If you’ve been reading Following Augustine for long, you know that I love thrift store shopping. In fact, one of my most popular posts over the past year has been this one. I’m not crazy about big city stores like Value Village where there’s an overwhelming amount of merchandise to sift through. Instead, I prefer smaller not-for-profit stores like the two that I shop locally.
Other than one pair of pyjamas that I picked up at Walmart, the only clothing that I’ve bought in the past four months has been second-hand. One of my most recent finds was the Goddess Blouse from cabi’s Fall 2018 Collection. Although it’s two years old, it’s like new and it fits into my wardrobe for several reasons.
Like many cabi pieces, it isn’t trendy. Its timeless quality means that it’s something that I’ll be happy to wear for a long time. The cream coloured background is flattering to my complexion and the abstract pattern, in colours that are part of my spring palette, doesn’t overwhelm me. The blouse also coordinates with lots of things in my present wardrobe including many other cabi pieces. That’s one of my favourite things about cabi; the fact that pieces from one season are intentionally designed to coordinate with those from several previous seasons so that you can build a cohesive wardrobe over a period of time.
In the first photo, I’m wearing the Goddess Blouse with my grey skinny jeans, also from the Fall 2018 Collection. My necklace is another recent thrift store purchase.
I love the next look which is entirely cabi. I styled the blouse with my Brick Dust skinnies from Spring 2018, the Tudor Cross necklace from Fall 2019, and one of my oldest pieces of cabi, the Shirttail Cardigan from Fall 2016. It might be four years old, but it’s still going strong!
Next, here I am wearing the blouse with a pair of dark wash jeans and yet another piece from cabi, the Checkmate Jacket from a year ago.
And finally, here’s my very good friend and cabi stylist, Deborah, wearing her Goddess Blouse with several items from this season’s cabi collection.
By now, you might be wondering if this is a sponsored post. It’s not. I just have a lot of cabi in my closet and I’m delighted that I was able to add another piece for just $3.00 by shopping my local thrift store!
I have a few warm, wooly scarves for outdoor wear in the depths of winter, but for this exercise, I was addressing only what I’d call my fashion scarves. I started by gathering them all together in one place. There were infinity scarves, rectangular scarves, square scarves, and even a few very tiny scarves. There were animal prints, polka dots, stripes, and a variety of other patterns. As you can see, there were lots of earth tones, some blues, greens, and greys, and a few pops of other colours. For a woman who doesn’t wear scarves very often, I seem to have a lot of them! A couple were gifts and a couple belonged to my mother-in-law before she passed away, but I picked up the vast majority of them at the local thrift stores over the past few years. Some I’ve never actually worn! It was time to decide which ones to keep and which ones to move along. A scarf doesn’t take up much space, but getting dressed is so much easier when your wardrobe is pared down to only those items that will actually be worn. 
is excellent. The LBD should be simple and elegant, something that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. It can be worn to work, to dinner, on a date, to a professional event, to a funeral, to church, to a party – the list is endless. It’s a classic piece that can be quickly and easily accessorized making it a simple choice when something unexpected comes up. It stands the test of time and never goes out of fashion.
