Wow, July is here already! I’m amazed. This summer is going to be busy and fun! For now, here’s a little shop update, with more coming tomorrow. Lots of great summer pieces! I’m totally torn about those little purple 50’s shorts… the print is constellations and zodiac images, which is so amazing! I think I might have to keep them for a while, at least. So awesome!
I’m going to be adding all of these this afternoon, so be sure to check out the shop!
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July 2nd, 2009
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Sheer white dress: Gunne Sax via etsy
Slip: thrifted
50’s rosebud crown thing: antique mall
Woven wedges: thrifted
We often drive past this hill when the sun is setting and I love the light so much. I bought this dress months ago and just got around to hemming it (kind of badly). It’s my “I can’t afford those Edwardian tea dresses so here’s the next best thing, brought to you by Gunne Sax” dress. There were people playing Marco Polo down in the schoolyard below me, it was fun to listen to them yelling and laughing while I was taking silly photos of myself. I snuck around the exterior of this building and took photos until the sun had totally set, at which point I accidentally knocked the chain off my bike and had to fix it without getting any grease on my all-white outfit. Tricky, but I managed! I let my hair dry normally with no pincurling yesterday, it’s getting kind of long… after I rode my bike home I dunked my hair in water and it’s in pincurls again because I love them so much.
I bought that little rose crown at an antique mall. I keep buying hair pieces and hats, including a black 50’s straw boater that came in the mail the other day. I need a hat pin to hold it in place though, does anyone know where I can buy a plain, simple one with the little end to put the sharp part into? I’ve looked on ebay and etsy and they are all too decorative, or too expensive. Not sure where to look next…
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June 29th, 2009
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I know I’m not the only one drooling over any item of clothing made before 1940, and the bidding wars on ebay are getting really brutal! It’s hard to find a flapper dress for under $50, and the 30’s ones are not much cheaper. I went through every single page of 1930’s related listings on etsy the other night (yikes) and I want to share a few finds with you, four sweet frocks from the 30’s that are under $40 (in fact, three out of four are under $30!). Totally affordable and cute, also, please buy them so that I don’t cause it’s the end of the month and I’m about to have etsy fees to pay!
1. 30’s (or early 40’s, I might be cheating a bit here) house dress- $22 from Firefly Vintage. This seller is awesome, I bought a 20’s dress from her a while back that I adore!
2. 30’s sheer pink dress, $28 from flapperfrock.
3. 30’s cotton lace dress with bolero, , $39 from badgirlvintage.
4. Colorful 30’s dress with lace ruffle, $28 from stacyleighatelier.
Also, sorry for being a lazy blogger last week, I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down and post for some reason. I’ll try to be better this week, although my buddy Maya (read her blog!) is coming for a surprise visit (just found out today, I’m excited!) so we might be busy, but we’ll take lots of photos that I can post later! Summer is really happening, we played softball and ate homemade vegan tamales, went to a BBQ, and we even fired up our own grill for the first time this year. We got it for free from our neighbors, pretty awesome!
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June 28th, 2009
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I recently answered a question in an interview asking about how I used to dress in high school, and it inspired me to scan some old photos and make a whole post about it! This post is dedicated to
Rachel because she loves to look at old photos more than anyone I know (other than me?) and she has been there through all my silly stages. Also, I gotta preface this post by saying that I am still 100% in love with my friends from high school, those ladies you see in the above photo. I think we were 16-17 in that picture, hanging out at my house and dressing up in my clothes so that we could take photos and rent movies or whatever. They are still my best friends and I’m proud to say that we’re still close, even if I don’t get to see them super often. My friend Kara is missing from that photo and obviously more friends have been added to the roster of BFFs, and whenever I get to hang with them I feel so lucky to have known these guys for so long!One weird thing about highschool fashion from 1995-2001 is that the internet wasn’t what it is today. Teenagers can dress SO AMAZING these days and it seems totally normal, almost expected. There certainly were no street style blogs or outfit communities like wardrobe_remix back then, I can’t even remember where we got inspiration other than from bands we liked and maybe some magazines? It’s so funny how much things have changed! I wish I had my old old photo albums from when I was a kid, but what I have starts at about age 14, which is perfect for this highschool-themed post!
