I am like the lilacs

My take on Spring: thrifted over-dyed '90s grunge dress accessorized with deep lilac and plummy tones
Entirely thrifted outfit (except for tights)
(End of 37 weeks).

A 20-minute power shop in the local thrift shop before our OB appointment Friday yielded this amazing 1990s dress that I practically lunged at when I saw its deep purply hues.

Not only does it remind me of the over-dyed dresses I used to buy in the 1990s, but it is also the perfect complement to the deep-coloured lilacs that have sprouted all over Annecy.

Bought at the market today and now reposing in front of our huge living room windows.

I am sentimentally attached to lilacs. Some may find their smell cloying, but their sweet scent reminds me of growing up in the country, where two huge lilac bushes decorated our front and back yards. My sis and I would cut a bunch of branches and place the biggest bouquet possible in an oversize rose bowl right in front of an open window. The breeze would blow in, and the room would fill with the most heady of perfumes.

A welcome respite from my black leggings, this dress is perfect in so many ways, and not just because of the wonderful colours and simple style. The corset drawstring detail in the back, a popular '90s motif, means I can wear the dress now and then cinch it tighter post-baby (presumably when my 27-inch waist will return). :)

With the exception of the tights, the outfit is entirely thrifted:

Dress, 5 Euros at Annecy thrift shop
Chiffon made-in-Italy scarf, 1.50 Euros and found during the same power shop as the dress
Gap Limited Edition denim jacket, found at a UK charity shop a year ago
Plummy-blue Italian-made suede boots, $14.99 CAD in Toronto 
Deep pink straw purse, thrifted long ago in Toronto for a few bucks
Gold-plated Edwardian style necklace with pink glass, 50% off in a Toronto Value Village
Art deco style ring with pink glass, 5 Euros at Annecy brocante market.

The ring and pendant kinda match the lovely tree we took a pic of yesterday along the canal.

I love it when nature inspires an outfit, don't you?

I don't think this picture does justice to the reality I saw on the cobblestone streets after the market today. All those little bits you see between the mossy crevices are multi-hued sparkles that someone must have sprinkled there while partying the night before.

On that note, I'm linking up to all the sparkly style gems at Patti's Visible Monday.

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Steampunk, Annie Hall,1990s Grunge, Anne of Green Gables look

Hubby swears he'll never go out with me if I wear this emerald green chenille hat I thrifted for 3 Euros at the dingiest and most depressing of thrift shops in Annecy, a first-time (and last-time) visit on my part (and definitely on his). But I loved the hat; the chenille, and the way I turned it up, reminds me so much of the 1990s and how we used to dress 'way back' then.

Anyone having a (bad?) flashback? I can also wear the bring down for a floppy 1970s crossed with a Great Gatsby look.

I'm channeling my inner Holly Hobby/Pippi Longstocking/Anne of Green Gables/Annie Hall look with today's outfit, but the look is comprised of mostly all 1990s pieces, like the thrifted lace-up boots that have made an appearance many times before on this blog. The dress, a recent Etsy acquisition, is the exact label (All That Jazz) and style I used to wear in the early-to-mid 1990s - in fact I had two dresses in this style, with short sleeves, that I loved and wore the hell out of (why, why did I get rid of them?). You can't see the wooly brown and black mottled stripe-like tights I'm wearing, but they're Pippi to a tee.

It's the perfect preggo dress, what with its tent-like shape and clippy-thing at the back (remember those? Love!), which will also transition seamlessly into a post-pregnancy and eventually an 'I have my body back' frock. I loved this simple style then, and I love it now. The vibrant colours are right up my alley too (whereas the ones I had in the past would be a little too water-coloury for my current taste).

I can even steampunk it out a bit with a cashmere cardi and a vintage carpet and embroidery purse. Thanks to my darling and oh-so-patient hubby for taking these pics.

I accessorized with a fave thrift find, a gold-filled Edwardian-style chain pendant with a pretty piece of fuchsia cut glass. I found it at good 'ole Value Village in Toronto at a 50 percent off sale, for under $10 CAD. I think it kinda adds to the Steampunk look.

