Almost Vintage

Vest? French Connection, warehouse sale
Skirt? h&m
Shoes? Nine West, Winners
Clutch? Vintage eelskin, thrifted
Bangles? UO and Goodwill auction

Again, again and again... I am all ladylike up in your grill.

My mind is blowing with ideas on how to wear this vest. I could wear it with my sequined skirt and flat, over-the-knee boots, or I could wear it with some distressed, baggy jeans and leather gloves or with underpants and a samuri sword like Nicki Minaj. Good options, yes?

And this skirt is so old I can almost call it vintage h&m. I bought this skirt the first time I ever walked into an h&m 9 years ago. Back then my bestie and I took the old Corolla down to Ithaca, NY to visit her sister and she introduced us to the magical store of fast fashion. I still commend her sister's patience when she waited as we spent hours deciding what to spend our pennies on. At the time the bestie and I both worked at Tim Horton's serving coffee, raking in the cash money at $6.85 an hour, so after paying for our own gas like the adults we were, we had to make careful decisions on how to spend the rest. And yes, when I wear this skirt I feel a bit nostalgic for the teenage thrill of a road trip and for that feeling I had back then, thinking that h&m was my little fashion secret. The nostalgic feeling ended when the poor Corolla had to be retired off the road and when h&m began to complete it's world domination and became as prevalent as a Tim Horton's in Hamilton. And while I still find myself in h&m occasionally, clutching armfuls of clothing, I now thrift to get that feeling of exclusivity.

Surprisingly, I am not keeping this skirt in order to desperately hold on to a piece of my adolescence. It just refuses to destruct and the circle skirt never really goes out of fashion. And so, the original h&m skirt will stick around until it truly does become, vintage.