The Dress

HELLO! I’M MARRIED NOW!! HOORAY! I’m still slowly coming back down to earth after what was truly the best few weeks of my life. I’ve got so much to talk about and share but I wanted to start with my wedding dress because it’s definitely garnered the most interest out of any of my wedding details and it’s completely amazing and I can’t stop talking about it! So without further ado…

Isn’t it just perfect?! Here’s the story:

The weekend after I got engaged I was perusing my local RSPCA op shop and found a beautiful, if slightly dusty and moth eaten, vintage wedding dress. It was love at first sight and I bought it for $50. Given my propensity for shopping and wearing second hand, the idea of spending a 3rd of my wedding budget on a dress never appealed to me. I LOVED the idea of wearing something vintage and giving it my own spin, plus I was totally overwhelmed at the thought of shopping for a wedding dress in the tradition manner, so picking something up at an op shop suited me perfectly.

The vintage 1950’s dress was beautiful, but it was slightly too small and the full length lace sleeved bodice just wasn’t my style. So I went to see Erin and Kate at Ilka to talk to them about re-designing it. They were SO AMAZING. I cannot rave enough about how wonderful Ilka are. The took my grotty op shop dress with no judgement, listened to my vague ideas of what I thought I wanted (Valentino/Elie Saab on an op shop budget) and turned it into my dream wedding dress.

Ilka created a whole new bodice for the dress, re-sized and re-lined it so it fit like a dream and left the original skirt intact. I wanted to add some colourful details to it and after going through a few different ideas with Erin and Kate, I eventually sourced the embroidered lace myself from China and Erin painstakingly cut it up and hand sewed it on to the dress. The end result was magnificent.

So my wedding dress is a combination of everything I love and value about sustainable fashion. It is vintage, op shopped and re-designed by a local designer in Perth. It was the perfect representation of what is important to me. Plus it’s god dam gorgeous!

I wore it with my aunt’s incredibly dramatic veil from when she was married in the 70s, some statement Christie Nicolaides earrings and flat gold sandals from Loeffler Randall (which were SO comfortable, I danced the night away and didn’t get a single blister).

I didn’t know what vibe I wanted for my wedding, but my beautiful dress really did set the tone for the whole day. It was a show stopper, but also relaxed and down to Earth. A true representation of Luke and I. I would 100% recommend other bride-to-be’s think outside the box when it comes to choosing their wedding dress, shopping second hand and supporting local designers shouldn’t be niche, it should be your first choice! It was certainly mine! 

Dress: vintage from RSPCA op shop, re-designed by Ilka

Shoes: Loeffler Randall

Earrings: Christie Nicolaides

Veil: vintage, gift from my Aunt

Photos are all by With U photography (they are fabulous!) 

Engagement Photos

Oh hello! I haven’t blogged for one whole year and I wasn’t actually sure if I would come back to it. But in the past months I’ve been lucky enough to meet and be inspired by some fellow thrifty fashion lovers and just couldn’t resist the urge to talk about my op shopped outfits. So here I am!

Also I’m getting married next month and I’ve been meticulously planning all my wedding outfits (including my honeymoon wardrobe) for literally a whole year, so god knows I want to talk about them! Starting with this one, from our engagement photo shoot.

Our wonderful wedding photographers thought we should do a practice photo shoot before the big day, to make sure everyone (ahem, Luke) was comfortable in front of the camera. So we traipsed down to Fremantle on a blustery Saturday arvo and shot these pictures. I’ll be forever grateful for them.

It was incredibly challenging to choose an outfit for the shoot, I wanted to look casual, but also vaguely bridal. I wanted to match Luke, but not too matchy. I wanted to wear something that looked like ‘me’ and also I wanted it to be second hand… so I did make it a bit hard for myself! After trying on pretty much everything in my wardrobe twice, I landed on this white Camilla and Marc dress which I haven’t worn for ages because it needed to be ironed… it’s literally been sitting in my wardrobe for 3 years waiting for the day to come where I felt like ironing. Well, the day finally came!

Can we also just take a moment to appreciate how adorable Blue is?! Luke was so embarrassed to be having a photo shoot with our dog, but I insisted she come along and she ended up being the star of the show. Her little red bandana is just the cutest thing ever, I’m definitely going to keep any eye out for more when I’m op shopping!

I’m wearing:

Camilla and Marc dress, op shop

Vintage hat, Vinnies

Boots and socks, both so old I can’t remember where they are from!

Luke’s wearing:

Linen shirt, Vinnies $7

Leather boots, Vinnies $8

Jeans, Nobody denim

Blue’s wearing:

Red bandana, Salvos 0.50c  

All the photos are from WithU photography, they are an awesome husband and wife team who can make even the most reluctant subjects comfortable and happy. I’m so excited for them to shoot our wedding next month! 

Kindness

A little kindness can go along way! It’s a lesson that was really drilled in last week when my home was robbed and all of my jewellery and sunglasses were stolen. I am devastated to say the least. Losing my beloved collection of sunglasses which I’d carefully put together over many years was heart breaking, not to mention all of my brooches and many sentimental items from my grandma and family. 

A friend of mine, who I’ve only met IRL a few times reached out to me and in the ultimate gesture of kindness picked a few pieces out of her own impressive collection of jewellery and sunglasses and passed them on to me so I could start to rebuild mine. I was completely blown away. It was a perfect reminder of how a small gesture can have a mighty impact. After feeling so down all week, suddenly I was back on top. 

I wore this lovely Collette Dinnigan dress to a friend’s birthday dinner on the weekend. This was actually my back up engagement party dress which I never ended up wearing. I styled it with some of my new gifted pieces, including these incredible moon and stars earrings and amazing sunglasses. I feel so spoilt looking at these pictures. 

