Art or Something Like Art
My friend, H, and I are ravenous thrifters. We came to the love of digging through used clothing and other artifacts for special treasures from our own childhoods. Both of us had mothers and grandmothers and aunts and cousins who thrift I made my first purchase at the age of 10 at the Canton, Texas First Monday. My grandmother had given me one dollar to purchase something for myself. I was a weird little ten year old. Instead of taking the money and buying a coke or some fries or some other kid-like thing, I purchased a cut glass bud vase. It was a damn good buy for $1.00 and I still have that vase 55 years later.
As a teenager I was skinny, skinny, skinny. I wasn't anorexic (no one had ever heard of anorexia back then) but I had a very high metabolism and am very small-boned. I could never find clothes that fit me. My mom and grandmom sewed dresses for me and we shopped at the local Jr.'s store in August for my school clothes, but I yearned for something more glamorous and more elegant.
I had a friend named P. We were best friends in high school. P came from a thrifting family as well. Since we could now drive, we discovered the local Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, rummage sales, and estate sales. We absolutely lived for Saturday morning when we'd hit the stores looking for vintage clothes, jewelry, books or whatever struck our fancy. My first vintage collection came from thrifting with Pixie throughout high school and our first two years of college. When I went away to collage, I took all my thrifted clothes and decor and created this really cool funky apartment. I dressed in vintage almost exclusively except for jeans...but those jeans were old and worn out and came from Goodwill...so, they may have been from the 1940s or 1950s.
At some point in my college career, I found that I needed money more than I needed a bursting closet full of vintage clothes. So, I sold them to a fancy vintage store in Dallas and only held on to a very few of my precious vintage items.
Through the years I continued to buy vintage clothes, jewelry and whatever's from thrift stores. It's part of my daily routine. I am now about to sell my 5th collection of vintage clothes on Ebay. But, I know I can find new treasures and I will keep some things that I especially love (vintage Gucci, YSL Rive Gauche etc). So, my art and my thrifting are all mixed together in my lifestyle. I buy books and magazines at thrift stores for my collages. I find art supplies and weird inspirations at thrift stores as well. My husband sometimes complains that I spend too much but I always can reply with "Can you imagine what I would have paid for these shoes (etc) at Saks?" Nope, I didn't thing you could.
