Pink lace mandarin dress, sterling silver ball chain necklace, a variety of hardware belts and red Celine pumps

Black silk “trashbag” dress, cheetah print chubby coat, cheetah pony skin belt, red tartan hat, black leather purse and red and black boots

Leather sleeved DKNY dress with pockets, hand tooled amethyst and brass belt, Paloma Picasso gold chain belt (worn as necklace), red turban and black granny boots

 Punk is characterized by an anachronistic mismatch of post-war subcultural styles from the teddy boy to the rude boy, with nod, or middle finger, to symbols of british nationalism including the Union Jack, the Queen and the Scottish Tartan. Chaos at its (anti)aesthetic core, punk also crudely appropriated non clothing items such as trash bags, chains, safety pins, razor blades as means self decoration.

 Punk was pioneered in the late 1970s by the great Vivienne Westwood and her then partner Malcolm McLaren, and has since gone on to inspire the work of Rei Kawakubo, Alexander McQueen and Rick Owens. Every top designer has paid homage to punk fashion in some manner, be it the 90s Versace safety pin dress or  the ethereal 2011 Maison Martin Margiela plastic bag dresses.

Although no real punks were allowed to attend the Met Gala, we invite everyone to come check out these looks for sale at our shop:

839 Chapel Street

New Haven, CT 

Looking for something to do next weekend in downtown New Haven?

FEATURED LOCAL VENDORS: 

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(23rd/1st) {pronounced “Twenty Third and First”} is a New Haven based retailer founded by Meg Kazukynas in 2012. Largely inspired by her time spent in the Southern states, wandering through antique shops, walking down historic streets, spending nights gathered under the oaks with friends, driving through the country, and soaking up every ounce of old Southern history and culture. (23rd/1st) provides you with handmade clothing & accessories made by independent designers in the US + Canada. Knowing that your item was made by the hands of a dedicated and inspired designer makes all the difference. We love supporting them, and we love wearing their products even more. 

{Cut. Cloth.} is a vintage and vintage-inspired pop-up boutique based in New Haven.  The company is the product of owner Janis Foo’s lifelong love affair with charming objects from the 20th century. Since 2011, the {Cut. Cloth.} team has scoured attics and the interweb to find our customers well-tailored, vintage apparel in 100% silk, chiffon, wool and cotton.

Kate Stephen is a self-taught designer who has been creating jewelry for over 15 years. Her copper and brass designs are sculptural and often one-of-a-kind, featuring found objects, such as seashells, upcycled vintage materials and semi-precious stones. 

Kate finds inspiration in the beauty of nature, the excitement of travel and the process of creation. Having lived in the Caribbean, she is particularly enamored with the sea and the beauty found in and around it. She finds many of her materials and design ideas on the beach. 

Vintanthromodern Vintage (VV) is a small New Haven, Connecticut based vintage retailer owned and operated by Melissa Gonzales.  Founded in 2011, VV specializes in vintage men’s, women’s & children’s apparel, accessories, and shoes (definitely shoes) from the atomic age to the rise of grunge. We emphasize everyday wearable and affordable vintage that can be reinterpreted and remixed by anyone – young or old, trendy or traditional – in a thoroughly modern way. VV is fresh picked daily and now sold online at etsy.com,  at occasional pop-up shops, and at The English Building Market in downtown New Haven  (VV@EBM).  Beginning this Spring you’ll also be able to shop on the Vintanthromobile, Connecticut’s First & Only Mobile Vintage Boutique.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

In earlier posts, Emily discusses both beginner and intermediate thrifting tips. Today I get down to the nitty-gritty about thrifting at the Goodwill Outlet, which is not for the faint of heart. Some might even say that the Goodwill Outlet is NOT even for the novice thrfiter, and I tend to agree. In fact, I’m a die-hard thrifter and it took a few trips before I was hooked.

