* I've so busy obsessing and caring for my little pigeon. Today, I am submitting as one would call it "a fluff piece" for today's blog. :-)
My mother used to say to me that I had 'beer pockets with champaigne taste".
Basically this means I had little money but I liked the nicer things.
When I was in high school I worked in a nursing home literally emptying bed-pans to pay for community college.
I was making $2.30 an hour . On this salary, I paid for my $500.00 a year tuition, along with books, gas, lunch and Christmas presents for my family. I was conservative with this (seriously) hard earned cash and I didn't have much left over for anything else.
In the late 70's designer clothing started to rear it's sparkly head as one of those "must have" items.
Do you remember Jorache jeans? "You got the look I want to know better".
(*Our handsome Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown modeled those jeans!)
Jorache jeans were $80.00 a pop.
Sure, all the snotty kids had those jeans. Never in a million years would I own a pair of those jeans for that price.
In the early 80's, various discounted 'seconds" shops started to spring up. These small shops would sell designer clothing that had imperfections at a fraction of the retail price. Maybe a button was missing, it wasn't hemmed properly or the stitching was not perfectly straight. Sometimes there seemed like no imperfections other than it was labeled the wrong size.
I remember scoring a pair of purple Gloria Vandebelt jeans with gold stitching for $10.00 and a purple irish linen Anne Klein t-shirt for $3.00 (I still have that t-shirt!) I remember coming home with these items.
I thought my mother was going to faint when she saw the Gloria Vandebilt label. "Where did you get the money to buy these jeans?!?!" as panic rose in her voice. She knew how little I made as a nurses aide.
I grinned, showed her the price tag and told her about this store. The next day, she took a ride over to this shop.
Ever since then I've had an eye for designer duds but for a deep discount. You are a major sucker to pay retail. Half the fun of shopping is the "hunt" and 'scoring". I still love to rummage in consignment and re-sale shops.
The ironic part is today, a lot of the low end retailers like Walmart, K-mart, target, and Kohls are selling designer labels. Walmart sells Jorache jeans for $18.00.(!) They are nothing like the jeans back in the 70's. First of all, they are now made in Sri Lanka and don't fit the same way. Walmart also sold Norma Kamali t-shirts for $8.00. I bought one because I liked the love-bird design on it (Norma Kamali was Barbara Streisand's favorite exclusive designer!)
Target now sells a Missoni line. I read in yesterday's news Target's sales was like "black friday"because of the introduction of this Missoni line.
Last night, my husband and I were watching this light romantic comedy called "When in Rome". There was a scene where the lead female character flipped off her shoes to jump in a fountain. I said to my husband, "that's not realistic.. no woman would take off her thousand dollar Christian Louboutin heels to jump in a fountain.."
He looked at me with wide eyes and said, "how do you know what kind of shoes she is wearing?" I said, "because the soles are red".
He was still glaring at me with wide eyes for a good two minutes.
And then it dawned on me on of what he was thinking.
I patted his leg in reassurance and said, 'don't worry.. I don't have a pair".
Yup, I've got beer pockets but champaigne taste.
In the late 70's designer clothing started to rear it's sparkly head as one of those "must have" items.
Do you remember Jorache jeans? "You got the look I want to know better".
(*Our handsome Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown modeled those jeans!)
Jorache jeans were $80.00 a pop.
Sure, all the snotty kids had those jeans. Never in a million years would I own a pair of those jeans for that price.
In the early 80's, various discounted 'seconds" shops started to spring up. These small shops would sell designer clothing that had imperfections at a fraction of the retail price. Maybe a button was missing, it wasn't hemmed properly or the stitching was not perfectly straight. Sometimes there seemed like no imperfections other than it was labeled the wrong size.
I remember scoring a pair of purple Gloria Vandebelt jeans with gold stitching for $10.00 and a purple irish linen Anne Klein t-shirt for $3.00 (I still have that t-shirt!) I remember coming home with these items.
I thought my mother was going to faint when she saw the Gloria Vandebilt label. "Where did you get the money to buy these jeans?!?!" as panic rose in her voice. She knew how little I made as a nurses aide.
I grinned, showed her the price tag and told her about this store. The next day, she took a ride over to this shop.
Ever since then I've had an eye for designer duds but for a deep discount. You are a major sucker to pay retail. Half the fun of shopping is the "hunt" and 'scoring". I still love to rummage in consignment and re-sale shops.
The ironic part is today, a lot of the low end retailers like Walmart, K-mart, target, and Kohls are selling designer labels. Walmart sells Jorache jeans for $18.00.(!) They are nothing like the jeans back in the 70's. First of all, they are now made in Sri Lanka and don't fit the same way. Walmart also sold Norma Kamali t-shirts for $8.00. I bought one because I liked the love-bird design on it (Norma Kamali was Barbara Streisand's favorite exclusive designer!)
Target now sells a Missoni line. I read in yesterday's news Target's sales was like "black friday"because of the introduction of this Missoni line.
Last night, my husband and I were watching this light romantic comedy called "When in Rome". There was a scene where the lead female character flipped off her shoes to jump in a fountain. I said to my husband, "that's not realistic.. no woman would take off her thousand dollar Christian Louboutin heels to jump in a fountain.."
He looked at me with wide eyes and said, "how do you know what kind of shoes she is wearing?" I said, "because the soles are red".
He was still glaring at me with wide eyes for a good two minutes.
And then it dawned on me on of what he was thinking.
I patted his leg in reassurance and said, 'don't worry.. I don't have a pair".
Yup, I've got beer pockets but champaigne taste.
Great story, V. And what a punch line!
ReplyDeleteGood one, V! I remember when Louboutin first started their shoe line way back in the 90's... I saved up for months, then finally bought a pair for $500, because I JUST HAD TO HAVE THEM. At the time, I had a very large dog. He was a Neapolitan Mastiff...about a year old. In my closet was a pair of Nine West leather pumps right next to my gorgeous Louboutins. Somehow he got into my room, then into my closet(both doors were closed when I left for work that morning)... guess which ones he ate? My dog had excellent taste in shoes. I'll never spend that much money on shoes again.
ReplyDelete