Thrifty Threads

Welcome to another installment of Thrifty Threads, AKA Most Stylish Compact-y Outfit, where readers model their favorite secondhand clothes.

A Compact-y outfit is used or recycled, from Goodwill, a thrift store, or a consignment shop.

Today's model is Marylyn, wearing the fantastic striped pants she bought at the local Salvation Army for $4. Marylyn says they're a really well-made German label called Zerres Design. The top is from a local vintage clothing store and cost $3. The most expensive part of the outfit is the shoes, which were $5 at the Salvation Army. Here's my favorite detail: she's wearing a leopard-print bra that she bought at Value Village for $1.50! Marylyn says she's been shopping secondhand for decades, and that probably only about 5 percent of her wardrobe was bought new (that includes the cute green socks.)

Marylyn is a full-time art department secretary and part-time English teacher at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I think she's also a really good writer. She's very modest about it, but I've seen a few of her stories and poems. Marylyn writes a blog called "Missing Marylyn," which she describes as "personal but not private." She says it's "about her FEELINGS, nothing more than FEELINGS... And a few thoughts." (That's from a 70s song by Morris Albert, for those of you too young to get the reference.) Check out her blog, you'll get a flavor of her writing talent and idiosyncratic personality (and I mean that as a compliment.)

Thanks Marylyn for the fun photos! How cool is it that almost any day of the week she's wearing an outfit that could be featured on Thrifty Threads? Not just cool, but very smart. And very thrifty. It occurs to me particularly with Marylyn's photo that shopping secondhand is not only more affordable, but it gives us a chance to put together our own outfits and express ourselves in a more creative, original way. I used to love doing that back in college, but got away from it. I think buying new clothes makes us look more like cardboard cutouts, reflections of fashion's latest whim, rather than of our own style.

Readers, I need more photos! I've been doing this as a weekly feature, but I've run out of photos so you won't see it again unless I start getting some emails. Please put on your favorite secondhand outfit, snap a photo, and send it to me at: barton.angela@gmail. com. We all want to see your fabulous finds, so please don't be shy. It really is so much fun to see what great clothes people are buying secondhand. Photos of your husband or child would also be welcome. So far, I've only had one man brave enough to model for Thrifty Threads, I'd love to see another.

Do you shop secondhand? Tell us about your best scores in the Comments section. And feel free to give a compliment to Marylyn. Click here to check out previous installments of Thrifty Threads.