The Art of the Thrifted "Weird Piece"
While browsing my favorite local thrift shop last week, I spotted a whole rack of sequin, glittery, flashy clothes. There were some pants, tops, flapper dresses, jackets, all sorts of items that just stood out from the rest of the shop. One thing kept calling out to me though, a pink/purple sequined cape sleeve crop top.
The "What If" Moment: Spotting the Gem
I've been to this consignment thrift shop a handful of times before, the owner has some great people selling there, and finds amazing pieces of her own for selling; the store is set up so that each seller's clothing is on it's own rack and usually in the same place if it's someone who has had their items there a while.
All this to say, the rack of sparkly dresses and other things, is front and center when you walk in the store, and I have clearly noticed it every time I went in.
This past week, I had a day off and spent nearly over an hour carefully going over everything the store. One of the first things that stood out to me was this tiny pink sequined crop top. I grabbed it, and unfortunately it was a small, so I put it back, and kept side eyeing it as I went through everything else. I ended up only buying a skirt that day, and pulled a couple of things of the $1 rack outside.
I also had a fun, super long conversation with the girl working about how I was going to style the skirt, and some other random things.
Later on, on the weekend, I ended up going back to the store, mostly to show off to my friend working there how I ended up styling the skirt. After talking a bit, and scrolling through all the pictures I took of my outfits, I went to poke around the store again, to see if there was anything new, but also to really take a hard look at that top again. This time, however, I asked the girl about her opinion on the matter, and she told me to try it on and if it works it's meant to be.
I'm always a bit nervous of trying on smaller items because I have a bit wider of a shoulders and back. It would kill me to put something on and either rip it or get stuck. But I went in and put it on, and it surprisingly fit, I guess the more flowy nature of the shape and sleeves kept it safe.
The "Weird Piece" Litmus Test: Is It Worth It?
Looking around a thrift store, I go completely off of vibes, if something looks cool, or just gives me some sort of special feeling, I'll give it some deeper consideration. I tend to look for anything that just looks like it would be fun to wear, without even thinking about what to wear with it.
When I'm considering buying a piece, my mind goes to a few places. First is price, if it's reasonable, I'm already moving to the side to at least consider it. Then I'll obviously look at size, as long as it's possible to put on, I'll put it in the try pile.
This pink top, immediately made me want to wear it when I saw it, I didn't even slightly care about what to wear with it, or where I would wear it. I just wanted to have it. It kind of filled out that part of my style of being distinctly super girly sparkly top. The only reason I didn't buy it the first time, was that I let my fears and logic get the better of me, it might've been too small, people might look at me weird, who knows.
The Styling Philosophy: Let It Be the Star
Once you have your statement piece, then comes the hard work, how to wear it. The first idea would be to have it be the main focus of your outfit. To make a piece like this really stand out, it really should go with something more simple, a nice long black skirt, jeans, something white, maybe some other plain earthy contrasting colors. Or possibly some coordinating colors but muted and less saturated than the top.
It also has a pretty obvious design feature with the sequins, so avoiding other visual textures and patterns on the bottom would be a good idea.
For the shoes, I think you could go either way, something matching or plain I think would work well.
When I bought this top, I can guarantee, casual was not on my mind, but it's a fun experiment and good way to get as much use out of piece as you can. I tried on a few things when I got home, I started with some skirts, and as mentioned before, the long black skirt actually felt pretty good, but still a little too fancy.
Then I went to pants. I'm torn now between two, tight jeans or white skinny pants. I think I would choose pants based on what shoes I would want to wear. With the jeans, I liked white Keds, or my pink Kate Spade glitter Keds to match the top. With the white pants, I had some black strappy sandals that looked nice.
Look 2: The Thematic Embrace
My main inspiration in buying this top was pretty much based on the fact that I already owned the matching pink glitter Keds, so planning out this outfit was a little easier from the get go. With the flashy pinks I wanted to keep everything else minimal or at least, less powerful.
I went with a short black leather skirt here. For shoes, yes I did do Keds, but that was mostly for myself. To actually make this outfit stand out I went with some black leather knee-high heeled boots.
The Confidence Clause
Walking out the door wearing this outfit, I did whimp out and do the casual version. I have yet to figure out where I want to wear this with the skirt and heels. Even though I didn't see anyone outside my house, I felt very seen and perceived, which made me feel super self-conscious and nervous. Once I drove around and was actually around people it was less bad.
Whenever I wear something like this, it always feels like the first time doing this, it's scary, unwanted, or just not what I'm supposed to be doing. I always tell myself, "it's just clothes" and that it'd be a lot weirder if you weren't wearing anything.
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