The term "haute couture" and "thrifty" would never appear in the same sentence. A thrifty person would never even
think about spending three months worth of salary on anything designed by a person whose name he/she can't even pronounce.
I would classify myself as a big time thrifter and I definitely would not spend any money on anything designer. But what I
do do is try to pronounce designer names for fun and to pretend that I'm French or Italian.
For example, how many people would say "Hermes" the correct way? Most North Americans would pronounce it like [her-mus] or [her-m-s]. An actual French speaker would say [ehr-meh-z]. By the way, I'm not familiar with writing out phonetics but if you don't get this at all, you're not missing out on anything important.
When I can say Hermes the French way, I feel so authentically French. Try saying Yves Saint Laurent! You'll feel so authentically French!
No, I'm not trying to make fun of snobby fashion leaders and trend-following freaks. I think people should applaud and appreciate them because without them, we wouldn't have cheap-chic plagiarizers like Forever 21.
Oooh, I smell controversy! But I won't go into that. Feel free to look it up though. Let's just say, no lawsuit is going to knock this cheap-chic retailer giant down. A new one is going up at Richmond Centre for all you thrifting monsters.
So I've really gone off topic.
I was trying to say that I'm a thrifter when it comes to trendy items but if somebody laid a pile of (
no, not
turd) designer stuff in front of my doorstep, I would slip everything on in a heartbeat, no questions asked.
Wait, I just remembered a thrifting-related annecdote. I bought a pair of high-waisted pleated pants from Salvation Army once for 6 bucks and I showed my mom. I tried it on for her and she thought it looked decent and almost nice if only it weren't too big. She only thought that because she didn't know where I had bought it from. As soon as I told her where it came from, she recoiled and told me I was crazy and that I should take the pants off to avoid getting lice or some sort of skin infection. She thinks it used to belong to someone who died in it. Maybe. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I can't wait to post the pants up. Soon.
Sorry, I veered off again.
As I was saying, thrifting isn't a bad thing. You save money. You have fun. You can throw away the things you thrifted without feeling guilty. You sometimes find unbelievably awesome stuff!
So, one time, I found this really incredibly gorgeous tailored peacoat that had some missing buttons. It sold for $18 and I bargained it down to $10. I could've gotten it for free if I had pointed out the moth bitten holes on the sleeves. But it was Salvie and I wanted to do good. The reason why I picked it up in the first place was because I had notice the tailoring and that it was actually a Versace from the 80's. That's my guess because that was the time when Balmain shoulders were a hit. The crazy shoulders have made a comeback last Spring and is still around this Fall.
Check out this link for more pictures of Balmain clothes:
http://www.elle.com/Runway/Ready-to-Wear/Fall-2010-RTW/BALMAIN/BALMAIN#mode=base;slide=25;
This is my costing-next-to-nothing-designer jacket with excellent rare tailoring. The shoulders aren't as evident when it's on the hanger. I'll take some pictures of me wearing it later.
You know what I find funniest in all of this? Aviation Geek Boy thinks I'm a thrift junk hoarding maniac and he worries about it. Don't most guys like it when their girlfriends/wives don't spend a fortune on expensive things?
