Can you remember your first major second-hand find? Your first moment of disbelief that you—yes, you!—found this amazing, totally perfect, totally you thing. The first moment when your wildest clothing dreams come true. Everyone who loves thrifting has had the feeling, and everyone who loves thrifting also know that there is nothing better than it. It can happen at a high-end consignment shop, Goodwill, or anywhere in between. It’s what keeps you looking through rack after rack, day after day.

I remember mine; I was 14 and obsessed with listening to and emulating my favorite musicians, so naturally my first major find relates to that. My parents took me to resale shops every now and then growing up, but it wasn’t until high school when I took an interest in music and fashion that I began perusing them on my own—half because friends, and later I, got driver’s licenses, and half because it turned shopping into a treasure hunt. Thrifting also became a creative outlet. You might find the clothing of your wildest rock and roll dreams if you looked hard enough… and best of all, you’d be able to afford it! The promise of that alone lured me in fast.

It turns out that at the time the clothing of my wildest dreams was hiding inside a stuffy consignment shop on the east side that my mom used to take me too—a pair of LEATHER PANTS. From Express. Slightly too bootcut, but the best the early 2000s could come up with—fashion blogs weren’t exactly a thing yet. Cool enough at the time to make me feel like some sort of adolescent girl-Iggy Pop. A dream come true…
I still have those pants, after high school, college and six different moves. They still kind of fit. I look at them now and think not of punk heroes but instead feel 14 again—all awkward with braces and too-bootcut leather pants, too-long bangs, in the school hallway, at the since-closed coffee shop, wildest dreams answered, once and for all.

What did it for you? Was it a vintage treasure or maybe a cool designer piece you never thought you’d be able to afford? Leather pants? Share with us!

~ Maria @ Regeneration