The Omaha Report: Part 1 of 5

I spent the weekend at the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, and will be writing about my trip all week.

Omaha seems like it is laid out on a grid system but it's not, really. For instance, 35th Street can run parallel to 35th Avenue and some streets run crosstown but it's hard to tell which ones unless you're looking at a map. I really enjoyed driving around the city and every time I got lost it felt like an opportunity to see something new. With that in mind, I've decided to take a break from my usual approach to travel notes and instead recount my trip in nonlinear fashion. Today's topic is the astonishingly good, astonishingly cheap vintage clothing I picked up in Omaha:

• Thrift Town or Village or similar: 1) a long, blue 1970s-style ladies' coat that buttons up the front and is topped with a white fake fur collar, and prominent tag inside exuberantly proclaiming, in the parlance of the era, that it's 'Kashmiracle.' I would have bought it for the tag alone. Fortunately, it is also attractive and fits perfectly. 2) a pair of those cowboy ankle boots that were so popular for five minutes in the early 1990s. I have been wishing for a pair of these for ages and was floored to find them in blue and green leather, in my (oddly hard-to-find) size, and made by Guess.
• St. Vincent de Paul: A 1980s Victor Costa black velvet strapless gown with heavy same-colored embroidery at the top for my sister to wear with her Corso Como riding boots.
• Second Chance Antiques (per the recommendation of Tilly and the Wall in Bust Magazine): A gloriously fake Pucci ("Faucci"?) 1960s shirtdress with the tags still on it. Obviously made of something naff that is no Kashmiracle but still asks to be "treated as a luxury fabric." Sure thing, hon.
• Salvation Army: A 1980s original Jordache 'natural-look' fake fur vest with removable (secret-zippered!) brown knit sleeves for my sister to wear with the above-noted ensemble.
• New Life Thrift: A sophisticated black embroidered peasant top by Charlotte Russe (!).

Nothing was more than ten or fifteen dollars; most items were around three or four.

Here I am wearing the coat because it was 45 degrees and the jacket I brought was too light for evening. People kept complimenting me on the coat as thought it were from New York or similar. And I was like, "Thanks! Omaha, Five Bucks!" And no one would believe me.

Soundtrack to this post: Anything by local outfit CAPGUN COUP, which played the Lit Fest closing party at the library and is surely destined for big, big things. I was tote-ally starstruck when I saw one of the band members at Film Streams the next day. Tote-ally.

Comments

[Claire]

As there are only so many days in my life and so many plane tickets I doubt I'll ever go to Omaha, but who knows? It all sounds AMAAZING...the coat, a pic of the coat I think yes...

[Meghan]

Second Chance Antiques is one that I have gone to on and off for over 20 years (and 3 locations) LOVE THEM!!!