How to Wear a Fringe Scarf for a Colorful Classic Style with the Thrifty Six

sallyinstpaul
3 hours ago
7 min read

I have been welcomed into a wonderful group of fashion and lifestyle bloggers that focuses on styling preloved clothing and accessories in themed monthly posts (third Monday of the month). I hope that this showcase of secondhand items and outfits provides some shopping and style inspiration for anyone who is interested in creating great looks in a way that is sustainable for our planet and our pocketbooks.

Today's topic is Fringe...which is a tricky one for me because I don't gravitate toward items with fringe. Fringe has a strong boho/western or even hippie vibe to it that doesn't align well with my own style.

I procrastinated on thinking about how I was going to interpret this theme until I realized that if I had a summery fringed scarf in my wardrobe, I could probably find a way to wear it that would be a better match to my own style and might serve as inspiration for others who have a non-boho style but have a fringed scarf.

Many of my scarves with fringe are definitely colder weather scarves or pashminas made from heavy fabric, but I did find this thrifted tie-dye print scarf in a silky material with a nice fringe on it. The white and bright blue colors have a summery feel to them, so I figured this one would be fun to style for a June outfit. And it turned out that this outfit brought the cost per wear of the scarf down to my CPW goal of under $1, which was very satisfying! I'm always excited to see an item reach either my CPW <$1 or 30 Wears target.

Tie-dye scarf with blue, white, navy and olive pattern and fringe; text shows Thrifted, $4.80, 5 wears, CPW $0.96

Working from the bright blue in the scarf, I found two thrifted pieces in a lovely cobalt blue that match well but that somehow I'd never worn together before: a short-sleeved cardigan made from t-shirt material (Goodwill-Lane Bryant, $5.24 in 2/2016, 12 wears, CPW $0.44) and a lined suiting skirt (ThredUp-Le Suit, $12.43 in 6/2020, 14 wears, CPW $0.89). I was happy to see that the simple silhouettes of these pieces made them easy to wear together as a casual "suit"/outer column of color. Knowing that the skirt is a suiting separate can make it seem like it has to be worn in a dressy or business-y manner, but really, it's just a skirt! It has a straight cut but is not a tight pencil skirt so it is actually quite comfortable (and I had no problem wearing a pair of bike shorts underneath). I added a plain white tank top to complete my base outfit (Kohls, $5.99 in 5/2020, 26 wears, CPW $0.23).

Plus size outfit idea for women over 40 — OOTD 6/11/26

I decided to tie the scarf so that it would hang down the center of my body. The material is thin enough that I considered tying it like a men's tie but I ended up choosing a tie that was a bit more relaxed and nonchalant than that (see method #5: loop to the front with ends brought through in this post).

I hadn't done anything with the navy from the scarf's print so I wore a pair of navy and white striped ballet flats for extra easy-breezy summer vibes (Payless, $16.99 in 6/2015, 54 wears, CPW $0.31).

My daily bracelet stack was based on a paper bead bracelet set I made in shades of blue - cobalt, cerulean, and light blue - with silver metallic. I filled out the stack with a blue and silver bracelet from CJ Banks and three DIY bracelets in lapis lazuli and glass. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

The top paper bead bracelet (second from top with the swan charm) was made from an alumni magazine page with a man wearing a check shirt in two shades of blue. To cover up the his skin tone, which wasn't part of my color palette, I used a grey marker on the strips. I added silver marker to the edges of the strips to cover the white paper core. I love that the check pattern in the image was small enough to show up well on the rolled beads. The grey marker added some random variation to the beads, which I didn't mind, and I always enjoy the striations we get from the metallic edging of the strips.

The bottom paper bead bracelet (second from the bottom) also started out as an alumni magazine page, this time a photograph of a mountain city around nightfall. This image had several shades of blue, but also a bit of green, yellow, and orange. Because the "off-palette" colors appear in such small amounts on the page, I decided to leave them as-is and see how the beads turned out (though I did add silver marker as above to the edges). The rolled beads were predominantly shades of blue with little flecks of the other colors, which I thought added visual interest without detracting from the blue color scheme.

