Thrifting My Way to Type-A

I don’t know about all of you, but since my kids were born and I’ve been living in the style of Meg Wolitzer’s protagonist in the 10 Year Nap, I have nothing to wear besides jeans (mostly with holes in the knees), several Mickey Mouse t-shirts and a pair of red, Converse sneakers.  Okay, I’m exaggerating.  But only a little bit.  So when I started going to social-media conferences during the past year or so, I found myself at a bit of a loss.  A search through my closet outfitted me fairly successfully for the first couple of conferences I attended, but the upcoming Type-A Conference proved a bit more of a fashion challenge.  First off, I was going to be there for 4-days at a variety of different events from kick-off cocktails to retro-dance parties, from brand meet & greets to daily conference sessions and general networking.  Basically, a gamut of attire was required.

Not that I was stressing, really.  Type-A has a reputation for being uber-friendly and supportive (it was) and not at all clique-y (it wasn’t) so I didn’t feel any urgency to impress.  That said, I was very much looking forward to looking like a grown-up for a few days, shedding my daily momiform of Old Navy favs for something a bit more sophisticated.  This led to the second challenge.  Cost.

I definitely wanted some new items as I’d pretty much exhausted my personal clothing repertoire at other recent conferences, but I certainly wasn’t going to spend a bunch of  cash we didn’t have updating my wardrobe.  I needed to do this on the relative cheap but still get some things that were fabulous.  So I called my amazing friend, Tanya, writer at The Happy Badger, up-cycler & thrift-finder extraordinaire.  “You’ve got to hook me up with some stuff, Lady,” I said when I called her.  “Come on over.”  She replied. “I’ve got a bunch of things with your name written ALL over them.”  Fantastic.  I went right away.

A quick word about Tanya.  I don’t know how she does what she does.  She’s just got this incredible talent for getting her hands onto some enviable finds, be it clothing and accessories or furniture that’s just begging to be repurposed into something fabulous.  You see an old skirt with a crazy, psychedelic print?  Tanya sees a gorgeous piece of fabric that would make a perfect seat cover for the abandoned, upholstered garden chair she just spray-painted sunflower yellow.  Several months ago our community was faced with a tragic incident of domestic violence involving the death of a local mother.  The husband confessed to the crime and the couple’s two young daughters went to live with their maternal aunt, a single-mom herself who was not in the financial position to add two more children to her family, but did so with open arms.  Tanya, who lives in the neighborhood where this tragedy happened, was moved to do something for these two little girls who lost both of their parents and whose lives were suddenly turned upside down.  She launched, Wear it, Don’t Bear it a fundraising event featuring her fabulous thrift as well as tons of great auction items donated by local business and crafters.  The event itself and subsequent direct donations raised over $20,000 for the girls–an incredible feat in and of itself.

When I arrived, I found Tanya in her sunroom/storage area surrounded by suitcases, boxes and black trash bags bursting with goodies.  I’d told her about the conference on the phone and she began pulling things out for me to try immediately.  “I have been WAITING for you to come over for ages!  I have so many things here that are PERFECT for you!”  Tanya has an amazing eye for people’s style and build and when she’s out on a fashion foray she’ll often pick up pieces with someone specific in mind.  Several of the items she handed me were things she said she’d wanted me to try for months.  Everyone should be so lucky to have this kind of personal shopper.

After an hour of trying things on, I left with several dresses and skirts, a couple of cardigans and a great tank by Free People.  She tried to con me into a teal blue, metallic Betsy Johnson mini-dress but I had to draw the line somewhere.

So here are the items I scored for the conference, all for about $100 (not including shoes, which I owned already)–an amount that is completely unheard of!

Thursday – Arrival day, dinner with cousins, drinks at the hotel bar

This sheer, little leopard-print blouse by Walter was the perfect mix of chic and casual paired with jeans and espadrille wedges.  It was warm in Atlanta during Type-A and the outfit was just right for dinner out with my cousins, Atlanta locals, at King + Duke, a hot new restaurant with a farm to hearth to table spin and gorgeous food.  The evening carried over to drinks in the Westin Buckhead’s lobby bar, packed with Type-A camaraderie and welcoming spirit.  It was a festive night!

Friday – Session day 1 and conference kick-off party

If you’ve ever been to a conference of any type, you know that the hotel ballrooms and conference rooms tend to be on the cool side.  In spite of the warm, humid weekend forecast, I made sure to bring a little sweater or two along with me.  I absolutely love this dress, by Sangria, with it’s funky geometric pattern.  I wanted to start the conference looking more tailored, yet the fun print and sweet sweater helps it to be a bit less so.  The dress is really comfortable and packed beautifully–not a wrinkle when I pulled it from my carryon.  I will admit that my feet did hurt by the end of the day, in my black Soft slingbacks from Nordstrom Rack (my go-to place for great shoe prices).  At the kick-off party, which was a retro-dance night theme, I bravely sported a pair of sequin pants by Laundry, not a Tanya find, but something I picked up for $10 at the famous St. Barnabas Church Sale in Irvington, New York, the next town over from me.  Lots of compliments on those that night!

Saturday – Session day 2

This was my favorite outfit–a pleated silk Anne Klein skirt paired with a little cardigan by Valentino Red.  I did have to have a bit of tailoring on the sweater–the buttons pulled a bit and the tailor seamed up the front so that there were no gaps in between the buttons.  The sweater also had two shoulder flaps that were buttoned down with two more of the gold buttons.  I didn’t like that feature, so I had the flaps removed.  I think it looked much more classic without them.  These shoes are some of my favorites, made by Soft and purchased at Nordstrom Rack for the Disney Social Media Moms on the Road event in NYC in June.

Sunday – Closing day

By Sunday I was definitely ready for some jeans and a pair of ballet flats–my feet were still sore from all the dancing on Friday night!  This flowy, poet-style blouse by BCBG was a comfortable way to dress up the jeans yet still be casual.  This blouse is one of the pieces I myself bought at Tanya’s Wear it, Don’t Bear it event back in March.  I love this blouse and have worn it on several occasions.  I especially like to wear it with a pair of heeled silver sandals I have.  Lots of fun!

So what did I learn from all of this?  NEVER pay retail!  I cannot believe how much fabulous stuff is out there just waiting to be discovered for a super bargain.  And if you can find your own, personal thrift-guru as I have been lucky enough to do, even better.  Thank you, Tanya, for helping me to feel great at Type-A.  I couldn’t have done this on my own! xo

And a special word of gratitude to my wonderful photographer friend Debbie Allan, for all these great images of my outfits.  I knew I wanted to write this post from the moment I went “shopping” at Tanya’s yet didn’t get any pictures of myself during the weekend.  Debbie helped me to remedy that so this post could be populated with the visuals of my outfit descriptions.  Thanks so much, Debs!