I’m 14 (maybe almost 15) years old in these photos. Being 14 was the worst! In my hometown, there were two highschools right next to each other, one was grades 8-10 and the other was grades 11-12. I met Rachel in grade 8 (actually at a birthday party in grade 7, but we didn’t go to the same school yet) and we hung out a LOT, so I was pretty torn up the next year when both schools became full 8-12 highschools and they were split up by district. I was stuck at one school while Rachel moved to the other one. So terrible! I spent my grade 9 year hanging out with people I didn’t really like very much, feelin’ bummed and angsty. One time I even wrote “fuck you” on the heels of my shoes with puff paint. That is probably the most embarrassing fashion confession I can think of, haha. Apparently it was also my midriff-baring year, I wore a lot of tank tops from mall stores and thrift stores. So scandalous. I had a skeleton key necklace that I thought was pretty cool. That little white top was from Le Chateau, a very important store in Canadian malls, haha. It’s still around and still stands for the same weird mall trashiness it always has. I tried to dye my hair red with some semi-permanent dye and I think it was almost all washed out by the time that last photo was taken. Oh, and I over-plucked my eyebrows. I’m so glad they came back! Hanging out on our huge garage roof was a favorite passtime for us.
Hard to say how old I am in these ones, probably 16 or 17. I think this covers a pretty good amount of my outfits, especially that fuzzy blue zip-up in the photo with the puppies, I wore that thing for YEARS! The bandana was also a staple, probably because I hated trying to do anything to my hair. And yes, I was without bangs for my entire highschool career. I’d go back in time and change that if I could! Oh yeah, and I also had my eyebrow pieced. dalas loves to make fun of me for that one! I wore a lot of tops and jeans, grungy old sneakers, thrifted a lot and wore those sandals that dads still wear in the summer. I also wore a lot of those little canvas maryjane slippers, sometimes I’d get lucky and find them at Value Village. It was around this time that I also got really into striped tights, and I’d buy them whenever we went to Vancouver because they didn’t exist in my hometown. I was the only person in my school who ever wore them, it was pretty funny. Now it wouldn’t seem weird or surprising at all I bet, even in smaller towns. I liked weird vintage patterns and prints (I guess I still do!), “old man pants” (like suit pants) and I loved silly Japanese t-shirts like that hidden Keroppi one that I’m wearing in the photo with the mountie moose. The little kid’s section at Value Village was a favorite spot for great shirts.
We’re 17-18 in these photos! One important fact about me and my friends is that we value hilarity over almost everything else. We used to make silly/funny movies with the camcorder and dress up and take photos, and even if we tried to make the photos look good it was always done with being funny in mind. We’ve always been sort of cynical and goofy, which I think is true for a lot of Canadians I know. Not sure why that is… something in the Northern air? So, that’s why I’m dressed up like a goth with a knife, for a movie we made about a Southern Belle, a blonde bimbo, a goth and a washing machine salesman that turns into a robot. I’ll admit that I did buy that velvety corset thing in a serious way because I thought it was cool, and it definitely came in handy later on because I could cobble together some really sweet goth outfits, haha. I never dressed truly goth on a regular basis, but I think there was some time when I was 14 when I went a little heavy on the eyeliner. In the top photo my friends are wearing old clothes that we found in the basement along with old sewing supplies, and I also have some amazing photos from that night of two of my friends in matching velvet sweatsuits from the 70’s or 80’s… so good. It was around this time that I started wearing a lot of slips for skirts and I bought my favorite crinoline ever in Vancouver, which was great for taking pseudo-serious imitation Rasputina photos in my backyard like the bottom photo. I still have that crinoline, it’s in my closet! My hair also got really long at this point, until I finally cut it short with bangs in 2003 (two years after graduation). Also check out my adorable little brother, dressed up like Link!
