Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Street Fashion That Didn't Happen



    The other night I went to see Grimes in Hudson, camera in tow, anticipating that this would be a wonderful opportunity for my FIRST EVER STREET FASHION POST! Like just about every amazing plan I have this didn't work. First, there was some wierdo energy happening that caused my camera to almost catch on fire. Second, there were a lot of clothes happening, none of which I would consider fashion that I would encourage others to repeat. It was a little like being in a kindergarten in 1992. At one point a took a picture of a girl wearing a sheer pink leotard and a hippie wall hanging and sent it to my sister, who initially believed that she was naked. It could have happened.
    So instead, let's consider the lady herself:

    Grimes (a.k.a Claire Boucher) puts on an amazing show and seems so sweet you just want to be her friend (because she's Canadian). Unlike the uber-self-conscious Vassar undergrads sloshing drinks around us she was sporting an old Marilyn Manson shirt and a hoodie. She between the cut up skeleton shirts her hipster-hype girls wear and the heavy metal appropriate art on the cover of Visions it's clear this girl's got a serious goth streak. I can picture her wearing the same chain-laden Tripp NYC pants and florescent eyeliner I did in high school. Despite showing up in the September issue of vogue and the New York times reporting that designers are falling over themselves to loan her their duds it's pretty excellent that she's remaining true to what she likes and not feeling the pressure to look cool. She combines diverse elements of fashion (and music!) in ways that are pretty inspiring. Fingerless skeleton gloves? Sure! Designer leggings? Yep. Bhindis like it's straight up 1997? Let's do it! Looking around this crazy crowd, most of whom appeared to have gone to great lengths to look original, it occurred to me that all of the truly cool, insanely accomplished  ladies in the room, both on stage and off, were cool because they looked like themselves. While figuring out a personal style and not having to hide behind looking a certain way is easier said than done, my take away from this was that it isn't about what you wear, it's how you wear it. And also probably see this lady sometime very soon.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Things to spend money on: top-notch lady stuff


    Whew! I took a break there for a while. I started running and submitted my first journal article and researched PhD programs and generally tried to work on being a grown up. And now I'm done with that for a while.So now back to Salvation Army shopping and shoe sales!
    At this point, it's pretty easy to see that I am not a big fan of spending money. If there's a coupon, a sale, a less-expensive-close-enough version or if I can wait two months and get it cheaper I usually will. My posts so far have been mostly about how to cut corners and make something out of nothing. I throw the word "cheap" around a lot when I describe myself but in reality I prefer "thrifty" There are some things I consider well worth the money they cost, so I decided that it might be nice to have a post about spending money (well) instead of trying to pocket every cent possible.
    As you probably all know, my fashion-loving friends, the September issue of Vogue came out a few weeks ago. It kind of sucked, from the cheesy Photoshopped bow on the cover to the approximately 600 pages of ads. I wasn't so into it until I saw an ad for OPI's new collection. The delightfully odd color "Don't Talk Bach to Me" made my heart skip a beat. It's an odd mustard-lime that's even more bizarre in person, and as a fan of weird nail polish colors I had to run out and get it THAT DAY. And I haven't been disappointed. It's crazy looking. But as someone who saves up my Price Chopper gas points how can I justify spending big bucks on lady stuff when there are so many cheapo drug store options?
   For me, it's simple: I like different. My favorite nail polish color is one called "Uh-oh, Roll Down the Window" for reasons that may be instantly obvious. Cheaper polishes still stick mainly to the pink-red-coral end of things, maybe featuring brights for summer and plums for winter. Higher end, and especially designer, polishes tend to feature polishes based on the "in" colors of the season. Brands like Chanel that have both fashion and beauty houses often match polish to runway shows, giving us mere mortals a taste of haute couture. This summer that meant mint EVERYWHERE. For the fall it's looking like gothy darks and awesomely off-kilter shades like griege and mustard. Though there's still a pretty major debate around this many of these brands also are "three free," which means they have stopped using formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, and toluene in their polishes. These substances are carcinogens and toxins, and despite still-controversial studies it seems better not to risk putting them on your fingers. When applied correctly they are also longer lasting than their cheaper counterparts. For me, this makes them bargain enough. 

