A Dress A Day Keeps the Demons at Bay

I have bought a dress every day for the past three days. All of them were on sale, however, and all of them were under $20. One was $6. Unfortunately, none of them were vintage, but I love them all the same.


This first one was purchased at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. It was made in India and is 100% cotton. It is white with black stencil-styled flowers and has lace detail and buttons with a tiered full skirt. It twirls beautifully. I love this dress. For some reason, it has a Victorian feel to me, even though anyone who wore this during Victorian times would be told immediately to put on some proper clothes. It's probably the combination of buttons, lace, and a full skirt.
The second dress was a Target sale-rack find. It is a classic wrap dress in a beautiful, bold teal. The waist is a little high, as is often the case with Target dresses for some reason, but I really like it all the same. This was the $6 dress. I like not only the look of wrap dresses, but also the ease of taking them off and putting them on.

This last dress I got at TJMax. It's a strapless, button up dress with a tie in the back. I love the color and the rose pattern.

Fabulous Second Hand Outfit

I usually don't wear yellow as a general rule, but when I found this dress, I fell in love with the little cornflowers. It was $8 at Ragstock, so I figured, why not?



I paired it with a hat that I think belonged to my grandmother, but I'm not sure. It's a simple straw hat with a giant red rose. I like it. I feel like i'm ready for a day at the races in this outfit.

MORE HATS!

I love hats. Hats are my favorite accessory, by far. My mom says you shouldn't wear a hat that has more character than you, but I think I have a lot of character and therefore I can wear whatever the hell I want.

This hat I just got from Everyday People yesterday with Hannah. I also got a beautiful rainbow tie dye dress that will be wonderful at Pride, anyway, this is a gray beret that laces up the side. I loved it the moment I put it on. It made me feel sophisticated. I don't know if I'm wearing it right, but as Sylvia Plath once said, "If you do something with enough arrogance, no one will question you".


This next hat is one I wore today to the beach with my bright green sunglasses. I have several different flowers that I can pin to it, and today I wore the orange one. This hat was new from Ragstock, but I still love it to pieces.

Little Red Dress

This is one of my favorite dresses. I got it at Everyday People, a consignment store in Minneapolis. It's 100% silk and a beautifully pure red with embroidery. It was $15. Such a find.

A Taste of the Orient

I know my friends have a lot more authentic looking Eastern costumes than I, but I like bragging about this piece. I got it at Unique Thrift Store for five dollars (I know, I can't believe it either). It fit me perfectly -- really, it fit me perfectly. It's so form-fitting I have tr ouble getting it on and off. It goes will with chopsticks, but since I didn't bring mine to college, I've just been using a big red feather clip -- the kind you can find at Claires or some other accessory shoppe. Black pants keep things modest for me.

Since we're on the subject of vests...

This Worthington vest is one of my favorite pieces of clothing. It never ceases to make me feel chic and sexy. I got it at Turnstyle, a favorite consignment shop of mine. It fits me very well and adds a sophisticated flair to my outfit. I am not usually one for gray, but in this case I think it looks stellar. It's not vintage, but that's fine by me because it's a great piece of clothing anyway.

This vest is very different from Hannah's. It just goes to show you how different styles can be.

~Inga

You Deserve the VEST...

You know what they say: Be the VEST you can be...
Okay, puns aside, this is really the VEST I can be... as in, This is the VEST that IS me. It's such a simple thing: Tan vest from (the now extinct) Timbuktu Station. If you see it on a rack, you don't really see the potential in such a simple item. I always thought flesh tones were boring. But with a few other pieces, this thing really adds a tastey authentic flare to an ensemble.

I use this vest mostly for my hippie looks. It provides a nice earthy quality that goes well with the flower-child look. Plus it's got these amazing pockets and nice pearly buttons.

Timbuktu Station was bought by Maurices a while ago. My mom was going to get rid of this vest but I rescued it from the Goodwill box.

Peace out!

----- Hannah -----

My Vintage Hats

These three vintage hats are my absolute favorites.

The first is my mother's hat she wore with her wedding dress when she married my father. It's late 1980's, not really sure what the designer is. Someone added the flowers after the wedding.


The second hat is my grandmother's. It is soft and beautiful. I'm not sure the era or the designer. I love to wear it with a long coat in winter.

The third hat was actually made by my neighbor, so it's not exactly vintage. It's another faux vintage piece. She made ice skating costumes for her daughter, and I got them when she was done with them. I really love this hat. It makes me feel sophisticated.

