May 13, 2011 | 3:50 pm

THRIFT SHOPS: USED IS THE NEW BLACK

Posted by Annie Korzen

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I’ve seen TV actresses and models prowling the racks at Goodwill. Most thrift stores have regular sales, senior discounts and 2-for-1 days. My fave is a chain in California and Florida called Out Of The Closet. The proceeds go towards helping Aids patients.

Every Sunday at OOTC, many items are reduced to one dollar. Needless to say, I only shop there on Sundays. I get there when the doors open at 10, because the competition is fierce. Here are some of my one-buck treasures:

• Here’s a picture of me in my vintage LOUIS FERAUD silk ensemble.  I use this head shot for my Boca Raton look.
• RALPH LAUREN black velvet evening trousers, which I paired with
• A HARARI silk top when hosting my son’s engagement party.
• A DIANE VON FURSTENBERG floral wrap dress, which I’ve used so many times that by now each wearing costs about a nickel.
• Zillions of CP SHADES separates for those comfy frumpy but still-a-little-pretty days.

And, depending on the salesperson, they sometimes add a 10% senior discount.  I’m serious: ninety cents for a Harari top. I am a bargainista GENIUS! 

May 3, 2011 | 11:10 am

Bargain Fashionista Part Six: The church, school, or charity rummage sale

Posted by Annie Korzen

It’s large, it’s varied, and prices are rock-bottom. Plus, the money will hopefully be used for a good cause. I say “hopefully” because not every cause is equally dear to my heart. When I questioned the high price of some scuffed-up Uggs, one lady said “But it’s for charity!” The charity in question was something like The Toy Poodle Society. Not at the top of my must-give-to list.
Like estate sales, rummage sales have special deals on the second day, when they just want to get rid of everything. I walked into a church event a while back, and they said “Fill a bag for a dollar.” I filled three bags with Bjørn clogs, red lizard Western boots, an Eileen Fisher sweater, and the brand-new top that I’m wearing on my book cover.  Just so you don’t think I’m too greedy, I give away much of this loot to friends and family. And when I realize that I still bought too much, I donate it to my local thrift store, or just leave it atop public trash containers for the homeless. Greedy: yes. Wasteful: no.

I also earn extra income by selling a lot of my treasures, but more about that in a future blog. 

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May 1, 2011 | 11:08 am

Bargain Fashionista Part Five: The Schmooze Factor

Posted by Annie Korzen

Besides saving heaps of money, enjoying the thrill of the hunt, and exploring some beautiful homes, there’s another reason I love yard sales: the social aspect. I come from New York, where strangers speak to each other all the time. They chit-chat at the theatre box-office; they converse in the apartment building elevator: they form alliances in the dog run at the park. I have a girl friend who met her husband on the subway. She started talking to him when she noticed he was reading a novel she loved. New Yorkers have gotten a bum rap as being cold: they are actually the friendliest people in the world (unless you irritate them, in which case they will curse you AND your mother).

Moving to L. A. was a big culture shock for me. Besides the unspeakable horror of blueberry bagels, there’s the isolation of the car culture: I desperately missed the person-to-person contact of the Big Apple. The social activity of yard sales was a lifesaver.

I’ve met some fascinating characters, like the 94-year-old TV comedy writer who has a new joke every time we run into him – or the white-turbaned Sikh couple who deal in contemporary art. There was one sale run by two gay furniture designers who offered every buyer a glass of champagne. Try and get that at Bloomingdale’s! 

I also appreciate getting personal information about an object before I purchase it. One day I spotted a beautiful vintage lace bridal veil which I considered buying for my son’s fiancée. The owner and I were having a fine old time comparing wedding notes until she said, “Yes, the event was fabulous. Too bad the marriage only lasted eight months!” I am usually not a superstitious person, but I decided not to buy the veil – just in case there really is such a thing as karma. 

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April 28, 2011 | 10:55 am

Bargain Fashionista Part Four: My Husband and Mrs. Garrison Keillor

Posted by Annie Korzen

Years ago, I was at a dinner party in New York and I was talking to Garrison Keillor’s then-wife, who was Danish. She told me how insulted she was that her new American friends invited her to go shopping. “Shopping? Why? Is there something wrong with the way I dress?”

Poor dear. This no-nonsense, sensible Scandinavian didn’t understand that, for some of us, shopping is a form of recreation – even of meditation. I wander through the racks, I feel the fabrics, I study the price tags, I reach Nirvana.

My husband, Benni, is also Danish and - just like the ex-Mrs. Keillor – he hates to shop. I pick up stuff for him when I can, but certain things need to be tried on. One day I saw an ad that the “Boston Legal” wardrobe department was getting rid of its inventory.

Benni loved that show, and I managed to drag him to the sale - with the promise that if he bought some clothes I would go with him to one of those brainless Hollywood comedies made for adolescent boys of all ages. It was a fair trade: I actually almost laughed at least twice at the movie, and Benni now proudly sports his Zegna suit ($120) and Hugo Boss jacket ($40). The jacket has a name written onto the label: James Spader!