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Gold Medal of Cheap



    I was promising myself that I wouldn't go there with an Olympics reference but it happened anyway. A few days ago I managed to take being a cheap person to a near-competitive level. For less than I spend on weekly groceries I grabbed a dress, a skirt, a scarf and two pairs of shoes. And found a new Cheap Person Secret Shopping Spot. It was a truly rapturous experience which you now get to share in, even if you're not really that interested in plumbing the depths of the the cheap person universe.
    First, the dress, skirt and scarf are all from my preferred thrifting mecca, the Goodwill on the corner of Central and Fuller. Goodwill tends to passed over in favor of the downtown Albany Salvation Army by those in the thrifting know most of the time. However, Goodwill is open longer hours, which is really the deciding factor for me. The fact that I found a pristine pair of white J.Crew jeans there a few months ago really endeared me to it. Their stuff is usually ticketed on the expensive side of what I would willingly pay for other people's used clothing but watch out for the colored plastic tags hanging off of random places on clothes because that's where the money (or actually the opposite of money) is at. The magical colors of the week makes this stuff all kinds of cheap. Everything I got channels my desire to look like Andie in Pretty in Pink, slightly homeless bag lady but still awesome. The skirt is certainly on point with that desire- it's a high-waisted, mid-calf wool deal with a pattern and tassels like it was made out of part of a blanket. I think my mother had a dress or two like this button front, criss-cross tie back deal in the early 90's. All of this good stuff added up to a little more than $10- and bizarrely, most of that was from the scarf. The price structure is a little baffling.
    How I even came to be in the Cheap Person Secret Shopping Spot requires a little background story. Last month I was wandering around Westgate Plaza waiting to pick up a prescription when I happened on Rainbow. This store has apparently been there for a long time but I never noticed it. I was relating this fact to my coworkers the next day and one especially talented, creative and awesome coworker hinted that I might just be able to uncover a few gems there. I was intrigued. At first things didn't look too promising. Most of the clothing is extremely bright and, even from a fast-fashion standpoint, not very well made. The accessories are really where things are at. The shoes on their website are all INSANE looking but in the store there are also a good number of brogues, loafers and booties. Even better- a lot of them are 2 for $20. I'm a huge believer in getting what you pay for but many of the shoe brands are the same ones distributed to major fast-fashion retailers who slap their names on them and charge an extra $20. If you're going cheap already why not go extra cheap? The velvet smoking slippers I got certainly aren't on par with Jeffrey Campbell's or anything, but they're cute and would make a great base for a little DIY. I also got a pair of plain black low-heeled booties and, bam, there you go, $30 stretched to the max!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Fun With Bleach- Really


    For months now I've been wanting to do a DIY project, but time (and ambition) has not been on my side. This week I saw a window of DIY opportunity and grabbed it. And apparently, so did a lot of other fashiony- creativey types. Friday I came into work and one of my coworkers was wearing the vest above. Isn't it awesome? This is the best kind of DIY: simple and quick, depending on how much time you want to invest in it, and nearly free. You probably have everything you need already hanging around your house and if not a quick trip to the supermarket will fix that. Below are just a couple steps to get you bleaching like a pro!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

I'm (Always) Thinking Hudson



    Last weekend I had a very good excuse to take a day trip to one of the loveliest, most interesting, friendliest little towns in the greater Capital District. I think I can say it now: I'm full-blown in love with Hudson. Sorry, boyfriend. The town has a reputation for being an antiques mecca for the second-home-escape-from-the-City set but that doesn't mean there's not enough shopping and eating for the rest of us to do. I certainly did enough of both for about five people.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Cheap Pants Saga