Dress: Collette Dinnigan, consignment store $30

Earrings: gifted

Sunglasses: Ksubi, gifted

Shoes: gifted 

Back to Basics (and a wrap up!)

Woah who can believe it’s the end of September already? This month zipped past in the blink of an eye! Did you have fun with the Restyle prompts? I did, it was great to have a bit of a push to get back in to blogging. The big challenge for me wasn’t wearing op shopped clothes (because, hello, I do that every day anyway!) it was finding the time to take pictures. That’s really what has been holding me back with my blog over the recent months. I love putting together fun outfits and almost every day I feel great about my look and want to share it but I just don’t have the time to shoot outfit pics properly anymore. I’ve really felt the pressure to constantly find impressive locations and spend a long time on my makeup and hair, in order to stay relevant and keep up with other bloggers. Because I don’t have the time to do this I just stopped blogging, which isn’t what I want!

Bows and Spots

Metallic and Outerwear

After Dark and Black & White

Restyle was exactly the push I needed to let go of that worry. For Restyle I just snapped my outfits every day as I left the house or arrived home after work and it was surprisingly easy! I know you come to the blog because you’re interested in my outfits and are maybe (hopefully!) looking for a little style inspo. You don’t come here for the high quality images or amazing back drops or super production value, because let’s be honest, that’s never been my strength and there are other bloggers who do it a million times better than I ever could (oh hi Inspiring Wit!). So I’m going back to basics and doing what I started this blog to do… sharing my outfits and having a ramble about op shops and how great they are. If that’s the kind of blog you want to read then this is the place for you!

Geek Chic and Accessorise

Pleats and DIY

Florals and Print Clash

Stripes and Colour Block

Which was your favourite Restyle prompt? I think mine was Outerwear, I just can't get enough of that amazing coat! In the spirit of the challenge I’m taking a load of clothes down to my local op shop to donate. Freeing up a little space in my crammed wardrobe and making sure my old clothes get a fab new home! Thanks for following along! 

Last but not Least

Oh my goodness Restyle is over! Which means this month is basically over as well! Did you follow along with any of the op shopping prompts? The last two were pretty straight forward, Stripes and Colour Block. The Stripes prompt fell on Monday which was a public holiday in WA, so I was very happy to pull out my FAVOURITE black and white striped T. I bought this T at the start of the year for 25 cents and literally wear it every single weekend. I’ve worn it once already for Restyle. It is such a great wardrobe staple.

Stripes

Yesterday’s prompt (and the final one!) was Colour Block, which is surprisingly hard for me to do because I have sooo much pattern in my wardrobe and hardly any plain coloured items. I pulled this bright ensemble together at the last minute and it was the perfect thing to wear for the start of a short week. The entire thing is op shopped too!

 Colour Block

I’ll be back on Friday with a wrap up of all my Restyle outfits. I hope you enjoyed following along with my favourite style challenge! 

Super Proud

GUYS! I am super proud of the last few Restyle prompts. Friday was DIY and if you happened to follow me back when I was an official blogger for Restyle in 2014, DIY was the prompt that really tripped me up (see it here), so I was determined to get it right this time.

DIY

I went with a pretty simple outfit, throwing on my DIY denim shorts (every true op shop girl has a pair in their wardrobe), a striped T and a vintage hat. I personalised my little cross body bag with some iron letters from Spotlight, it was the easiest DIY ever and I love having my very own HM bag!

Florals

Saturday’s prompt was Florals, which is right up my alley, I literally have a whole wardrobe of floral skirts, dresses and blouses to choose from. I went with a new addition though, this vintage Laura Ashley jumpsuit, I picked it up from Save the Children in Mosman Park. It’s SO fun to wear! 

Print clash

And rounding off the week with a print clash! Which isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Starting with a black and white print is always easiest, so I pulled out my trusty spotty skirt and paired it with this wild fruit printed shirt and an armful of colourful bangles. 

Today’s prompt is stripes, which is easy peasy! Pop over to insta to see my look xx

P.S You may have noticed my latest accessory... the moon boot. Definitely not as fun as it sounds, you'll be seeing it around the blog for the next 4 weeks. It's nothing serious, just a timely reminder that sports are dangerous and getting older sucks. 

Gucci Geek

I thought Geek Chic might be the end of me. I didn't really know what the prompt meant, without going totally on the nose and wearing some fake reading glasses and a shirt buttoned up to the neck. In the end I decided to take my inspiration from Gucci's much loved recent collections, all classing prints, over the top bows and serious vintage vibes...

Geek Chic

What do you think? I'm wearing a vintage dress and jacket from the Salvos, some incredible Tom Ford sunnies from Vinnies and Hermes scarf tied up like a bow from St Luke's op shop in Mossy park. I'm a wannabe Gucci-Geek!

Accessories

This is a great prompt! I've always said the the easiest way to try your hand at op shopping is to start with the accessories. You might be a bit nervous to dive right in in a head to toe second hand outfit, but adding a few op shopped necklaces, scarves, bags or sunnies to your wardrobe is super easy. And fun! Who doesn't love more accessories! My entire outfit is op shopped, including my vintage hat, sunnies, cross body bag, Goyard tote, bandana and espadrilles! 

Pleats

For Pleats I wore my picnic table dress! It's another vintage number that feels like plastic, but is so fun to wear. The pleats in the skirt give the dress a bit of shape. I threw on the jacket at the last minute and accessorised with orange... because that was the obvious choice, right?!

P.S Today's prompt is DIY, check out my insta (@inthedressupbox) to see my op shopped outfit!