The middle paper bead bracelet (center of the stack) is also shades of blue, but it's not one that I made specifically for this bracelet set! It's a stand-alone bracelet that I store with my other stand-alone bracelets (like the glass and stone ones) so I can pop them in with any stack. Luckily I have photographs of the page to bead process for this bracelet as well. Blue sky images are a great source of gradients or ombré effects in shades of blue, so I used this full-page ad from a magazine to create beads in a navy-to-cerulean color palette. I added silver metallic edging to the strips again for that striated effect, and I loved how the beads turned out. Note how some beads have the lighter color in the center and other beads have the darker color in the center, depending on which direction the specific strip was cut.

I made a pair of bead soup earrings to match my bracelet set using the good old "beads on a stick" design (design #2 in this post). This sort of monochromatic "shades of one color" earring is perfect for using bead soup because a mix of tones, sizes, shapes, materials, finishes, etc., adds a lot of interest to a monochromatic design. I used 3 of the same silver bead caps on each earring to act as the unifying element in the earrings. Of course this isn't necessary, but sometimes it's nice to punctuate the earring with spacer beads, bead caps, etc., to give your design a boost in intentionality.

design bead soup earrings for a paper bead bracelet set

The cost per wear for this outfit (excluding the earrings and bracelets, which I do not track) was $2.83! And the purchase dates for my items were 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2020...not a recent buy in the bunch. I play a long game with my wardrobe additions, which in addition to buying secondhand definitely helps keep things on the thrifty side.

Now let's review the outfits with fringe that my thrifty friends have styled...

The Thrifty Six:

Emma of Style Splash

"I was struggling to find something fringed that was preloved, until at the last minute I remembered I have not one, but two faux suede jackets with fringing! This one is from Vinted, bought a few years ago. I have an orange one that's a bit longer, but I'd never worn this one before so this was my opportunity! I've teamed it with Pull and Bear jeans and a floral print top from Monki."

Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

“This vintage purple suede waistcoat is by a brand called Bikers Gearbox - I imagine a biker chick wearing it in the late 60’s…

…picture the scene, she sits astride a massive Harley-Davidson, the long fringing and her waist-length hair blowing behind her in the wind.

Fringe is all about animation - I can’t manifest the Harley, but I can definitely give it some serious swish…”

Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

“My crew decided to showcase fringe purses. Mine is over 10 years old, and while it's not thrifted, my jeans, shoes and brooches are. I hand-knit my top and am wearing it backwards because it's a little low cut in front.”

Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

“So I went looking for something with fringes on Vinted. And imagine my surprise, I couldn't find anything. At least not to my taste. I thought there would be plenty of choice, but no. After searching for a very long time, I found this jacket that I thought would be cool. No. It's too small and it's too short, it looks terrible on me, and I don't like it at all. Too late to pick something else out, so I'm afraid you guys will just have to make do with it. Mission failed. That's part of the deal too. I know my fashion friends will do a whole lot better!”

Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

"My fringe comes in the form of a preloved ruana all trimmed in pink silky fringes. I wore this same wrap for a previous thrifty style challenge featuring hats. I try to create outfits for Thrifty Six challenges using all thrifted pieces, but this outfit consists mostly of retail purchases....except for the pink fringed wrap and my jewelry. I recently bought the pants on super duper clearance from the Walmart pajama section and I am loving them! Pajama pants and robes for daytime wear, yes, please!"

And me...

“Fringe is tough for me because it is so strongly associated with boho/western style in my mind, and that’s not me. But I thought that if I could find a summer-compatible scarf with fringe in my wardrobe, I could style it in my own classic-colorful-casual-comfortable-cute way. Fortunately, this thrifted silky scarf with fringe came through for me. It was easy to pair with two thrifted bright blue pieces I haven’t worn together before – a short-sleeved jersey knit cardigan and a Le Suit skirt – and a white tank top, making an outfit that would was both (1) dressed up enough to be an in-office summer business casual outfit at my last job and (2) comfortable enough for a day at home at my computer, bead mat, and kitchen paper bead dipping station! Combined with fun handmade jewelry, this is a Fringe outfit that works for my non-boho/western style!”

Next month's topic is to be determined...stay tuned!

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers for the details of their thrifted fringe outfits and more style inspiration:

Do you like fringe for your personal style? Do you own any fringed items? Have you worn fringe in the past? How would you have approached this challenge? Do you own any "same/similar color" items like my cardigan and skirt that you haven't worn together before? Would you wear a casual "suit"/outer column of color in a bright color?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.