Speaking of bling, I actually managed to drag hubbie into several thrift shops this week (and he actually bought a few things!! But that's another post), and in one, I found these brownish-maroon beads for a few Euros. I'm not normally a bead type person - I think they look rather old-fashioned around the neck; either that or just plain cheap, if the beads are cheap, that is - but I loved the colour and the (what appears to be brass) details, and also the way the light hits and reflects off the beads. I can't tell if they're wooden or plastic, or another substance like bakelite, but they struck me as unusual.

I also dug up this this Modernist-Space Age steel pendant with amazing orange centre for 2.50 Euros at the same shop, an even more incredible find considering the costume bling at French thrift shops is generally crap. It doesn't have a stamp but I know a lot of these pieces come from Sheffield in the UK, a steel town.

I became obsessed with pieces such as this after finding this baby in a UK charity shop for a pound. They're all over Etsy and aren't horribly priced at all, but nothing beats a thrift shop find!

Linking to all the stylish chicas at Patti's Visible Monday.

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Magenta Monday

Happy New Year to you, and a most heartfelt thanks for all your kind wishes, comments and emails about our happy news. Today I thought I'd show you yet another purple coat I thrifted in Toronto (scroll a few posts down if you missed my purple chenille vintage coat), and decided to hang onto when I moved overseas. The label says ZIM and I don't know the fibre content for sure as it's in Chinese, methinks, but the coat is definitely a wool-cashmere blend, very soft and plushy and showing no signs of wear. It has a belt but I prefer to keep it open - the weather's warm enough in Annecy to stroll around like this!

Aside from the sassy crochet tights, which are uber comfy on the leg but which my expanding waist won't be able to handle much longer, this outfit is entirely thrifted. The Teenflo skirt is a pre-preggo skirt I don't think I'll be able to squish into anymore. It was loose when I bought it and I used to wear it low-slung on my hips. Now it's around my waist to accommodate my belly.

Outfit deets:
Magenta ZIM wool-cashmere coat, thrifted in Toronto for under $20
Teenflo brown velvet skirt with tie-dye pattern, thrifted as part of a suit in Toronto
Wool turtleneck, made in Paris, thrifted for about $4 CAD at Stretch Thrift, Toronto
FAVE (now beat up) wedgie leather Kenneth Cole Reaction boots, $49.99 at Value Village in Canada (worth the splurge)
Distressed leather bag, handmade by SAS in the United States, Etsy, $40 US
Vintage 1970s "Rafael" brass/glass pendant chain, FREE (worth maybe $200 CAD?), from a friend - designed and made by Canadian Modernist jewellery designer (and engineer) Rafael Alfandary
Brown leather gloves, thrifted somewhere for next-to-nothing.

You may remember the maching blazer to the skirt, which I showed you in the fall. I never wear the two together as I think it's too much, but on their own they make fab separates to mix and match according to my whim. They can keep each other company for the next 8-12 months as they slumber away in my closet, unworn, in the hopes of being reborn when I get my figure back.

I'll leave you with a view of the mountains shot overlooking the canal that leads to Lac Annecy, taken at dusk the other night. Thoughts and prayers are going out to Sarah today in Australia, hoping for the best with the wildfires that are raging there.

Linking up to Patti's Visible Monday.

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That 70s Show

I've morphed from an urban-dwelling Canadian magazine editor wearing oh-so-chic vintage/thrifty ensembles to work every day to an unemployed, jean-clad gal living in a small yet picturesque UK town with my lovely new hubby. My style these days, though still thrifty, simply reflects my life of long walks, yoga and hanging with hubby when he's not flying - and as a result I find myself living in jeans. I hope this isn't too boring for you guys. I shall make a supreme effort to play dress up more often and show you some of my pretty thrifty frocks and such.