    After the big closet clean-out of two weeks ago one of my biggest wardrobe goals has been to find and wear patterned pants that don't make me look like a Florida grandma. The pants above were one of my first new additions. The J. Crew website will try to convince you that they are still $80, but this is a  lie! A had a conversation with my roommate, who has a J.Crew sixth-sense, a couple days ago that went something like this:
Me: I like your pants.
Her: They're from J. Crew and they're $35 AND all of the sale is another 30% off.
Me: I'm going to have the same pants as you.
    And now I do. These pants are terrific quality, and linen and leopard print- what more could you ask for? There is also a ton of other great stuff that is heavily on sale right now, so I suggest that you, my cheapie friends, get thyselves to the air-conditioned mall.
   Speaking of the mall and cheap patterned pants, I recently stumbled into a crazy vortex of actual nice clothes. I was poking around (God help me) JC Penney, hoping to find the I Heart Ronson line that was at one time pretty amazing, when I saw these.

    Of course (shocker!) they've styled them so they look hideous. But they're not! They're black and white, Greek key patterned with a slightly high waist and very wide legs. I wore them with a with tee and some big gold jewelry and they were very ladies-who-lunch-on-a-cruise. And they were $11! I'm thinking about going back to see what secretly fashion-forward things they have to offer. It's a lot like thrift shopping: the place smells weird and mostly everything is hideous, but every once in a while there is something great that you can torture your coworkers with when you talk incessantly about it the next day. 

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Small Town Shoppin'

Beacon, NY. Photo by Lauren Nye.
      
    This is post only kind-of-a-little about fashion or style and definitely not much about being a cheap person. Last weekend I spent the day in the tiny town of Beacon, NY, about an hour and a half south of Albany. My roommate had arranged a meetup with a friend from college who lives in the Bronx and Beacon was almost exactly the midpoint between the two. I hadn't heard anything at all about Beacon except for its MetroNorth stop. You guys, this place is awesome. First, see above. It's beautiful. And there is some serious eating to be done. We had killer burgers and fries at Poppy's and crazily delicious raspberry-lemon zest-mint popsicles at Zora Dora. I'm getting hungry again just looking at the links.
    As we ate the aforementioned popsicles we walked around the small shops mostly situated on a couple-block stretch of Main Street. The diversity and quality of these shops were a surprise, since the city snob in me sometimes wants to dismiss anything so far off the beaten path as out of touch. That front was well represented in the form of a "vintage store" selling mostly year-old mall fashions (but even there one of my friends was able to rustle up a killer purse). Just about everything at Clay Wood and Cotton was drool-worthy, and it felt good to buy something and have the owner be able to say who made it and where it came from. Dream in Plastic is the kind of place I would like to envision myself glamorously buying Christmas presents while sipping a latte. Or something.
    As wonderful as it was to spend the day there, it made me wonder: living in a city several times its size, why can't we have the same kind of vibrant shop scene that is thriving there? The owner of Clay Wood and Cotton told us that a large part of their business happens on weekends and during the summer, but Albany has a large year-round population supplemented by thousands of college students. Why do the only shopping choices have to be the malls (there's nothing wrong with them, I work there, but they murder small business) or the handful of small boutiques far from downtown Albany? I'm sure someone with economic or business savvy could answer this, but I'm just here for the whine.
    This weekend I'm going to Hudson, another small town full of awesomeness. This time I won't forget my camera (but thank you again to Lauren Nye for that stunning image), and I'll have more to say on wonderful small, local businesses!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I Really Wanted to Make an R.Kelly Joke About Closets


(This isn't my closet. Not even close. But we all have to dream!)

     In the spirit of making fresh starts, and because this week looks like it's going to be HOT in a major way this week, I decided it was time for a very belated closet clean out. This time I tried to do double duty with it. I'm trying to get a system in order so I'm not just donating a bunch of stuff to Goodwill to replace it with a bunch more stuff from Goodwill. I was inspired by the wardrobe rehab at A Pair and A Spare and the waste-reducing strategies at GOOD but I can only aspire to be as chic/ environmentally-conscious as the bloggers at either of these sites. This is a method that works for me and is slllllllooooooowwwwwwlyy getting me to the point where I'm ditching less and less every time.
    First, prepare yourself! Get out some laundry baskets and slap some labels on them. These are mine:

