Two Things

Some sweaters, some sneakers

Welcome to my occasional, when-I-feel-like-it bonus content about secondhand shopping and selling, minor fascinations, passing fancies, and old stuff!

I made a mistake at the thrift store last week. I made an unplanned stop at the alleged Bottega Goodwill (no designer bags were found) just to be out of the house for a bit. I carried around an all-caps Pyrex casserole dish for a while, but ultimately released it back into the housewares aisle for someone else to find.

The true treasures are often found in the men’s section, if you look carefully. I found Brooks Brothers sweaters, a Versace button down, a lot of nice J. Crew things, and enough serviceable like-new Nautica dress shirts to outfit a fleet of accountants. I paid $5 for a cotton Banana Republic sweater for my husband (fall 2013, just needed a wash and a once-over with the sweater shaver), which he wore quite happily just the other day.

Anyway, here’s where the mistake comes in: I bought a sweater without looking at the fabric content and ended up with 100% plastic, whoops!

I like the sweater and it looks just fine after being washed and sweater-shaved, so I will keep it. And really this is what should happen with synthetics: rewear and repurpose them as long as possible. I just try to avoid them in general which is getting more difficult with new clothes unless you are spending hella cash, and even then, it’s everywhere. Clearly synthetics have their place in many types of clothing but $800 for a 30% plastic sweater? Fuck a whole (leather, obvs) bag of that.

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I bought something new (not just new-to-me) this week: a pair of Reebok Club C 85 sneakers. They are very nostalgic. I think, back in the olden times aka the mid 1980s, I had a pair of these. I also remember wanting a pair of Tretorns very badly, and being obsessed with the customized ones the school cheerleaders wore, which had one school color on the left side of the shoe and the other color on the right side. Alas my parents never saw the need for multiple pairs of sneakers at a time. Sad!

In fifth grade I had a pair of navy and tan Kangaroos (much like these, which, hm, are in my size and could clean up with a Magic Eraser? uuggghhh no moving on). I treated those shoes with a reverence I am sure my mother wished I had extended to all my possessions. At the time I was mostly concerned about my Kangaroos, my light-blue Members Only jacket, and my Jordache crescent bag.

Speaking of the Members Only jacket, in 1983 there was just one way to accessorize it and that was with multiple pins displaying your favorite recording artist:

Most of these came from a shop called The 50% Off Everything Store

Duran Duran or Cyndi Lauper would have aged better for sure, but I almost screamed when I found these. I didn’t know I still had them, along with the March 19, 1984 issue of Time magazine featuring a pop-art Michael Jackson on the cover. Cringe! But 10-year-old me could not fight the prevailing monoculture.

In any event I look forward to making some new friendship pins and putting them on my Reeboks. It’s a trend I’d like to bring back:

Much less controversial than disgraced pop star pins

I don’t know if you’re familiar or not but sometime around middle school it became extremely important to make and trade these. Now I just make them for my own weird self (though I do occasionally give them away), but if you ever see me in the wild wearing sneakers I will definitely be sporting some.