So you just got invited to one of those ironic Ugly Christmas Sweater parties. Thankfully, you don't
have a stitch to wear. Your impeccable good taste is such a curse.
But you do know about
The Ugly Sweater Store, an online solution for those wise souls like you,
who'd rather not elbow the bedazzled masses at Goodwill for that last snowflake cable-knit.
Launched this fall, USS is the brainchild of two West Loop fashionistas frustrated by the picked-over
selection at their local Village Thrift. So this season, they got while the getting was good. Scouring
thrift stores, vintage shops and the closets of their loved ones for inventory, they tossed aside pieces
that had seen one too many red-wine/lipstick/cheeseball mishaps at office parties past, leaving just the
truly taste-challenged—which all promptly received a Woolite shower before being put up for
sale.
You'll find about 80 pieces on the site, plus a list of parties around the country to wear them. Prices are
determined by the level of yuletide grotesquery—$10 for something in seasonal colors, $25 for
something that would make even Bill Cosby
shudder in
disgust.
Which is one of the little-known ways angels get their wings...
