For the love of used clothes

I'm a huge advocate for secondhand fashion. The last time I checked, 70% of my clothing collection was acquired used, and since I discovered online thrift stores (Swap.com and, just recently, ThredUP – links are referral links!), it's gone up to 78!

Today's outfit is a celebration of all things pre-loved, and what better way to represent that than with a dress covered in hearts? I got the dress at Swap.com, and found that not only was it pre-loved; it was also pre-refashioned! It apparently used to have sleeves, and I can tell that they were removed by the fraying fabric around the armholes. I'll have to do something about that, but at least I know there's one DIYer out there who's just as lazy as I am!

While the used dress and used sweater (hand-me-down from a friend) are a pretty good celebration in themselves, the real party in this outfit is the shoes.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane in them!

When I was in high school, shoes like this were at the height of fashion. I can still see me now, attending a function in our gym/auditorium with all the other girls in my class, rocking a long floral straight skirt and a cardigan-cami set (other iconic styles of the late 90's) and a pair of sandals much like these—skinny, asymmetrical straps, square toe, and, well, mine definitely had a much more aesthetically pleasing block heel, but I guess this flared look was fashionable too!

For a long time after the 90's ended, I was forced to eschew square toes because they were very clearly outdated. But what goes around comes around, and the square-toe shoe is back! After having had about 20 years to get over them, I am fully on board with their return and have gone all-in on finding vintage  sandals from the 90's to round out my collection. I've gotten three so far (and I should probably stop now!), but these off-white ones are probably my best find at only $3.49. So yeah, you can pay a couple hundred dollars for a cool, up-to-the-minute pair of vintage-looking sandals from your designer of choice, or you can head to your local thrift store right now and probably snag something decent for a couple bucks!

If that's not a reason to buy used clothes, I don't know what is!

ThredUP gave me this nifty "used" pin when I made my first order,
so naturally I had to take a photo with it for this ode to secondhand goods!