Dropped Dots

The year was 2016 and Anthropologie was a very new brand in my thrifting repetoire.  I found this Dropped Dots dress on ThredUp and purchased it for a song.  See how I styled it here for a more in-depth post with lots of pics or keep scrolling for just the highlights.  Dresses like this one made me a fast and firm devotee of Anthro pieces.  Nearly a decade later I actually swapped this dress for one that was the correct size and I love it even more now.  This dress is still in my wardrobe, just as lovely as ever and I still thrift Anthropologie because they really have been a very flattering and quality brand.

2016

2025

Outfit Info:  Dropped Dots Dress is thrifted, Shoes and bag are from SheIn

See the Delight

I thought I'd bring out this vintage thrifted ModCloth dress called See the Delight.  Apparently whomever named this dress thought the print was of matches, but it's actually straight pins.  How embarrassing.  But, the topic of today's post is not pun-failures from over a decade ago: I thought we'd talk shop(ping) instead.

It's been a while since I've done an update on how my efforts at reduced spending have gone, so let's dive into it.  So far, half way through 2025, I'm doing really great.  I'm not doing as well as I would like, May was a major slip-up on spending, but it's all part of a process and rather than giving up I decided to just get back on track and keep going.  One of the main things I did was to break-up with luxury brands.  I can satisfy my shopping itch with thrifted items just as well if not better than I can with over-the-top high fashion items.  And I tend to wear them far more too.

The other thing I've done is to continue tracking every single penny spent and try to stick to a monthly spending limit.  Again, I'm not doing perfect, those Memorial Day sales kind of got me in trouble, but over all, I'm actually doing it and feeling like I'm finally making progress!

I was recently watching a YouTube video by Caroline Tucker titled: You Don't Like Fashion, You Like Consuming.  The thesis of her essay was that "influencers" claim to love fashion, but what they're really doing is just buying tons of (usually fast fashion) items, unboxing, and trying on.  Haul after haul after haul.  After which, those things disappear from their feed never to be seen again.  Eesh, I've definiely been guilty of that in the past.  I dont' get rid of the things that I buy once I'm done with my photos though, with prom dresses being the only real exception, I usually keep things.  So, Caroline is not wrong and the reason for this influencer led shopping craze is three fold:  

1.  Influencers get a dopamine hit from shopping and viewers get a dopamine hit from watching people unbox and display their hauls.  Because of that dopamine hit from something new, this is the content viewers crave seeing over someone wearing the same top for the fifth time even if it is worn a different way.  But the sad fact is, as much as we can descry influencers for doing this, it's a two-way street.  As much as I agree that the hauls are out of control, the fact is if people weren't interested in that sort of content, creators wouldn't make it. 

2.  Influencers make money from people buying the things they link to.  People seem to have forgotten that most of this content isn't coming from a regular person who's just excited to share their finds with others, which is where I'm sort of the exception.  I rarely use affiliate links anymore; I just enjoy sharing my finds and the outfits I create from them, but I am also not a professional influencer.  I work an eight to five in a tiny dark cubicle.  Being an influencer is a job and they can't make money off an item that sold out three years ago.  The best way for them to earn is to be constantly posting new links for people to click and try.

3.  It's much harder to get creative and keep restyling an old piece than it is to just buy something new.  Personally, I love clothes, especially old clothes, and that's why I started a fashion blog.  Actually, I originally started out by posting pics of myself wearing the same dress lots of different ways to ModCloth's Customer Style Gallery, but when they sold out, the new owners immediately got rid of that.  And then unfortunately, I fell into the trap of over consumption all too easily and have been trying to claw my way out of it for years now, because it's so much easier to just click and buy something new than it is to think about and then experiment in order to put together an outfit with existing items, but it's also way less fun and way less rewarding long-term to be constantly buying new things.  There is a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction, dare I say I See the Delight, when I wear an old piece in a new way that gives a serotonin boost rather than a dopamine hit.  Plus, there's no dopamine hit from waiting for a purchase to arrive.  It's a delayed gratification and the brain craves something now which is how you know it's part of an addiction cycle and really bad for you. 

As I have set some more goals for myself to shop less and enjoy more this year, I have been watching content like this to help remind me of why I'm doing what I'm doing and how important it is for my overall wellbeing.  It's good for me not only to hear what someone else has to say about it, but also to think things through for myself, to remind me of why I need to stay the course.  And, since I am trying to spend less, it feels wrong to profit off of others' spending, which is why I'm getting out of the affiliate game.  It's not something I was every really successful at, and not something I want to do anymore.  I don't want to contribute to someone else's financial woes.   So, if you love fashion and outfits, you're in the right place.  And I promise not to tempt you if I can help it.

Outfit Info:  Bea & Dot See the Delight Dress by ModCloth

 

Petticoat Potential

So, you've bought a dress with some serious vintage flare, but when you get it home it falls flat...literally.  If you love vintage styles, then there are a few accessories that can really make your style seem more authentically vintage and in this post we'll discuss a major feature from 1950s and 60s style--petticoats.

