Style & shopping crash course ☆ PART ONE → finding bargains in unexpected places.

Good evening fellow adventurers.

Since this is my first post in this future short series (?) of posts, maybe I should do a little introduction. For starters, let me just tell you how silly I always feel when I write something like this. In what way? Well, I get paranoid and think that you'll start to see me as a stupid old owl who thinks she knows everything when really she's just annoying and talks way too much.

I hope that's not the case.

Thing is, I think a lot. And when I think I start to write. It's like a compulsive need, I can't help it. And sitting on my ass writing all day just turns me into a ball of "oh my god what the hell am I doing with my life"-angst, so I might as well share what I write! Especially when I do think it might be of use for someone else. I don't know.

Anyway. Lately I've been thinking about how difficult and complicated everything felt when I first started out with street fashion. I sound like that owl now, but it's true. I was so caught up on only buying the right brands, panicking about not finding enough stores to buy clothes from. I even felt ashamed when I wore something offbrand, like a shirt from H&M, or whatever.

Man was I stupid.

Sure, brands are fantastic. I would still commit murder if someone gave me a truckload of BOY LONDON in return (not really, but you get the point). But now I'm sitting here wondering why I tried so hard and worried so much, when I can probably even find something to wear at IKEA.

I came to think of this a while ago, and the result is this (and future, since I came to think of a lot of other things, and thought it'd be fun to make a series of it) post. Topic?

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PART ONE → FINDING BARGAINS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES
A little something about great shopping in places that might even make you uncomfortable.

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1. Never underestimate a shop just because it looks unappetising. 

Just because it looks like one of those chique boutiques for 40+ ladies, it doesn't mean you can't find anything in there. Let me be pedagogical and state an example from my own life! More specifically, this mother's day.

Mum and I celebrated with a mother-daughter shopping and dinner-day. It being mother's day, I let her decide where, when and what to shop for. Took some serious mental strength. My dear mother has a thing for the most boring shops in the history of mankind, and she always has to try on a billion different things, and on top of that she always wants to spend at least an hour looking at flowers, which is not a dance on roses, I hate flowers. Or, well, I don't hate them, they're just pretty but not very exciting at all and they make time go by so slowly it feels like the clock is moving backwards. So I wasn't thrilled. But hey, mother's day. What to do.

Anyhow. Apart from visiting the damn flower stores, we walked around the whole Skanstull area here
in Stockholm, and went into this shop called Cayenne.

Cayenne, an old enemy of mine.

My mum has been dragging me there since I was little, and just looking at it you can see why it's not such a happy encounter for a person like me. All the clothes are beige, white, frilly in a bad way, and most of the time trying way too hard to be hip and trendy, in a 40+ kind of way. From the look of it, at least.

You see, that's the lesson I'm trying to teach here!
From the look of it.

Because when I walked around with my judgemental attitude, trying to make time go by faster by poking the clothes on the hangers and shelves, I realized there were actually a lot of things I could imagine wearing in there. And by that I mean a lot!

Some of you may have noticed that I like crosses, and I found quite a few nice pieces with crosses and other lovable details, for example, studs, trashy hems and ripped fabrics. Sweaters and shorts and whatnot.

I fell completely in love with this dress that I found.

I don't know about you, but I think it's a little tumblr hipster-ish - a trend people seem to hate on quite a lot, but I actually love it, and I stand for it. Even though my friends tease me quite a bit for it from time to time (with love, I hope). The material is super soft and airy, perfect for summer, it's comfy, and just overall a very nice dress. I felt so bad when my mum ended up surprising me and bought it for me. It was mother's day after all, I had to make her dinner and act like a nervous butler for a few days to make up for it. But hat's not the point here, stop it Saga.

The point is that this dress comes from a 40+ looking store, that I've feared my entire life.
It might look a little boring, but with the right accessories (scroll down to the end of this post to see what I mean) it looks good, if I'm allowed to say so. I love it a lot (thank you mum).

The more you know, huh.

2. Treat unappetising stores like a science project. 

Now, when exploring new territory, keep in mind that you probably won't find a goldmine very often. Sad as it may be. You might only find one usable piece of clothing in one of those stores you visit.

But if it's a really good piece of clothing, that you end up using all the time, isn't it still worth it?

It might be a pair of shorts, perfect fit-jeans of a perfect color that you can modify and make more fun, undies, a hat, even just a pair of socks. Anything is something!

I can still promise that at least in 95% of all stores, you can find that something you completely fall in love with.

So try it out, go in there and investigate properly before you give up. It doesn't have to be something with a lot of details and prints and street-y looking, simple things work too. Remember that you'll probably want to mix the clothes with a lot of details with something that has less details, so they don't eat each other up. And, you can also modify things. Add studs, rips, simple things that look great. It might save you some money as well, since it's often way cheaper to, for example, rip your own jeans than to buy an already trashed pair.

You pay more for broken pants. What's the logic in that?

What I mean by "treat it like a science project" is that you should go into a store with an hypothesis of what you might find, and let the store prove you wrong or right. You can, after all, only imagine what you might find, until you actually investigate properly.

3. Think and play outside the box. 

Now, the dress I found. It looks a little plain and a little boring. But that's the other thing;
Every single thing you buy can't automatically be magical as soon as you put it on. You have to play around a little with it, I think. I love boring clothes, because you can add so much to them, without it looking crazy.

So I did this;

Blouse: Beyond Retro. 

Skeleton-necklace: Kreepsville. 

Clock-necklace: ...grandma. 

Bag: Taobao.

Thinking about wearing this with transparent bat-print tattoo-tights, white platforms, and my dark blonde curly wig in two mini buns and the rest let down (kind of Sailor Moon-style?), and bone hairclips. I don't know, what do you think? (　ﾟдﾟ)''

According to me this dress kind of says everything I want to say. It comes from a boring store, it looks kind of boring on it's own - that doesn't mean you have to match it with boring things. There's always something you can do to make something more fun. You just have to... throw in a little bit of everything until you're happy with what you see, I guess. 

Keep an open mind, that's what I'm saying. 

And that concludes part one, I suppose.

Like I briefly mentioned, I have a few more posts coming up in this newborn little crash course! Speaking of which, I didn't know what else to call it, it's really just a series of posts with me sharing my thoughts. But crash course will have to do! Whatever. 

I'm thinking about an DIY post, I have some more "knowledge" about finding clothes in the wrong places, and using clothes, and how to look for things online, inspiration... I have a lot in mind!

Do you guys have any other suggestions of things you're wondering, and things I might be able to talk a little about? Questions, topics, etc? 

I'd love some suggestions!

Now it's time for sleep though. I've been adding some things to my room, so my bed is really screaming after me. It's so cozy I feel like crying. So I'll just say good night right here.

I hope this was in any way a nice read for someone. If not, at least I'll have this to remind myself to take it easy next time I panic over expensive brands way out of my reach.

Have a nice Thursday tomorrow everybody!
Lots of love ( •ॢ◡-ॢ)-♡

P.S. Added a tiny picture of my pimped bed and Suzuki-san posing on it. Couldn't resist, haha.