So that’s it, more or less, how I dressed in high school. A little embarrassing but mostly an enjoyable trip down memory, uh, closet.
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June 24th, 2009
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Dress: Vintage from
Skip to my Lou on etsy
Belt: Thrifted
Silk scarf in hair: Thrifted
Pierre Hardy for Gap shoes: ebay!
Binoculars purse: thrifted
I’ve had this dress since April, and I suggest you check out the etsy shop that it came from because there are some very sweet items for sale! I know you guys will like it. I was instantly drawn to this print, it has weird leaping deer-like animals on it and neat plant life… you can see a close-up version here. It’s so cool! I got a great deal too because the hem was unfinished, and even though I hemmed it pretty unevenly I don’t mind. It sat in my “stuff to fix” sewing pile for so long, I can’t believe I didn’t do it right away! This is also my first actual outfit photo with these shoes, I love them.
The Grotto (The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother) is one of my favorite places in Portland. It is a 62-acre Catholic shrine, established in 1924. From what I understand, the man who purchased the property built the Grotto because when he was young, his mother was very sick but recovered from her illness through prayer, so he wanted to do something to honor that. I am not a religious person and was not raised to have any specific beliefs, but the Grotto is also celebrated for having beautiful gardens and bits of forest land, which is something I definitely believe in! It is in such a weird place, right on the edge of a big dumb noisy street, but as soon as you get into it everything gets quiet and peaceful and you feel like you’re far from the city. It is never very busy, so even if there are a few other people around you can still chill out and wander around in peace. Even in Portland it can be hard to find that, especially at public gardens. There are always some regular annoying people, and actually there was one lady today who was being loud on her cell phone. So lame, but it was easy to escape her noisy conversation.
I took photos up in the rose garden, it was the first time I had seen it all in bloom. The statue in the middle has a little pond that people throw coins into, and the Servite Monastery building looks like a neat old university or something. In mid to late afternoon the sun starts to sneak behind the trees and the light gets really interesting, I’m so glad that I managed to catch some of it with my camera!
That first photo is a little bit corny, just me hanging out with my holy pals, basking in some magic light… no big deal or anything! Ha ha. I hope no one thinks it’s weird that I am taking outfit photos at a religious sanctuary, and if you do then you need to chill! I really do appreciate this place and its natural beauty, and you’ll be seeing more of it later. This place is pretty big and there are tons of very picturesque spots to explore. It is such an awesome (semi-)hidden treasure in Portland.
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June 23rd, 2009
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I had a really busy weekend and I am tiiiired! I’m about to start listing the following items in the shop, in attempt to update more frequently but with fewer items each time. It definitely feels a lot better to work in smaller batches, instead of trying to tackle a big pile of 30 dresses all at once. Ok, listing time! I hope everyone out there had a fun weekend too!
Click
here to visit the shop!
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June 22nd, 2009
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There are a million garage sales going on today in Portland and I found some really awesome stuff! I’m so excited about my finds, it was a lucky day.
I found the quilt of my dreams! I’ve really been hoping for an antique quilt these days, especially after seeing so many beautiful (and expensive, at around $80 for the cheapest ones) quilts at the antique malls. I knew I’d find a cheap one eventually, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon! This one is very sweet with a few ragged edges, and it has morning glory blossoms in little circles all over it. I love it so much, and it was only $10. Amazing! I also picked up two little silk scarves for 50 cents each, and a 1940’s hand that I bought for Julianna, but I’ll be happy to keep it if she doesn’t want it! It was $9.50, which again, is way cheaper than the ones we were eyeing at the store. I had to take some dumb photos with it:
My last find is this beautiful old early 1900’s photo, I can’t tell if it was some kind of school photo but I love the outfits, collars, and the crazy hair pieces! They all look so solemn, classic grumpy faces. Gotta go to lunch now, but man- what a sweet morning!
