I walked into a woman's boutique shop in Santa Cruz to check out a very cute East-Indian style top that I saw in its window. It was similar to ones I wore when I was a very young thing. I thought if the cost was right it was going home with me. I was even willing to pay $45 for it, although I thought it was worth $20 bucks.
I have no sense of how much clothing are worth these days. Twenty bucks was how much I paid for eccentric stuff, which the the parents called hippie clothes, at import shops when I was a very young thing.
The East-Indian tops of yore were made of a thin cotton. This modern version was made of a smooth, rich-feeling fabric that turned out to be rayon. Not being silk, I figured the top would be very affordable.
Then I finally found the price tag.
One hundred ninety-eight dollars!
Shall I say that again: $198.00!!
Seriously.
When I got home, I looked up the designer online. Maybe I'd find the top for cheaper.
Ha!
$218.00!!!
I saw several other tops on the designer's website that were my type of clothing. Free-flowing, patchwork tunics that started at $168.00. Wowza!
It's time to sew me some crazy tops.
Absolutely!!!
ReplyDeletePerhaps before the year is up, I'll have my haute hippe couture top done. I know I won't by the end of summer.
DeleteThat's insane! I love those tops also but I will not pay that much for a basic top that costs them $5 to make
ReplyDeleteThe profit they make!
DeleteCute top. Have you tried Etsy? You might be able to find something similar for a better price. Or I guess you could sew a similar top. My mom still has a lot of her cool patterns from the 70's, but recently she found more at a second hand store.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see what the tops might cost at Etsy. Thanks for the suggestion, Julia. I went crazy at a garage sale once and bought a lot of old patterns when I know full well I'm not going to sew them. Maybe I should try selling them online.
DeleteMy mom also regrets donating some of her cute 70's clothes to the Salvation Army in 1988. Ten years later when that stuff was all the rage, we were like "what were we thinking". It was really cute. She probably could have sold it for 200 dollars a pop these days like those people are.
ReplyDeleteI bet some young girls back then were feeling good wearing her clothes. :-)
DeleteI still wear tops like that, they are readily available throughout the UK,
ReplyDeleteI'll have a look, but probably, you still could make them for half the price,
particularly having to pay postage on top of the retail price.
love di xx
I love the idea of wearing a top made in the UK. I must go Google and see what I can find.... I went and searched "mature hippie tops" and found a lot of links such as "Boho clothing for mature women - Senior Citizens." hahahahahaha
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