     These categories should be pretty self-explanatory. Now you have to go through your closet piece by piece. This is the worst, suckiest part. Look at everything with an editor's eye. Even if you loved it in the past, if it's not in wearable condition you HAVE to chuck it. If you don't remember how it looks on you then try it on in good light and if there's anything less than perfect about it put it in the pile to be sold/ donated so someone with different tastes or another body shape can get some use out of it. The general wisdom is that if you haven't worn it in a year you should get rid of it, but I don't always agree.  Closet cleaning presents opportunities to rediscover awesome pieces that got hidden under clutter. The best rule of thumb is to think of how much every. single. piece. will help you be the effortlessly chic individual you want to be.
     Look at this giant pile of stuff that I pulled out of my closet! Most of it is being saved for a neighborhood sale next month, but there are a bunch of other ways to get rid of things in wearable condition. Garage (or stoop) sales are a great option, as are Ebay and Plato's Closet. Usually I prefer just to donate and skip the hassle. It's easy just to drop things off at the Salvation Army and Goodwill, but also try looking for a local charity that matches up with something you support or believe in (for me it's the Treasure Chest, an awesome thrift store run by the Albany Damien Center) 
    Now that things are organized it's time to get obsessively organized! I keep dresses, bottoms and blouses on one side of my closet and sweaters and outerwear on the other. Within these categories I organize by color and sleeve length. This sounds like some crazy-pants activity but it serves double duty: it will be easier to find what you're looking for at 7 a.m. before you've had your coffee and it also helps you look for gaps and redundancies in your wardrobe. I have WAY too many tops and WAY WAY too many short-sleeved blue-based blouses. I'm also pretty sadly lacking in non-jeans pants and white tops (the most frequent victims of clumsiness + coffee).
   As you're noticing what you don't have in your closet start making a list. This can also include things you've been thinking about but never seem to have enough money for at then end of the week. Cut a few pictures out of magazines to serve as inspiration. Mine looks a little something like this:
    This list is an ongoing project. Buy something? Cross it off. See something you feel like you neeeeeeeed? Add it to the list, let it sit for a bit and then get it if you still are thinking about it after, say, two weeks. By putting a little more thought into things before I buy them I'm hoping to avoid pulling out another freakishly large stack of ill-fitting clothes come November!






Thursday, June 14, 2012

This is how it starts- doing more with less


     I'm kind of holding my breath here. This is at least my third attempt at blogging, not counting the Livejournal (and Deadjournal! Remember that?) I had in high school and a few ultra- serious Myspace posts. I'm hoping this one takes not only so I don't have to live with the sting of someone asking, "so how's your blog going?," but also because I'm trying to build it around an idea that has become more and more important to me over the last couple years.
      I've always been a clean person. Sometimes, like when I hoarded notebooks and bits of magazines in middle school, I was a closeted clean person, but the tendency towards wanting to lead a junk-free life has always been there. A couple years I almost chucked my W-2's during an intense bout of paper-purging and as a writer I've always been a fan of less-is-more prose. More recently I've become someone who is interested in and works with clothes. For a long time I fell into the trap of buying and buying and buying until my closet was stuffed and I still had nothing to wear. Twice a year I would purge my closet and shuffle off to Goodwill and then repeat the process, hoping for different results. However, the past couple of months have given me the opportunity to change things. Six year's worth of student loans have come due so my purse strings have tightened considerably.  I love a challenge, so I invented one for myself: define your style better with less money than you did before. It's a challenge that everyone might not need to take up, but in a culture where consumerism is biting us in the ass in a major way it couldn't hurt. So, by buying vintage and thrift more, finding new uses for pieces I never wear, DIYing my heart out and thinking more about why I'm buying what I'm buying when I do shop I'm embarking on a fashion-y spirit quest. There's much more closet-cleaning, tie-dying, vintage-shopping to follow in the near future. Until then enjoy this picture of a cute, and very stylish, kitten.