{Almost daily outfit of the day} Vintage skirts and compressed internal organ syndrome: an overview 5.2.12

Gap Outlet tee; vintage thrifted skirt; thrifted Banana Republic flats; vintage estate sale clutch; Forever 21 and eBay bracelets

Friends, today I would like to introduce you to a terrifying-sounding yet mostly innocuous medical condition called Vintage Skirt-Induced Compressed Internal Organ Syndrome, also known as VSI-CIOS. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, nausea, the inability to tuck in shirts, and confusion regarding whether the waist size of women in the 60's and 70's was as tiny as clothes of that time suggest.

VSI-CIOS is often a mix of two diseases:

• Chronic Obstructive Denial: In CID, the patient insists on wearing vintage skirts with waist sizes that do not correlate with their actual waist measurement.
• Compulsive Thrifting Disorder: Victims of CTD spend an excessive amount of time in thrift stores, despite intervention by friends and family to reduce this time-sucking behavior.

So far, researchers have identified victims of VSI-CIOS as female vintage enthusiasts with the confounding ability to sacrifice physical discomfort for personal style. You might get VSI-CIOS if you have a tendency to to spend an excessive amount of time in thrift stores, find yourself compulsively buying vintage skirts with waists that squeeze and pinch, and irrationally justify their purchase through statements such as "This skirt is Satan's handiwork, but I'm wearing it" and "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BREATHE...but I sure look cute."

There is no known cure for VSI-CIOS, largely because the sweet siren call of a great vintage skirt is hard, if not impossible, to resist. Attempts to come between a vintage enthusiast and her apparel should be regarded as potentially life-threatening and extremely dangerous. 

I confess that today I am a victim of Vintage Skirt-Induced Compressed Internal Organ Syndrome. But when the skirt is this great, I could care less.

{Almost daily outfit of the day} On obsession. 4.20.12

Vintage thrifted silk blouse; thrifted OP ankle jeans; thrifted Banana Republic flats; thrifted vintage belt; thrifted vintage clutch; Forever 21 bracelets

Okay, guys. I realize I have an unhealthy obsession with this blouse. I might have worn it three days in a row, and 3928761 times since I thrifted it a few months ago. This is not my first brush with obsessive behavior. In the past 30 years, I have been obsessed with the following:

• Sex and the City
• Diet Coke
• J Crew ballet flats
• J Crew in general.
• Tori Amos (hey, it was the nineties.)
• The Dylan McKay/Brenda Walsh/Kelly Taylor love triangle on Beverly Hills 90210.
• Peanut Butter M&M's
• Vintage Levi's
• Nars Orgasm blush
• Trying to determine why the Kardashians are so popular. Seriously. This is eating me alive.

So you can see why my behavior with my pink silk blouse is not entirely uncharacteristic. While I recovered from my fierce Diet Coke addiction, my passionate love for this blouse is here to stay. I might need a support group.

{Almost daily outfit of the day} What goes around comes around 4.18.12

 

Thrifted tee shirt; Urban Outfitters polka dot jeans; thrifted Banana Republic flats; Forever 21 belt; Forever 21 and vintage bracelets; thrifted Michael Kors rose gold watch

The last time I wore something so adamantly neon I was in the seventh grade, had a perm, and spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to decide whether Whitney Houston, Debbie Gibson, or Madonna was the better singer. Madonna wore a lot of neon. I too wore a lot of neon, though I preferred to limit myself to socks and belts and tee shirts, avoiding the day-glo underwear Madonna flaunted.

Truthfully, I never thought I'd see neon clothes trending again, but then again I couldn't conceive that Madonna would someday be a mom and take on an affected English accent and drop her lingerie-as-outwear uniform. That was just too weird.