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I had discovered the Phoenix, Arizona boutique Purple Lizard Boutique online a few months prior and had been quietly obsessing over the small boutique ever since. I found Purple Lizard Boutique when I was digging online for quarantine clothes, and their offering of uber-comfy chic dresses had turned up. As I started clicking through the rest of Purple Lizard Boutiques offerings, I knew I had stumbled upon a very special store.

With so much of fashion retail becoming increasingly slick and data-driven, I have deeply missed the textured landscape of small boutique retail, and Purple Lizard Boutique stands out as a jewel of its kind. Purple Lizard has an extraordinary collection of small and hard-to-find designers, as well as goods made by artists and craftsman. You have graphic African print dresses by Fahari Bazaar, made in Tanzania by a small group of seamstresses. You’ll also find Manuelle Guibal, a French label founded in 1991 focusing on understated clothes in carefully dyed raw fabrics. Elsa Esturgie is another exquisitese French label carried by Purple Lizard, and looks like the kind of clothes a Yohji Yamamoto woman would pack for a vacation. The experience of Purple Lizard is light years away from shopping at a giant like Nordstrom or Net-a-Porter. It’s obvious that Purple Lizard is a true labor of love.

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Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a pleasant and non-transmissive New Years Eve. I got the house clean, watched a comedy show via Zoom with my friends, went crazy setting up my new 2021 Hobonichi planner, and drank champagne. It was a lovely way to ring in the new year but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from my life. After assessing my needs, basic and spiritual, I realized that the hole I felt in my heart was from a lack of thrifting, a lack of consignment store haunting, a lack of vintage! I really don’t feel comfortable spending long stretches of time in any store now, period, no matter how much I miss shopping. I so badly miss spending hours chatting and trying things on at Vintage Martini with the owner and my friend Ken Weber. I miss hitting Crossroads Trading weekly, and finding things like the $35 Comme Des Garcons anime dress. I miss coming home from an antique mall with an armful of tasteless novelty cocktail coups that I know will horrify my husband!!

To fill the void of vintage in my life, I searched and scanned and now I am here for you with a round-up of fabulous second-hand goodies I’ve found from all over the internet. Enjoy, and stay safe!

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I am so curious what the next year will bring for fashion. It’s been a big shift this year to see fashion enthusiasts (fans, editors, and stylists) get more excited about the Telfar and Ugg collaboration, or the Supreme x Northface puffer coats than they do about fashion week. I totally get it and I feel the same way. Most high fashion isn’t cool anymore; an epiphany I had watching Real Housewives over the pandemic. RHOBH’s Dorit Kemsley wears head-to-toe runway looks in a way that’s so embarrassing I literally have to cover my eyes sometimes. Even with access to the best stylists and clothes on the planet, celebrity style is rarely interesting. Designers too are embarrassing, as evidenced by fashion Twitter’s endless dunking on Matt Williams at Givenchy since his appointment. And sadly, many of the newest and and most talented designers will be forced to sit the next fashion season out. Fashion is going through an awkward stage right now.

I remain hopeful for new change and growth in fashion, but all of this did drive me into a period of fashion fatigue at the beginning of the pandemic. My interest in clothes has returned with a vengeance, because this year has made me look at my clothes in a different way. We are dressing for ourselves now and it’s different to enjoy clothes minus the fashion, the basic and less-exciting clothes that just wear well. I had to add some of these to my impractical collector’s wardrobe and the shift has been invigorating. I’ve been focusing on making sure that I really love my own clothes and that they serve me well. It’s been fun for me.

Like I said, I realized I had a few gaps in my closet, owing to my collector’s shopping habits. As a fashion lover, I buy vintage not so much as to wear it, but to have it in my own personal archive. I try to wear my vintage as much as possible, so each piece gets to live it’s own little vintage life. But this year didn’t afford me much occasion (or any at all) to put on my screaming pink 80s Carolina Herrera chiffon cocktail dress, for instance. Addressing the shortcomings in my own closet, I just needed a few practical basics to help me shift my wardrobe into pandemic mode.

I like the interaction of these staples with some of the crazier pieces I have in my closet. Introducing more basics into my closet makes me want to mix them with my collectibles more. With my eyes ahead on 2021, here are my votes for my most loved and useful items for the new year. For now I’m covering the basics…the kinds of clothes that feel amazing and look good day in and day out. Stay tuned for a future post where I cover more insane clothes that will begin to make sense in 2021. :)

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