I look for inspiration everywhere; sometimes, it comes from unlikely sources and sometimes from the unlikeliest of sources: my parents.

Due to my unemployment and utter boredom, my mom hired me to clean the basement. This is pretty much the biggest task in history seeing as we moved into the house 6 years ago and have been using the basement as a dumping ground for all unwanted things ever since.

That basement is an organization freak’s dream. But it’s been fun on another front as well- I’ve turned up lots of fun new things to wear and photo albums to peruse. And that’s how I discovered what I have now confessed to everyone out there in blogging land.

Though I can’t admit it to her, I’m wishing I could wear everything my mom owned from 1975-1985 (even that yellow and black checked Norma Kamali dress that I told her in the 7th grade would never come back in style and looks suspiciously like the one I bought recently at Primark). And secretly I’m wondering why the boys I know can’t seem to master preppy hipster like my Lacoste and ripped jeans wearing, laser sailing father managed when he and my mom were first married. And back in the day, both my parents rocked the geek glasses I love so well (the pics are Michael and Andi circa 1981 and me circa yesterday). 

At my age, my parents lived in cool apartments and studied modern art, architecture, and dance. They knew fun, interesting, and beautiful people and saw the country traveling from yacht club to yacht club in a big, old, ugly van.

Maybe the old pictures just glamorize it but shhhh, don’t tell them…I think my parents are cool.                                        

My parents had a ton of old clothes stashed in basement boxes (Dad, seriously, did you need to keep every pair of converse you ever wore?) and some things were worth resurrecting. My sister rocks dad’s old regatta t-shirts but I think the best find was this knit pencil skirt my mom wore in the 80s. It came from a knit shop owned by a friend of hers and was actually part of a set (I have not yet figured out how to wear the matcing oversized short-sleeved sweater with sequins) that she wore to a fall wedding. I wish I could find a pic of mom wearing it, but here are two of me trying the skirt out as dressy and casual.

 outfit 1: shirt, UO; necklace, Charlotte; shoes, Coach

outfit 2: tank, James Perse; sweater, marc by marc; belt, Native American store in Denver; clogs, Tory Burch