FASHION OF LIFE (PART 4)

 The rain has finally let up and I think I see the sun peeking out from behind a cloud so I'm hoping my plans to get out and take some photos comes to fruition. Lately I've been looking at Anna Wolf's site for photography inspiration. Enjoy!
 Thanks so much for stoppin' by!

  

I have a pretty regular routine down whenever I visit one of my local thrift stores. As soon as I walk in the door I grab a shopping cart (I'm Southern so I actually call it a "buggy" much to the amusement of the Yanks I live amongst). Then I start to fill it with anything and everything that looks even mildly interesting. I don't bother checking for flaws or stains or fit. By the time I get through the store I usually have a buggy full of clothes, shoes and assorted household goodies. Then the work begins. I sort through each piece, looking over it carefully and usually end up keeping about a third of what I picked up. The last time I was there I found this black silk dress. When it was time to sort through my finds I was see-sawing back and forth over whether to keep it or put it back. It was really long and sort of shapeless but the 100% silk fabric and the pretty pintucks kept tempting to put it in the keep pile. It wasn't until after I got it home that I realized it was reminding me of some of the silk pieces I'd been admiring in the Lyell collection. I ended up chopping about 8 inches off the bottom and happily hung it in my closet. Here's how I plan on wearing it...

• For daytime black accessories seemed a bit dour so I mixed in some brown to make it feel lighter.
• The fabric is so soft and draping it's perfect to wear belted as a shirt with jeans.

• It becomes my blouse and my slip when I wear it tucked into a slightly sheer high waisted cotton skirt.
• For a night look (as if I ever go out at night!) I paired it with sheer tights, heels and a little embroidered purse. 

A couple of weeks ago when I attended my first estate auction there's one little detail that I left out. I couldn't be 100% that it was a sure thing and I didn't want to jinx anything by saying something sooner. When I was done bidding and trying to figure out how to pay for all of my dresses I was approached by a sweet lady that had noticed I was buying a lot of vintage clothing. She mentioned that she had a house full of vintage clothes she had inherited and didn't want to keep and wanted to know if I would be interested in coming over and taking them off of her hands. I couldn't believe my luck and quickly took her number with plans to call her soon.

On Friday afternoon I finally had an appointment to go to her house and look through the collection. Turns out when she bought the house she's living in, everything was left in it including the entire wardrobe of the woman that had lived there. The house had belonged to a woman that was a professor at a local university and she was quite well dressed! I ended up buying nearly 50 dresses, skirts and blouses from the 40s-60s and we have plans to get together again for more. I'm also going back once the weather turns cool to look for coats.

I was good and only put one dress and one blouse aside for myself and everything else, included all of the dresses you see snippets of here, are going to be sold. I was hoping to get out and take photos today (I have something special in mind for this collection) but it's raining this morning so I might have to wait a day or two. I plan on having the first batch ready to go into the Etsy boutique on Sunday night (the 26th).

dress: 50s cotton day dress bought from a private estate (more on that tomorrow!)
shoes: vintage
purse: vintage
book: bought today for 50 cents
*listening to: Metallica - Death Magnetic "The Day That Never Comes"

During all the madness this weekend I found a bit of time on Saturday afternoon to wander around downtown by myself and hit up all of my favorite stores. Even though I saw lots of things I liked, I was good and only bought one book for fifty cents. It was a book that was sitting in a sidewalk bin amongst a bunch of old paperbacks and mystery novels. The hardback cover caught my eye and as soon as I picked it up I knew I had to have it. It's Secrets of Love and Marriage by James Parker Hendry. I flipped it open to a page, starting reading and laughed so hard I nearly choked on my soft pretzel.

It was written in 1933 and edited by a doctor. There is a disclaimer in the front of the book stating that it should only be sold to doctors and married people and that those people must agree to "safeguard the book against coming into the hands of minors." It's chock full of antiquated advice, old wives tales and "medical" advice that would make modern doctors cringe.

