Dime a Dozen

I've been in a style funk for a couple of months now.
In limbo for this long, my it's no fun.
Then our local Vinnies and Salvos recently shut up shop for a couple of weeks and reopened in vastly improved, bigger premises just a few doors away from their original digs.
Days later, I was strolling down the street and spotted a new shop, Pop Up Vintage.
Clearly the planets were aligned and it was time for a jolly good rummage to whet the appetite.

I've been wearing cast offs since I was a kid and I can't recall an occasion when I didn't get excited about wearing someone else's clothes.
I learned to sew at a young age and was sewing most of my own clothes by 16 then once I started working I loved treating myself to new gear.
But I always returned to second hand clothes and to this day, I get more of a thrill from finding something odd, used and inexpensive than prancing about in clothes from over-priced, pretentious boutiques.

During the 90s, I wouldn't have been seen dead in saggy floral frocks like this, even when they were popular here in Brisbane.
It was strictly black all the way for me back then, which I still love, although these days my black outfits are usually highly decorated.
But ever since I grabbed this fine cotton frock from Pop Up Vintage for $12, I've worn it nearly everyday.
Just goes to show it's never too late to change your mind about style.

 

Cotton frock - Pop Up vintage shop

1960s beauty case, Demonia shoes, jewellery and 1940s fur cape - op shops and markets

Tights - Sock Dreams

The black sequin 80s top was a closing-time $10 bargain from Camberwell Market in Melbourne during our recent adventures and I found the cotton stretch skirt at the Red Cross shop.

When I took it to the counter I was told if I bought two items I'd get the third for free, so I found two more skirts and paid just $10 for the three.

Bargain-ous!

I haven't worn tube-style skirts since my Madonna days in the 80s, so I'm cracking open yet another time capsule.

1980s sequinned top - Camberwell Markets, Melbourne

1950s leopard-print beret and 1970s beaded bag - Nelly of Vintage Wishes

Fishnet top - online sale

Skirt - Red Cross op shop

Jewellery - all op-shopped

1970s leather boots - second-hand from local boot makers

I've unpicked part of the waistband of this fab 80s taffeta skirt as it's too small.

I can't wait to finish it as I love it!

It's the second of the three-skirt bargains.

The kilt was the third of the three-skirt bargains.

After my recent wardrobe purge, I realised I'm low on skirts and a Scottish kilt for three bucks?

Yes please.

This is my favourite t-shirt in the world.  

I have no idea what will happen when Miss Camel Toe goes to t-shirt hell, but it's not worth sweating over.  

She only cost me a few bucks, so it's no great financial loss, yet Miss Camel Toe has attitude and understands me.

Green leather jacket - Camberwell Market 
Black t-shirt - online second hand shop
Bangles, earrings - op shops
Pink tights - Sock Dreams
Shoes - market
FREEKY necklace - custom made by Phussy

I trawl op shops and second hand markets for ideas when I'm in a style funk.

What do you do?

Baci,

Desire xox

Every Colour You Are

Having a ball rediscovering the winter clothes I've had in storage for many long months.
I have a rather unhealthy appetite for capes, coats and jackets.
Well, not so much unhealthy but a rather over-the-top fixation considering our temperate Brisbane winters.
The Stylist has strict orders to repeat the phrase "you don't need anymore coats" whenever I spring upon a gem in the op shops.
Fortunately however, this year's pickings have been far and few between so I haven't shed one crocodile tear.
Today I've joined Jane's first link-up to her Shiny T Tuesday and this week's theme is When Patterns Speak.
Not a lot of patterns to be seen apart from Saturday's mash-up, but I think throwing clashing colours together can sometimes appear as patterned.
This was Saturday's effort.

1960s wool cape and kilt suit, DIY leather gloves - thrifted

Colourful earring and heart earring - DIY by The Stylist

Harlequin and fence net tights - Sock Dreams

T-shirt - Ms Mink

Grey wool beret - Etsy

"Perfect" badge - gift from delicious Tra-la-la

Purple mesh top - dance shop sale

Silver Demonia shoes and green necklace - second hand market

Sunday's child:

1960s frock, bangles, earrings, 1960s nurses wool cape, leather gloves, silver glitter sunnies - thrifted

1950s tapestry handbag - gift from my sister

Vintage necklaces - Etsy

Doc Marten boots - Solestruck sale

Leggings - Black Milk 

Monday-Monday:

Cotton jacket - Second hand market

Leggings - Black Milk

Demonia shoes - Dolls Kill sale

"Freeky" necklace - custom made by Phussy

There were plenty of patterns on show at a fabulous local indoor market today: 

Escapee from the local monastery ... I found this mint velvet and satin 1970s Jean Varon number at an op shop last year for a couple of bucks.
It looks like a cassock doesn't it?

 1970s Jean Varon velvet dress, bag, earrings - thrifted

Blue sequin belt - gift from delicious Clare

Skull necklace - craft market

Green velvet hair bow - gift from Glitters for Dinner

 Thank you so much for your responses to my previous post, I'm stunned!
Baci,
Desiree xox

You Are Now Entering The Human Heart

The moment I spied my reflection this morning, I saw Janet Frame staring back at me.
It's been so long since I've read the works of my favourite New Zealand author, I dashed to the library to feed my appetite.
I've never seen her books in op shops, hardly surprising, but it means I don't own any of the glorious works I discovered at age 16.

Janet Frame was born in Dunedin in 1924 and bears a remarkable resemblance to women in my mother's family, while Mum was born around the same year in nearby Invercargill.

When I read her first autobiography, To The Is-Land, I felt I was taking a peek into the lives of my kin, who also scratched their way through the Depression, just two hours away.

As a child and young woman, Janet struggled with self-acceptance, loathed her signature red bushy hair, the hardships of farm life and the clothing which branded her family as poverty-stricken.

See???  The hair!  The hair!

Jane Campion directed An Angel At My Table, the story of Janet's journey to adulthood, her misdiagnosis of schizophrenia, years of pain and horror spent in asylums, her narrow escape from  an involuntary lobotomy and the early days of what would become a victorious literary career.
Yes.
I am a Janet Frame fanatic.

“Quick, where is the Red Cross God with the ointment and plaster the needle and thread and the clean linen bandages to mummify our festering dreams?”

“It would be nice to travel if you knew where you were going and where you would live at the end or do we ever know, do we ever live where we live, we’re always in other places, lost, like sheep.”

I imagine Janet with pink hair would look like something like this while collecting eggs, shirking human contact to read in secret and dream in the shade. 1930s silk slip, and 1950s beaded cardigan - Etsy 1940s skirt (part of a suit) - eBay Silk scarf - gift from divoooon Tamera Earrings and necklace - craft markets VW Melissa gumboots - Melissa sample sale The Stylist took these pics, isn't she clever? Baci, Desiree xo