Interview with @honestlymili

This week's interview is with the Bulgarian beauty Mili aka @honestlymili on Instagram. I love Mili's style, how she mixes secondhand finds with high-street for a chic and feminine look. Grab a cuppa, get comfy and learn some charity shopping tips from a pro!

1. When did you first start shopping preloved? Did anything or anyone inspire you to do so?

When I was growing up in Bulgaria, there wasn’t much choice about what to wear. You could either dress in high-end clothes, which I liked but couldn’t afford, or buy old-fashioned items on the marketplace. Naturally, the best option for me was to hit second-hand stores. I think I was about 10 or 11 when I first discovered them, so it’s been over half my life now! I was really inspired because I was reading all these fashion magazines and watching youtube and I wanted to dress like the people I saw there, so buying preloved items really allowed me to experiment with my style without going broke.

2. What are your top tips for charity/thrift shopping?

Now that I live in the UK, I can say that charity shops are a true blessing! Here are my top 3 tips for successful shopping:

1. Go often – in some shops new stock is released daily, so you never know what you can find the next day!
2. Shop the ‘fancy’ areas in your town for good quality designer or higher-end items: many rich people regularly clean their closets and get rid of perfect condition items that you can grab for like 5% of their original price tag
3. On the other hand, go to more inexpensive (but not student!) areas to find the best bargains – I have found some of my best items in the £1 shop.

3. What is your best charity/thrift shop find?

I have a few favourites, but in terms of designer items, I found a vintage YSL pure wool pink blazer. Although I never really wore it, I kept it in my closet for over a year because I just loved the craftsmanship and the fit of it.

In terms of more recent items, I found a pink Ted Baker blazer (you can see it on my Instagram) for under £10 that I’ve worn over 10 times already! It’s become a firm favourite and helps me to stand out in the crowd of black!

4. What is the one item you still kick yourself for leaving behind? The one that got away?

I usually try not to leave behind items that I love, especially because they are usually quite affordable! But I remember one day seeing a tan cashmere jumper which looked amazing, but it was a bit over £20 so I hesitated and decided to wait. I went to the shop the next day but someone had already snatched it, so yes – it kind of got away!

5. Who is your style inspo?

I don’t have just one style icon, I get inspired by both bloggers and ‘regular’ people on Instagram and Pinterest, as well as just girls I see on the streets in Edinburgh. But if I have to point one person, I’ve followed Tamara (@tamara) for many years now, and I love how she is not afraid to wear colour and interesting shapes!

6. What is your best piece of advice for shopping your wardrobe?

First of all, treat it like a challenge and a treat, rather than a punishment, because I’m sure you have so many items others will kill to have! But in terms of practical advice, I’ve recently developed a ‘modules’ system: I pick 2-3 bottoms, 2-3 tops and 1-2 jackets that create a module. They should all go together and complement each other. And from one module you can easily get 12 outfits, plus if you change the shoes and bags even more! I like having 2-3 different modules that I can also mix, so I never get bored: there are over 200 outfits I can make from about 30 items!

Also, I recently found Alyssa Beltempo’s Youtube channel and she has so many great ideas for shopping your closet – definitely check her out! Thanks so much to Mili for taking part in my interview series! Be sure to pop by next Thursday for a new interview. Click here, here, here and here for more!