~Inga

My Favorite Shoes

These are the most comfortable and fun shoes to wear. They were originally a Target product -- Xhiliration, to be exact -- but have long since been discontinued. I got 'em at a Garage Sale for a buck. But a few weeks later I saw the same ones at a thrift store for fifteen dollars. They add a lot of pizzazz to an outfit, but very subtly. I like them best with bell-bottom jeans.

----- Hannah -----

One of my Favorites

This is the first piece I found at The White Rabbit. It's a vintage, 1960's shirtwaist dress. I love the cornflower color. It doesn't have a label and the material isn't that great, but it was only $5, so I'm not complaining.

The belt is also vintage. It was my mother's back in the seventies. Now it's mine. You can't really see in the picture, but it's got a griffin on the buckle. This is my favorite belt ever and I love it.

~Inga

Pirate Bracelet hooray!

I got this bracelet at Pirate Island, an amazing pirate-themed restaurant in Orem. I can't for the life of me figure out who made it or how old it is, but you can find a lot of fun piratey-things at that store. And it ain't crap, either. This is a legit sheet-metal bracelet that gets people asking questions. It is a slip-on open band, which makes it a little hard to wear, but man is it amazing to look at.

----- Hannah ------

Cake and Frosting

A wise fashionista once told me not to shortchange the basics of an outfit for the accessories. "Girls these days spend their money on all this frosting, but never enough on cake," she would say. "Don't make that mistake!" While I haven't taken this advice as seriously as I probably should, this outfit is a fashion-confection success. In this case, I was going for simply a casual way to wear this flannel shirt my dad tried to get rid of. The colors were amazing, and it was rather warm. I ended up discovering kind of a cool-and-classy country look. Note the solid-color blue t-shirt I am wearing. Target. Under five dollars (Look in the sleepwear section for some unique bold colors). Solid-color t-shirts are my cake. They can go with any number of other colors and can be as loud or soft as you want. Again, the plaid is simply a thicker men's shirt that's tied at the bottom to add some shape. There's a subtle blue stripe in the plaid that matches the shirt, but you wouldn't notice that right away. What you don't see are the cordoroy black capri pants I'm wearing, but you really can wear this kind of thing with any pair of jeans or slacks.

As for frosting, I say less is more. A simple strand of some tacky plastic beads does the trick. I hope to get some in the same shade of blue someday, but the purple isn't that ostentatiously off-balance. Add a hat (or a corresponding headband) and tada!



Awkward facial expressioins aside, this is a decent look for me. I feel it could be a decent look for almost anyone. We all have some guy we can steal a flannel shirt from -- be it a husband, a boyfriend, brother or father. The one I have is a FiveBrothers creation. The beads are easy: WalMart.

Another idea: Try tying the shirt higher along the bust line.

Sarah Jessica kind of knows what I mean... I'm sure I'll show you some more of the pseudo-cowgirl look in later posts.

----- Hannah -----

Because Spring Is Almost Here

I thought I would share my big find this season: A Larry Levine coat at Ragstock. It was around $10, if I remember correctly. Larry Levine coats sell for upwards of hundreds of dollars new. This one was a spectacular find. There is some wear on the lining, but it is still a classy, double breasted wool overcoat.

~Inga

Just bought it...

One thing you gotta know about me way up front is that I am obsessed with Lady Gaga. I have always wanted a Gaga T-shirt, so yesterday when I went to the Provo Mall with my roommates, I decided I would spend 21 dollars to get one.

Of all the Gaga T-shirts I saw at Hot Topic, this was the one I liked the most. I like black and white, and of course "Boys Boys Boys" is great!
I got a larger size shirt and used a studded belt to add a bit of an 80's look to the whole thing. Add some skinny jeans and some glam silver disco jewelry... voila! Instant amazing!!!

----- Hannah -----

To give you an idea of what we're dealing with,

Here is a pile of my vintage/secondhand clothes.

And here they are neatly laid out. I will introduce each item individually and give the story behind it.