"While shorts skirts were in style, well formed legs certainly were essential to a woman's appearance. Suddenly a style reaction set in and skirts were lengthened until the hems swept the ground. The reason was obvious. Long skirts are far more appealing to men, as designers discovered."

"...too much emphasis cannot be placed on the necessity for looking into your sweetheart's parentage, to make sure that the parents are mentally sound. If there is a long line of feeble minded or insane in the family tree, avoid that heritage as you would the plague!"

"It is particularly dangerous for a girl to start petting with a man the first few times she goes out with him. She should make sure that he is clean, honest and worthwhile. She makes herself cheap by offering easily won kisses. And no man wants a bargain counter wife who has been soiled and manhandled."

This is turning out to be a super busy weekend. By the end of it all, I'm quite sure I'm going to want to collapse into the floor in a big pile of tired (albeit, quite less fashionably than this girl). There's a music conference in town which is keeping us quite busy as well as having a house guest for the past couple of days. I scored a big treasure chest full of vintage finds yesterday which I can't wait to tell you about (more on that later). And the very best part is, the forecast is calling for temperature in the seventies! Woo-hoo! That means my shoulders actually might see the light of day. I'll try to take some photos today to share with you tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend!

Quite often I'm asked if I ever regret selling a particular piece on Ebay. For the most part, the answer to that question is a resounding no. Sometimes when I'm taking photos for the store, I'll try on something and think that I just can't bear to part with it but by the end of the day it's pack in the to-sell pile with everything else. I'm not particularly sentimental about the clothes so it' pretty easy to part with them.

But this one pair of shorts is haunting me. It was at the end of last summer when all I could think about was wearing wool and tweed and layers and tights (amazing how that changes, hmmm?). I was doing a massive closet clean out and threw these shorts in the get-rid-of pile. Now that spring is here (so they say) and I'm looking for the perfect pair of shorts it's sort of driving me crazy that I had my hands on them and let them get away.

I've actually gone so far as to think about contacting the person who bought them just to see if they worked out. Maybe they didn't fit? Maybe they've moved on to another pair of perfect shorts? Maybe I'm nuts for thinking about doing that? What'dya think?

I promise I'm not going to turn this blog into a constant weather update but the rain and cold are such a constant presence these days it's hard not to mention them. I'm supposed to be doing photos today in order to update the Ebay store tomorrow but it's just too dark. Thus is the downfall of using natural light for photos. I need to put "buy a light kit" on my to-do list. Instead, I'm catching up on a few blogs, reading the news and imagining what in the world I would wear if I were actually going to leave the house today (I'm not!). The answer to that question comes in the form of a Polish pixie named Elizabeth. I'm thinking somewhere in the depths of my closet hide just the pieces I would need to recreate one of her prim and quirky ensembles. I've never seen anyone pull off long baggy shorts and still manage to look adorably feminine. Note to self: Also put "buy a cameo to wear with frilly blouses" on my to-do list.

photos by Tom b.

dress: 30's silk chiffon
slip: vintage
shoes: 30's oxfords
sweater: Anthropologie
locket: Free People
purse: vintage Coach


After having a nice Easter lunch on Sunday afternoon Tom and I stopped by what we'd heard was an abandoned farm to have a look around. It looks so sunny and nice out doesn't it? Well, looks can be deceiving. I had to take my big winter coat off to snap these photos. You can (kind of) see that I'm all bundled up in the shadow photos. It turned out the farm is abandoned and I want to go back out there once it's warmer to take more photos.

I was amassing quite a colletion of purses and decided it was time to pass a few on. All of the purses in these photos are in the boutique. Thanks so much for stoppin' by!

photo by Tom b.

shirt: 1890's silk blouse
scarf: vintage
hat: vintage velvet bowler
skirt: 50's wool tweed

Today we're going to Tom's family's house to have Easter lunch. I'm responsible for bringing the (vegetarian) gravy and I haven't even gone to the grocery store yet. I better get movin'! Have a wonderful day whether you're celebrating Easter or not!

