Restyle Day 31 - Outfit to Donate Back

Oh my goodness it’s the last day of Restyle (and winter, woohoo!). The past month has seriously zipped by! I’ll be back tomorrow with a proper run down of my Restyle adventure, so let’s just get down to the matter at hand shall we? The very last style prompt is an Outfit to Donate Back! As any keen op shopper will tell you, it’s very easy to amass a giant collection of clothes VERY quickly when everything costs less than $10. So it’s SO important to donate your unwanted clothes back to the op shops regularly.

 

I try to operate under the principle; one item in, one item out. This helps me to keep my wardrobe within a reasonable size (my boyfriend may disagree) and ensures I only buy things I REALLY REALLY love. About twice a year I’ll do a thorough cull and drop a few large bags off to my local op shop.

Last weekend I invited some of my girlfriends over for a high tea/clothes swap. We drank champagne and ate cake while rummaging through each other’s cast offs. It was mayhem such a fun afternoon. At the end of the day everyone went home with a few new (old) pieces and I dropped off all of the leftovers to my local Red Cross. In total we donated eight HUGE garbage bags full of good quality clothing, shoes and accessories. Thea and Brenda at the Red Cross op shop in Freo were thrilled and I am so happy that mine and my friends clothes will be going to new loving owners.

This is just one of the many many outfits I donated, if you like it, head to the Red Cross op shop in Freo and try your luck!

Dress: Country Road

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Sunglasses: Asos

Bracelet: Lovisa

Bag: Vintage

Scarf: Vintage

The Australian Red Cross are always in need of good quality clothing, shoes or accessories. These things do no one any good sitting unloved and collecting dust at the back of your wardrobe, donate them to your local op shop so someone else can enjoy them!

Restyle Day 30 - Double Denim

Ahhh double denim, how you terrify me. I find double denim is either a look you love or loath, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. I was sitting happily in the loath camp, mainly because I didn’t think I could ever pull off a double denim look. This Restyle prompt was a serious challenge (probably the hardest day yet) but I am actually very pleased with my outfit.

Mixing denim pieces is a fine art and I certainly had to think long and hard about how to manage it successfully. The most important thing to remember if you want to avoid a Canadian tuxedo situation is to mix denim washes (light, dark, acid wash, black etc). Luckily the Australian Red Cross op shops are full of awesome denim items so finding something to fit this prompt wasn’t hard.

When I bought this dress it was full length, had long sleeves, massive shoulder pads and was a size 18. I loved the idea of a denim dress so I thought I’d experiment with taking it in and up and removing the sleeves. An hour or so at the sewing machine and a few darts later, I am so happy with the result! I really didn’t think I’d be able to make it wearable, but at $5 it was worth the chance. That’s one of the myriad of things I love about buying things in op shops, it really allows you to experiment with DIY, sewing and styling without breaking the bank if it's a total disaster

Dress: Australian Red Cross Hamilton Hill $5

Shoes: Australian Red Cross Willagee $20

Hat: Op Shop

Jacket: Garage Sale

Socks: Target

Sunglasses: Stella McCartney 

Photos by Tash

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest

Restyle Day 29 - Texture

The use of animal fur in the fashion industry is a very controversial issue and rightfully so. I love the look of fur in fashion, but strongly believe faux fur is the way to go. Even buying all my clothes from second hand shops I still avoid real fur if I find it (and I have), I’m happy with my synthetic fur thank you very much! When I saw this prompt on the list I automatically knew I wanted to find some fabulous faux fur piece to wear. Luckily for me the Australian Red Cross op shops are filled with just such items.

I already have a really great light colour fur jacket that I wear a lot in winter, so I was on the lookout for something different to that. This faux fur cape fits the bill perfectly! I LOVE CAPES! This little number makes any outfit automatically glamorous just by throwing it on. I could be wearing my trackies and a sports bra under here and would still look totally fabulous!

The label on this fur cape clearly states it’s synthetic and made in Melbourne, but the texture is so lovely and soft. It’s a delight to wear and everyone wants to come up and pat me. This cape is the most expensive thing I bought for Restyle, at $25 I still feel it was an absolute bargain and a fantastic addition to my wardrobe.

Cape: Australian Red Cross Hamilton Hill $25

Dress: Australian Red Cross Hamilton Hill $5

Earrings: Australian Red Cross Mandurah $2

Belt: Op Shop

Shoes: Gorman

Stockings: Leona Edmiston

Photos by Liz from mypagesturned.com

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest

Restyle Day 28 - Maxi

Today’s style prompt is perfect for me but finding the right piece to wear was slightly tricky. I found this Hawaiian print maxi wrap skirt in the costume section of Red Cross Duncraig. The costume section of an op shop is always my first stop, it’s usually where you find the vintage gear and all the ‘weird’ clothing that I absolutely love.  

