My Fashion Confession: Secondhand Style Challenge Day 7

And so we have reached the end. Today I am wearing a thrifted dress, belt, and cardigan. One of my aunts gave me part of the money for these boots a year or so ago and I bought the earrings myself. They were $1.50 at Forever 21.

I know doing something for a week isn't a very long time, but I think this exercise has been instructive. There are a lot of stereotypes concerned with wearing secondhand clothes whether they be thrifted, or obtained through hand-me-downs and other means. If you have read the Harry Potter series, you might know what I mean. There's a scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (not sure if it was in the book or not. Must reread) where Draco Malfoy, Harry's soon to be enemy, meets Ron for the first time and exclaims, "Red hair, hand-me-down robes, you must be a Weasley!" Draco is nearly as wicked as his Voldemort-loving parents so his opinions are of no consequence to the non-evil, but his statement illustrates an important point: there are a lot of stereotypes associated with wearing secondhand clothes.

Maybe the Draco Malfoys of the world could tell I was wearing thrifted clothing all week and chose to keep their comments to themselves, or, and I think this is more likely, no one could tell where my clothes came from. Not every thrifted or hand-me-down item looks used. If you find a good thrift store and diligently look through the racks for quality pieces, you can find a lot of gently used items that are in great condition and have barely been worn at all.

Furthermore, the kind of people who care where I shop aren't the kind of people I want in my life anyway. When Draco made that comment to Ron, it didn't win him any cool points with Harry and Hermione. They both stuck by Ron that day and throughout their time at Hogwarts because of who he was. They could have cared less what he was wearing and even though I write a style blog, those are the kind of people I want in my life too. Hopefully there will be a time in my life when I'm not a broke student and I can afford to dress myself in head to toe Kate Spade. But if that day never comes I want to know people who will accept me readily whether I show up in designer duds or secondhand gear. That's the message I'll be taking away from this challenge: Love the clothes, not the label because the best people in life are the ones who will never try to label you.