Still a Sure Thing for a Big Bust with a Small Budget – My Urkye Dama Pik Dress + 2 Thrift Store Jacket Finds

You’re going to notice two themes with our December posts: (1) budget-friendly full-bust dressing and (2) holiday full-bust dressing. Today’s a 2-in-1 because I wore my Urkye Dama Pik dress with my $6 jacket find from Goodwill to a holiday cocktail party at a fancy hotel on Fifth Avenue last night!

You can barely make out the sparkly threads in this jacket, but that’s what’s gotten me lots of compliments both times I’ve worn it, even though it’s a size 6 that I can’t even zip up. Like any proud bargain hunter, I can’t resist telling you how I found it.

Mr. Campbell and I were wedding guests in Pennsylvania in September when the temperature plunged after the 2 PM ceremony. I was shivering in my $30 eBay Shoshanna dress, so we stopped at a Goodwill on our way to the 7 PM reception. When I added this Sag Harbor jacket to my outfit, I was still dressed up enough for the wedding!

The temperatures were a lot lower last night, and I only added this jacket for extra warmth from the subway to and from the party. Imagine my surprise to find the little sparkle gave it just enough contrast to my LBD from Urkye. I ended up wearing it at the party, too. When the room got too hot, I took it off and felt ultra-elegant in the dress by itself.

Unfortunately, it looks like this dress is now sold out on the Urkye website. (Only the red is available in limited sizes.) However, the sleeveless Mala dress is new in black, blue and red right now, and it’s just as versatile (I wrote about dressing up my Mala dress for a spring benefit in 2013).

My second jacket find was at a local Salvation Army when I was hunting for a cropped jacket to style with my Amy dress from Alice Fawke. This fun swing jacket is an XL from the upscale Hong Kong department store brand, Lane Crawford. Even though cropped swing jackets can look especially tent-like on a big bust, I think it works with the narrow line of the Dama Pik dress. Do you agree? Either way, at only $9, it was completely worth the fun of adding it to my closet!