Dear readers,
We are excited to have Kate from A Sweet Disorder blog share her story about a much beloved fashion find: the leather jacket.
Goodwill Fashion Finds: The Leather Jacket
It was the summer of 2002, and I was visiting my boyfriend (now husband) in Maine for the first time. We were broke college students, but we still had enough money to go shopping at the local Goodwill store. We tried on the silliest sunglasses we could find, looked for used books we hadn’t read and scoured the electronics section for old cameras. I knew Mike hated shopping for clothes, but I was drawn like a magnet to the women’s section.
That’s where I saw it. It was love at first sight: the perfect leather jacket. The rich, lipstick red leather and the superfluous zippers were just my style. The cropped silhouette and the slim sleeves fit my gawky 19 year old frame perfectly. I looked so cool. The jacket had to be mine.
I checked the price tag. Seven dollars– a steal! I checked my purse. I had four dollars. Looking back, I wonder why I only had four dollars. I had a summer job. Why did I go on a trip and bring just enough money for the bus? I guess I was just young and broke and stupid and in love, but I do know that Mike gave me three dollars to buy the leather jacket of my dreams. He took pictures of me wearing it, standing in front of his white Dodge shadow in my ripped jeans and my dirty Chuck Taylors, feeling like the best dressed girl in the world.
My friend Anna got her own awesome leather jacket at Goodwill’s SwapMAINE event this past spring. She brought in a bag of her old clothes, including the gorgeous intarsia chickadee sweater that became the swap’s unofficial mascot, and left with a black motorcycle jacket worthy of the rock and roll drummer she is. My other friend, Tara, got her leather jacket at the Mill Creek Goodwill in South Portland for only eight dollars. She was so excited that she immediately posted pictures of her find on Facebook.
I sold my beloved red jacket last year, because I filled out and couldn’t zip it up anymore. I probably could have gotten more money for it than I did, but I wanted someone else to get the great score I did. I hope that the lady who bought it loves it as much as I did, but there’s always a chance that it’s now at another Goodwill, waiting for another gawky teenager to fall in love.
Kate from the Sweet Disorder blog (@SullivanJones) shares a story about one of the most coveted thrift store… http://t.co/4wECm3Z