Outfit Post: Birthday Happy Hour in NYC

As tired as I am of talking about the cold, I feel the need to point out that it's still frigid in the NYC area. Last Friday V and I braved the elements to celebrate the birthday of my fabulous best friend from College, Laura. Laura writes the awesome workout blog, werkitinnyc, you should check it out.

The temps have been in the 20's during the day and the teens at night, so warmth was an absolute priority. On our way in V and I actually entertained the idea of walking from the station to the venue (Bo's in the Flatiron district), but we quickly realized that that was just crazy talk. In the few minute we were waiting on the train platform the 4" space between where my boot ended and my skirt began were already showing the signs of frostbite.

All my life I've had a weakness for pleated skirts, especially plaid, kilt-style skirts, so when I saw this Burberry number at my local consignment I had to have it. Pairing over-the-knee boots with what some might deem a "Catholic Schoolgirl Skirt" can be tricky, but I covered up everywhere else and felt much more Andy Sachs/The Devil Wear Prada than Pretty Woman.

Still working on these poses...

...haven't quite got it yet #jazzhands

Another consignment score

Turtleneck: Lord & Taylor Skirt: Burberry Boots: Vince Tights: Hue Earings (not pictured): Alexis Bittar Glasses: Chanel

Shopping Ban (for Real This Time)

One of my OCD tendencies is that I keep a list of items of clothing that I have bought, but not worn yet. The list currently has 24 items on it. 

I’ll give that a minute to sink in.

That’s 2 dozen items! I’m honestly kind of disgusted with myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love each and every piece and I have plans on when and where I might wear them in the future, but until I do I’m banned from shopping.

Those who know me and/or have been reading the blog for awhile know that I’ve tried this before, but I’ve never been 100% successful. There are a few items among the 24 that have been on multiple lists (i.e. the Andrew Marc body-con dress that’s fit for a night of "clubbing," a word that isn’t even in my vocabulary anymore.), but I am determined to stick to it this time and get the list down to 0 before allowing myself to shop again.

Disgust with my own gluttonous behavior is not my only motivator. I have recently realized that buying new is lazy. Working with what I’ve got is where my creativity comes into play; these shopping bans allow me to rediscover the joy in getting dressed.

Here are a few notes on how I plan to succeed this time around:

Accept Help: V has been brave enough to offer to help enforce this ban. He has really great style and I actually ask him for help when I’m struggling to make an outfit work. I often over-think things and I'm very critical of myself, which he is very good at counteracting.

Incentive: For every week that I don’t shop I’m allowed to attend SoulCycle classes. Here’s the thing – I don’t even like how a lot of my clothes fit right now. Rather than buy new items that will camouflage my recently expanded middle session (Holiday and stress-eating), I should do something that makes me feel good about myself and will also get me back into the clothes I haven’t even worn yet.

Purge: Binge and purge go together like a horse and carriage. I have done the former and now it's time for the latter. I spent last Sunday night going through clothes and managed to come up with yet another black garbage-bag full of donations.

Consign and Save: This is old news, but I plan on sticking with it. My first attempt was pretty successful, I actually made a couple hundred bucks!

Loopholes (this is three-fold): 

• I know myself and if I want to be successful in this fashion diet, I'm going to need to arrange for a way to have a cheat day here and there. Therefore, I am going to allow myself to use gift cards that I received for Christmas. I think this is completely reasonable. Sadly, I already know that I'm going to need to use a Visa gift card I received to buy socks. 
• I’m not allowed to buy, but I can borrow or rent. My mother was never a fan of us borrowing/lending clothes with friends, so I just never got into it. In the past few years I got more liberal with the lending, but I usually just wind up giving the item to the person because they will clearly get more use out of it than I will. Now I can cash in on a few of those favors if need be.
• I'm allowed to buy make-up. I used to be so incredibly into make-up; I would sit for hours by myself in my room recreating the elaborate looks in Kevin Aucoin's books. It's so much fun to be a chameleon! Seriously, you should try it sometime. I'm hoping to get back to that, besides make-up is yet another way to transform an item or an outfit you've already worn.

So that's the plan. I've got more readers now than the last time I did this, so I have all of you to account to as well. Thanks for keeping me honest.

xoxo

Kimbo

Second Time Around - Consign Me Up!

Shopping bags going out instead of coming into my apartment.

After months of procrastinating (okay, it’s been over a year) I finally put a few dozen items up for consignment. Dresses, bags, shoes, and separates, if they weren't my style (regardless of how good of a deal I got on them or whether or not they might someday make a great Halloween costume) out they went.

There are two consignment shops in my town, but one has so much inventory that you can't even see what they have and the other only takes appointments from 10AM-4PM on weekdays and, since I'm not a socialite, those hours don't work for me.

Instead I wound up bringing my items to the Huntington location of Second Time Around consignment. I found them one evening when I was early to meet a friend for dinner (When does that ever happen? Obviously this was fate intervening) and as I browsed I heard the sales girl very politely inform a young woman that they would not be taking the Louis Vuitton bag she had brought in because it was fake. This can be a touchy subject, but the salesgirl handled it in a kind, yet firm manner and I knew this was the kind of place I wanted to deal with.

In addition to their stellar customer service, which they've been providing for 40 years, they have 45 locations in 12 states, tons of press clippings and positive reviews online (for most locations, sorry, Forest Hills) so I feel like they are a reputable company. Plus, they were also featured on Bravo TV's Fashion Hunters. Sure, it was a 1-season-wonder, but it was on Bravo and I take that sh*t seriously.

This is how it works:

You'll need at least three pieces to start an account. STA allows you to either set up an appointment or drop your items off to be reviewed (you can also consign online, here's how, but be forewarned that the unwanted items are donated, not returned to the consignor).

Once they decide what they're going to take they research the items and mark them at approximately 30-40% of the original retail value and if the item sells the profit is a 60/40 split ("luxury" handbags are a 50/50 split). You can keep your earnings as a store credit (which entitles you to an additional 10% off) or request a check (checks under $100 must be picked up, but checks over $100 can be mailed to you) which is available on the 1st of the following month. If your items don't sell in 3 months you have 1 week to pick them up or they will be donated to charity.

Not content to just collect, I felt compelled to create a spreadsheet that would take what I originally paid for the item (because I'm crazy and I keep records of everything) and subtract what I make back to see if I can get out of the red and back in the black. While I’m not taking into account the old shopaholic Price Per Wear equation (cost of item/times worn), some items were gifts and others were sample sale finds, so I'm optimistic. Either way the items are doing more for me at STA than they were piled up in the corner of my apartment.

So far I've sold one item, a fringed black leather Kooba bracelet bag, and made $38. Five of the 36 items are AllSaints and the salesgirl informed me that they have a customer who comes in on the regular asking for the brand, so I'm just hoping that she and I are the same size. All in all I feel like I'm off to a strong start, but I'll still keep my fingers crossed that it keeps trending that way.