I feel like I've morphed from the set of That 70s Show, a TV show I used to love watching, in this outfit: the wide-legged (thrifted) Levis; the wedgie boots in tan (Kenneth Cole Reaction, thrifted at Value Village in Canada and STILL my fave even though they've been beat up over the years -- they just get better, tee hee); the cropped Parasuco jean jacket ($10 at a consignment store sale); the thrifted emerald green knit hoodie (turtleneck underneath, new, but bought at Winners on sale).

What feels really 70s: this thrifted suede bag with boho embroidery on the front and fuzzy interior, by Canadian bag designer Jeanne Lottie. Ironic thing is, I tried to give this bag away multiple times before I moved overseas. Now it appears to be one of my few bags that made it overseas; my vintage purses are, sadly, missing in action (but hopefully just lost  in my Mom's basement somewhere). I'm glad I ended up keeping it.

I love this ring. I initially saw it last fall at the Third World Bazaar in Manotick, Canada, but didn't want to spend $50 on it, though it was a good price. Then I saw it with my Mom shopping in Ottawa in a bling store, for $100 - but it was 50% off! So I ended up getting the ring, natch. As you can see by my outfit, I'm really attracted by emerald green these days. I love how one's relationship with colour changes over time. I probably haven't worn this colour since the 80s, when gem tones were all the rage!

Not sure if you can see, but I also bought the pendant that matched the ring, since it was also on sale! Wearing a pendant and chain over a turtleneck is so 1970s, isn't it?

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My fave thrifty decor creations

Now that I'm married to a contemporary streamlined decor kind of guy, I've had to make some major style concessions in our new home together - and indeed, most of what you see in these photos are no longer in my possession, sigh. Not to say that our newly painted living room (pics coming soon) won't have a wee bit of boho injected into it, but let's just say, compromises have been made - on both sides. This post will honour a couple of looks I created in my old Toronto apartment, using salvaged curbside pieces and thrifty decor finds.

TRASH: An ex brought me this wooden dining room table with flip up table extentions - so cool. He found it in the trash. Though it had heaps of shiny paint and varnish on it, I still liked it. The white vinyl chair - covered in a dollar store faux fur rug and velvet pillow - was another garbage find; so too was the curved chrome chair at the front.

THRIFT SHOP FINDS: The silver chair in the back was part of a set of four salvaged at the Salvation Army in Ottawa years ago, spraypainted silver by moi and then covered with a silver tablecloth from the dollar store - tres grunge chic. Ditto for the painting, wall lamp, and handpainted bowl. The lamp was a junk shop find.

BOUGHT NEW BUT INEXPENSIVELY: The curtains were on sale in a fabric shop, tied with ribbon from a gift. I found the heavy crystal Art Deco style vase at a dollar store, if you can believe it. The large black and white photo was a gift, and the two smaller ones are old photos of me that I framed with inexpensive white mattes and frames.
INSPIRATION FOR VIGNETTE: I love the droopy tulips. I had a dinner party the evening before and someone brought them to me after walking through minus 30 degrees temperatures - so they wilted, rather artfully I think. I started with the vase and tulips on the table and went from there.

INSPIRATION FOR VIGNETTE: I really, really loved this creation - I call it my boho corner. The fun thing about this look was that it was created in the dining room space of my one bedroom apartment - but I said, what the hell, let's put the living room in the dining room - something my best friend and I did when we were 20 and living in our first apartment together.

TRASH: The loveseat, a Barrymore made in Canada gem (covered with an inexpensive slipcover from Zellers, a Canadian store) that a beau from years ago hauled out of a dumpster (actually, there were two, and I go them both).  Blue velvet chair: a curbside find in Toronto, as was the amazing wooden console dresser.

THRIFT FINDS: The Chinese style lamp was a Value Village find and the blue shade was also from the thrift shop; the Indian carpet was found at a junk store along with the head vase on the large console; the large mirror and painting balanced on it were both thrift store finds and so were the wooden oval, silver wrought iron and glass/brass tables.

BOUGHT NEW: The boho cushion on the chair was found in Saskatchewan about a decade ago, and the striped silk pillow on the sofa was part of a pair, also purchased new and splurge items if memory serves. The rest of the pillows were thrifted.

