Tampa Triple Score

For the aficionado of eye-popping menswear, Western Florida offers near-perfect thrifting conditions. A large population of retirees, a tropical climate that encourages casual bravado (and frowns on stylistic restraint), and a refreshing shortage of rack-combing hipsters, the scourge of so many otherwise promising locales. Acting on a tip from MD, this correspondent made a beeline for Tampa’s Sunshine Thrift, and was not disappointed.

Any one of these beauties would have been a sweet score back home, but this is Tampa, where too much of anything is never enough.  Three times the sun, three times the rum, and three times the fun! It turned out to be a bases-clearing, game-winning,  grand-slam thrift score of a day.

The blue-and-white number on the left is a classic 70s aloha in 100% rayon. If the color scheme looks oddly familiar, you may be thinking of “Punchy,” the pugilistic spokestoon for Hawaiian Punch.  The faux-barkcloth shirt in the center, also 100% rayon, is a bit easier on the eyes, and ideal for popping puu-puus by the pool. You could spill a lot on that shirt and no one would ever know – always a plus. Finally, on the right, the Main Event, a take-no-prisoners 1980s Dragonfly eye-wrecker in pure polyester. This is the one that almost got away – it was hanging from the ceiling as a display, but sharp eyes spotted the sale tag and helping hands brought it down to Earth with a pole-hook. It’s more than a shirt, it’s a self-contained universe of  fun, with its own anti-gravity and good-time fashion physics.  You could wear it to the Dali Museum in St. Pete, and the paintings would be checking YOU out. Not bad for $6.45.

Correction: make that $3.22 with the Thursday half-off discount. The grand total: less than $10 for all three. Which leaves plenty of scratch in one’s pocket for a banana daquiri at Sandbar Bill’s and a slice of key lime pie at Walt’z Fish Shak. Woo-hoo!

Written by Stuart on May 16, 2011.