One Person's Junk Is Another's Funk -- Recapture The '70S Mood With Hand-Me-Down Bell Bottoms And Cropped Tops

IT'S THE BEST OF bargains - a cool, crisp, pale blue, seemingly new, taffeta prom dress, $59; and the worst of bargains - dangling gray loops of used underwear.

At Value Village, Federal Way. And in the midst of the bowling trophies, used cameras and racks of clothing not quite new enough or old enough to have come back in style, often a whole '70s-retro wardrobe can be plucked from the polyester sea.

Ask thrift-store power shopper Faith Beattie, 21.

Although she is a clerk in a downtown Seattle retail clothing store, Beattie buys most of her wardrobe at secondhand stores. She gleans the Value Villages, the Goodwills and Salvation Armys in the suburbs, moving into the urban core where thrift shops go upscale (and pricey) and call themselves "vintage" clothing shops.

Beattie knows them all.

With $75 in her pocket she set out one morning for a day of spring shopping.

"What I usually do is fill up a cart," she says as she scans the racks at Value Village. "If I'm with a friend, she'll go down one row and I'll go down the other. Then we'll sort through the stuff. It's a social thing to do with close friends."

Since there is no real order as to size and style, the eye must travel slowly across each item, until it's caught by a texture, a color.

A striped, cotton T-shirt, 75 cents, emerges from the rack; a long-sleeve green pullover, $1.99, from the men's section. She always checks out the men's racks for jackets and sweaters - often they are better made and, when worn by women, have the loose fit popular today.

The ultimate is finding a pair of overalls, bell bottoms, crop tops, platform shoes, granny dresses - the leavings of the Cher (with Sonny) generation, "Brady Bunch kind of clothes," resurrected for the '90s.

It's peach tag day, 50 percent off. Even so, $12.99 for a sweater - too much! A shirt for $1.50? Well maybe.

Prices take on new meaning at thrift stores.

"I never pay more than $7," Beattie says, unless it's for shoes or something really outrageous like a denim, bell-bottom jumpsuit with Rolls Royce motif, $10.

"Everything I have on came from a thrift store," she says, showing off her blue-striped jeans, navy velour pull-over jacket and red-striped T-shirt. Total cost - less than $20.

"I really like clothes and I love fashion." She's one of five children, and thrift-shopping was a way of life when she was growing up in Puyallup.

"I thought thrift shops were just way cool. You can get two or three bags full for $50 to $60. But you have to enjoy doing it. Think of it as a treasure hunt," one where the treasures may be only in the eyes of the beholder and usually not prized by the average Nordstrom shopper.

A long-sleeve, striped T-shirt for 50 cents emerged at Bargain Village in Edgewood, on the north hill of Puyallup. "This would be cute under overalls," she says, holding the shirt against herself and looking in the mirror.

In Seattle, vintage clothing shops range from the feel of a '60s head shop, where loud music and incense are staples, to the funkiness of a trendy boutique.

At Belltown's Time Tunnel, where the atmosphere is more the latter, Beattie finds a pair of clunky brown shoes, $24. This is up-market thrift where men, too, comb the racks. One is buying a camel-colored wool overcoat just like his dad had. Another looks over a blue-and-white-dot, custom-made, polyester disco suit - a look so awful it's back in, if you're a true retro fanatic.

At Pin Down Girl also in Belltown - where a varsity-style jacket from the old Puyallup Dragway sells for $200 - a little digging turns up a pair of prized bell-bottoms, $15.

Too long?

"What you do is cut them off and let them fray," Sara McInturff, manager, tells Beattie.

At Fremont's Fritzi Ritz, Beattie finds a pair of wide-leg cotton pants, $1, and a pair of sunglasses, $10, at Deluxe Junk.

"What do you think? The red or brown ones?" There are racks of them, tucked among the mismatched china and examples of "classic" Naugahyde.

On Capitol Hill a pair of red, low-top canvas sneakers, $9, turns up at Righteous Rags and a gold denim jacket, $11, at Hairy Mary.

At Faze2, in the same vicinity, Beattie checks out a pair of men's pajama bottoms, noting their potential comfort when worn as pants, but passes them up. She'll be back. She and store owner Gary Winters know. She's a regular, one of the many in the twentysomething age group that flock to the store.

"I buy 20 things and I'm in love with 12. The rest sit and make my closet look funky," she says. "It's not like going to the department store and paying $55 for a blouse and not wearing it."

When a top costs 99 cents, "you can afford to make mistakes," she says.

--------------------------------- BEATTIE'S RULES ---------------------------------

-- Don't go to a store more than once a week; there won't be enough turnover.

-- Don't go expecting to find a specific item - like a black skirt you need for a special occasion. "Thrift store clothes aren't clothes you need ."

-- Do go ready to buy clothes for any season - a bargain is a bargain.

-- Do check out the suburbs; the merchandise isn't as picked over and the prices are less.

-- Be patient and persistent.

Nancy Bartley is a Seattle Times reporter. Harley Soltes is Pacific's staff photographer.