| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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There are a lot of duds: Payless shoes, body suits, homeboy jeans, size 3/4 pants, crop tops, trashy novels. But there are some great treasures: a leather bag, roomy wool sweaters, and the little black and grey striped tee I'm wearing now, which has quickly become one of my favorite pieces of clothing. The best part: all of the things are free, so if you hate it you just return it. My good friend has a $3 outfit from the free bin, she just needed some tights to go with it. She wore it to the New York City ballet at Lincoln Center and looked better than most of the people there. |
I'm wearing a shirt I didn't pay for, so I guess it was free. (boring explanatory story below.) the following paragraph is named "hi, I am a ditz and like run-on sentences": my married-couple friends I have a crush on gave me a $100 j. crew gift certificate for my birthday last year. I wanted to wait until fall to redeem it because I love their sweaters best. during an october sale I got a black cotton ribbed sweater, a burgundy wool crewneck, and this brick-red lambswool v-neck that I only wear if I'm feeling skinny (which I do now, week two of my I-think-I'll-try-to-stick-to-foods-my-body-can't-fully-digest diet to prepare for my late-february lingerie-shopping trip to paris where I'll be staying with a friend whose new, one-room ile st. louis apartment came with dozens of mirrors) because it has sort of a traditional waistband -- there the tight rib (the cuffs, waist and collar have a rib knit while the remainder of the sweater is stockinette stitch) has an elastic effect -- and the bottom of the sweater slides up toward my waist instead of sitting on my hips like the rest of my sweaters. I love it because the color is beautiful and the wool is so soft I can wear it next to my skin and because it reminds me of my dear friends, who told me they thought the certificate gift was vulgar but that I would appreciate it (because I too am vulgar?), which I did, very much. |
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(colors, fabrics, cut, etc.) I'm not sure if tonight I am going to wear a dress or jeans to a party. I got the dress at a senior citizens' second-hand shop in prague (senior bazaru) in 1994. I've discovered that regular dresses made for plump little old ladies can work as a-line baby-doll dresses on long-limbed women. the dress cost 30 cents. it's burgundy, a thick polyester with an interesting weave, a black spiderweb pattern. it shrank when I washed it so now it's really short, which is ok right now. the sleeves were a strange length on me, so I had my friend who used to be a phone-sex girl who has a sewing machine hem them up for me in exchange for a pitcher of expensive beer, some chi chi northwest microbrew. I have no good shoes to wear with it. in fact, really, all I have is a pair of clogs. but since the dress is weird, I guess the shoes can be weird too. I was successful last time I wore this outfit (i.e., I got a request to remove the dress), but the time before that I'm not as sure. at the end of the evening, he offered to drive me to my car, which was parked a block away (I think he knew this), and I said no, but he had to get back home to his wife and I had to move to another country, so it was all just as well anyway. |
Well, she's more one for sneakers and fleece, so the outfit was definitely not her everyday wear. She pulled a light grey schoolgirl-type skirt, a pair of size 11 black shoes (the nice kind with 2" heels and that new stretchy stuff around the main part of the foot--like Nine West keeps making), and a white button down tank out of the bin. The skirt was wool, the tank cotton. She bought a pair of black tights to cover up her legs (which she doesn't shave) and borrowed my black tie-front cardigan. She could definitely pull off the shoes--I couldn't. It was kind of a preppy and sweet look, but since she's so tall, so thin and so blonde, she can bend it a little to be a little bit more. I don't know many people who could look that good in a $3 outfit. Except my friend from home who I haven't seen in over two years. She frequented this barn where you can get a bag of old clothes for 50 cents. Never mind how musty and disgusting the place smelled. If you could find it, you could wear it, you could patch it, fix it, alter it or scrap it. She had these amazingly perfect jeans--very worn in and chic and a bright purply-bluish-green floral button-down tee shirt that looked like some thing that would never hit the sale rack. I'm usually lucky if I find one thing anywhere, so I'm still glowing about the free tee. I'm wondering if I have any really really hot clothes in my closet. Maybe the platforms need to be dusted off for this weekend... |
friday night I didn't wear the 30-cent dress because I'm getting too thin for it. instead I wore this ass-covering little plum velvet skirt I got on the sale rack at banana republic for $19 (you can get just about anything there for $19 if you walk in on the right day) and a tight black cotton rib-knit v-neck sweater I also got there for $19. the outfit was successful enough, but unfortunately it was too crowded to practice my russ meyer walk. |