Score: $2 Clothing Sale in Toronto

The $2 Clothing Sale may just have ruined thrift shopping for me forever.

Here I am yesterday at The Walmer Centre in Toronto, wearing a darling distressed jean jacket by ESCADA. Fellow thrifters, it was two smackeroos.

The sale happens every second Saturday of the month. It's a rummage-sale style event featuring casual clothing that isn't appropriate for Dress for Success Toronto, a registered charity helping clothe low-income women in professional attire so they can wow people in interviews and get jobs. All proceeds from the sale benefit the DFS's sister organization, Dress Your Best, which helps clothe men for employment, and children.

Here's Dress for Success Toronto volunteer and former client, Irina, modeling a coat she picked up for a twoonie yesterday. Behind her is DFS Toronto volunteer and pal Marsha - more on her later.

I wrote about the sale about a year ago in my shopping column for the Town Crier newspapers in Toronto (check out Yes, You can find thrift shopping in Midtown if you are so inclined) - but I will say my take on the sale this time 'round is cheerier.

See? Marsha and I are pretty happy. We met some great gals and bonded over the piles of clothing, whereas last year I found many of the women uber grabby. After we did a first round, Marsha and I congregated, with a bunch of other ladies, around one of the lone mirrors and started trying our stash on.

Whatever didn't work was tossed into the air for another to grab, with a "Who wants a medium MEXX sweater?" or "Designer skirt, size 14, coming your way" shouted out for good measure. It was all very civilized and in fact way more of a chick thrifting love-in than the rag 'em tag 'em every-gal-for-herself sale I reviewed last year.

For $20, I walked away with ten fab pieces - one of which was this preppy striped cardi by Point Zero. Other finds of note: fitted crossover Parkhurst sweater in mint shape; silk linen fitted tunic by Alfani; DEX velour zip-up jacket; the Escada jean jacket, a darling white cotton summer dress made in Italy; Kenneth Cole Reaction ballet flats; a wool Holt Renfrew blazer jacket; a blue wool-mohair jacket by Josephine Chaus - oh and these crazy yet chic purple pants I will show you in a sec.

Marsha is equipped with an equal if not superior style eye to me. Here she is in a never-worn Elie Tahari jacket. Darling. The straw bag is cute too, but I think she may have left it there.

Marsha wasn't sure about this Josephine Chaus jacket. I think she thought it was too staid and conservative pour moi. I agree the look is a bit too precious for my style, but I plan to funk it out with skinny jeans and a huge scarf. The jury's still out on this one. If it doesn't work out, hey, the joy of the two buck chuck is I can donate it back to the organization or another charity thrift shop!

Here I am in the Kenneth Cole Reaction flats. I swear, they were sitting on the shelf with all the other shoes for hours and no one picked 'em up!! The great thing about the sale is once you finish your first round and toss the rejects back on the table for other gals to pick up, you go back for round two, and round three - and you keep finding great stuff that you didn't see before as the sale-goers (if they shop like me, at least) are constantly revising what goes into their pile.

Here's a closer peep. And to continue, that's the paradox of the sale. At two bucks a pop (for mostly chick clothing, but there's the odd designer blazer for men in quite large sizes, I found), you'd think you'd go ballistic shopping. But I found the chicks in my circle were very discriminating. We selected only the best labels, only the styles and colours that looked good on us, and only the clothing that fit into our lives.

Here's the Holt Renfrew blazer. The long style may be a wee bit dated, but I loved the colour. Think I can wear it as a coat/jacket, again with skinny jeans, and it'll look pretty preppy cool.

Here's me trying to show you the Italian-made dress with the Escada jacket. I call these shots my 'boudoir' shots as they are in my bedroom and fuzzy, as though I've been caught in the moment by some hidden camera (though, of course, the camera is in plain sight!).

I knew the jacket would rock with the dress, and some spanky heeled sandles I picked up on sale last summer. Now all I need is a golden (spray-on) tan - oh yah and a beach.

Mmm. This pic doesn't represent the potential of these pants - or shall I say gouchos? Sorta but not quite. I actually do think they're retro as the label inside says size 8, and I am def not a size 8! I find vintage pieces that would be quite small sizes today always seem to have what we would think of as larger sizing, relatively speaking. Perhaps peeps were smaller back then?

Ok, I look a little silly here, but I'm trying to show you a close up of the pants without cutting my head off. I can't figure out if the pants are wool or some kind of industrial-grade polyester. The fabric is thick and the weave is tight. There's this cute little cuff at the bottom of each leg too. I wore them last night to dinner with some boots and a sweater with a boho piece of vintage bling, and they looked quite swishy.

NEXT $2 CLOTHING SALE: Saturday, March 12, Walmer Centre, 188 Lowther Ave. (closest subway is Spadina). Mostly women's clothing and sale normally runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. but you can always email 2dollarclothingsale@gmail.com to confirm. There is a Facebook page but it looks out of date.

TIPS: Bring a big (or several) reusable bags to carry and haul your stuff in as they don't have bags. Cash only. Wear a lightweight jacket or if you drive, leave your coat in the car. Bring water. And good manners - no pushing! There's a whole range of mostly ladies' used clothing and accessories, from mass market to designer and vintage, and there's a whole range of sizes including quite large sizes, so there's something for every one.