Being a tall girl I often hear my shorter friends lament that they are too small to wear a maxi dress or skirt. Well my friends, let me tell you, wearing a maxi dress or skirt as a tall lady isn’t a piece of cake either! A lot of the time items that are designed to be ‘maxi’ are actually skimming two inches above my ankles, which is a very odd length. Finding a full length skirt or dress that falls at the right place is tricky. Usually vintage pieces will have extra fabric folded up in the hem so all I need to do is let it down a bit. But more often than not I’ll buy something from an op shop that’s meant to be maxi and hem it to a midi length instead.

Luckily that wasn’t the case with this fabulous skirt. It’s perfect just the way it is and I didn’t have to do a thing! The colours and print of this skirt are so tropical and exotic. I just wish I was swanning around in Thailand right now, rather than posing precariously in front of a garage (but isn’t it a lovely colour?!). This is a very summery look and one I can’t wait to whip out when the weather warms up.

Skirt: Red Cross Duncraig $6

Hat: Op Shop

Top: Zara

Shoes: Seed

Sunglasses: Ray Ban

Restyle Day 27 - Fringe

I honestly thought today’s style prompt was going to be the hardest one of all! But I got seriously lucky and found this great fringed top quite early on in my Restyle op shopping mission. I’ve already worn it a couple of times and am so happy with it! I love that it’s a simple shape, but because of the sheer fabric and fringe detailing it's something a little bit special.

When wearing anything fringed, the obvious and only thing to do is twirl around. So to maximise the twirling effect I paired my fringed top with my pink full circle skirt. Perfect for dancing and twirling all night long! This top has a lot of things going on, it’s cropped, fringed, sheer and has a lace trim so wearing it with a block colour skirt is the way to go.

I bought this little brooch (in my hair) at Red Cross Mandurah, I’ve worn it as a brooch quite a few times already, but I thought I’d experiment with pinning it in my hair. It was actually really easy to do, and looks very chic I think. I just used a bobby pin to secure the brooch pin in to my hair, too easy!

Top: Australian Red Cross Scarborough $6

Brooch: Australian Red Cross Mandurah $4

Skirt: Op Shop

Boots: Jeffrey Campbell 

Photos by the magnificent Liz from mypagesturned.com 

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest

Restyle Day 26 - Cropped

  Ahhhh cropped, you are a challenging one! The crop top trend is relentless, it’s been around for a while now and doesn’t look to be slowing down. It is a tricky style to master if you aren’t a fan of flashing your stomach (regardless of how flat or lumpy it is). I read somewhere that the only way to pull off a classy cropped top look is to only flash a sliver of upper ab and I have to agree.

When I was searching for a cropped item for this style prompt my check list went like this...

Can you see my belly button?
Do I have a muffin top?
Can I sit down in this and not feel fat?

Of course this list is an entirely personal thing, if you can rock a belly button baring crop top and feel like a million bucks, then you should definitely do it!

This prompt gave me quite the run around, I actually photographed a whole different outfit before deciding it sucked and returning to the Australian Red Cross to find something different. I’m so happy I didn’t settle for my first outfit, because I really love this one! I got this stripey t-shirt from the Red Cross Willagee store and LOVE how versatile it is (I've already worn it for Pastel and Outerwear). The black tube skirt combats the belly button/muffin top issue and my cropped denim vest gives the whole look a casual feel.

I love how Restyle is pushing me out of my box a little bit. It’s so fun to have some fashion parameters to work within that challenge me to be creative with my outfits! Are you enjoying trying new looks?

Top: Australian Red Cross Willagee $6

Vest: Australian Red Cross Mandurah $3

Earrings: Australian Red Cross North Perth $4

Skirt: Cotton On (hand-me-down from a friend)

Boots: Tony Bianco

Photos taken by my beautiful mum! Shes getting quite handy with a camera!

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest 

Life Recently

Part of being a Restyle Blogger is that I will be participating in the Restyle Runway at the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival. This basically means I will be sashaying down the cat walk Karlie Kloss-style along with the other Restyle bloggers. It’s going to be terrifying excellent. It’s a free event that is supported by Lotterywest and will be held not once, but twice. The Restyle Runway will be in Forrest Chase on September 19 and 21, so mark those dates in your diary and come down to cheer us on (we’ll need it!).

