Hello Everyone! After my last post, I figured you’ve seen enough of me for a while so I decided to do a thrifty makeover!

Here’s how the whole process went down…

I’m in the teacher’s lounge at work one day, and announce that I want to do a thrifty makeover. That created quite a buzz till I mentioned that it would probably take like 4 hours to do. No one had four hours to give me…UNTIL…

Lunch time in the teacher’s lounge, and sitting across from me was Theresa, someone who I knew disliked shopping and spending money on clothes. I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse, and she became a willing participant.

Here she is:

First things first, I had her fill out a questionnaire. For reference, Theresa (age 50) is 5’6″ and a size 14. She wanted a thrifty makeover because she felt the clothing she had was old and she knew she would feel better about how she looked if she got a more up to date style. Plus, she wanted to have fun with me! ( She had heard a rumor from another teacher that I was a lot of fun to go shopping with.)

The things that are important to her style-wise are comfortable, outdoorsy clothing that is easy to move in.

Her favorite colors are rich jewel tones. Least favorite? Whites, neon, tie-dye and loud patterns and florals.

She also said she would never wear tight clothing or low cut necklines BUT was willing to try different styles and a variety of colors.

Last, but certainly not least she wanted a look that showed off her height and down played her “swimmer’s shoulders” and mid section.

NO PROBLEM!

Armed with all this information, I headed off to Thrift Town. I went on a Monday night, during football season when clothing was 30% off .

I got there at 4:00 pm. ( I told Theresa to meet me around 5:15pm.) That gave me a little over an hour to find everything on my list. When shopping at Thrift Town my first stop is always, always, always, the better clothing section. Theresa likes brands such as Coldwater Creek, Eddie Bauer and L.L.Bean. They had those brands in abundance that day.

I found tons of tops and jackets for her but when it came to pants, I only found 5 pairs that I deemed worthy.

Theresa showed up at 5:00pm and found me down the aisle with a buggy HEAPING full of clothes. We headed to the dressing room…

Look at all those clothes I found in just one hour! I can’t believe Theresa is smiling about trying on all those clothes… personally, that is my least favorite part of shopping.

I have never seen anyone try on clothes as fast as Theresa did that night. Clothes were flying everywhere…most made it into the buggy, some landed on the floor…oops! But, as fast as she was, it still took 1.5 hours to go through that entire buggy of clothes.

Theresa was a good sport and tried on everything I gave her. She was very open minded and actually turned down stuff that was “her”. She wanted to go outside the box and try new things….Yay!

The first thing we found was a Draper’s and Damon’s pinstriped denim jacket for $4.99. The shirt we went with was a Foxcroft plaid button down for $5.99. She also purchased two other tops…an ombre, blinged out animal print top from Chico’s and a brand new with tags, dark navy knit top from Coldwater Creek.

The pants? Remember, I only found 5 pairs for her to try, so the pressure was on. But, you only need one, and when she came out of the dressing room wearing this pair of Bandolino boot cut jeans ( $7.99 ) with bronze embroidery on the back flap pocket, I was speechless!! They looked amazing! Here’s a picture of the pocket:

Aren’t they super cute?!

Once we had her outfit we headed to the jewelry counter, which happens to be just outside of the dressing rooms. In no time flat we found a chunky necklace for $4.00 (because white tags were 50% off that week), $4.99 moonstone earrings… I don’t have pierced ears so this is the first time I have even looked at the earrings. They have a great selection! We also found a really cute black, green, and yellow seed bead bracelet for $5.99. All three of these accessories are bronze based so they really go with the bronze embroidery on the Bandolino jeans.

Next up, the shoes! Theresa really wanted a pair of brown shoes because she already had three pairs of black ones. I was like, girl…do you know how many pairs of black shoes I own…or for that matter…how many shoes I own period? I’m taking the fifth on that. In my opinion shoes can make or break an outfit.

She tried on a lot of shoes…brown, burgundy, navy, but ended up with a black pair after all. Remember, she’s a teacher so comfort is Number 1. The shoes also ended up being 50% off, so they were only $3.00.

Are you ready for the big reveal? First let me show you the “before” again:

And now…the “after”:

Doesn’t she look FABULOUS?!! Everyone at work thought so too. Theresa said that she still felt like herself, but “put together” and now her outside matched how she felt inside. The whole experience made her feel special and gave her ideas on how to put her own clothes together. ( There was some talk about me helping her go through her closet in the near future.) She also might have mentioned that she would do this again, but only with me, because she had a lot of fun…and so did I!!

Let’s talk money. This ENTIRE outfit, tax included, only cost $33.44!!! THAT is why thrifting is so addicting…she looks like a million bucks and spent less than $34.00.

Oh, how much time did this whole process take? For me, 3.5 hours… one hour less for Theresa.

I hope you enjoyed this thrifty makeover! Let me know in the comments below.

Darlene Fadem is a wife and mother with two sons in college. She’s OBVIOUSLY over 50, hence the name Thrifty Over 50. She admits to being a label hunter when thrifting, but pleads the fifth to everything else. When she’s not thrifting she is teaching five year olds how to read, write and be fashionable! You can also find her styling looks on her fashion blog for older women http://whosaprettygirl.wordpress.com