Style Challenge: The Sun Will Always Win

Style Challenge: ????

dress: vintage

sweater: JC Penney

tights: target

shoes: Not Rated via Buffalo Exchange

belt: Hot Topic like 6 years ago

beret: Forever21

owl pin: swap meet

I hate, hate, hate how these photos came out. I was trying to beat the sun after work (hence the worst my bangs have ever looked in the history of my life) and the photos came out terribly. I could not get a photo where my entire body was in the shot. I'm bummed as I actually really liked this outfit, and won't get a chance to wear it again exactly as is, as I will be altering the dress soon to shorten the skirt. 

 Anyway, today doesn't really have a theme, as there isn't any category on the challenge list that this can fit into and this was what I wanted to wear, so I wore it.   I just got the dress two days ago from a vintage store for $20. Seeing as it wasn't a goodwill, but an actual "vintage" store,  and in my size, that's a good deal.  Anyone who is larger and likes vintage clothing knows the struggle. I spent almost three and a half hours in the store (it's a large one) looking through every garment to see if they had any plus sizes at all.... and I found two items. Two garments that would fit me, and I'm on the smaller side of plus out of easily a thousand pieces. The ass kicker was that most of the items in the store were modern "vintage" ie, late 80s-90s, and I KNOW plus size items from those years still exist. If it had been strictly true vintage, then I wouldn't expect to find anything, but come on. Also, a majority (I'd say 60-70%) of the clothing was damaged in some way, and selling for way more than it should have been due to the extent of damage.  It's so aggravating trying to shop vintage in Portland nowadays, as the market is so over-saturated with shoppers. I know that most of the vendors at this store were finding their wares from the Goodwill bins, which is a great resource, but if you're honestly going to be trying to sell at the prices some vendors were trying to sell at, at least put some time into attempting to repair damages.

Anyway, this dress was one of the two plus sized items (the other had the zipper completely ripped out), and was listed as 1970s, but I think it's more likely early 1980s. It's super polyester-y, and I believe, handsewn. I love the print! It's a bit too long for my liking (very 1980s-does 1950s in shape), so I'll be shortening it into a early 70s style mini dress as soon as I have time. Again, these photos do not do it anything close to justice. The colors are very bright and folksily autumnal. I was very excited to actually find something in my size and have it not be an ugly oversized Garfield sweatshirt.

A blurry close up of the fabric. It's much more vibrant in real life. Lesson continually learned: Never try and beat the sun!