By Casey Alice
Hey guys,
First, I’m sorry I’ve been away all summer. My startup has taken up the majority of my time, and while we’ve accomplished a lot it means I haven’t been able to focus on anything else. However, I’m happy to announce that it’s going well, which has given me the flexibility to take a step back and breathe.
Second, despite my schedule I managed to find time to dress up at least once a week in the comfort of my own home. I’ve been using this time to discover some of the nuances of my dressing and, more importantly, to see how my taste in clothes is evolving. A notable development is how I’ve started looking for outfits rather than merely items—not only is the matching process an interesting puzzle, but dressing up is more fun when there’s a goal in mind.
One thing I’ve always liked to do is check out the styles associated with a particular season. My favorite has always been fall—that time of year when a summer-y dress paired properly with tights and a sweater can instantly create a cute cool-weather look, or when a brown skirt with black tights and an off-white shirt makes for an ideal apple-picking outfit. This new focus on complete outfits opened up an unsearched class of items for me, pointing me towards niche brands and other helpful websites.
Right around this time, I ordered two dresses from Amazon. (This is despite the fact that I’ve been consistently disappointed with their clothes selection—for both genders.) Unfortunately neither of them lived up to any reasonable girl’s standard of quality, but while I was waiting for prime delivery I came across ThredUp, which is basically an online thrift shop. All that needs to be said is that they have amazing prices for most brands (no, I’m not getting paid to write any of this). I quickly returned both Amazon dresses and decided to swear off buying clothes from them.
Anyway, I decided that a decent first step in a fall outfit would be to get a Little Black Dress. A quick search on ThredUp pointed me to one from Forever 21, which turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. While it’s a bit small (and I got a large!), I think it fits reasonably well, and at a price point equal to that of Amazon it was a no-brainer. The next step is to find a nice fall-ish cardigan to go along with it.
I also bought a brown belt to go along with my dress, but it turns out that it was way too big for me. A fun fact about women’s clothing: a size small in one brand can be a large in another. I’ll update you guys on how smoothly the return process goes, but so far I’ve been impressed with the site overall.
If you guys are interested in ThredUp and want some more awesome clothing thoughts, feel free to check out my referral link: http://www.thredup.com/r/VEWKRZ. We both get $10 when you sign up!
As always I’m happy to hear from you, so feel free to leave a note in the comments below!
Happy shopping,
Casey