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June 20th, 2009
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Last weekend Julianna and I hit some antique stores and that’s where these photos came from! I was immediately drawn to these because her dress is so unique, with what looks like starfish on it! I suppose it could be some kind of flower, but I’m leaning towards starfish because that’s more awesome and weird. I love how dark her dress is in the first two pictures, it really makes those shapes pop out. She obviously had great style, and I love that hair of hers- such a perfect vintage style. There is no information on the backs of the photos, so it’s hard to say when or where they were taken. She looks like the kind of lady who can be sugar sweet when she feels you deserve it, but if you crossed her I bet she would really let you have it!
Larger versions can be found in my vintage photos set on flickr.
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June 19th, 2009
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I don’t want to freak anyone out or anything, but I’m a little concerned that my vintage finds from today only exist in my head. I’m sure you guys have had those dreams too, where you are out thrifting and you keep finding amazing things? I always feel so bummed when I wake up from those, so I feel like I’m tip-toeing on the thin ice of reality as I share what’s coming up tomorrow in the shop. Can you believe it? A special 30’s - 50’s only update!
I am pretty much in love with every single dress. The fabrics are luxurious and soft, the prints amazing, the styles are unique and they are all so cute. The little scissors and thread on the red dress?? Tiny picture frames on that silk dress? 40’s with an art-deco inspired print? SCALLOP HEM? Ahhhhh! Too awesome. So, I am going to put this stuff up tomorrow (Friday) morning. I know there’s an annoying delay on RSS feeds for shops, so I think the best way for me to let everyone know when I’m going to start listing is to post on my
twitter. I mostly hate twitter, but I can find ways to make it sort of useful. As always, you can also send me a message if you’d like any of them to be reserved for you. If past updates are any indication, these dresses won’t be around for long.
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June 18th, 2009
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40’s (or early 50’s?) rayon dress: Thrifted. I love the fact that it has green buttons that don’t match the dress at all.
Belt: Thrifted, used to belong to a different dress
Bow headband: F21
Woven shoes: Thrifted
This Joan of Arc statue (actually a WWI memorial… weird?) is one of my favorite little landmarks in Portland, and this is new favorite thrifted dress. I found them both the same way- in places you might not expect. The statue is in Coe Circle, a little mini park in the middle of a traffic roundabout in NE Portland. I remember the first time I saw it, it was such a surprise because suddenly there is this epic golden statue that appears out of nowhere! I rode my bike there yesterday and darted across to the park, which was only a bit dangerous since there isn’t actually a crosswalk or anything leading to it. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen anyone hanging out in this green space, it’s more decorative than anything, I think. I love it though!
Get used to seeing my face all flushed and red, because the warm weather is pretty much here! I’m one of those people who turns totally pink in the face as soon as I get a little bit warm… it’s annoying, but whatevs. This dress on the other hand is totally perfect- I found it at a consignment shop and it is made from that silky rayon fabric that is so perfect for hot weather, and it has these funny green buttons that don’t match at all, they were obviously sewn on later in this dress’ life. That goldenrod color is one of my favorites. When I found the dress I thought it would be for the shop, but it has a weird green stain on the skirt that is helping me justify keeping it. Plus, it fits me perfectly! I love it. We need to buy a new tripod though… one of the legs is stuck so I can’t extend it to its full height, which means many photos that are kind of up my nose. Hopefully that will be fixed soon with a shiny new tripod! I think we’re going to try to buy a better quality one too, so the chances of it being blown over (the thing that did in my old little Canon) will be lessened.
Anyway- some more photos of me & Joan! Or is it Jeanne? I always feel weird because she was French, so obviously her name wasn’t actually Joan. Language is weird, especially with names like that.
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June 18th, 2009
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