Thrifting Queen

My casual outfit today made a lightbulb go off for me. As you know, I've been struggling to make the boyfriend jeans work and my faded, flared jeans made me realize why. The jeans I'm wearing today FIT - they fit my waist, they hug my backside and they caress my thighs.

I don't have a lot of physical attributes but I certainly want to show off the few I have and flatter my figure as much as possible. The BF jeans don't do that and clearly that mattered more to me than I realized. The BF jeans make me look bigger than I am and who the heck wants that???

I'm moving "figure flattery" to the top of my list of what I want out of a clothing item.

(Pic 1 are BF jeans and pic 2 shows today's jeans - just a visual comparison)

Today was a banner shopping day. I went to get undies at Sears and it turned out to be a an amazing trip.

In addition to the knickers (which I will not be showing you - lol!), I found:

1) My perfect white shirt: who knew it would turn out to be a Sears Jessica brand petite. But if fits great, has a wee bit of stretch and is a lovely weight (not too light, not too heavy).

2) A colour block black and cobalt blue pencil skirt by Jones & Co.

3) A black and cobalt blue striped silk blend shirt with an interesting nude coloured (but not see through) side panel by Attitude by Jay Manuel. It matches the skirt PERFECTLY!

The skirt and blouse will be mega workhorses for me under my various toppers and with various other tops and bottoms.

Then I arrived home to find my Sam Edelman red booties had arrived. Amazon never ceases to amaze me - I just ordered these yesterday morning! They are a gorgeous red leather and a 10 out of 10 for comfort on me. Love the heel height, the height of the bootie shaft and the amount of gap. Angie - thank you for recommending these!

Can you tell I'm smiling all over the place???

I have the day off today (my boss owes me some time back) so am doing a bunch of running around. It's a bit cool today (so glad fall is arriving) so I can wear some of my favourite casual items. I started the outfit with these recently thrifted jeans. They won't be everyone's cuppa 'cause they're light wash, some distressing, and flared. But I love them and they are my wee nod to retro-boho. In fact they kind of remind me of Aida's jeans, which I really like. And it doesn't hurt that hubby really likes the "back view" in these :)

I then added my Gap striped yellow/oatmeal sweater, semi tucked with my snakeskin belt showing. I could walk miles in my Docs and the jeans are just long enough to accommodate the heel height so popped on my animal print Doc Danielle's and am wearing my vintage re-issue Fossil handbag. I feel comfortable, appropriate, stylish and happy. I guess it doesn't get much better than that.

What do you think? Proportions, fit and colours work? As always, all comments/suggestions welcome.

Jeans: American Eagle (thrifted)
Sweater: Gap
Belt: Olson Europe (thrifted)
Shoes: Doc Martens Danielle
Handbag: Fossil

BTW - I'm noticing my two new handbags (Fossil and Elliot Lucca) really make every outfit feel special and somewhat "elevated" in style. Loving them!

ETA - Angie, I've added a new picture showing more of my shoes - sorry it's not the greatest shot!

"Dear Cleo Petites:

You know I love you, right? That I have a number of your dresses in my closet and love them. But this new dress you have - called Placement Print dress - ummmmm....what were you thinking? Were you going for the Eve figleaf look on purpose or was this just poor planning?

Signed,

Won't Be Ordering This One"

Well now that the Bailey 44 dress has received its official seal of approval, I'm now moving on to the discussion of red booties.

The dress as shown on the Anthro website had the model wearing red booties and I LOVED them with the dress. I do have blue suede booties that work well with it too, as well as my Doc Marcies. But I'm still lusting after red.

These are the three candidates up for review - 1) Seychelles Dearest http://www.amazon.com/Seychell.....+red+boots; 2) Sam Edelman Lisle (Angie pick) http://www.amazon.com/Sam-Edel.....ed+booties; or the Cobb Shannon bootie http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/co.....sultback=0

One of these is a pretty clear front runner - curious to see what you like. The other option is no red booties at all because I don't need them.

Let's see what you think...

I'm really happy with how this outfit turned out. I love the pairing of rich brown tones with black so started out with my black ponte knit sheath dress, added my vintage men's tribal belt to accentuate my waist, then topped it with my medium wash denim jacket. I added my Doc Danielle animal print shoes for pattern and more brown tones and am debuting my new vintage re-issue Fossil handbag (waving at Natalie!). Jewelry is limited to my wedding ring and my gold/turquoise bangle.

What do you think? Does this work? As always, all comments/suggestions welcome.

Jacket: Brody Jeans (thrifted)
Dress: Cleo Petite
Shoes: Doc Martens - Danielle
Handbag: Fossil
Belt: vintage
Bangle: thrifted

What's better than finding a parcel at home after work? Finding TWO parcels at home after work!

First up is the newest incarnation of the famous Bailey 44 dress. It's definitely body con and I would not wear it without a jacket/blazer of some sort to work (at least until I lose some of that belly of mine!).

Second up is the Banana Republic Martin fit skinny trouser. The fabric is quite stiff so I'm not sure if the fit is a bit off or if it's just because they need to loosen up a bit. They are obviously much too long and would require hemming.

Not going to say anything more about either of these - over to you...

This is a different colour combination for me and quite fall like. I picked up these red jeans (waving at Mona - red jean twin) in early summer and have been waiting for the cooler weather to bring them out. I love the deep red colour and the fact that I didn't have to hem them! I've paired them with an animal print, knot front tank and topped that with my gold linen blazer. It's still early enough in fall to wear the linen blazer but I'll have to put it away in the next couple of weeks.

I've been getting itchy to wear my necklaces again (yay Team Necklace) so pulled out a mixed metals necklace, my gold oversize watch and my snakeskin handbag for accessories. For footwear, I chose my Pura Lopez brown suede bootie sandals.

What do you think of this ensemble? Do the colours and proportions work? As always, all comments/suggestions welcome.

Jeans: Reitmans
Tank: Nygard
Jacket: Talbots (thrifted)
Shoes: Pura Lopez
Handbag: Elliot Lucca
Necklace: Lia Sophia
Watch: thrifted

Happy first week of September! It's still very much summer weather here so am wearing my favourite summer floral frock. I've paired it with my cropped coral jacket, chunky Fly London sandals for a bit of urban edge and my Danier Leather patent faux croc handbag. My chrome bangle watch is all for jewelry.

What do you think of this combination? Proportions ok? As always, all comments/suggestions welcome.

Dress: Cleo Petites
Jacket: Gap (thrifted)
Sandals: Fly London
Handbag: Danier Leather (thrifted)
Watch: thrifted

I'm taking a bit of time to go through my closet and pull out summer items that I never wore or only wore once or twice in order to see if I'm going to keep them or donate them and you know what I discovered? Every. single.item that ended up in this pile was thrifted.

Hmmmm...interesting...

P.S. I'm thinking of donating the Shabby Apple skirt as well. It just doesn't work for me the way I was hoping and I NEVER feel good in it. I consider this one an expensive mistake. Oh well...we all have a few of those I'm sure!