Thrift Store Finds

It appears that everyone has caught the Prada lace bug. Suddenly, I want to wear lace, too. Fortunately, I bought this top years ago at a thrift store for $10, before lace became the hot look of the season. It is totally impractical. It distorts and snags easily so I can't wear a shoulder bag. It does look nice worn loose, and with the longer silk camisole tucked into trousers. Hard and soft.

This was another favorite thrift store find. I keep an eye out for garments with good buttons at thrift stores. This one came with so many buttons! $25. When I took it up to the counter to pay for it, they charged me $12.50 because it had sat around in the store for so long. Apparently, many customers thought all those buttons looked weird.

Here they are closeup.
In the end, I decided it was too much fun to wear the jacket "as is" to sacrifice it for the buttons. The tag says Lolita Lempicka (link to pix of some of her 2005 designs). Read an old NYT review from the fashion house's glory days.

I agree with Booth Moore, fashion editor for the LA Times:

I've read countless stories about how you should throw out things that you haven't worn in the last year, because you probably won't wear them again. Not so. How I wish this season that I had that pair of mid-heel, brown, lace-up shoes I bought when I lived in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, or that DKNY bag in raspberry and purple I carried when I first moved here, which would look so of-the-moment.

My rule: If you thought it was a beautiful piece 10 years ago, it probably still is. You just have to wait for fashion to come around to it again.

Read the entire article, Making the switch to women's fall styles.