Welcome to Second Look

If you’re a follower of Second Look, you’ll (hopefully) be just as excited as I was to see the website launched again. Second Look has taken many iterations over the years, but one thing has always been consistent - my love of thrifting, and my love of spreading the word about sustainable style. And my love of empowering women through the clothing they wear and the spaces they surround themselves in. OK, that’s more one thing … but I’m allowed to love big!

To my newcomers - WELCOME. I AM SO HAPPY YOU’RE HERE (sorry, that was an excited shouting so everyone in the back could hear too!)

You’ll see this site has more services, more offerings, more connection, just MORE. Second Look has been a hobby, a side hustle, a passion project….it has evolved as I have over the past few years, but it has never left my side. It has stayed with me as a fire in my belly and a dream in my heart. In February of 2025 I will turn 40 years old (it’s fine, you can be shocked) - and Second Look is finally going to get her moment in the sun the way she has truly deserved.

Buckle in, folks. I’m thrilled to bring you the better-than-ever SECOND LOOK STYLING.

Xoxo and Stay Thrifty -
Sar

Making White Shoes White Again!

One of the things people forget about sustainable fashion is that it’s not just about buying used but it’s also about finding ways to “clean up” items that you may think about getting rid of due to excessive wear, damage, etc.

I had a pair of Converse that had seen better days and were no longer white again. But with a few tricks we were able to get these babies looking brand spanking new again. Based on the response on social when I shared this, I figured I’d put the tips here as well to help!

Here was the finished product:

Steps:

1. Remove the shoe laces, and clean off any surface dirt and grime from the shoes with a scrub brush.

2. For safe whitening and stain removal on most light colored clothing/bedding, my go-to is always oxi-clean white revive powder. Prepare a cleaning solution in a bucket, made up of a high concentration of oxi-clean and hot water, (think a full scoop in a small half-filled bucket of water).

3. Throw the laces in the solution, and then use the scrub brush to gently scrub cleaning solution into the canvas material of the cons, including the tongue. Save the rest of the solution.

4. Wait a couple hours, then throw the shoes into the bucket of solution and add more hot water until it completely covers the shoes. Wait another couple hours with it soaking in.

5. Remove the laces, and rinse those out by hand. Remove the shoes, and place them in a washer load with light colored and non-delicate items such as towels. Depending on how worried you are about any odors transferring, you can even skip this step and hand scrub and rinse the cleaning solution out of the shoes. Expect to put it through 2+ rinses.

6. Let shoes air dry, thread up the laces. If spots remain on the canvas, repeat the process with a stain stick spot treatment, and then the oxiclean again.

Amazing how they look brand new! Here are the two products recommended above for this process:

Typical gentle Scrub Brush | Oxi-Clean Used

And that’s it! If you use the process be sure to send your before and after pics - would love to see how it comes out! Clean rather than throwing out, buy used rather than new!

Blind Fashion Series: Part One

This will be a series written by Sarah Favro, a loyal customer of Second Look services and boutique and who will be sharing her experience with you as a blind woman styling herself with secondhand finds! Stay tuned for more pictures and videos to come!

From Sarah:

Hello! I am so excited Sarah invited me to be a guest for this week’s blog so I can share my styling makeover story with you. I started this fabulous journey with Sarah last fall. I had recently reached my weight loss goal – shout out to Weight Watchers for that – and wanted to celebrate that with a new look. Sarah had just joined our Goodwill team and I had heard how great she always looked, and that everything she wore she got at Goodwill! Despite working for the organization for over 16 years, my Goodwill experiences hadn’t always been very successful. I would find clothing, think it was fabulous because it was less expensive, and then never wear it because it didn’t look or feel right, and donate it back. Thanks to Sarah and Second Look, that’s not the case anymore!

I do need to share that I am not the typical Second Look client. I do love sustainable fashion and getting a Thrift Box full of fabulous clothing picked out just for me, but what sets me apart is that I am blind. What I want to share is that despite this, I can feel and look fabulous and what to share with you all how!

After hearing there was this Goodwill fashionista in my office, I randomly emailed Sarah one day and asked if she ever did any personal shopping. I had no idea about Second Look at the time and the services she provided. I just wanted some help shopping. You see, I tended to wear my clothing way too big and definitely didn’t have any type of defined style. My style, if you could call it that, tended to be the opinion of whomever I was shopping with or what I thought looked good based on how it felt. If something was fitted, I thought it was too small, and hence, the over-sized, frumpy look. Shopping trips were few and far between because of transportation challenges and on-line shopping presented challenges as well. Oh, and forget about the money I spent on clothing - just ridiculous!

Sarah and I met to go over my style profile. That was funny because I didn’t know what to tell her. My style was frumpy and definitely not trendy. We started with a shopping trip to the S. Clinton Avenue store at lunchtime. I walked out with a bag full of great clothing for less than $30! It was Sarah’s inaugural shopping experience with someone who was blind, but we made it work using our combined experiences. It felt great putting items back that didn’t fit me well. I did this rarely up until then because I would buy all I could to maximize my shopping trips. Time and time again I would buy something just because I was in a store and didn’t know when I would go shopping again, even if it wasn’t the best choice for me. But now I know what to look for and the best items to shop for.

Since that first day last October, I have defined my style, cleaned out my closet with Sarah, purchased Thrift Boxes, shopped Sarah’s store, and found some amazing items on my own at Goodwill! I still, and always will, need someone sighted with me when shopping, however, I am the one driving the ship now and feel more comfortable and confident then ever. Stay tuned for more on how I shop and put together my look in the next part of my series!

Here are some of my recent looks, all with the help of Second Look! (and yes one of the days Sarah and I dressed similarly in our thrifted dresses without knowing it!)