DRESS THIS MESS: Lesson One (Thrifting)

Diploma in hand, I opened up a bunch of cards congratulating me on my success. They all said the same thing: “Good on ya,” “Way to go champ”, and “You did it.” Well, to be honest, they weren’t that cheesy. (I should clearly cross the greeting card writing job of my list of potential careers.) Scribbled under these prefabricated salutations were notes like “welcome to the adult world.” Being me, my mind didn’t go straight to the financial responsibilities loaded in that statement. Instead, I thought I have to start dressing like an adult now.

I am a petite girl…woman. I could easily still fit into a pair of jeans at Pacsun marketed for preteens who haven’t hit puberty yet. However, “adults” don’t wear preteen jeans. So, I immediately dug through my closet and did a major purge of all clothing the screamed teen. With an empty closet and a head full of ideas, I hit the net looking for things that would become my new adult, graduate-of-college style. I quickly found that the items I loved were far far far out of my price range. For example:

Madewell's Shutterbug Top for the small price of an arm, a leg, and $89.50 from my wallet.

Anthropologie's Freya Blouse for only $69.00

I quickly realized, I like expensive clothing. I also realized, I really like silk blouses. But unfortuatly, there is no way I could ever afford these with no job, meager savings, and a car that dosen’t have the strength to make it to the nearest Madewell or Anthropology. So I took fellow blogger Jentine’s (from her blog My Edit) advice on thrifting silk shirts. My town has a small thrift store called Select Seconds. I was feeling pretty unsure of myself shopping there: it quickly became apparent that I was SIGNIFICANTLY younger than their average clientele. I quickly got over my awkwardness when I spotted a whole rack of blouses, the majority of them silk!

One thing Jentine teaches about thrifting is to check the quality of the clothes you see: read the tags to check that they are 100% silk; give them the wrinkle test, silk wrinkles; and, be conscious of sizes. I ran with her advice and found three blouses, each for $3.00, and two belts, each for $.75.

Only the pink shirt is up for an immediate debut in my wardrobe. The others will have to be refashioned into something wearable. I am thinking the white shirt will be turned into something like the Madewell ShutterBug top (but with pockets). I guess my thrifting experiment has also turned into a sewing one. In the end, thrifting pays. No need to break the bank when the things I want can be found relatively inexpensively.

and so it begins.

Last month I graduated from college. I lined up with the rest of the class of 2011, ready to take my own walk across the stage. Somewhere between the last step up onto the stage, and the other side I swear I blacked out. I went through the motions, don’t get me wrong: photographic evidence supports that I shook the president of the college’s hand, grabbed my diploma, and grinned from ear to ear. But I didn’t hear the hoots of my family in the audience. I didn’t look out over the sea of faces to find those people that made college such an amazing experience. I just blacked out. I went somewhere deep in my own mind, locked in the panic that I was now fully graduated. The transformation was complete.

In that lost moment, I realized something. the transformation was not complete. It was just beginning. That moment was meerly the catalyst that would propel the big, deciding changes of my life as a 20-something year old graduate trying to find her place in a big and ever-changing world.

So, as I go through this change, what I am calling “gradification,” I hope you will join me. The adventures begin here. I am finding my own style; my hopeful career; my talents and skills; and, along the way, testing myself and my strength everyday. It’s time to find gratification in this gradification transformation. (Yes, I know that rhymed.)