Secrets of a Secondhand Shopaholic

Hurrah!  The Inspiration Calendar had a shirt dress outfit – so this gave me the opportunity to wear the new Talbot’s Shirt Dress I bought on my last summer dress shopping binge – remember when I wrote about it in The Dress Diaries, Part Four?

You may remember that I was a little apprehensive about the style, because it is rather boxy and unflattering.  So I immediately posted this dress on the You Look Fab Forum, and received many fabulous suggestions on how to spice it up.

Close up of silver sandals

One repeated recommendation was to wear it with silver shoes, which thrilled me because I recently bought some cute silver Anne Klein sandals – here’s close up of them. The strap is made of buttons sewn together.

These are the kind of shoes I love to find at secondhand stores – they are so cute and unique, but I wouldn’t want to pay anything over $10 for them, because I just can’t see myself wearing them alot.  But I can easily part with $4 to have them around to spice up a plain dress like the Talbot’s shirt dress.

Buying shoes like these for $4 reinforces the brilliance in my love for secondhand shopping.

So here’s how I ended up wearing my Talbot’s shirt dress, and I have to admit, I don’t think the scarf was the best choice.

Price Breakdown:

Dress:  Talbot’s $5.89 (Goodwill)

Shoes:  Anne Klein $4.00 (Bargain Basket)

Purse:  gifted

Scarf:  $12.00 (JYN)

Total Cost:  $21.89
I usually don’t include accessories like scarves in my price breakdown, but I did want to point out more of my brilliance – the scarf cost MORE  than the dress and shoes did COMBINED! And we’re talking Talbots and Anne Klein labels here!

And for those who know me well, you may recognize the dark side of my secondhand shopping, the “yang” to my “yin” of my aforementioned  brilliance……I don’t care if the dress is boxy and completely hides one of my best attributes (small waist).  It’s from Talbot’s and only cost $5.89, dammit!!

I realize that there is a solution here that could really balance out my struggle. A smart, fashion-savvy shopper would take the money saved on this dress and splurge on some really cool accessories to spice it up. Wouldn’t that be a logical thing to do?  I mean, I could probably shop around and take some time and really put some thought into taking this passable dress, and accessorize it into a KILLER outfit.  It has the potential, I’m sure.  Wouldn’t that be a really cool thing for me to do?

Nah…….. too much work.

OK, maybe I didn’t go out and hand-pick any new accessories, but like I said, I did do what I feel is the next best thing:  I asked the You Look Fab forum for suggestions, then I dug through my closet and tried a few of their ideas.  What do you think?

I think the last look is probably the best – I really like the turquoise color of the cropped cardigan.

Also, now that I think of it, I did buy this belt for another outfit – do you think it might work?

Are you as exhausted as I am, having to deal with both the insanity and brilliance of my secondhand shopaholic brain?  It’s alot of work, I tell you!!