Our Heroine Rediscovers The Thrift Store

I’m kind of a merciless shopper. I tend to decide what I want, draw up a detailed plan of attack, and strike each store only long enough to find the object of my desire, try it on, buy it and leave. I’m willing to paw through racks of mismatched clothes to find a special something, but only if I don’t have a firm idea of what I’m looking for. It is for this reason exactly that I’ve almost completely avoided secondhand stores (save a trip to Goodwill when I had to buy dishes for my apartment).

So today when I had to go buy some black tights at Ruby Isle, the shopping center near my house that probably shares its name with a blung-out strip club in Vegas, I was planning to drop into Walgreen’s, grab the same kind I always get, and bolt for the door. On the way there, though, I passed Elite Repeat, the neighborhood consignment “shoppe” (yeah, they spell it that way) and thought “Oh, what the hell.” Recently poking my nose back into the blogosphere has reminded me that thrifting is like, the national sport of semi-educated youth, along with latte-drinking and, well, blogging.

A few words about Elite Repeat: As the name implies, however lamely, it’s a higher-end thrift place. They have a list of brands they don’t accept, on which you’ll find most store brands like Amy Byer (thank god) and Target’s Mossimo (unfortunate, because I love Target and I don’t care who knows it). When I used to walk over there and shop after putting in a day at the ice cream shop a few stores down, it was mostly staffed by middle-aged women who you just knew were trying to slip their old embroidered Christmas sweaters in with the Calvin Klein. When I went today, though, the employees were twenty-something waifs in black leggings and jersey dresses. All the more inspiration to shop fabulously.

Anyway, back to black tights- before I found them, I had a big “squee” moment. Imagine my delight when I found these for A DOLLAR:


That’s right, Evan-Picone hot pink tights in the original package for A FREAKING DOLLAR. I actually ripped the packaging in a frenzy to get them out and try them on before remembering that I should take a picture. I’m still deciding whether they’re legitimately adorable or just awesomely heinous, but you know what? It doesn’t matter because they were a DOLLAR.

So then I found what I had come for- a 2-pair package of Victoria’s Secret black stockings for $7, originally priced at $20. I really should have stopped there, but I was seriously having too much fun. I found an adorable granny cardigan from The Limited, a store I like but usually avoid because I’m cheap as hell. Apologies for the crap lighting- unfortunately, I don’t have a photographer’s studio in my bathroom.


Ever since I saw a Valentine Fillol-Cordier editorial shoot in the most recent Nylon magazine, touting her “sexy librarian style,” I’ve become a little bit obsessed with that intellectual, disheveled aesthetic. In addition to stealing a pair of my mom’s reading glasses (see 2 entries ago), I’ve been searching for pieces like this sweater that scream “Shh.”

And what good is a librarian sweater without a braided faux-pearl necklace? Now I’m outfitted to ace spring midterms (er, in two months) or yell at those punk teenagers to get off my lawn.


The moral of the story is that giving consignment stores a second chance was a really good idea. While the repeater didn’t have the suspenders I was lusting after, it was fun to stumble across treasure I wasn’t even looking for. And I got some awesome pink tights for a dollar.

There probably won't be any posts for a few days since I'll be in frigid Minneapolis, but I'll hopefully be posting a couple new projects and my Ph.D.-worthy thesis on legwarmers sometime after Monday.