Janice at the Vivienne Files website often starts a wardrobe with a small core of neutral clothes. She then lets her fictional heroine go shopping for a few additions, and shows how the new things might be used with the older ones.
But I'm going to start with the additions, then go back. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings for a total of $7 (Canadian). Actually we had a five-dollar loyalty card to use, so it came to two-plus-tax.
This week, I was browsing the dollar rack at one of our usual stops, and I found three items that I thought would work with clothes I already had. One is a pink top with a draped-neck front. It's on the large side, so the draped part needs a camisole underneath. It could be also worn back to front.
The second thing was a navy skirt with kind of an assymetrical, draped thing going on in the front. I do have another navy skirt, and I hesitated just for a minute on this one because it's polyester, and not the nicest kind of polyester, but the different shape got me curious, and I bought it.
The third dollar find was a grey zippered activewear jacket. I do have a grey hoodie, but for a dollar I was not going to pass this one up. I thought the neckline might work for layering when I don't want a hood sticking out.
So, we're up to ten dollars. Minus the loyalty card.
Finally, we dropped in at a for-profit thrift, where the prices tend to be a bit higher. I found a mostly-wool Eddie Bauer lightweight coat/blazer, and I really liked it, so I'm adding it to this story too. I could have done a bit better on the price if I'd had a coupon; but even so, it was a good find. With the five dollars taken off the jewelry, the total of everything came to about $20.
To do a Vivienne Files-type story, I thought I would put together a casual, mostly navy core wardrobe of things I already had. I'll show you those items, but not how I would put them together--you can figure that out.
Two t-shirts
Another t-shirt and an "un-blazer"
Pull-on pants, mixed navy/grey pants, and jeans
V-neck pullover, and grey cotton pullover (given to me recently by a daughter who didn't want it)
Blue and white striped cotton shirt; navy silk shirt
White blouse (vintage, thrifted recently); off-white mock neck sweater
Not terribly exciting, but you could get along with just these things for awhile, especially if you added some accessories. So, here are a few outfit ideas with the dollar finds and the jacket. I didn't include the three pieces of jewelry, but they would blend well too.
Pink top, navy skirt. Boots, purse, necklaces.
White blouse, navy pullover, navy skirt. I'm not as sure about this combination because the navy of the skirt is different from the sweater; but I might try another sweater that would work better. (Boots, purse, necklaces)
Navy shirt, navy skirt; striped scarf, purse, boots. Again, the colour match isn't perfect, although I think you could get away with it here as it doesn't look as formal as the other outfit.
Pink top, navy pants. Purse, animal-print scarf, boots.
Pink top worn backwards under the grey not-hoodie; a pair of grey pants that I substituted because I didn't want to keep photographing jeans; boots, necklace.
Blue and white shirt worn under the grey jacket; jeans; backpack, boots.
Grey jacket zipped all the way up and worn underneath the grey pullover. Jeans, purse, boots.
White sweater, navy/grey pants, plaid jacket. Purse, necklace, navy sneakers.
Pink top worn backwards under the plaid jacket; navy pants; purse, boots, necklace.
Navy sweater (backwards), plaid jacket, skirt. Turquoise necklace, boots. I don't think this is going to be my most useful skirt, due more to the colour than the shape. But playing around like this is good for getting inspiration, even if I end up using a different skirt. Or pants.
So: now I have some ideas for how I'm going to wear my little haul.
Good things happen on the dollar rack!
No comments:
Post a Comment