Digitally reliving the excitement of Fashion Week, from New York to London, Milan and to France, while remaining static in Ann Arbor, Michigan gives you a taste of fashion just big enough to make you salivate over the newest from Yves Saint Laurent while simultaneously face palming every time you see another Ugg-and- legging-Northface-rocking- Lily Pulitzer-planner using female on campus. \u00c2\u00a0What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worse, any attempt to ameliorate this disconnect by shopping at retailers such as Forever 21 and H&M only reinforces the idea of mass fashion production and an overall lack of creativity. \u00c2\u00a0Try going to Saks Fifth Avenue or Bloomingdales and you either \u00c2\u00a0pass out from sticker shock because the average price for most remotely unique items are about a gajillion dollars, or you suffer from a serious case of #firstworldproblems because the newest collection hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even his retailers yet.<\/p>\n
The Solution? Salvation Army, Spring 2013.<\/p>\n
The Salvation Army is a treasure chest of strangely unique but wardrobe defining pieces that can be exclusively yours. \u00c2\u00a0Multi-textural black leather pencil skirts, men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ethnic garb turned into chicly loose tribal dresses, white wing tip kitten heels, and perfectly broken in jean shorts (jorts?), all on the budget of a few drinks at your local hipster coffee joint, are what make this a haven for the economically conscious style savvy. Yes, you will have to sift through the clothing and it may take time, but the reward of finding something so different from what anyone else can even attempt to buy is empowering.\u00c2\u00a0 The selection may not necessarily provide the same results as off-the-runway trends, but the overwhelming amount of extraordinarily strange clothing provides variety so large that it is so easy to incorporate and interpret a trend into what you find at the Salvation Army, at least in terms of color, silhouette, and pattern, while constructing it to be a part of your personal style.<\/p>\n
The clothes themselves tell a story other than being pumped directly out a machine, which was programmed to create a very calculated piece of clothing that would satisfy the trendy needs of most consumers. Instead, you are left with a piece of clothing that had a life and a story with whoever donated the item.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone may have used that blouse to block the sun while travelling in Egypt, used that coat while they watched their daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first soccer game, or done something really unsettling and dangerous in those shoes. As long as the pieces are washed thoroughly, the dirt and smell will leave, and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left is a piece that may have lived a life as long as you.<\/p>\n