An Ode to a Very Special Vintage Dress

Last week, I wrote about our summer vacation to Breckenridge, CO. And, today, I wanted to show you the souvenir that I bought on my trip. A very special vintage dress.

Not too long ago (a little over 5 years), I used to buy so much stuff whenever we went on vacation. Every vacation basically just turned into a shopping trip for me. I would plan our itinerary around whatever malls I could visit. And I would always(!) take the largest suitcase possible, which inevitably led to it being over the allowed weight and I would have to pay extra fees.

Thinking back, the whole experience (while I enjoyed it at the time) would stress the heck out of me today!

I’m not sure at what point I decided that I would choose 1 item to buy when we travelled. I think it was our 2018 trip to Scotland when I only took a backpack for a 2 week trip. Coincidentally, I didn’t even buy a souvenir on that trip. My husband and I did a tour at Laphroaig distillery and we each got to take a dram glass, which we display on our bar with our scotch selection. So, I guess you could consider that our souvenir.

Most of the time, I choose a piece of vintage clothing or jewelry as my souvenir, when I buy one.

The nice thing about finally finding contentment with what I own is that I’m not constantly looking for things to buy. If it happens, it happens. And if not, that’s totally fine too.

This has been a mind boggling experience…sometimes, I find myself reflecting about how bad I used to be in terms of excessive shopping. It makes me happy that I’ve come so far but I’m also sad about my past consumptive habits.

I feel guilty that I was so influenced by marketing and that I tied my happiness up into stuff. I feel like I was a major contributor to the amount of textile waste that has been generated and that is drowning the planet. Realistically, I know that my individual contribution is not the cause of the climate crisis but I know so many people who thought and acted like I did. Sadly, I still do.

Ok, all of that guilt talk aside, I’ll get back to the purpose of this post, which is to tell you all about my “new” dress. My “Colorado Dress”. My “Meeting Joan Dress”.

Some of you may already know this story if you follow me on IG, but I’m sharing here since IG is fleeting and the blog is forever, lol. I was able to meet up with my really good IG friend, Joan (semi.joan) on my recent trip to Colorado. We started by visiting Meek Vintage, which is where I bought my “new” vintage dress.

As soon as I saw it on the rack, I thought it was special. It has pretty sleeves, sweet embroidery detailing, it’s tiered and is a very pale green color. I think it was a crisp white cotton in it’s previous life that was treated to a dye bath at some point. The green color is uneven and has a slight tie dye effect which I love.

Now, I haven’t been into wearing dresses much lately, but I knew that I would return to them, especially come fall. So I decided to try it on.

And it was love at first wear!

Now, I have a beautiful dress to remind me of an awesome trip and the first time that I met my friend, Joan, who is now a friend IRL.

Behold, the very special vintage dress!

This post wouldn’t be complete without too many photos of me wearing said dress, so enjoy!

I am wearing it with a pair of suede Bedstu boots that I found secondhand, in nearly new condition (the soles weren’t marked but the suede needed some freshening up with a brush).