P.S. I can't wait to tell you about our surprise date from Friday night. It was even better than I expected!

It's official. Style.com is calling it "depression chic". Hmmm. Something about that just doesn't sit right with me. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with someone drawing inspiration from the era. It had an aesthetic that no other era has had and I'm certainly drawn to it, but something about the fashion glamazons over at Vogue dubbing it "chic" and turning it into something luxe and expensive just makes my stomach turn a bit. Perhaps that's me being a reverse snob? It reminds me of the early 90s when grunge hit the runway and suddenly became something it was never intended to be. It also begs the age old question of "which came first?" I've been reading about depression era fashion for months on blogs. So... did the blog world influence this trend or were the blogs simply picking up on the trend earlier than most people?

Either way, as much as the idea of $800 depression-inspired designer dresses makes me cringe, I have to admit that I'm drawn to the Organic collection by John Patrick. He states that his spring collection was about "dust-bowl" creativity and points out that the era was about "crazy resourcefulness." I think the collection also appeals to me because seventy percent of the line is made entirely from sustainable materials. That sort of resourcefulness seems to echo the attitude of the original era. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for a gingham print mini dress.

 

photos by Tom b.

shirt: vintage
jeans: Topshop
shoes: 30's oxfords
beret: vintage
purse: vintage Coach


Tom and I walked downtown this afternoon to run a few errands - buying fresh veggies at the Farmer's Market, dropping off Ebay packages at the post office and trying unsuccessfully to buy cat food. Exciting, right? On the way home we stopping in this little laundromat that we've always wanted to go into and took a few photos. Now I have to run because Tom is taking me on a surprise date tonight and I'm supposed to be ready in twenty minutes! What to wear?!

 

 There's a wide variety of sizes from XS to L so be sure to check it out. Thanks so much!
 

I love stumbling across archives of vintage photographs. I always want to know the story of each and every person. Doesn't this look like a fun group of girls? I'm especially smitten with the girl in the front row, second from the right. I just love everything about her - from her messy finger waves to her v-neck sweater to her little floral corsage and the pleats in her skirt and her patterned stockings. I'm convinced that she and I would be fast friends had I been enrolled at the Holton-Arms school circa 1927.

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that I had a closet meltdown of epic proportions over the weekend. Tom and I had plans to walk downtown to attend the First Friday celebrations when all of the art galleries in town unveil their new exhibits for the month. I swear I stood in my closet for an hour putting on outfits and then ripping them right off. I'd put on a cute dress, tights and sandals and then remember it was raining, so I'd put on jeans and rain boots and feel like I was suffocating. OK, I know that's a bit dramatic but I was having a moment.

It's not that I don't have anything to wear, it's just this stinkin' weather. I can't figure it out. You saw how beautiful Sunday afternoon was from my photos and then last night they (whoever they are) were calling for snow showers. I just can't keep up. One day I'm lying in the warm grass, the next day it's snowy. It's enough to make a girl a little batty.

Sooo... I've been searching in my closet for pieces to get me through these maddening days and I ran across this 50's cashmere short sleeve sweater. I picked it up at a vintage store a while back and it sort of got lost in my closet. "Short sleeve sweater" seems like a bit of an oxymoron to me and I even though I love the piece I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

• First, while it's still a bit cool outside I can pair it with a thick tweed skirt and a pair of knee boots. Worst comes to worst, I could throw on a pair of tights and a jacket and be prepared for colder weather.
• I've got lots of summer dresses hanging in my closet waiting to see the light of day. The sweater layered quite nicely over this one. A good way to keep a little warm while still getting to wear a summer dress.

• As the weather warms a bit I can pair it with a light cotton skirt and sandals. Just the right mix of cool and warm for days when the weather is unpredictable.
• It mixes just as well with jeans as with skirts. I just layered the sweater over a little Peter Pan collar blouse.

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