Okay, so this week, you guys were pretty sure of yourselves. 74% of you said that Exhibit A was Thrifted.

And…you were right!

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Top: Old Navy/GW ($3), Cardi: Charlotte Tarantola/GW ($4), Skirt: FLAX/GW ($4), Belt: GW ($1), Shoes: Aldo/GW ($3)

TOTAL: $15

Bravo! You guys are getting good!

Basically, what I heard you saying was: All right, Abs, we like your hair in Exhibit A, but we don’t like the skirt (pretty much the number one reason given by those who guessed “Thrifted” for choosing it).

And I have to admit that I concur on both counts…mostly.

That’s one of my favorite easy hairstyles, so much so that I’ve done not one but two tutorials on it.

As for the skirt, I really like it.  But I did not like how it looked in the pics. At GW, it was smooth and flowing, the perfect chic and comfy maxi skirt. But, despite my best efforts to iron out all of the lumps and crinkles, after washing, it just looked a bit on the frumpy side. : (

I’m determined to get all the wrinkles out and show you why I like it so much.  Plus, I looked it up, and it retails for almost $80, so it was a good deal.

That cardi is a different story.

I don’t like it.

I LOOOOOOOVE it.

If you had started hating on the sweater, we would have had to throw down, folks. I gasped and started casting furtive glances over my shoulder and jutting my elbows out a bit in anticipation of being tackled by a fellow thrifter when I spotted the sleeve sticking out from between something hideous in floral from 1991 and something else gross in acid-wash (I had been at Goodwill for about 3 hours by that point with all three kids, so there was no guarantee that my responses to anything were going to be very reasonable).

Ruffle details + rich saturated colors + butter soft texture = deep and abiding love.

PLUS, I looked it up because it looked so well made, and it turns out that it’s a $130 sweater.

SCORE!

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Dress: Target ($13), Cardi: Factory Connection ($10), Belt: Gap ($3), Shoes: Target ($8)

TOTAL: $31

Both outfits were a really reasonable price—especially considering the number of pieces—but look at the price difference!

Even though I got everything in Exhibit B on major clearance, it’s still TWICE what I paid for my thrifted look, and the pieces in the thrifted option were considerably higher-end to start with!

I’m also really glad I ended up putting together the outfit in Exhibit B. I actually pulled that dress out of my to-be-chunked-donated-or-sold pile because I didn’t have anything else grifted that remotely resembled a maxi skirt.  The dress by itself does nothing but make me look stumpy and shapeless.

Proof:

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But with the cardi and the belt, I’m really liking it. My maxi dress thanks you for saving it from the chop pile.

Oh, and the winner of the 5 extra entries into The Big PCM Fundraiser and Giveaway is Maggie who said: “So … B is thrifted. Because it’s more matchy-matchy than the eclecticification of outfit A. Of course now having said that, I’m second guessing because eclectification is one of the ways you earn major style points in my book. But I’m going to stick with my gut and say B is thrifted because I think you are rocking A the most. Fingers crossed because getting this right is clearly indicative of big things for my future as a grifted guesser ..”

Maggie, girl, I gotta be honest, I think I got a bit lost in your twisty reasoning…BUT!  You used the “word” eclectification (TWICE, in fact) and you were so sure of yourself (almost) that I just had to give it to you. : )

As always, I loved reading your comments and having you play along.  It’s kind of like having a weekly Bridge group, only without the complicated rules.  And the cucumber sandwiches.

See you soon for:

five days five ways | 5 Things Thursday

2 Comments

  1. The unthrifted maxi dress by itself, well I can see why it was going in the chuck pile. But styled the right way, it’s so beautiful!

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