One of the biggest fashion frustrations people have is getting stuck in the mindset of envisioning what he/she wants specifically and then going out to the mall and trying to find that mythical item, usually when he/she needs that item for an event – say – TOMORROW. Stop this. Stop this thinking right now. Besides, it’s stressful as hell.

The first step in developing a real style is that it must come organically. If you are not a clothing designer and you are lacking those types of skills then you need to open your mind to how to create more options and be open to putting together an outfit almost by chance but with a keener eye – one that can see the possibilities in ANY fashion item one comes across.

Let start with a real world example. Most of us do not have an endless budget that enables us to order or buy anything thing we want. Even if we did, that is not the path to developing real style. It really isn’t.  Our first example is an easy and simple one but something that might take you out of your comfort zone WHICH IS A GOOD THING!

We at StyleMerger believe a great fashion find can be found anywhere and does not always cost a lot of money!

We also believe that to go out shopping with an open mind and the absence of deadline-related stress most often results in an enjoyable and fruitful shopping experience. We started first with a visit to a consignment shop called Greene Street  (They are mostly located in PA, NJ and NYC). Greene Street can be classified as a higher end clothing shop (for men and women) but you can find some items that are in perfect condition for a low price.

We did a quick visit and scanned the store looking for some interesting finds that could be put in a closet and then used later to put together a number of outfits. It’s always important (to us us, anyways) to think about how many ways you can use an item or article of clothing to make it worth investing your money. Our visit, this time, only netted us one item. A long white body-conscious tank with silver studs (that were unmarked and shiny). The cost? $8. Yes, only $8! That in itself made the visit worth it. Whether you find just one good item that can be used in many ways, or you find a few good pieces to work into your wardrobe, these low-key low-stress visits are worth it.

After getting our find home, we looked at the content of our closet to think about what pants, jackets and sweaters could be worn with this versatile layering piece. After looking at the colors in our closet and thinking about the fact that Fall is coming, we thought that perhaps the color white was not the best choice. We also considered the fact that whites often get dingy. We don’t want that to happen. So, we decided that we would dye our beloved tank a neutral color that could still be worked into our outfits easily. We settled on gray.

We started our dye project by going out and getting the following materials:

♥ Rit powder dye in the color “Pearl Gray” (The price will vary depending on the store, but we paid $2.50 at the local grocery store.)

♥ Disposable rubber gloves (We used gloves we already had. We suggest buying the thin gloves sold at beauty supply stores like Sally Beauty.)

♥ Medium size dish pan (We purchased one at a local dollar store.)

♥ Large glass bowl

We then set out to dye the tank, using the following steps:

♥ We started off by completely rinsing the shirt with plain hot water. Fabric needs to be completely wet in order to dye evenly.

♥ We then put on our gloves and created a liquid dye solution by mixing one pack of the Rit powder dye with two cups of VERY hot water in the glass bowl and then stirred the mixture until the solution appeared even.

♥ We then put roughly 2 gallons of VERY hot water into the dollar store dish pan we had placed in a stainless steel sink. We used less than the brand-recommended water amount because we wanted a stronger dye solution AND we were only dying one small item..

♥ We then took our concentrated solution in the glass bowl and poured it into the dish pan filled with hot water and stirred until the contents of the tub became an even solution.

♥ We then took our water-soaked tank and placed it into the dye bath in the dish pan and continuously massaged and dunked the shirt for 10 minutes. It is important to not put your dye item into the solution and walk away because your dye item may float causing a part of your shirt to be exposed to air and then your dye item could end up an uneven color.

♥ We then squeezed the excess dye from the tank and immediately ran and rinsed in cold water until the water ran clear.

♥ We finished our process by squeezing (instead of wringing) the tank until all excess water was removed, and then hanging to dry on a plastic hanger.

The end result is a beautiful medium gray tank that in total cost us just $11.50 to make. We now have another great unique layering piece to mix within our wardrobe!

 

The lesson in this is that you can create your own style and extend your wardrobe just by keeping an open mind and having some fun! Stay tuned for more tips! Comment below or contact us if you want to share ideas that you have that will help inspire others! We will happily post reader ideas and of course attribute properly!

XXOO!

– StyleMerger