LOVE: The green Star Trek decanter on the console (see pic one up) - a gift from my best friend. It belonged to her folks and came with eight teeny shot glasses that matched.
Sadly, though I managed to sell/donate a lot of the smaller items, most of the larger furniture pieces were left curbside in Toronto when I moved. I tried to to donate the furniture to charity shops but they are so under-resourced they could not pick them up. Hopefully some like-minded folk picked up my stash left in front of my apartment.

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Cocktail party at my fave vintage shop

Ah, who has cocktail parties any more - real, live cocktail parties where you actually dress? My gal pal Daina, who owns Continuum Modern Vintage - that's who. 

Daina was celebrating her shop's year-and-a-half anniversary. She dressed the part, and more, in this gorg emerald green silk taffeta cocktail dress from the 1950s.

Not having a proper cocktail dress (other than one that looks good on me only when I have a tan), I decided to wear this royal blue Lauren, by Ralph Lauren microfibre drop-waist frock I thrifted for $24.99 at Value Village - pricey in my books but the dress was brand new and would have retailed at several hundred bucks. And I do look rather smashing in this shade of blue.

I wore the dress with gold-tone strappy wedgies (thrifted of course!) and my Trifari necklace found in London's Portobello Market. Just look at the way the dress swishes when I twirl - je love!

Any one out there gone to a cocktail party lately? What did you wear?

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1970s handmade maxi dress, thrifted

Now that I'm working in the hip section of downtown, I am feeling rather free to dress the part - the part being a semi-cool vintage bohemian hipster. And I can also shop at one of my fav vintage second-hand shops, CTS at 394 Queen Street West, just west of Spadina.

The lovely and infectious Nadia reigns supreme at CTS, her dominion being vintage glam at great prices. Not thrift shop prices, mind, but low, under $40. This 1970s maxi dress (handmade I'm pretty sure) made of highly flammable fabric, fit me like a glove and was $19.99. I'm wearing it with a 1970s necklace thrifted at Value Village for under 10 bucks. Perfect for the heat wave we've been having here in Toronto!

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English charity shops

Well I'm back from lovely England and I'm a bit blue missing my hunnie, but I'm armed with heaps of fab memories and interesting cultural and fashion observations! On the fashion front, I didn't get to wear any of my lovely frocks as the weather was too chill - so I had to shop, natch!! Here I am, in front of a traditional English red phone booth in the lovely town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire county, sporting a semi-thrifted outfit from a charity shop in the area: the Pepe London jeans (killer expensive new) were seven-pound-fifty (12 Canadian dollars), and the hippie top for 4 pounds (just over $6 CND).

If you cast your mind back to my blog posts from September 2010 when I first went to England, you'll remember that I commented on the general low, mass-market quality of thrift shop clothing there - but that was in a wee town in the north. The charity shops in the southern and quite posh area of Beaconsfield and surrounding area are an entirely different matter: good quality labels, though not a ton of vintage as far as I could tell.

Still, I'm impressed with the calibre of the charity shops in England - the ones I shopped were hyper-clean, immaculately merchandised and well organized - in other words, leagues above the chaotic, stinky and dirty shops here.

The marketing of organizations like the British Heart Foundation, where I picked up the Pepe jeans, are well-thought out - as you see here, an 'urgent appeal' bag, containing a bag for me to put my donation in, accompanied my BHF purchase.

My humble opin is that charity shops in England are run more like corporations (such as Value Village in Canada, which is not a charitable organization but rather part of the Savers corporation in the US). I'm not bashing charity thrift shops here as I rather like their grottiness - but what accounts for the diff between them and their nicer UK counterparts, I wonder?

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Very special vintage coat, for a very special occasion

I haven't worn this vintage coat for years - as you can see, it's pretty special: a 1930s style (wool) with these gorg embroidered sleeves. I bought it when I was 19 (over 20 years ago!) for just under $200. I remember I had to borrow the cash from my sis, who always saved her bucks (no big surprise I was always shopping, eh?).

