Be Safe

Mister Tyler/Thirsty Crow, 2010

Blessings From on High

V is a magazine that I forget is one of my favorites because it's so expensive I hardly ever buy it. Then every so often I'm at Barnes and Noble, feelin' squirrelly, and I zone out on it, remembering how big and glossy and gorgeous it is - which is why I generally can't afford it in the first place.

Anyway, look! The fashion gods have come down from Olympus to sow scraps of glamour among the hoi polloi. This honestly looks really exciting. However, the official rules state that if you win, V isn't going to pony up for airfare, accommodations, transportation, or anything at all. You have to somehow show up in NYC on the day of the shoot.

pffffffft.

Today I dressed to match the thing that is always behind me.

(mesh blouse, wool jumper)

Funeral Rites

Sterling and I went to St. Vincent's on Saturday. Thrift stores are always madhouses on the weekends, and coupled with Halloween season, I can safely say SV was batshit crazy - little banshee children were running around, screaming at top volume and dragging bits of various costumes with them. I almost got pummeled by some sort of raptor-cum-storm-trooper/Hannah Montana creature.

I did find some great cat-eye sunglasses. Sterling calls them "Bikini Kill shades." Here, I'll hold my hair up so you can see.

 Anyway.

The real find of the day was a gorgeous, navy-blue Oscar de la Renta sportcoat for only $7 (I say POOH to anyone complaining about the higher prices at SV). It was barely worn and still had the spare buttons in the pocket.

On the way home Sterling pulled some papers out of the pocket. One of them had several ladies' phone numbers on it, and we laughed, thinking of the WASPy jerk that must have owned this jacket. Then we opened the other papers. It was a eulogy some guy had written for his dad - some guy who wore this jacket once to his father's funeral and then gave it away. It might have been an awkward/morbid moment for us to realize this, but this thing is so lovingly written, we were frankly stoked on how awesome this guy's dad seemed to be, and the long life he lead (he liked raisin pie - he must have been old). Such a visceral reminder of the stories used clothing can carry with them. You can read it below. Maybe grab a tissue first.

An Inconvenient Truth

Yes, sea levels are rising, the ozone layer is depleting, and global demand for fossil fuels continues to outweigh our demand for new Priuses. But there is another dangerously low and criminally overlooked resource being sapped from the urban landscape:

Leopard print coats.

Once bountiful in just about every urban/suburban/rural thrift store, leopard print coats have been snapped up over the years by designers and vintage retailers to be remade and/or resold at alarming costs. Thus the savvy thrifter who could once afford to pass up sub-par LPCs at their local Goodwill in favor of holding out "for a better one" are now forced to pay exorbitant prices on designer remakes or even the very same thrifted versions via ebay or etsy (versions normally classified as merely "cute" are topping the $300-$400 range).

The LPC market is out of control and must be reigned in. Federal regulators cannot be counted on any longer. Luckily, there are still some far-flung corners of the market that have resisted inflation. Case in point, this Level-5 Cute LPC I recently purchased from Zora's Vintage for a mere $60 plus free shipping.

(shit eating grin/beating the system).

Zora's is certainly a humble venue of commerce, but I encourage shoppers to not be bamboozled by slick, over-branded online vintage stores that would command far too much of your hard-earned money because they...I don't know, because they just can. This thing is seriously the perfect, cut, length and fuzzy-wuzziness, at a price you might actually expect to pay at a regular thrift store (by the by, have you noticed that thrift stores in general are trying to sell desireable items at higher prices? What a world). The hunt is still alive! It's just moved to cyberspace...

(vintage ring, h&m tights)

p.s. I get asked all the time if my glasses are "real." Yes, they're prescription, and once belonged to my late grandfather. When I found them, the lenses were bifocal and coke-bottle thick. They're one of my most treasured possessions.

Throwing Shoes Away

Sterling, Echo Park 2010

Background Noise

I'm in the middle of a massive closet purge. I have a pathological attachment to clothes that I've owned for a long time regardless of style/fit/stains/etc. I'm trying to get over that and make room for nicer things. I must say, throwing things away is very liberating. These made the cut.