~Inga

Some Thoughts on Footwear

Good, vintage shoes are hard to find. Shoes used to be made of natural materials that broke down over time, and people used to wear their shoes out. So when it comes to vintage footwear, it helps to be creative. These are horseback riding boots. I used to ride horses. Honestly, I did. Anyway, I have had these forever, and not had the heart to give them away. They're my stompy boots. When I started playing around with my look, I found they came in handy. They look old (goodness knows they've been worn), but they still clean up nicely. They're not the most comfortable (I made the mistake of wearing them to the Mall of America with fishnets instead of socks. Long story short: blisters) and they look really out of place, but I still like them. If you want boots like this, by all means go to a place that caters to horse back riders. You'll pay way too much if you try to buy them from a normal people shop.

Hello and a Hat

I have recently been invited to contribute to this blog and I am muy muy muy excited for this opportunity to talk about some of my favorite things: My clothes.

I should tell you that a lot of the stuff I wear I find at thrift stores or down in my basement. So while completely duplicating my look may be difficult, I hope to emphasize that a unique look can be created just by looking around the house and looking in the cheapest places possible. Really. Some of the coolest stuff I have found has been in my mom's dress-up box. Also, it's not a crime to make something yourself. I have limited sewing skills. REALLY limited sewing skills. But I, like almost everyone else in America, can take a scissors, cut out a piece of fabric, and tie it around my neck for a scarf. I can bead a few cool charms onto a chain. I can iron on a patch or applique to a purse or a pair of pants. I can tie my hair up in a knot on top of my head and scatter a few butterfly clips here and there. That's not hard. Fashion doesn't have to be hard. Have fun.

Okay now for my first item I wish to share in my collection:

THE HAT

Nothing fancy, really. Just an old, generic hat I found in the lost and found at my high school. No one claimed it, so I just took it and gave it a home. The feathers were also found, this time up in the catacombs of my high school theater costume shop. I suppose I should have actually TOLD my superiors that I was taking them, but you think they would have figured it out by the way I was playing around with them as I left for home. I was rubbing it in their faces! The next day I wore them in the hat and they still said nothing. I do believe I am helping them achieve their full potential far more than they ever could have in the moldy costume shop. All I did was pin one side of the hat up and stick the white plumes in the fold. I have collected quite a few feathers of different colors and styles together to add some variety.

When I put the hat and the plumes together, my initial thought was "PIRATE." Pirates are a key inspiration for me in what I wear. Of course I don't go as far as an eyepatch and wooden leg, but the hat provides a nice piratical touch. Furthermore, it's quite the gimmick out here on BYU campus. Boys comment on it all the time. "Hey Pirate-Girl!" But I now realize there are far more things I can do with an all-purpose black hat. Flowers, pins, feathers, ribbons... the possibilities are endless!! You may be seeins some of these variations in later posts.

But for now, I'll stick to the Hat Piratical

Some of my many feathers. Beer bottles and Jack Sparrows make for a great piratey scene.

Here it is in action: Pirate Island in Provo, Utah. With a white sash around the brim.

Woods of Burnsville, Minnesota

----- Hannah -----

The Newest Piece in my Collection

I went shopping the other day while killing time. I was really hoping not to find anything, because goodness knows I don't need any more clothes. Well, I did. I found this gorgeous floral pleated skirt at The White Rabbit (my favorite store in Iowa city; it's all vintage and locally made stuff). I couldn't leave it. It's all my favorite colors. The thing about this skirt is I feel like it completely describes my style: Flirty, yet sophisticated and a little on the dark side. I am completely in love with it. By good fortune, I had purchased these tights at Ragstock a couple weeks before, and they go perfectly. Now I just need a top that actually matches. This white one is not my first choice. I don't know what era this skirt is from, because it did not say on the tag (usually The White Rabbit is good about those types of things), but I suspect it's from the nineties. Anyway, it is a welcome addition to my vintage wardrobe.

~Inga

The First Piece of My Collection

This is my mother's cameo necklace. It was given to her by her in-laws back when she was still married to her first husband, I think. Anyway, it's my favorite piece of jewelry. I had coveted it for so long, and my mother never wore it, because she doesn't like chokers. So, now it's mine. And I love it.

~Inga

Another Fashion Blog?

Well, it's two o'clock in the morning and I have a sore throat. I'm not going to sleep any time soon. Might as well start a blog.

The hope of this blog is to highlight the eccentric, yet wonderful, taste of my friends. Whether it's full function, with cargo shorts and t-shirts, or all for show, with poofy skirts and stilettos, they certainly stand out.

I like vintage clothes. I like one-of-a-kind pieces with a story behind them. I like finding things in out of the way places, and keeping them for years. I'll introduce you to my favorite vintage and second hand pieces over time.

~Inga