NY City Loves to Mess Around with the LA Sound...

 Dress, Clutch: Vintage   Necklace: DIY   Shoes: Steve Madden   Bracelet: Forever21

I bought this gorgeous Champagne Gold crochet dress at a thrift store the other day, it was actually a large top with a lining that I cut out and it turned out beautifully! So I often see people in forums asking about thrifting tips o and although I am no expert I decided to mention the tips that I have found worked for me recently…

My thrifting tips:

1. Look at fabrics, colours and prints before looking at cut and shape. With often racks upon racks of things to sort through you often don’t know where to start. I find scanning for fabrics that I like first helps narrow things down. Shape and cut you can change, the others you can’t.

2. Don’t bother looking at the sizing. Just go with it regardless of how big or small it might be, silhouettes have evolved and so often clothes look better in different sizes on you than they were designed for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought things, only to find it is 4 sizes bigger than I would normally take.

3. Take a patient friend with similar thrifting style to yourself, otherwise go alone. I prefer to go alone. You need to be patient to sort through the racks and the last thing you need is to know that your friends are waiting for you. Plus, your friends might not see the potential of something the same way you do and may discourage you from giving it a go! Plus, since there’s only one of anything, you can avoid both falling in love with the same piece.

4. Take cinchers, pins, anything that helps you wear an item in different ways. Often, something won’t look perfect on, but with the right belt, falls into place perfectly. Try wearing it in different ways by adding belts (which you can often find there), pinning bits or rolling up the sleeves and you’ll be surprised how different things can look!

5. Just give it a go! You never know until you try! I can genuinely say, of all the pieces that I was uhmm-ing and ahh-ing about, after trying them on, a majority of those pieces have consequently come home with me.

I hope this helps someone! Thrifting is a truly wonderful way to shop! Not only is it fun, cheap and you can pick up some amazing pieces, but it's great for the community and for the environment. I lean towards shopping at non-profit, charity stores. I sometimes find it a little wrong to pay more for a thrifted item than it probably would have cost brand new!