Suzanne Carillo

You know I love a good estate sale. They are exciting and a bit addictive. You never know what treasures you’re going to find. Sure it means getting up extra, extra early on a Saturday morning which normally I would hate, but if you have your heart set on something special sometimes you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of sleep.

If you’ve never been to an estate sale they often work based on a ticketing system. The organizers state a time they will be handing out tickets at the door and people line up (often hours in advance) to get a ticket that holds their place in line. Once you have your tickets you must wait until they allow entry to the premises which is often two hours later. People are then admitted entry to the house based on ticket number.

The last few estate sales I’ve gone to I haven’t had much luck.

I was delighted when I spotted a fantastic bar cart a couple of months back in the estate sale preview photos, exactly like what I’d been looking for. We thought we’d arrived plenty early, about thirty minutes prior to them handing out tickets. Turns out we were #35 in line. Some people had arrived at 3 am! Someone else promptly went in and scooped up my bar cart before we even got in the door. Annoying!

A couple of weeks later I spotted another sale where they had a fabulous oval 1960’s teak coffee table…perfect since my pug broke the wonderful 1960’s vintage glass top we had last year. We arrived very early, we were only the fifth and sixth people to get into the home but the third and fourth people ran straight downstairs and bought the table out from under us. GRRRRR!!!

By this time I was beginning to think the Estate Sale Fairy was mad at me.

I gave it one last try in a smaller town called Kitchener about 45 minutes from where I live. I thought there would be fewer people attending and less chance I’d be deprived again of my prize, which happened to be an immaculate ankle length pink 1960’s cocktail dress with black bodice beading.

A true treasure straight off the set of MadMen!

We arrived very early but STILL managed to be the forth and fifth people in line. What is it with these people getting up so dang early on the weekend?

However, after so much perseverance the illusive Estate Sale Fairy had granted my wish! Not only did they have that swoon-worthy Ginger-from-Gilligan’s-Island cocktail dress, they had others as well that were only just discovered on the morning of the sale!

No one else was even looking at the clothes so I didn’t have to fight anyone.

They were mine! All mine!

It was finally worth missing an extra three hours of sleep.

This week I’m showcasing some of the pieces I scored at that estate sale and thanking my lucky stars that the owner was almost the same size as me.

1980’s Vintage Dynasty Dress Styled Contemporary

The first dress I’m featuring isn’t my normal style, being both black and voluminious. 1980’s fashion is borderline vintage for me. This dress really reminds me of the dress I wore to my graduation which is made out of the same crepe material, and yes, I graduated high school in the early 1980’s.

As soon as I saw the sleeves and the neckline I thought, “Dynasty”.

It has shoulder pads but they are very small. I almost wish they were bigger because I have small narrow shoulders and I think it would help the drape of the sleeve.

black 1980s vintage dress suzanne carillo — Dress – vintage, Belt – Anthropologie (old), Clutch – Anthropologie, Shoes – Nine West (old), Earrings – Vintage

The skirt is wonderfully full. This would be a great dress for dancing a ballroom waltz.

It may be a bit large on me, but I think it isn’t too noticeable with the belt. It does come with its own belt but I like the additional sparkle and colour.

What do you think of the dress?

I actually think it looks quite contemporary aside from the longer hem length.

I switched out my winter clothing for my summer clothing and it appears that somehow I now own too many dresses. How is that possible? I need a bigger house. Don’t call the hoarder police. I will be arrested on the spot.

I’ve decided I don’t have enough events to attend. My pug/agent/assistant isn’t booking me enough fancy cocktail parties and red carpet events. It may be time to start selling a few choice dresses on Etsy. Either that or get a new pug, which is kind of like saying, get a new husband.

Tempting…oh so very tempting…but a pain-in-the-ass to retrain someone new from scratch. I know you all know what I’m talking about.

Wednesday I’ll show you a truly unique 1970’s maxi dress I discovered at the same sale.

Linking up with Visible Mondays, Turning Heads Tuesdays,

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Sheela kindly asked me to participate in her Sister Act series featuring bloggers from their teens, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and their interpretation of wearing animal print.

Sister Act is a brilliant concept illustrating different variations of the same theme based on our personalities rather than our age.

Age shouldn’t define the way we choose to dress. Personal style and body type should be the only deciding factors when we choose our clothing.

Sheela persuaded me to do something online that I normally would never do in real life, agree to age before my actual birthday.

I am only just over a week shy of my 50th but I’m standing in for the 50’s here.

You just know that up until midnight the night before my birthday I will be yelling out,

“I’m only in my late forties!”

What?

I’m not lying!

I’m hoping that my 50th year will be the year for positive change in my life. I’m making a conscious effort to let go of past hurts and move forward with an open heart. It is much easier said than done but taking that additional baggage into the second half of my life is only weighing me down.

I own so much animal print in my wardrobe it was hard to choose one piece for this feature but my 1980’s leopard print kitty cat jumpsuit pretty much takes the cake as far as Bitch-Be-Crazy-But-I-Like-It style.

Doesn’t this remind you of something Pat Benatar might have worn?

It was still quite cool when I took these photos so I paired it with a new thrifted item, a tapestry bolero from Italy. This is the kind of amazing and weird stuff you can find if you thrift.

The brilliant thing about this jumpsuit is that it is like wearing PJs. I can kick box or do yoga without fear of ripping a seam.

I know most people will tell you that wearing leopard print from head to toe when you’re over 40 (okay almost 50) is cray-cray. I will say this, on the day I wore this out my neighbour’s son, a twenty something commented how great I looked, and no I didn’t have to pay him. So there.