A Week of Vintage-Inspired Outfits: Summer Edition

Some time ago I mentioned the idea of a week-of-outfits post…I always love seeing other people’s wardrobes, so I thought you ladies might enjoy that too. I also hope this could be an inspiration to any of you who might be wanting to start dressing more vintage-inspired but are (like me) rather short in the funds department; almost everything you’ll see here was from the thrift store, and apart from those few things that came from elsewhere, I don’t think anything cost more than seven dollars (some of them quite a bit less).

So, I hope you enjoy! I’m labelling this specifically as “summer edition,” since I could potentially do this again with the other seasons if there is interest for it.

Friday, July 10

For the first day of my week of outfits, I was wearing a blouse that I recently picked up from Goodwill – it’s actually not a very good color on me (I love purple, but this particular shade is not vibrant enough to work well for me), but it’s such a lovely classic style that I got it anyway, and I’m glad I did. This skirt is my ultimate staple skirt – it’s a lovely timeless cut, and it goes well with almost everything. It’s sadly beginning to wear out, but I fully intend to study its construction and make a skirt myself in the same style. (Oh, and it’s also from Goodwill – this is one that I got years and years ago.)

And the shoes are from my beloved local thrift store. They are a similar style to many 1940s shoes I’ve seen, which pleases me. (The heel goes straight down at the back instead of curving in, which does not please me. But we can’t have everything.)

Saturday, July 11

This dress is also from my beloved local thrift store (hereafter abbreviated to MBLTS) (and if memory serves it only cost three dollars, which is insane in the best possible way). Its style could easily pass as a ’50s or ’60s shirtwaist dress, especially after I took the hem up a bit a couple years ago – it was originally ankle-length, which I thought looked a little strange on such a casual style of dress.

The belt did not come with the dress; it’s another one I got from Goodwill years and years ago. (I never thought to look until I was writing up this post, but I have now verified that it’s actual leather, which is nice. And the buckle is solid brass, apparently. That’s cool.)

And I might as well mention here that there were several days on which I changed shoes for portions of the day, if my feet were getting tired of heels or else I wanted to wear flatter shoes for safety reasons (i.e. I wanted to drive the car or take a walk around the block). In those cases I wore these shoes:

These came from Walmart. I actually use them as bedroom slippers usually…they’re not the most comfortable thing ever and I prefer to wear heels generally, but they have their uses.

Sunday, July 12

And for Sunday Mass I wore my one authentic 1950s dress. Most genuine vintage dresses that are in wearable condition are most decidedly beyond my means, but I stumbled across this one on Etsy five or six years ago, and it was an absolute steal. I’ve gotten quite a lot of use out of it every summer – it does occasionally need a little mending at the seams, but that’s not a big deal. (And it has its original matching belt! Matching belts on dresses give me joy.)

And these shoes are also Walmart shoes. I got them before Easter a couple years ago – I had been mentioning that I would like them to replace my rather worn-out spring sandals but that I didn’t want to spend the money on them, and my brother Mortimer heard and very kindly bought them for me.

Monday, July 13

I sort of didn’t get around to taking a picture on this day…whoops. So I took a picture of my outfit after the fact:

This is one of my outfits that I don’t really like as much, truth be told. I don’t like t-shirts too much, and I like this skirt more in theory than in reality – there’s something about the cut of the material at the top that makes it lay strangely, and the look of the elastic in the waistband combined with this specific skirt material vaguely reminds me of sweatpants, which I also don’t like. But oh well. It is what it is.

This shirt came from Kohls (shockingly, for once I bought a piece of clothing NOT second-hand! It was on clearance at least, though) and the skirt came from MBLTS.

Tuesday, July 14

This is one of my favorite blouses currently. Unfortunately I don’t think the camera picked up its color well, but it’s a very vibrant deep red, and it has very cool embroidery detailing at the neckline – I’ll show you a close-up of it:

Now, I confused myself by taking trips to Goodwill and to MBLTS in quick succession, but I think this one came from MBLTS. (And the skirt, as you can probably see, is the same one I wore on Thursday – as aforementioned it goes with nearly all my blouses, so I usually wear it quite frequently.)

Wednesday, July 15

This blouse and skirt set is very reminiscent of the 1940s to me – the style of the blouse is very ’40s, with the collar and padded shoulders and all, and I have seen pretty much this exact polka dot pattern on ’40s dresses. This is another one from MBLTS. (There’s a bit of a tragic story connected with this outfit, actually – I found this one and a lovely red dress at the same time; it was a casual shirtwaist-y sort of dress, but with a lovely 1950s-esque fit-and-flare silhouette. After much deliberation I decided to only get this outfit, which cost two dollars less, but since then I have always regretted not getting that dress. So there’s your moral for the day…only let your cheapskatery go so far.)

Thursday, July 16

For my last day of the week I ended up wearing the same purple blouse and black skirt I wore on Friday, so I didn’t think it necessary to take another picture.

And that wraps up the week! I think this is a fairly accurate representation of what I actually wear – I have a fair number of plain brightly-colored t-shirts that I wear sometimes, but after a couple lucky strikes at thrift stores in the past months, I have enough summer blouses that I don’t wear them too often. So while I couldn’t help but be thinking of the fact that I was recording my outfits through this week, I don’t think that affected my outfit decisions very much.

What are some of your favorite summer outfits? Do you love thrift store shopping as much as I do?