINESTONE HEEL DETAIL, $20, at SimplyMaggieMay, size 9



Purple velvet slouch boots (more rhinestones!), $23, at LillysCloset, size 6



Kitten heel knee-high boots (great to dye, perhaps?), $22, from TreasuresInAnAttic, size 8 1/2



Perfect 70s vegan leather knee-high boots with buckles, $24.00, from PaintedSoulDesign, size 6



Black suede tall boots with RIBBON-BOW OPTION! (We would so do that), $24.99 at PlumberryVintage, size 7



80s scrunchy-vamp red kitten heel ankle boots, $25.00 at DayliteandDark, size 7



European granny boots, $27.95, from bOmode, size 8 1/2




Cheetah-lined red foloder ankle boot, $28.00, from Saminator, size 5
(if you have bigger feet check out these similar ones in a 7 1/2!

Hope you enjoy these rad options and are inspired to buy vintage!

Thrifty Etsy Finds: Statement Necklaces $20 and Under

We're not entirely sure that we personally are planning to rock this trend we're seeing everywhere with the giant necklaces, but only because we rarely wear necklaces, fixated as we are on chandelier earrings and with our propensity for low-cut tops; no reason to draw the eye there further, we surmise.

However, because we love our readers so and assume that some of you are fashionistas in the sense that you must.have.one.of.those. which is totally fine, we bring you thrifty Etsy statement necklaces.


We're sad the mini won't publish in html because we'd love you to be able to click to link to the shops from the photo; to be able to do so, check out our Etsy finds (on the right) or our public favorites here. But we'd like to also feature the artists individually (top to bottom, left to right):

$20- Vintage Gunmetal Nail Pendant Necklace from LifeTravelsDesigns in Florida, who is a jewelry designer in addition to vintage collector and also runs the shop RuthEyes from which we (coincidentally, really) found
$10 Vintage Orange Cabochon Necklace (Amberina/Gold tone) which has us drooling a bit, even though we don't technically wear orange.


$15 "Orange Fiber Statement" by SoulInChains of Vine Valley, NY, is a fabulously upcycled felted-sweater necklace with fantastic and multitudinous beadwork. She says "This has to be one of the most wonderful things I have ever made." We adored her at first sight!


$18 "Connect the Loops" by BeMyShark in Brooklyn is so.freaking.cool. that we can barely stand it, likely due to the fact that she used all of our favorite colors and managed to make something awesome out of trash (plastic bags!). We would like to announce our dorky, ridiculous fandom. We also totally love her offering
$15 Structure and Shape which has ruffly trash. Girl after our own hard-edged girly heart. How totally punk is wearing garbage? Like, the epitome.


$12 Bamboo Flower Necklace by Ashlee of Rose Marie's Bijouterie in Salt Lake City, who named her shop after her stepdaughters (cue awww). Lots of statement pieces in the shop, like
$12 "Rian" Coral Enameled Necklace whose flower pendant is 2" in diameter... A good "statement pendant" size.


$10 "Funky Feather and Vintage Necklace" by HaKniK from Da Bronx (um, sorry about that) is wicked, wicked awesome (we say that here in Boston- it's a synonym for very), who says "I LoVe fashion. The frivolity of it all. The never-ending cycle..." Ah yes, as do we; hence the blog. We try not to take ourselves too seriously either.


$17 "Angel Eyes" by JenGlo of Gloucester (MA represent!) is a kinetic sculpture in a necklace. Way cool. We also love her
$10 "Full Circle" necklace - a stainless steel disc with a crazy-cool pattern, on a vegan leather cord.


$9 "Statement" by MrsJabberJaw of Bridgewater (er, somewhere) includes earrings (wow! what a steal!) and reminded us a great deal of something that Erin of Work with What You've Got might wear (and makes! Check out her Etsy shop too at LoveErinDesigns)


$9.95 Multicolor blue-green pewter pendant on a seven-strand cord by Mindielee of Torrance, CA (Mrs. Torraaaaance... heh) is stunning and shiny and measures close to 2" wide. The designer, who has many other bold necklaces in her shop, says "I dream of swirls, colors and patterns in my sleep." As do we, darling, as do we.


Hope you enjoy these picks! We found them all, in case you care, by searching simply "big statement necklace" in handmade and then vintage, and sorting within both categories from low price to high. Thankfully Etsy has made the search function a little bit more newbie-friendly, so it's a bit easier to find what you're looking for, in our opinion, regardless of the mega-controversy regarding search-engine optimization... (we'll admit that we don't think our own shop has been found by anyone in months so maybe we're suffering unwittingly from the changes).

Happy Bold-Jewelry-Shopping-and-Rocking!