Out of the bargain bin

 

 

I’ve been wearing vintage for a really long time. Even back in the day where I was a complete rock chick/tomboy, I would drive over to Wooloowin where a lady had a retro store in a house called The Retro Stop, and buy 60s and 70s men’s pants (grandpa pants as they were known as in my house). But when I first started to change my outfit to being vintage-inspired and then pinup, I had no money to buy repro or the really expensive, highly curated vintage beauties you see at retro stores. I’ve mentioned before that I changed my dressing style by buying cheaper clothes from Kmart and Target if they had a vintage shape, or adding vintage hairstyles and makeup to modern clothes. But the other thing I did was shop the bargain bins.

Back in the days of the Love Vintage fairs (vintage shows that traveled around Australia and that were pretty much the best for getting a lot of shopping done in one place), I would dive straight for the bargain bins. That’s where you’d find dresses with a hole or a tear, things that needed a stitch here, a new hem, or a good soak to get stains out.

This dress is a bargain bin dress. It’s in perfect condition, the only thing wrong with it was that it was missing a couple of buttons. So for $15, I bought it, found some buttons in my cousin’s huge collection and resewed them.

I love the dress because it incorporates so many different colours and I’ve worn it with bright yellows and reds, oranges and green. It works in the summer (though, it’s a nice coarse poly blend that isn’t the most breathable fabric) with sandals or in the winter with tights. Or, like I am today, a warm spring day but a cool night, with brown boots and a brown belt.

So, don't discount the clothes in the bargain bin! They just need a little TLC.

And now, because the outfit is vintage and you can't buy the same (though the belt and boots are from Kmart Australia), here are some derp photos from this set (it's sad when you like 90% of your derps better than the serious face pictures).