Wednesday, June 20, 2018

All of the hippie, none of the cost


If you're looking for hippie clothing, you need look no further than any boutique shopping district, where you're bound to find a store or two specializing in the myriad distinctive fashions that define the flower-child aesthetic. Oh, wait, you're saying that stores in boutique shopping districts charge an arm and a leg for their wares? Well, then you need look no further than your friendly neighborhood secondhand-clothing website, Swap.com! (as usual, link is a referral link).

From this website, I've managed to acquire a whole host of crocheted, macrame'd, beaded, batik'd, and otherwise earth-mother-approved clothing, at prices even someone living out of a VW Microbus could afford! Today, I was able to combine two of them into one perfect outfit.

On the bottom is a pair of cropped, wide-legged pants. You can tell they're meant for the all-natural set by their cotton material, smocked waist, and waistband tie. What waistband tie, you say? Well, I didn't like the way it looked tied at the front, so I reversed it to tie at the back! I have to say I really like this look, and I might have to try this trick more often!


The pants weren't always cropped; they originally fell quite awkwardly just around my ankles, and looked terrible with almost all pairs of shoes. If you want to see these pants as they were originally intended, they're for sale here for 30$. I got mine for just three! [Fun Fact: These pants are also the source of the coconut sarong tie I used in my multi-purpose poncho outfit!] When I first got them, I wasted a lot of time wetting and stretching them, trying to wheedle a little more length out of them, only to have them revert to their incredibly stumpy original proportions the next time I washed them. 
 
That was enough of that! This summer, I gave up on ever wearing them as long pants and hemmed them to this new length. Since I made the change reversible, it was a low-risk move, and a good one, because this marks the first time, in the year-plus that I've owned them, that I've ever found them flattering enough to photograph!

It doesn't hurt that the top I wore with them was almost perfectly coordinated. This one, too, bears all the hallmarks of neo-hippie fashion: batik designs on rayon fabric, a sort-of patchwork construction, wooden toggles, and a timeless silhouette. Judging from the style, I suspect that this particular garment is a relic of the 90's, but clothing like this has never been mainstream, so therefore you can wear it in any era without running the risk of looking outmoded (you do run the risk of looking weird, but that's a risk I love to take!). It, too, cost me three dollars.

This top is probably intended to be a vest, meant for layering, but also works on its own, though it's a little low-cut for the office. I wore a beige lace bandeau underneath it for decency, and repeated the flesh tones with (earthy hemp-rope-and-canvas, naturally) beige wedge sandals.

No hippie outfit would be complete without some natural stone jewelry, so it was turquoise to the rescue, which just so happens to match the colors in the clothes!

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