Sometimes, however, I don't have the option of going home to unwind. Some days, my work load is ridiculous and I have to stay glued to my desk. The worst is the days when I'm not necessarily overloaded, but every thing keeps coming at me from all directions throughout the day, and I find myself with random spurts of downtime on my hands.
My cure for that? Online shopping.
Yes, I mentioned my love for vintage and retro clothing in an earlier post, but I promised Diana I would embellish on my favorite site: Modcloth.
Honestly, I think Modcloth is one of the best clothing sites on the Internet. Their clothing is cute and not terribly expensive, and surprisingly very diverse. It's where I can go for a cute dress that has a vintage flare, but not the vintage price. For those of you who don't know, good quality vintage clothing can run a high price tag - I'm not talking thrifting in this case, but vintage (I love thrifting, by the way).
The Flower Box Pinthis has been on my wishlist for months!
Modcloth.com is a small company run out of Pittsburgh, PA. It was founded in 2002 by the now-married Susan and Eric Koger, who were then only 17! Susan started selling vintage clothing finds out of her dorm room at Carnegie Mellon University and the business was booming. Susan and Eric (who were high school sweethearts) knew they had something great on their hands, and soon expanded to selling new clothing as well. Though the site sells more new than vintage clothing now, they buy most of their clothes from indie designers and still feature at least one new vintage item on their website per day (but good luck getting it - it sells super fast!).
The Christine Dress
too pricey for me right now (and out of stock)
Within the last two years, Modcloth has garnered about 1,000,000 million female viewers. Their Facebook page has almost 34,000 fans, yet the company still manages to respond personally to all wall posts (and twitters!). Between 2006 and 2008, the employee number went from 3 to 104. Talk about growth.
The Jade Dress.I want this dress hardcore. (Sadly, it is currently out of stock.)
I don't remember how I found Modcloth the first time, but I remember checking it out when it was all vintage. It made me drool. Almost two years ago I met my friend Jenna Clark and one day she wore some awesome blouse from the site. Within a week I bought my first dress (which sadly, did not fit) and after a few tentative months of browsing, I went on a shopping rampage.
The Dancing Under the Stars Dress - Vintage, One-of-a-Kind.
LOVE.
Besides Modcloth being a small and unique company, they have little quirks about them that I love. They find fun and cute names for all their clothing and accessories and create stories for each item as well! In addition to selling clothing, they have a regularly updated blog on their site (by regular I mean 3-4 times a day!) that educates readers on great thrift finds, fashion blogs, style advice, and more. Every month they feature one fashion blogger and create a namesake dress for her! It's extremely personal and fun to be a part of.
Oh, and they have the cutest mascot:
WINSTON!Susan and Eric's awesome pug.
They also hold contests through twitter, text, the site and at one point Facebook (but after a regulation change were forced to remove the contest), that allows fans to win clothing, accessories, gift certificates and more. It's really cool.
Modcloth isn't the only site I buy my clothes on, but it's might as well be. I do, on occasion, splurge on vintage clothing from either Etsy or Market Publique. I tend to be more careful about these sites because the clothing is non-returnable (as vintage is with Modcloth, but at Modcloth I can buy vintage-inspired pieces that ARE returnable). However, I have managed to get some awesome things, including 1960s snowflake pins, and a 1970s swing skirt. Mostly recently I purchased a 1960s day dress from Etsy that I cannot wait to wear:
1960s Day Dressmandarin collar and a-line shape
isn't it cool?
It was only $25, with shipping! That's a steal, my friends. Plus, the seller has a wicked cool fashion blog - but I'll discuss fashion blogs in a later entry.
Tips for vintage and Modcloth shopping (ok, all online shopping):
...Always check the sizing
...Know your measurements like the back of your hand
...Double check fabric type - looks for words like "stretch" and "sheer"
...For vintage, always check for condition and any wear
...Always consider length
...Remember that you have to have clothes that will coordinate
...Base spending on how often you'll wear it: cost of item/times you'll wear = cost-per-wear
...Look at the clothing from ALL angles
...Know return policies
There you go! Enjoy the site and let me know if you make any great finds!
4 comments:
Ugh, why would you show me those super cute dresses that are out of stock?
Are you in RueLaLa?
I was at one point, but not anymore. I should get back into that.
Okay I have a 300 page book to read and write coverage on by Monday but I'm procrastinating and now you have inspired me to procrastinate further by browsing mod cloth.
Did you buy anything?
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