Even though Restyle has taken over the blog and my life, I have actually been really busy with lots of different things this month. So for a little break from the usual Restyle overload, here is what else I’ve been up to lately…

Eating JUNK! The last 2 weekends I have been in the country for volleyball competitions and these trips seem to go hand in hand with lolly snakes, Maccas breaky and a hangover from hell… oops!

Drinking too much (see above)

Cooking this amazing chocolate beer cake, it’s SO GOOD. You should make one right now!

Watching The IT Crowd, I've seen every episode a million times but it never gets old!

Shopping nowhere, I overdosed slightly for Restyle and have been steering clear of the shops for a little while

 
Buying Karen Walker Intergalactic sunglasses, after lusting after them for months I finally found some on eBay within my price range, woohoo!!

Wearing my current go-to look (pictured!), a printed skirt, striped t, boots and my leather or denim jacket

Reading blogs! Le Fanciulle, Vintage Valley, What’s The Goh, Calivintage, My Edit, Wishwishwish, Steffy’s Pros and Cons, Vixen Vintage and all the Restyle girls… my bloglovin list is soooo long and I eagerly await each new post

Browsing online for work shoes, I want bright pumps with a block heel that don’t cost the moon… why is that SO HARD?

Dreaming of a break… I have no holidays in sight and desperately want to read trashy mags in the sun with a cocktail for several days strait.

This past weekend I hosted a clothes swap with some friends, played volleyball (always!) and attacked my sewing pile… exhausting, but awesome, I can't wait for next weekend!

Top: Op Shop

Jacket: Op Shop

Skirt: Op Shop

Socks: Target

Boots: Tony Bianco

PS Check out my Restyle looks from over the weekend Lace and Athletic!

Restyle Day 25 - Graphic

The graphic style prompt really stumped me. I was thinking of graphics on a t-shirt, like text or a photo print or something. It was only when I found this dress that I realised you could have graphic prints as well. Doh! Do you ever get that? When you are so focused on searching for one thing that you completely overlook something so obvious right in front of you? That’s why you can’t really go op shopping with any pre-conceived notions of what you want to find. It’s good to have a vague idea, like ‘I want to find a work skirt’ but you can't say ‘I want to find a blue pin stripe pencil skirt made out of wool’ because you will never find it and will probably miss out on something else.

This dress was full length when I found it, I loved the print and the shape of the sleeves, but knew that the pattern would swallow me up if I left the dress as a maxi. So with a little hesitation I chopped the bottom off and turned this maxi into a mini and I’m so glad I did. I’ve already worn this dress a handful of times, it’s filling a gap in my wardrobe of winter appropriate dresses which is awesome.

It’s often frowned up to alter vintage (which is why I was hesitant) but I’m a firm believer of adapting vintage clothing to fit your own style. I would never butcher a beautiful vintage dress, but if hemming something, removing sleeves or taking something in or out means that I will get more wear out of it, then I’m going to do it every time. I used the excess material to sew a skirt (which I wore for Day 1), so I made the most of this fabulous fabric and got two items for the price of one! Pretty good I say!

Dress: Australian Red Cross Bentley $5

Shoes: Australian Red Cross Bentley $10

Belt: Op Shop

Bag: Vintage

Photos by the marvellous Tash

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest 

Restyle Day 24 - Athletic

Luxe sports gear is a big trend at the moment and has been for a while. Every second Instagram snap seems to be of someone’s fancy Nikes or luxury gym wear. While I love the comfort athletic clothing allows for, I haven’t really worked the sporty trend into my wardrobe… until now!

When I set out searching for my Restyle prompts, top of my list was a vintage sports jersey to use for the Athletic day. I was thrilled to find this baseball jersey at Australian Red Cross Hamilton Hill. It’s not actually vintage (oh the shame) but an out-dated version of the Morley Eagles baseball uniform. I don’t really care, the thin red stripes and text font are retro enough for me!

I’m going for a ‘Bridgette Bardot goes to Fenway’ kind of look, tight jeans, un-done beehive, my Eagles jersey and some killer shades (of course!). Unless I’m actually being athletic (i.e playing sport) this is about athletic as I want my style to get.

Top: Australian Red Cross Hamilton Hill $2

Jeans: Op Shop

Scarf: Op Shop

Shoes: Rachel Antonoff

Sunglasses: Dolce & Gabbana 

Photos by Liz from mypagesturned.com

The Restyle Photo-A-Day Challenge is proudly supported by Lotterywest