$130 Acid-Washed Jeans, Anyone?

Just cut my ankle with my other foot's big toe, simultaneously stubbing said big toe in the process. So, now I'm bleeding profusely from both feet. Not good when my favorite hangout position is sitting in my bed atop cream-colored sheets.

I went into the bathroom looking for a Band-aide, but I knew I wouldn't find one. Band-aides are just one of the many staples everyone has around the house that I do not. Like a thermometer, a crock pot, flour and cinnamon sugar. Sure, it would be nice to have all of those things, but somehow I've managed to get by just fine without them for eight months, so why bother getting them?

And as far as Band-aides go, this napkin is working just fine....

Anyway--

This weekend was pretty dreary weather-wise but I still managed to get out and do some fun stuff before my nearly debilitating toe injury. (Side note: What is it about spring that makes my big toes a magnet for collision with hard, inanimate objects? Unfortunate.)

I went with a couple of friends to a playcalled Penny Penniworth-- a spoof on Charles Dickens's work, so lots of "dreary" and "dark" scenes with over-the-top accents and characters with ridiculously long and pretentious titles. It was really very funny, and because the director works at my company we got to go for free, which made it just that much more appealing.

Afterward my friends and I walked back together towards our respective apartments. The theater was a good twenty blocks from my place and ten from theirs, but after sitting for so long it was nice to be moving so we wandered even though it was kind of cold and damp. (And dreary!)

On the way back we discovered a cool-looking vintage clothing store called Cheap Jack's and, not really having any other plans for the day, went in to look around.

I'd always heard that New York's the place to go for fantastic vintage finds. In Dallas, I spent some time in Buffalo Exchange and Clotheshorse Anonymous, but this was my first NY thrift shop experience. It did not disappoint.

I wish I could post some pics of the amazing pieces we saw there, but they don't allow you to take pictures so, as they advise us to do in elementary school, I'll just have to use my words.

A few choice treasures included a leather jacket that read "Born in the USA", a pearl-snap brown-plaid collared shirt, a full-length rabbit-fur coat, several 1960s wedding dresses, purple waist-high jeans, and enough shoulder pads to save a sinking city. Also, their cowboy boot collection rivaled any I'd seen in Texas department stores that specialize in leather goods.

It was really quite the experience.

There was only one problem. Cheap Jack's is anything but. To give you an idea of the kind of prices they were asking for items-- a pair of severely damaged, 80s-style, acid-washed jeans: $130. And the pearl-snap shirt?: $65.

Too rich for my blood. I don't seem to remember vintage places in Dallas being so high-end, but maybe I just had more money as a student, haha.

There's a Buffalo Exchange here in New York, too and I'm curious about how their prices would compare to the one across from SMU in Dallas...

Don't get me wrong, I understand when you shop vintage you're paying for the story and the life behind the dress, not the cost of the dress itself. But, at a certain point, isn't a really cool polyester dress just that? A polyester dress? And, if the prices at the Buffalo Exchange in NY differ from the one in Dallas, am I then paying for the "privilege" of purchasing clothes from their NY location? Lame.

How much are you guys willing to pay for a really interesting/old wardrobe piece? Where do you draw the line? At $130 acid-washed jeans?

All-in-all though, a lovely experience akin to window shopping at the mall or wandering around a museum or, actually, more like a strange combination of both. I will probably do it again and, despite my previous protests, could possibly be persuaded to spend entirely too much money on used shoes... most likely some sort of platform stiletto or boot. Or stiletto boots.

Yes... I'm going back to that place soon.

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This week's question of utmost importance:

What's the most you'd spend on a really HOT pair of 1980s acid-washed jeans? Keep in mind, these are the coolest acid-washed jeans you've ever seen. And, for all anyone else knows, they belonged to [insert famous 1980s rockstar of choice here]