I bought this lovely Miss Lulo dress from Modern Millie, completely enamored by the print.  Notice how full and lovely that skirt looks in the product photos.  The dress arrived and the fabric is a very soft soy silk, but I could immediately tell that it had absolutely no fullness of its own. To illustrate that, check out this side by side of the product photo with me wearing the dress:

I think I've made my point.  I was frequently fooled by this in my novice days of vintage styling, wondering why the dresses always looked so authentically vintage in the product photos but limp and lifeless on me.  Then I remembered my square dancing days and the importance of wearing a petticoat to floof out the dresses.  Now to be fair, I like the way this dress looks without the petticoat, but I still want to demonstrate how this one little garment can totally change your look.  So, this is the dress as-is, from my previous post:

Petticoats are available in a huge variety of colors, lengths, and fullness.  The sky is the limit, in fact, speaking from experience, you could wind up with way too many petticoats if you're not careful because it just becomes too easy to want a certain color or length for every occasion.  For this post I'm starting with a basic tulle and nylon petticoat by Leg Avenue in pale pink.  It's allegedly knee length, though mid thigh is more accurate, and if I need it longer I wear it lower on my waist and hips; if I need it shorter, I roll up the top around the waist band.

Leg Avenue petticoats are available on Amazon and Ebay and range from $15 to $25.  They're somewhat costume-y and there are definitely better brands out there, but at the time I bought this one I was not interested in spending a lot of money.  Looking back, I would probably invest in something better, but after 8 years or so, this one is still in good shape.

Notice how it immediately fills out the skirt and makes the outfit look genuinely vintage, and keep in mind that less full petticoats such as this can always be layered to create more fullness and you can mix colors for something truly lovely and unique.

Next up is a beautiful and very full peach petticoat from Doris Designs.  This is definitely a higher quality piece and the price reflects that as these petticoats range from $43-$60 (excluding tax and shipping).  I bought mine for about $20 second hand, because the elastic was completely shot and had to be replaced.

This petticoat has volume to spare and the issue with it is that you must have a skirt that is already full enough to accomodate so much frilly girth.  If not, the skirt will pull and pucker oddly.  Fortunately, this skirt did just fine, though I don't know that photos do it justice for you to truly see how full it makes this skirt.

Last but not least, let's do a comparison of all three skirt fullnesses side by side:

Now that you see the difference a petticoat can make, here's a list of more places that carry quality pieces (these are Not affiliate links):

1.  What Katie Did

2.  Unique Vintage

3.  ModCloth

Hello, Miss Lulo

It's been a while since I've done a Modern Millie post, but I do so love this shop.  Truly it reminds me of everything I loved about ModCloth in 2010.  It's a brick and mortar shop with great customer service and I absolutely love they way they style their pieces to give you ideas on how to wear.  So, every now and then I like to pop over and show my support.  I was immediately smitten with this pink book print dress by Miss Lulo.  I've never heard of this brand before, but now I'm wondering where it's been all my life.  Leave it to M.M. to introduce me to yet another great brand.  *there are no affiliate links in this post, so click away, I won't make a dime. Apparently that's a thing people care about :D

Outfit Info:  Vintage Books dress by Miss Lulo from Modern Millie or from Miss Lulo, shoes are by Charlie Stone, Bag is from Ecosusi

Gravity Falls: A.K.A The Oregon Vortex & Confusion Hill

Gravity Falls first premiered on the Disney channel in 2012.  At the time our family was living in the Pacific Northwest and I walked through our living room during my daughters' t.v. time and happened to catch a few seconds of the Summerween episode (S01 E12).  I laughed so hard that I sat down to fininsh the rest of the show.  It very quickly became a family favorite.  

The story in a nutshell is about two kids who go to visit their great uncle for the summer at his roadside attraction, the Mystery Shack.  Intelligent humor that worked on a level that the kids enjoyed as well as the adults, it was originally intended to be a three season show with each season representing one month of summer.  Unfortunately the show was prematurely canceled by some brainless executive, so the writers had to shoehorn two seasons worth of story into one in order to give the fans a proper ending.

As it turns out, the Mystery Shack is based on two real roadside attractions, The Oregon Vortex near Rogue's River in Oregon, and Confusion Hill in California.  I grew up in the 80s when the interstate wasn't really a thing and stopping at the roadside attractions was way more fun than where ever we were acutally headed.  I've been really sad to see that this form of travel fun has fallen by the wayside as we race down interstates at breakneck speed, eyes glued to various screens, not stopping until we reach the destination.  We've definitely had our fair share of those, but this time we decided to load up our days with places to stop and since we were all Gravity Falls fans, we knew that we had to make time for both these great stops.

Both locations embraced the homage from Gravity Falls, especially since the creator, Alex Hirsch, left clues throughout the show as to the whereabouts of the show's villain, Bill Cypher, and led fans to a statue at The Vortex and later relocated to Confusion Hill.  And both offer a great opportunity to stretch your legs and be amazed!