mindless consumer frenzy

[wombat1138]

Well, not entirely, but I did have a grand old time hitting the resale stores last week.

Best overheard conversation, or, the perils of imprecise enunciation: "Can you help me find a book called The Amityville Horror?" "Have you tried the Erotica section?"


When I was growing up, most of my wardrobe was secondhand clothing, except for certain items like socks, underwear, and shoes; new clothing almost always came from consolidators like TJ Maxx and Marshalls. This is still mostly true. Right after I graduated from college, I did have a brief phase of (gasp!) going to the mall and paying full retail prices, but the solicitous salesclerks weirded me out, I didn't enjoy the shopping experience any better, and the clothes lasted about the same amount of time. There's a certain odd, musty smell to thrift shops which repels some people, but to me, it's almost literally the scent of childhood. My mom took me thrifting a lot; it's about the only category of positive interaction I can think of having had with her. While I have a great deal of abstract respect for her and her accomplishments, I still don't *like* her. But anyway.

The Goodwills etc. in the SF Bay Area are the place where ex-dotcom shirts went to die: colorful cotton swatches of optimism, printed with cheerful announcements of impending IPOs and illusory market caps. The quality level of the other castoffs has made me vastly spoiled so that I no longer instantly snap up every single cashmere sweater or silk blouse within a certain size radius; heavens no, now it actually has to fit me and be in a color I like. In a way, this is bad, because I no longer take as many chances, but on the other hand, perhaps it's time to settle into a rut. At least for now.

Best(?) t-shirt finds: Two SW collectors' items that are much too large for me and which I probably wouldn't wear even if they fit because my current level of SW enthusiasm is desultory at best; still, how could I pass up ILM crew gear from TPM and one of the original Comicon promos for the Hyperspace section of starwars.com? (Besides, there's always eBay.) A shirt with Japanese text that I initially thought (based on my limited walkabout memory of verb suffixes) might mean something like "If you can read this, you've been [something something something]", but instead turns out to be a promo for a Japanese professional wrestling organization called HUSTLE-- since there's a typo in the tag, there may also be a typo in the text; if so, the slogan seems to be something like "Once in every man's lifetime, it must be time for HUSTLE." (I might be able to talk the wombat-consort into adopting this one. Then again, maybe not.)

Trendspotting: Hoodies are just starting to show up, along with the ludicrously long-cowled turtlenecks which I keep hoping would be long enough to make emergency hood cover, but aren't. As always, there are huge quantities of formal officewear in fabrics/styles that just don't work around here. Three-quarter sleeves now seem to be sufficiently passe that they've almost stopped showing up in the thrift stores again, but I think I've accumulated enough to bolster the few hand-me-downs I'd saved from the last time they were hip. I don't care, I like 'em. However, the "What Not To Wear" gang may've mocked reverse-cut jeans into enough oblivion that those aren't showing up anymore either, dammit. It may be entirely true that they make butts look big, but they're also comfy; my only alternatives seem to be the loathsome low-rise jeans that dictate my underwear selection for me, or regular-rise straight-cuts that leave huge gaps around my waist. It's enough to drive me into skirts.

Best skirt finds (told you): Found a big stash of natural(ish)-fiber broomstick skirts: silk, cotton, and rayon. They're thin enough to either layer under heavier winter skirts or with each other for spring/autumnwear; they're a bit transparent to wear on their own in direct sunlight, so I'll either have to find a miniskirt to layer underneath as a half-slip or assemble some sleeveless vests/tops that're long enough to cover any embarrassing silhouettes from going commando.

Comments

[eeedge.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is that I like looking at children's clothing in thrift stores, but I hate looking at grown-up clothing there. I think part of it is just the general I-hate-shopping-for-my-own-clothing thing, and part of it is that my girls are both still young enough that we don't generally try things on. Thrift shop changing rooms really do have a high ick factor for me.