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 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?

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 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.