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April 7, 2011 | 11:04 am

Bargain Fashionista Part Three: Estate Sales

Posted by Annie Korzen

These are the upscale cousins of the yard sale. They are usually well organized by a pro who has been hired to liquidate the possessions of a deceased person. Since I’m on the hunt for vintage clothing and jewelry, and my husband collects rare books, we like buying from dead people. These two-or-three-day events can be pricier than ordinary yard sales, so I tend to go on the last day, when things are usually half-off.

I walked into one such sale and they had a basket of sunglasses for $5 each. The lenses were scratched-up and useless, but the frames were Fendi, Armani, Prada, and the like. I bought them all, and had the lenses replaced with my prescription. Clever, yes?

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April 4, 2011 | 11:08 am

Bargainista Fashionista: Part two

Posted by Annie Korzen

There are actually two different kinds of yard sales. One is the private person who is moving, empty-nesting, spring-cleaning – whatever. You can find plenty of good stuff here, but it’s catch-as-catch-can. If you’re willing to wade through disorganized piles of worthless crap – which I am – you just might find that one great item. I just scored a silk tunic for fifty cents. It was reversible, so you could say I bought two tunics for a quarter each.

On Thursday I start checking the ads in the L.A. Times, Craig’s List, The Pennysaver, and our local neighborhood weekly. I can often tell from the ad if the sale is right for me. If they feature kids’ stuff or surfboards, I stay away. (But when my Danish sister-in-law visits, we check out these places and she finds tons of brand new toys for her grandchildren in Copenhagen.) By Saturday morning, I’ve compiled my list, put the first address into the GPS, and we’re off and running.

I’m happiest when a whole block or entire neighborhood does a group sale and I can just stroll from house to house, getting landscaping ideas as I examine the goodies.

Even urban areas are catching on to the garage sale phenomenon. There are no garages or front lawns, but people are inventive. I’ve been to “stoop sales” in Brooklyn – where people sell their stuff from the front steps of their apartment building while they enjoy their morning danish and The Sunday Times.

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March 30, 2011 | 10:32 am

Bargainista Fashionista: Part One

Posted by Annie Korzen

Have you ever noticed how frumpy some rich women are? I’m thinking Barbara Bush. I’m thinking Margaret Thatcher. I’m thinking Queen Elizabeth. Well, it’s no accident: it’s deliberate. Someone from a ritzy old-money family explained to me that, “Being fashionable shows lack of character.” So now, when I meet some Nouveau Beverly Hills type dressed head-to-toe in Prada-Yada-Yada, I think to myself, “Aha, she lacks character.” And the funny thing is, it often turns out to be true.

Well, I think I have character but I’m not rich enough to aspire to frumpiness. Sure, I have my dowdy moments of elastic-waist pants and socks with sandals. But I also lust after pretty, stylish things. Lots of them. Today and in the next few blogs, I’ll show you how I find them – for next-to-no-money:

YARD SALES
My addiction began when we moved from New York to Los Angeles. We were invited to our first big-time Hollywood party. There were going to be celebs at this event, and I needed something glitzy. On my way to Loehmann’s in Beverly Hills, I passed by a yard sale and found this fabulous Lillie Rubin jacket covered in sparkly red sequins and beads. The price was twenty bucks and that’s when I decided I would never buy retail again.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet learned that L. A. is the land of the casual. They’re so laid back they don’t even pronounce the whole word: it’s the land of the caszzz. The party turned out to be an informal barbecue. All the skinny blondes were in jeans. I was a sparkly, sequined idiot, but it was too late: I had been bitten by the second-hand bug and have never recovered.

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March 28, 2011 | 10:43 am

Live large, but pay little!

Posted by Annie Korzen

The market goes up, the market goes down. We’re in a boom, we’re in a recession, we’re in a depression. None of this economic see-saw has ever affected me, because I’ve been a thriftaholic all my life. As we follow this roller-coaster ride we call the economy, skills in the art of penny-pinching are becoming a necessity.

In my book, BARGAIN JUNKIE: LIVING THE GOOD LIFE ON THE CHEAP, I show that living on a budget doesn’t mean abandoning expensive tastes or a love of culture. Because I’ve practiced frugality all of my life, I have figured out how to spend my cash sparingly and still live a lifestyle of the rich and famous.

I wear designer clothes, have filled my home with valuable objects, eat out as often as possible, give the occasional dinner party, put a child through college, and have traveled all over the world – all on the cheap. My mantra? You don’t have to be rich to live well.

I attended a wedding reception for the Swedish actor Max Von Sydow wearing a swanky dress from a consignment shop. It retailed for over $800 – I paid $100.

A lot of upscale restaurants have low-cost specials on certain days. In Los Angeles, I ran into Patricia Heaton – an old friend from acting class – at Campanile’s grilled cheese night.

At a celebration of his Oscar win for BABETTE’S FEAST, my husband Benni managed to dip the sleeve of his suede blazer into a bowl of tomato soup. Good thing I only paid 90 cents for it in a thrift shop!

The economy is down, but there’s no need to do without.  Learn how to live large for very little with Bargain Junkie!

Annie will be in Neil Simon’s PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE with Jason Alexander at the El Portal Theatre April 21 - May 15.  Read more at www.AnnieKorzen.com.

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