I had the opportunity to wear it this past weekend, to a party given in honour of a lovely lady who recently passed away, who I was lucky enough to meet and write about the month before she died. She was 104 years old and had lots of pluck and a great story - and I think she would have appreciated this vintage coat.

I've accessorized the coat with a vintage bag I found at Value Village for $5.99, and some thrifted Nine West slingbacks in excellent shape found for around $8.99 at my local thrift shop, Stretch Thrift. The scarf is vintage silk Liberty of London, a couple bucks at a junk shop.

The day wasn't about me, but I wanted my outfit to do justice to a wonderful lady who led a great life. It felt good to be pulling out all of my really special items that I never wear, for one day - some vintage pieces are for just that, and in this case, the occasion certainly warranted it.

Here's to Minnie. Rest in peace.

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Wool trench, Goodwill

It's been raining like crazy this spring - good thing I have a warm wool trench to get me through! I found this deep blue wool trench by Evan Picone at Goodwill for less than 10 bucks. I love it. Every time I wear it - which is frequent these days - I feel like I'm in France.

I'm wearing it here with thrifted suede booties made in Italy ($14.99); this funky round leather purse made in Vancouver and found at Value Village for $12.99; vintage blue shades made in Italy found in a vintage shop; and my Anthropologie scarf - bought new but so worth it based on the compliments I get every time I wear it!

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Steal of a boho ring

Thrifted vintage costume jewellery can be such an inexpensive way of not just getting that retail thrill on but also expressing the essential you. Perhaps that's why I'm such an addict: a ring bought at the thrift shop, such as this $5.99 vintage mega cocktail ring, allows me to express my burgeoning boho style ethic in a cheap, yet forever chic, way.

I'm really pleased that places like Value Village over price the mass market stuff and under price vintage finds such as this ring - perhaps they know the masses go for all the mediocre sterling stuff and contemporary costume bling in the case, and realize there's only a niche sort of customer that would find this ring attractive.

But if H&M suddenly decided to knock off this ring, it'd suddenly become all the rage. Do I sound cynical? Perhaps. But the pricing system of these places, generally, benefits me and feeds my particular style whims in a way that's wholly conducive to my budget. So how can I complain?

What gems do you find in the thrift shops that tend to be, in your opin, woefully under priced?

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Million dollar life I could have with these thrifted vintage earrings

Dah-lings! I'm so busy leading a fascinating life in my new thrifted earrings that I can barely stand still for you to seeee them!!

Yah right. The look says it all, my thrifty pals. And though I am no longer an earrings person - I reserve all my bling thrifting exploits for pendants and the occasional brooch - I simply could NOT resist these absolutely GORG vintage earrings I found in the Value Village showcase for - wait for it - $5.99!!

Deal!

Does it matter I don't lead the kind of life these earrings (not clip on but the screw on kind) surely merit?

Not really. I could play dress up with them in my apartment, introduce them to all the lovely glam thrifted dresses I never get a chance to wear ....

Mmm. Let me think. Or I could somehow manufacture a glam Grace Kelly type life, and jaunt around the French Riveria in some flashy sports car convertible with the top down - with the earrings, of course.

Only thing is, I'd need to make a million dollar life for myself, all because of these $5.99 thrifted vintage earrings.

Perhaps I'll see if I can integrate them into my existing life and wardrobe before doing anything too drastic?

What do you think? Hi-low dressing has been all the rage for years now - do you think I could mix them up with skinny jeans, or perhaps some wide leg pants?

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Warm weather is coming so (thrifted) dresses on the mind

Ever blow-dried a "new" dress with your blow dryer just so you could wear it out, clean? That's just what I did with this thrifted dress Friday night, found at Value Village. It's a heavy microfibre dress made in the USA (becoming a rare tag, just as the Made in Canada tag is), which in my mind indicates good quality.

I wasn't sure about it at first as it fits loosely around the waist - and I do look a bit shapeless here - but it is a classic shirtwaist without the waist, in colours I like that look good on me. Plus summer is coming and I need to prep myself for dress season - it will come!

PICS snapped by pal Parmjit Parmar of Montana Ridge Enterprises.

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