Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Bargain Hunting with expensive taste

I need a new couch. I also need a pair of black boots for the winter. I am a picky art-damaged woman. I do not want a cheesy ass-couch or pleather boots, I want a really chunky, expensive looking total-super-baragin-couch. I want a VERY specific boot with fine leather and a heel that is neither chunky nor spike. It needs to have an elegant heel about 1". I have located such a boot but it's $900. It has not made it past the current season to my bargin bin just yet. I might also add that I want the couch to be a sectional, I want it to be a neutral, I would prefer it to have tapered wooden legs like a vintage mid-century piece. I cannot find all of these qualities in a couch that is not 5k. Here-in lies the problem that plagues all of my days.

This lovely grey sectional from CB2 is almost there.

I want very specific things when I go looking for most anything, generally these things are expensive because the only people that "get" what I want, and want it to look like, are other artists and craftsmen/women. This has plagued me since I was little. I have a knack for picking the most expensive thing up [or what once was the most expensive thing] Much to my mom's disgust I might add. School shopping was a lesson in patience for me, arguments for her. I wanted what I wanted. And she would end up saying "well you'll only have one pair of pants to wear to school then". This might explain my obsession with clothes as an adult. I want what I want.


these Tory Burch boots are kind-of it. but I don't like the gold detail on the heel and I don't really want the big mark on the side. and I kinda want the heel to be a little more elegant.

I recently told someone that most of my clothes and shoes come from Marshall's or Loehmann's [local discount stores] and they were shocked. Oh yes, I very rarely spend over $40 for most anything. I go shopping once a week, it's my Friday treat to myself. Sometimes I go to both stores in the same night if I'm really going big. Some weeks I find nothing, some weeks it's like a treasure chest. It takes work. It takes patience, it takes weeding through rows of crap to find the Theory sweater marked down from $240 to $39. I don't care if it's from last season. It's going to be black or grey anyway no one that I hang out with will know it's from last season. Only the girlfriend who's a buyer in LA will and I don't see her much anyway. Stick with classics, stick with great fabrics, channel Tim Gunn. Buy a trench coat at the end of a season...it will survive till the next and you'll look fab.

This boot by Apepazza is closer but I'm just not sure...but at $294 it's the most reasonably priced thing I've liked.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea. but the grey couch is almost it. If it just had the mid century legs. If only I could find it as a sample discounted 40% or maybe from a model home at 50%. That, that would be PERFECT. And the Anya Hindmarch boots from last season that were $800 but were sold out. If someone is a 9.5 and would like to sell me the pair that they put in the closet and really don't like anyway? I'll totally take them off your hands for like $250. I'm not asking for much now am I?

1 comment:

lynne said...

have you looked at sundance catalog? (sundancecatalog.com)
they have some nice things, you might like their boots. not alot of sales there, though.