The Hat

There comes a time in every girl's life...when she must wear boring clothes!

It's true--not everything in your wardrobe can be adorable, and one day, when it's cold outside and you don't feel like wearing a dress, and all your winter tops are like ugh, you will decide to suck it up and put on the jeans and the blah shirt. But your outfit can still be saved, and it's as simple as wearing a hat!

This right here is my very first "hat-as-accessory." After cutting my locks from a dramatic waist length to a cutesy bob a few months ago, I knew I would have to invest in some accessories to do the job that the hair used to do. I found this hat on sale (about 5$) at Burlington Coat Factory and knew I had struck glamor gold.

It's brown. It has polka dots. (As you can tell from the curtain in the background, brown with polka dots is a personal favorite of mine). It's even got some bling. My roommate tells me her grandma tells her that all the girls are wearing bling bling now, so it must be cool.

When I picked out my boring clothes on that fateful day, I picked out The Hat as well, and I like to think that my outfit was somewhat redeemed.

Because The Hat, cute as it is, has the effect of casting a shadow over my face, I did something I usually don't and wore mascara to bring out my eyes. Did you know that if you don't try to wash it off, some mascara will stay on for three days!? Apparently it does. And for those three days that my eyes were all decked out, I felt more beautiful than usual. All because of a wonderful, marvelous Hat!

Whoa, Purple!

Usually, when I plan an outfit, I feel it's success if just one person comments on it. Bonus points if it's a compliment, but I'll settle for any acknowledgment that my look is in some way interesting. Such was the case when I rolled out this little number a few weeks ago.

Did I get, "Valerie, cute outfit!" No. Did I hear, "Valerie, I love your jacket!" No. But I did get, "WHOA, PURPLE!"

So, success!

I got the jacket (royal purple) on sale for 3 dollars. The shirt underneath (lavender) was an old T-shirt that I modified to look more cute and less blocky. Remind me to show you sometime. If I had had more time for setup, I would have taken in the sides of the shirt so it fit less loosely, but I did what I could in the mad dash to get to work on time. But the crowning glory of the whole getup was the socks. That's right. Purple unicorn knee socks!

I admit that I did not get these socks at bargain prices. I paid a premium, because I knew they would make the most magical outfit the world had ever known. Sadly, no one commented on the socks--perhaps because they were blown away by the overall excess of purple. Next time I risk wearing these extravagant covers on my feet, I think I'll try to make the rest of my outfit less in-your-face.

First Impressions

Hello, and welcome to the blog where one person's trash becomes another person's fashion statement!

In the upcoming posts, you'll see plenty of fashion - both good and bad - but before we get started, I'd like to tell you a little about me and my mission in starting this blog.

My name is Valerie. Despite my unlikely start as the girl Most Likely to Show Up to School in a Sweatsuit Every Day, I have, in more recent years, gotten a reputation for wearing cute outfits. (I could bore you with some of the compliments I've gotten, but I don't want to, well, bore you!)

After a few years of getting used to my conversion from a super dork with no fashion sense to just a super dork, I decided I wanted to memorialize my accomplishments and encourage others to similar success. I hope that by sharing my wardrobe, tips, tricks, and ideas with the Wide World of the Web, other creative/nerdy/individualistic girls out there (You?) will be inspired to develop a style of their own.

The secret to my look is a bit of aesthetic sensibility and a hearty helping of thrift. The best things in life are free or heavily discounted. I never buy when I can make; I am my own personal tailor; I wait until the end of the season when everything's on sale; I scour the secondhand shops on a regular basis; I am a Freecycle fiend. The outfits that I put together are never at the height of fashion, but they always have style.

Fashion fun is on the way, and I'm glad you stopped by to partake of it. I hope you'll take a minute to introduce yourself—comment form is right below! Until next time...