Afternoon of Shopping with Sherry – Volume III
My third mini instalment of shopping with me..
So today is more of a thrifting expedition.
Those of you who follow me on Instagram already may have seen this, but in this post, I add more notes / comments about what I thought as I shopped and so on.
Adina finds the best deals (her IG is PROOF), and so her is blog – Blue Collar Red Lipstick.
The thrifting scene in Montreal is actually not that great. The brands here are pretty terrible, and I have yet to find something along the lines of the designer garb Adina scores on the regular.
Of course, she thrifts a lot more often than I do. She goes I am sure, at least 2, 3 times a week, and I tend to go not at all, if maybe once every 4 months.
I usually find myself pretty lazy. Lazy enough to just log into The Real Real (use my referral code for a $25 credit) and shop there, or browse Poshmark or eBay if the fancy strikes me. Online shopping here, especially in Montreal where people aren’t exactly flush with money for the most part, is a far better deal than battling traffic to try different thrift shops.
That said, I gave it a whirl this weekend and it wasn’t so bad….
DAMN. $14? I feel like that’s the price.. NEW.. Is it not? I must be out of touch.
These looked very promising and comfortable but they were in terrible terrible condition:
They would have been salvageable and I would have tried to clean and make sure they’re wearable had the price not had been $15!!!!
$5 why not? $15? No way. Besides, I already have a pair of similar sandals.
They do look very nice.
I liked the floral print on these:
But I am now a snob against bad, ill-fitting shoes and sandals because my feet suffer. I don’t want to look cute if I am not comfortable.
This dress looked cute enough to touch, and I was imagining wearing them with leggings and over-the-knee (OTK) boots…
But I decided against it because it would be such a one-note look of leggings + OTK boots. I wouldn’t wear it otherwise.
I did like this salmon pink dress however.
It looked so comfortable and simple. I already own a similar dress in pink silk from Equipment so I passed.
And it was MATERNITY! LOL… I love maternity dresses. Super comfy.
This plaid caught my eye immediately …
The shirt was HUGE though for an “XS”…
Found a plain, comfortable button-up shirt, but the colour was really dull. Like muddy plaster of paris. Really unflattering. But Splendid is a nice brand.
Zara comes up with cute items but this is really unfortunate it isn’t better than cheap fabric. I would have bought it just for the collar.
Cute collar. Also, $10? I’d pay $5 for this because of the polyester.
PAUL FRANK!
I think Paul Frank as a black kitty cat, not necessarily Cat Woman, but it isn’t cute enough for me to buy and wear it because it isn’t an interesting enough print.
Then this colour (have an obsession with pine green and scarab sort of colours), came about and caught my eye immediately:
Then I saw this:
AND THIS!?
Another interesting print dress…
And it looked like a nice dress, but too twee for me.
Then this fabric caught my fingers — I can feel really good fabric instantly because I’m such a fabric snob:
TWIN. SET. This is a brand on Sherbrooke in Montreal, but unfortunately there’s a bad rip.
Another good brand – Maggy London with a perfectly intact wood and bead bib…
I really liked it, and wanted to try it:
It is not that it looked terrible on me but it didn’t do anything for me.
I didn’t go: OMG!
It was just a bibbed black dress, simple, cotton shift. I could have styled it a billion different ways but it wasn’t interesting enough for my closet.
I am not letting anything in that isn’t going to be a supporting Staple (cashmere or interesting cable-knit sweaters included), or an interesting print / piece…
Then I got all the French Girl meets Sailor vibes when I saw this:
I knew the minute I touched it, it would not be a good quality dress:
Then I realized why. Top is almost see-through (have a black bra on underneath), and the neckline was VERY LOW.. I had to hike it up hard to cover my front….
I do like the combo though. I am sure I can take a thick striped shirt in my closet and pair it with this nice vintage wool skirt I own to get a similar effect.
Like this!
YAY FOR SHOPPING IN YOUR OWN CLOSET!!
A much better option. French Girl chic. Just need a black beret.
(KIDDING. KIDDING… I’m not a clichĂ©…)
Then I saw this print and sort of was drawn to it. I don’t know why, but smaller, boho prints are speaking to me lately.
Then I saw this tag and stopped:
Really? Boohoo exists? The quality wasn’t that bad but it was just a boring dress:
You had cold shoulder cutouts on either side, and long sleeves. Yawn.
Then I saw this thing swishing around on the rack…
You can tell by the tag it is a cheap, crappy brand. The text is not clearly embroidered, it isn’t a good quality fabric for even the tag, and it doesn’t have the look of a luxe no-name label, even though I don’t know this brand.
(The white dots in the photo are an accident, I did it in Instagram and made a mistake trying to move the picture around and didn’t realize it until later.)
I tried it on and wistfully put it back.
The bust area looks weird AF because the padding inside was shifting around and folding in on itself. I’d have to massage out the padding to the bust section and sew it down or something.
Too much work.
SO. PRETTY. This print really spoke to me. All the gold swirling over a pretty pretty print…..
Then of course because I love all pinks and oranges and navies and bright colours, this caught my eye:
The quality was not great though, a slightly see through crumpled cotton that would make me look rumpled after about 5 minutes of sitting..
I would rather have a pretty print but in a GREAT quality fabric with a good fit and cut. Not something like a throwaway summer dress even for $8.
Looking back in hindsight, the floral is too.. colourful. Not chic enough. Too much like a cheap Chinese silk painting.
I do love watercolours and dreamy paintbrush-y prints but this is not really the kind of print I like.
DEFINITELY NOT MY STYLE and screamed “That 70s show to me” lol..
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This skirt really caught my eye. I mean, white, and a GORGEOUS clearly bespoke lace in front?
See what I mean abut the tag? It is in black, I can see the text clearly, I can tell it is a good brand because of the way the tag has been designed.
And it looked very pretty, very bohemian on me. But it was slightly OFF as my style — a little too peasant-y… and the waist itself was really ruined. I’d have to take it into a tailor to redo the elastic waist, it was all ripped and coming apart.
But STILL!
HEARTS? ON RED? HOW CUTE IS THAT SKIRT.
Too childish for me however.
I also found what I thought was a striped dress but surprise #1 it ended up being a jumpsuit when I tried it on.
Surprise #2, is how terrible the stripes matched up especially in the leg area. This would have been mucho cuter as a maxi striped dress.
Even with that rip at the back, I tried on that fancy wool TWINSET dress:
It was an itchy wool, it didn’t fit well, and was boring.
I also snagged this black maxi skirt off the rack before going into the dressing room:
I tried it on but it was boring, unlined.. and if it was something more interesting like tulle, or with pockets, I would have been more interested.
Unlined, no thanks.
Then this is just funny stuff:
Someone asked me how the water drained, but I suspect the edges or the front of that tub where you see a break in the floor is the actual drain….
OH!
Then I went by another consignment shop and found THIS autumn floral beauty by Erdem:
YEAH. YEAH!!
And I did some Googling but this dress I suppose is too old to really show up anywhere with an old price, so I found a similar dress:
SWEET!
I love finding designer dresses for $100 <3
I also did not know this but Erdem is a very popular dress brand with Kate Middleton.
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