Tag: repurposing clothes

WOW Factor from 74 Harley Street

When was the last time you flipped through your jewelry box and wished you had that one fun piece to wear, but all you had were bits and pieces of this and that?

Last month, when I was in Kansas City, our cousins were wearing fabulous necklaces; pieces made of sparkly beads, pearls and fun baubles. Paired with t-shirts and jeans, these ladies looked so spirited! Where had they gotten such statement pieces?

Turns out, that one of them, the wildly creative and talented Susan Mayer, was making jewelry out of vintage pieces she was finding and that women were sending to her. Brooches, old necklaces, you name it. Pieces that somehow how had been collected or handed down, but never quite worked in today’s world. Susan was taking these pieces and creating hip and elegant one of kind necklaces and bracelets. I loved what she had on so much that as soon I returned to Denver, I sent her a brooch that had taken up space in my jewelry box for years. I don’t think I had ever worn it.

Within weeks, she sent it back to me. I love it! She created a necklace made of out of dimpled pearls and attached my brooch — designing the piece so that I could add and subtract other brooches. How clever she is. I wore it to a luncheon last week with a simple grey dress and then over the weekend with a white t-shirt and jeans. I had such attitude!

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Take a look in your jewelry box. I’ll bet there is something in there that could be recreated into something you would wear and treasure. Take a picture of it and send it to Susan. Check out her website  www.74harleystreet.com and then get digging through your stuff. You’ll be sporting a “WoW” piece in no time.

What MindFULL piece did you find for Susan to re-create? Send us a picture and let us know!

 

 

 

 

Flip This Closet

It’s been a few weeks since last I posted. My energy has been stalled. Confused by the warm weather, I couldn’t quite rumble. I truly am a Seasonal Girl. On Wednesday, it was 75 degrees. And it was early April. I was still in jeans, sweaters and suede.

Last weekend, lulled into the sense that winter was really over and I’d best get with it, I “flipped my closet,” a  ritual since childhood. For me, there is something about cleaning and organizing my closet that brings me out of the hibernating cycle of dark winter days, or guides me back from lazy summer weeks into the longer eves of Fall.

I confess, I am also still guided by “no white before Memorial Day and no linen after Labor Day.” Rumor has it that as the climate changes, so goes the rule. For me, it remains steadfast.  It is my touchstone to an era gone by. An era I miss (a blog for another Monday).

Limited by space in this new old house of ours, I now have to thoughtfully assess each item. In or out? If I have to justify something about the article, “out” it goes, into the Goodwill bag.

It seems as if other women in my area see Goodwill as the repository for “out” as well and Goodwill “gets it”. Just up the street, in a fashionable and expensive neighborhood of upscale restaurants and boutiques, Goodwill opened DeJaBlue’. One peek through the colorfully arranged windows revealed summer skirts I swear I had seen before in the flanking shops of this new concept store.

It’s like trading clothes with your girlfriends.

Such was also the concept of the Goodwill Exchange that my daughter and I attended at the Exhibit Center last month. For a fee of $25, attendees were invited to bring 10 items to swap post a fashion show of Goodwill items re-purposed into new and exciting outfits. They had lavish buffet tables, cocktails, pounding music and a runway, graced by the designers of Goodwill fashion pieces and judged by Mondo Guerra, a Project Runway runner up and local celeb. Great concept, until after the show when all 1,500 attendees were let loose to “pick 10 new pieces for the 10 they brought” from 100’s of racks scattered around the rooms. It was a stampede and all of a sudden old clothes took on a new sheen. It was as if everyone feared being naked the next day if they didn’t grab something in the frenzy. It was mayhem.

Lucky for me, I found one new denim shirt, which truth be told, I haven’t even worn yet. If it doesn’t make it off the hanger by the end of summer, I will have to live by my own rule and pass it back to make room for Fall’s new finds. Sure hope it fits.

How do you MindFULLY mark the changing of the seasons? Let us know!