I jacked this belt from an old Bogner Snow Suit of mi madre’s.

Attics are stellar resources for unconventional accessories.
(DSquared blazer, $16.00 @ Chelsea Goodwill.

Featuring two outta three of yesterday’s Goodwill finds. WORD.

Splendid Tee ($6.99 @ Goodwill thankyouverymuch)
Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent Slip ($6.00 @ Monk. I know. Redonkulous.)
Ponyhair Belt ($3.00 @ NJ’s Alcove Thrift)
Thick-Rib Tights ($4.99 @ Duane Reade, yet more durable than a lot of my pricier hosiery. I AM OBSESSED. Weird.)
Melissa Plastic Dreams Wedges ($99.00 @ [...]

Had a solid browse last week at the 23rd Street Goodwill.

Warm, versatile and most importantly, cropped. Eighties!

The pics don’t lie: That’s a tags-on-new $52.00 Splendid U-Neck Puff Sleeve Tee right there. (Originally $51.00 online – the Anthropologie tag attached to the one pictured makes it cost a dollar more. Jackholes.)

Another new retail goodie that ended [...]

A month or so ago, I decided this Old Navy dress (via Goodwill, OBVS) just wasn’t short enough. What? My birthday’s in a few weeks, i.e. I’ve got a few more years to toe the line between sexy and slutty sans crossing it completely. (Note: subjective statement.)
In lieu of scissoring, I ‘hemmed’ the aforementioned dress [...]

All kinds of obsessed with this old school Bloomingdale’s Men’s red polo.

Outfit 1: Forever 21 Pencil Skirt; Housing Works Belt; Foot Traffic Plaid Tights; Celine Platform Pumps; Vintage Men’s Polo (Goodwill Outlet Center).
Outfit 2: BCBG Dress (Beacon’s Closet); The Sock Man Tights; Housing Works Belt; Celine Platform Pumps; Vintage Men’s Polo (Goodwill Outlet Center). [...]

My Goodwill Outlet haul included a barely-worn J.Crew Seersucker blazer. Shit. You. Not.
Fitting rooms tend not to exist in places where clothes are $1.69 a pound. I wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea of trying anything on before it underwent my requisite sanitation process either. I had the J.Crew Seersucker dry-cleaned, and found myself nonplussed [...]

We’ve now arrived at the first crop of finds from the Queens Goodwill Outlet Center.
Some are wack jobs (but will make for exciting outfit experimentation, no less):

Some are basics (and they’ve already been worn more than once):

And some require a bit o’ tweaking (but have serious potential):

More thriftastic nuggets to come – stay tuned.

Tackling the beast that is the Queens Goodwill Outlet Center requires more than some serious cojones. Employ the below tips, and increase your chances of survival.

1. Defensive Dressing
Clothing comfortable/casual enough to get dirty; walking shoes; a hands-free bag; you know the deal. I donned a fanny pack for the occasion, and it felt AWESOME.

I hit one of the Thrifty Fashionista’s stellar Vintage Pop-Up Sales last week, which will henceforth be announced here as they happen. The Thrifty Fashionista and I obvs bonded over our collective love of thrift and our similar notions of what constitutes cheap; I was impressed by both her sifting abilities and the way in [...]

I don’t care if nautical’s in or out – I love stripes, always fo eva. I dig boatnecks too, on and offshore. Heretofore, striped boatneck sweaters are right up my alley.

Particularly when they’re legit Ralph Lauren (hellooooo quality), priced at approximately one-fifth of their retail cost.

The Gramercy Goodwill is a godsend.

…in midst of video editing hell; here’s a delicious secondhand nugget to nosh on in the meantime…

I. Heart. Picnik.

April 77 Denim is one of those reasonably priced alternatives to $200 designer jeans. The line’s super cute, and retails for around $95 a pop.
I say reasonably priced is good; cheap is better. Cheap like these April 77s pictured below, which I found on the 23rd Street
Goodwill’s FIVE DOLLAR DENIM RACK.

Booyah.

I pass by Hamlet’s Vintage on Bleecker multiple times a day, as it’s a hop, skip and a jump away from my apartment. The store pimps itself out to locals and tourists alike via a $15 T-Shirt Rack on the sidewalk. The tees are standard secondhand fare i.e. something Urban Outfitters would copy and sell [...]

I swung by Gramercy’s Goodwill earlier today on a tip from reader Donna, who suggested I check out their five dollar denim sale. Donna wins the Karma award for the day. I’m not sure how long said sale’s been going on, but there’s still a solid selection of brands left. Case(s) in point:

Blue Cult, Miss [...]

Ahh, the perfect blazer. A known staple, and something Nina Garcia might refer to as an investment piece: Research the lot, try on a lot, save a lot so you can spend a lot once you’ve found the One for you. I’ve got a few problemos with the concept of the investment piece, specifically with [...]

One of the few downsides of many a New York Goodwills is the thrift’s occasional laziness in tagging its secondhand wares. This sometimes results in register shock – how the EFF can Goodwill charge $30 for beat-up nineties-era Sevens if Buff Ex and Beacons sell the latest styles of designer denim in much better condition [...]

Remember when Goodwill denied Jen that black, over-the-shoulder Coach purse? Fellow reader Min-Ja found a version of said purse (in red), currently on auction at Goodwill.com. Minimum bid is currently $37.50 – not too shabby.
I’m kvelling over Min-Ja’s very selfless Sharesies, which obvs makes her this week’s Karma All-Star! Also dying to know if [...]

I rarely get suckered into paying more for something than what it’s worth. Per esempio: I’m at the Upper East Side Goodwill the other day, hunting for a few summery numbers in the subpar dress section…
(Note: at most Goodwills, the real gems lurk in the Tops section. As the Tops section usually consists of twelve [...]

What do you think about the high prices @ Goodwill Upper West? Since when did they start pricing Seven Jeans at $30?
- A suburban fan
$30 for old Sevens…what kind of horseshit is that?! I’ve seen countless pairs of designer denim of equal or greater caliber at Buffalo Exchange for around $16, so I don’t know [...]

On Friday, 6/19, @ 2:41 PM, Jen emailed:
I was inspired by what you wrote about Karma, especially when it means possible stellar shopping in the future and helping out a friend. I don’t know if you’ll be interested in this, but I sure was, and if not maybe you could post the tip [...]