This is Umie’s story from our first thrift store raid. While Umie and Sloan were busy with the racks of jackets, I tore through the slacks. Running my fingers along the infinite rack of slacks I instantly felt quality by plucking a gorgeous Bernard Zins Winter white slacks. Known as the father of the stretch-waistband trouser, Zins founded his company in 1967 and was credited with applying old world tailoring techniques to modern manufacturing. Couturiers as Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Balmain and Yohji Yamamoto had their trouser collections manufactured by Zins. These slacks would retail for $350-395 and were priced at $4.00. As luck would have it Umie found a fabulous 2 piece cashmere sweater piece made for Saks Fifth Avenue that would look amazingly gorgeous with the Zins slacks. Minutes later I found a ultra chic DKNY silk black blouse while Umie was in the dressing room trying on the Isaac Mizrahi for Bergdorf Goodman black slacks she found, unaware that these 2 items could look stunning together. When it was time to leave Umie marched up the counter to pay for her items and handed the lady a crisp $20 bill and oh yes she got a bill or 2 back along with some coins. I think when we all got inside the car to drive to the next thrift store, there wasn’t a single second of silence. We chatted nonstop about all the treasures we found and how much we would have paid for that if we had walked our butts into Neimans or Saks. The 3 of us scored very well with our first stop now the next posting will be about the second thrift store blitz. Wait till you see what Sloan bought for Umie. Toodles for now. Daniel