consumerism

Lately I've been really into buying lots of pretty things that I really don't need (a post full of recent thrift purchases is currently being planned, actually). The above, taken from melovescookies (on flickr), is an example of why I just can't seem to escape the itch to buy. Her fantastic outfit is mostly handmade and thrifted, though, which is nice.

I haven't been to a mall forever, but I saw my friends Natalie and Rachel on Monday, and they both looked wonderful and made me jealous. Natalie was wearing layered tees, one with puffy sleeves and a scoop neck (puffy sleeves are one of my weaknesses, you know, along with polka dots and teacher tie blouses), and she said she bought a bunch of cute shirts during one of those retail sale things. I've been good about only really buying second hand for a long time now (which is great for finding old vintage treasures), but recently I have been fighting the urge to buy lots of simple t-shirt tops for layering. And I think I might legitimately need new jeans, though it might just be that my desire for them has become so great that they now seem a necessity. This consumer bug is particularly bad when I'm home, with time to peek at fall collections and gawk at all of the fashionable creative bloggers I'm in awe of. If you don't know about wardrobe_remix, for example, you have been missing out. Be warned, time seems to fly by when you're on flickr, particularly wardrobe_remix--a project started by recent Parson's graduate Tricia Royal/pintuck, whose style (and talent) I'm totally jealous of. Look, she's straight out of a magazine. While I don't always think every single thing posted to w_r is super fantastic, it's mostly a difference of taste thing. There are tons of really inspiring and creative kids posting. I think melovescookies is specifically totally awesome, just look at her crazy impressive poses. Some of these girls might even make me a leggings convert (something about refusing to wear jeans and thus only wearing leggings under giant sweaters or the occasional jumper until fifth grade...my mistakes just keep me from accepting leggings in a modern context. The layers, though, hold such possibilities...)

I'm sure I'll have thoughts about Project Runway after tonight's episode, too, and then my urge to buy will be nearly overwhelming. Maybe washing and putting away my new 2nd Mile thrift purchases will keep me inspired for a while. I love that new-to-me clothes period when it's all about playing dress up and exploring new outfits.