Flower Child Street Style

My girlfriends from boarding school and I were never overly concerned with the dress code policy, which is to say we all had our own special way of pushing the envelope. For my jock buds, this meant pairing khakis with wifebeaters and bandannas (What dude? It’s not like I’m wearing jeans); for me, it meant donning high black boots and higher hemlines (How the eff am I supposed to flirt with hockey players in fucking SLACKS?!). But no one – NO ONE – did it like Mimi.

I doubt Mimi intended the many Goodwill goodies in her wardrobe as a means of protest against Nantucket Reds and Lily Pulitzer. She was just being Mimi – a girl comfortable enough in her own skin to coil her totally gorge honey-blond hair into dreads for the better part of our junior year. Talk about badass.

Back then, the notion of Mimi and I hitting the same stores was, to me, utterly absurd. I thought shopping thrift meant dressing like her – an impossibility as most of her outfits require both height and a Zen-like demeanor, neither of which I possess. I obvs didn’t know then what I know now: That the potpourri of stuff at any decent secondhand store is extensive enough to accommodate styles as radically different as Mimi’s and my own. This was reinforced last week, when she and I met up for a browse and a chat at Buff Exchange.

Mimi was clad in the outfit pictured, i.e. a floral culotte jumper easily mistaken for a dress ($6.99, Salvation Army), peep-toe espadrilles ($15, Target) and a straw hat ($0, her Mom’s closet); I was wearing my trusty LBD ($38 circa 3 years ago, H&M), a white ruffled blouse ($11.95, Beacon’s Closet) and flat black boots ($20, Burlington Coat Factory). Only a secondhand store could successfully cater to such a sartorially unlikely pair.

(Note: Where outfit cost is concerned, I got my ass kicked and I’m more than okay with that. She’s been thrifting since age 15 – I’m just happy to keep up).

I don’t identify with Mimi because we dress in similar apparel. I’m inspired by her style because what she wears always seems harmoniously in sync with who she is. That’s something we can all aspire to, methinks.

Let’s end on why two thrift mavens left Buff Ex empty-handed: See exhibit A, the book accessorizing Mimi’s outfit, purchased from a street vendor earlier that day. She described the process of bargaining the book down to $5 as “embarrassing considering the title, ‘A Photographic Reference of Sexual Intercourse,’ but totally worth the satisfaction of a deal.” Needless to say, we were too busy cackling like thirteen year olds to browse effectively, but whatevs. Some things are more entertaining than shopping.