A brief explanation of how a typical Goodwill store works is necessary here. So, the Goodwill Outlet is the last stop in the journey of donated second-hand items. This journey begins when the item is donated – either to a brick and mortar store, a donation center, or to a free-standing donation bin often seen in the parking lots of grocery and other stores. Either way, the items end up being sorted by the semi-trained Goodwill behind-the-scenes employees. These employees are the gatekeepers so to speak – they sort and price the items that are donated based on a rudimentary system that varies store by store. This is why the items at say, a Goodwill in a more wealthy, are priced differently than those in a less affluent neighborhood. Goodwill employees have a list of designer labels and price-points for each. They also have guidelines for “boutique” items, which is why you’ll often see new with tags items from Walmart brands next to bonafide designer pieces. After being sorted, priced and color coded, the items are placed on the sales floor where they remain for up to one month. Once a week a new color goes on 50% sales to make room for the constant influx of fresh items. SO where do items go if they don’t sell, even at 50% off? The Goodwill Outlet! It’s sort of like a second-hand item’s purgatory. If an item doesn’t sell at the Goodwill Outlet – it goes to hell. Kidding. Seriously – if items don’t sell at the Goodwill outlet they are either bundled and shipped to third world countries as clothing, they are compacted and salvaged (sent to landfills), or sometimes they are even sold as fabric to places that make rag rugs! Occasionally items donated actually circumvent the sorting and pricing steps altogether and are sent directly to the Goodwill Outlet. This is at the discretion of Goodwill store managers and often occurs when the volume of items that need to be sorted exceeds the manpower to complete the task.

Okay so now that you have a cursory understanding of how items end up at a Goodwill Outlet, lets DIVE into what happens once they’re there. Pun intended!

Items arrive at the Goodwill Outlet after being discarded by the regular Goodwill retail stores. They are already semi-sorted but before the BINS are brought out they are further sorted into a few categories:

• Clothing and fabric items
• Shoes
• Glassware
• Luggage
• Furniture
• Appliances
• Book/Magazines/Records
• Accessories (Purses, belts, ties)
• Miscellaneous (EVERYTHING)

Once sorted items are wheeled out onto the sales floor. The bins are rotated approximately once per hour. Pricing items individually isn’t neccessary because a flat, per pound price is charged. The more you buy, the cheaper it is! Seems fairly simple right? WRONG! Here’s were thrfiting goes from being a novice level activity to a PROFESSIONAL one. There are many unspoken rules at “The Bins,” which is what the regulars call the Goodwill Outlet. Some of these rules are enforced by store management and fellow shoppers, while others are more common sense than common law. Here’s a rundown:

1. Shop at your own risk – some people opt to wear rubber gloves while digging through the bins and I’ve even seen a face mask or two.

2. DON’T touch anything in the bins until all they’re all rolled out, usually in groups of 4 or more.

3. Be polite. Give other shoppers their personal space. Don’t remove things from other people’s carts. Don’t get into a tug-of-war over items. Don’t be greedy.

http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Shoppers-turn-violent-at-Goodwill-outlets/aEwU5TOIKEOwwG7cPtQm4g.cspx

To be continued…

In our next post we’ll share personal stories of heroism from the bins in Hamden, CT!

How busy?

Busy as in starting our mobile vintage shop!

The Vintanthromobile — as we are now calling her – made her debut last weekend at the Columbus Day Festival in Wooster Square Park in New Haven. It was a pretty nasty, rainy day, but we were so proud of our baby out on her maiden voyage!

Her exterior still needs some work, but her interior is looking amazing. 

After a very successful appearance at the East Rock Festival, we had the opportunity to work with {Cut. Cloth.}, another New Haven vintage retailer, on a pop up shop on Chapel Street downtown. We had a blast. Clothing retail in New Haven is so blah. On the one hand, there are stores like J.Crew and Urban Outfitters — full of ‘made in China’ crap — and on the other hand, there are a handful of “older lady” boutiques. Injecting just a little bit of affordable fun into the mix has generated a great response, and we’ve been featured in the Yale Herald and the Daily Nutmeg. We’re glad that some of the coolest items in our inventory, like those Chanel Boutique pants and the Rudy’s jacket, are loved by our customers, too! We even got some Twitter love from Glamour associate editor Laurel Pantin, who featured one of our favorite vintage dresses that she purchased at the pop up shop.

Our next planned “live” event is a winter holiday trunk show in collaboration with {Cut. Cloth.} and the English Building Market on December 1 and December 8. Mark your calendars! This is going to be an incredible event put together by some incredible women. And it’s dress up season! We’ll be featuring exclusively holiday items, so if you’re looking for a fancy sweater, a party dress, or  a luxe jacket, this is where you’ll need to be in New Haven. We’re already pulling items for the event, and we are in love with everything. You’ll find silks, sequins, cashmere, and more!

Many thanks to the folks at the East Rock Festival and the Columbus Day Festival for hosting us in our own community, as well as Our Empty Space and Yale University Properties for giving a vintage pop up shop a chance!

We are setting up with some really great vintage finds that will be perfect for the coming fall season and back to school — think boots, jackets, sweaters, bags, and transitional pieces! This is a fantastic community event, and we encourage anyone in the New Haven area to come see us and all of the other great local vendors and live music.