Sorry thrift store dresses are no thrill for a formal wear wam lover.
The dress has got to be expensive to hit the spot.
Not my cup of tea

I love the dresses, wish I could wear one of them!

Such great dresses. Some people must have some X-Ray vision or something to tell "thrift store" from others.

Wow. That has to be one of the oddest replies to a promo post I've ever seen. I've been into visual WAM since 1979 and the days of TISWAS. And in all that time, never, ever, have I even considered what any outfit cost, either new, or what the person wearing it (or the producer gunging them) paid for it. In the collection we have a pair of vintage Hugo Boss jeans from the 80s, high rise, button fly, very high quality denim. Would have been seriously expensive when new, and I got them in as-new condition - but I think I paid £7 for them from a charity shop in London. But what I paid doesn't make the slightest difference to how stunning they looked on Maude when she wore them into the mudbanks last summer.

Personally what matters to me in any WAM outfit is how it looks, how it fits on a model, does it show off her figure, how does the material look clean and dry, will it dampen and stain nicely when the mess is poured on or in, will it feel nice for the wearer if she sits in a cake or tray of goo, as the messy wetness comes through from underneath, how will it drape when drenched in mud or custard, that kind of thing. I love dresses like the two the girls are wearing here because of how that satin finish fabric looks, both clean, and when covered in goo. Pour stuff down inside the dresses and they stain through beautifully, and the material also feels really nice against the skin so the girls enjoy wearing them, especially when they know what they are about to do to each other. There was also a bit of the Disney princess parody going on here, as they did both end up looking vaguely like characters from Frozen, especially during the fun poses while still clean at the start.

You are correct that these originally came to us from a charity shop, I know a hidden little one which has a "bridal room" upstairs full of wedding and bridesmaid's dresses, and I also know that certain shops in certain places will often have fancy stuff in for specific events and times of year. But I've no idea what these would have originally cost, I bought them for the look and the material. Obviously different people like different things, fair enough, but the sales we've already had suggest at least some formal fans do like these.

What kind of dresses do you want to see, do you have any example photos?


Thanks! I'd love to have some jumpsuits for the girls made of that kind of material, it's perfect for WAM-wear!


Must admit that did baffle me, I still don't get how the price paid for something, or how it was acquired, affects anything. A producer could buy a dress from a coture house for £££, or the same dress on eBay for ££, or get lucky and find it in a charity shop for just £. If it's the same dress and in good condition, what difference does the price paid make? "Thrift store" is also an odd turn of phrase, that's a US term, and from the ones I visited in Las Vegas, theirs are subtly different to our charity shops in terms of the kind of stuff they sell.

Over here, charity shops mainly sell mid-range to luxury stuff donated by middle class people, primarily to fund animal charities, medical research, hospices etc. I got the impression (admitidly from a very small sample of 3 shops) that theirs more sell stuff donated by working class people to make available cheaply to other less well off folk - as opposed to fundraising for a cause. That could just be the bit of Las Vegas I was in though, the US is such a huge and diverse place doubtless things are very different in other states and cities.

Appreciating the sales and response this one's had so far, both girls had an absolute blast wearing those dresses into the mud - and then late last year I freaked out a washing machine salesman by showing him the pic of the two of them drenched head-to-toes in mud and saying this was the kind of heavy duty washing I needed to do.



And yes, both dresses washed out perfectly and are back in the collection awaiting their next appointment with the gloop.