Cadillac’s Castle’s Five Dollar Bin

The term ‘Thrift’ takes on new meaning in the East Village, so allow me to briefly differentiate between real thrift and quotation-embedded ‘Thrift’. The former has been worn at least once. The latter has not. Stores like Cadillac’s Castle masquerade under the former notion when most of their merch falls in the latter category. So Not Okay. A never-worn Giorgio Armani cocktail dress that originally retails for $1500 and re-sells for $600 is not a steal: It’s an utterly redonkulous purchase. The same dress in the same condition, worn ONCE, would re-sell for $200, max. Let’s play Would You Rather.

Would You Rather… have new Giorgio Armani tags to snip off your purchase or have four hundred more dollars in your checking account? If I wanted to get ripped off buying uber high-end shiznat that at 60% Off is still ludicrously priced, I’d hit The Back Room at Loehmann’s and/or the sale rack at Bergdorf Goodman. Cadillac’s Castle has more in common with these stores than it does with anything thriftastic.

It also has a $5 bin and subsequently, the potential to redeem itself with a $5 Calypso skirt.

Calypso Skirts usually retail for around $175, but the fact that I snagged one for $5 wasn’t even the best part.

As it turns out, I didn’t just get a fab, silk skirt for five buckaroos; I got a fab silk skirt that doubles as a strapless minidress!

So in closing, I might stop by Cadillac’s Castle again, if only to dig through the treasure chest that is the $5 bin. The real gold is always in the gently-worn steal.