Coming March 28 - April 3: Secondhand Fashion Week

I don't know about you, but I think it's about time that we had a new online event up and running at AmandaBeth! I've held off on posting this for a while because I didn't know what my schedule was going to be for the next few months, but I think it's finally safe to announce... Secondhand Fashion Week!!!

What is this event all about?

The purpose behind this event is to celebrate frugal fashionistas and their awesome creativity. In the whole fashion world there is this mindset that in order to be really fashionable, we need to pick up high end pieces, brand new, and spend a fortune on our wardrobes so that we can somehow be accepted as a fashionista. I don't know about you, ladies, but I'm not buying into it. In fact, I can't afford to buy into it. I believe that God has commissioned us to be good stewards of what he has given us and breaking our budget (especially in shopping for something as frivolous as clothes ;) is not a good thing.

Over the years, I have collected a whole lot of clothes secondhand; either by shopping my favorite thrift stores or by receiving cast offs and hand-me-downs. Some people might have a problem with wearing an item that had formerly belonged to someone else, but I say that if it looks good on you, don't worry about who wore it beforehand. If you can take secondhand pieces and reinvent them to make them your own, you are a true fashionista. :)

How do I participate?

The format of this event will be very similar to Summer Fashion Week and Maid Marian's Wardrobe. From March 28 - April 3, the goal is to dig through our closets for the awesome secondhand pieces and wear a series of outfits throughout the week based around those items. (Of course, not everything you wear has to be secondhand  - for example, I have like all of one pair of used shoes :P -  but the main statement pieces in your ensemble, or what everything else is based around, should be something that was purchased or given secondhand.)

Take pictures of your outfits and post them to your blog each day of the event. (You can also shoot outfits in advance if that fits your schedule the best.) You may include other family members who are participating in the challenge. Be sure to include the brand names of what you are wearing and where/how you got the different pieces.

Each day of the week, there will be a post featuring what I am wearing and a box in which you can include the link of your secondhand fashion blog post for the day. (P.S. If you don't have a blog, it is super easy to set one up and post pictures using Blogger.com - give it a try! :) I will also set up a special album on Flickr.com where you can upload your pictures, if you'd rather not use your own blog.

As well as participating in the secondhand fashion photos challenge, I would love to see any other sorts of frugal fashion related blog posts. Especially awesome would be DIY (do it yourself) REfashioned projects, in which you take an item and remake or revamp it. I will have a separate box in which you can post any links that fit into this category.

Of course, I will also try to include some fun giveaways over the week long event. If anyone would like some publicity for their home business/Etsy shop or cetera by donating an item for the giveaway, please email me at amandabethboutique{at}gmail.com - I'd love to work in publicizing your business through the event in exchange for an item!

Also, if any business/shop/site/et cetera is interested in becoming a paid sponsor for the event, they can contact me - amandabethboutique{at}gmail.com . For a flat fee, your business/site banner can be displayed and promoted throughout the week as an official sponsor. Any way that I can give you some publicity, I'll try my best to do it! :)

Last thoughts...

Walking hand in hand with all of this is our desire to be modest as well as fashionable. I'm not going to  set a strict rule or standard for what you should or should not wear, but just keep modesty and class in mind throughout the event and we should turn out all right. :) Of course, I reserve the right to refuse any submissions to the event if I feel that they do not meet the standards of this site.

At the end of the week, I and a small panel of judges will select a number of finalists for the event, choosing those that we thought were the most creative and stylish secondhand fashionistas. Then, for one week, a poll will go up so that you all can vote for your favorite! If we receiving a fair amount of other frugal fashion or DIY related posts, we may also vote for a "best of" in that category.

If you plan on participating in the event, please consider saving one of the banners in this post to your computer and then uploading it to your blog with a link to http://amandabethonline.blogspot.com . Thanks! I appreciate it. :)

Any thoughts, questions or concerns? Please leave a comment and I will try to address them! As always, there are usually some bugs to work out in the early stages, but I try and keep things as simple as possible. Should be fun! :)