Seattle swing dancer and graphic designer Marcie McCabe is running a Kickstarter to take pre-orders for her tee shirt and racer tank design, featuring variations on two words that come up daily in my vocabulary: Lindy Hop and Jazz.
From the campaign: “My name is Marcie McCabe and I have danced the Lindy Hop for a number of years. In the past, I have designed a couple of rad T-shirts that had nothing to do with a particular dance event or dance club because I felt that Lindy Hop as a culture stood strong on its own and that a Lindy theme shirt would be appreciated by the dance community at large. So that being said, here I go again! Help me print this Lindy Hop Jazz t-shirt. ”
This is truly a pre-order Kickstarter – you back her at $25 and you get a tee or a tank, no crazy $1,000 prize where you get to have dinner with her, just tees and tanks. Get your orders in soon!
I’m in good hands down here in New Orleans! One of the best views is from the front door of our rental – those signs across the street say Trashy Diva! A post, for sure, when I get home. 🙂
I am probably way late to the game on this one (given that the copyright on the website is 1999), but somehow my internet searching has finally lead me to Our Dancing Daughters, a lovely little website selling custom reproduction clothing for women from the swing era. The information about Kayre Morrison, the proprietor, was pretty sparse on the website, but a quick Facebook search revealed that we have 71 mutual friends, so this is definitely a dancer making dance-friendly reproductions. I love her drawings of the designs and I also love that in the fabric selection she includes a description of how the fabric will feel and move, making that decision a bit less daunting.
Here’s what I’m loving from Our Dancing Daughters:
Gloria – I love a keyhole and a peplum!Hello, Louise…This one pretty much screams my name.The Lena dress has some saucy ruching.
It’s that time of year again, where the ladies and gents of the swing world don lovely blooms in the midst of winter in celebration of Floweruary. This the third annual Floweruary and I am looking forward to seeing more creative wearing o’ the blooms, as the OcTieBer participants had some particularly creative uses of neckwear for 2012, raising the bar for sartorial challenges.
What is Floweruary? A sartorial challenge for the month of February, whereby you wear a flower (real or artificial) somewhere on your person every day for the entire month. Hair flowers made up the initial blooms, but since then people have come up with other creative ways to incorporate flowers into their ensembles.
So how can you celebrate Floweruary with others this year? There are several options:
1) The initial Tumblr group, established by the Philly dancers, is still going strong – check it out and participate by uploading photographs of you wearing your daily blooms at http://floweruary.tumblr.com/
2) For the past couple of years, this event has been initiated by a Facebook invite, but it looks like a local Facebook group is a presence this year. The group is sponsored by the Cookeville Swing Society in Cookeville, Tennessee, whose organizers have decided to donate $0.10 to a charity every time one of the Cookeville dancers (or anyone who has ever danced in Cookeville) posts a photo of themselves participating in the Floweruary challenge and tags local dancer Kyla Anderson. In addition, the proceeds of all sales of flowers and clips at CSS events will go to charity. Last year Cookeville raised money for The Lindy Hopper’s Fund of America and this year’s charity is the Kickstarter campaign for BLIP: Bringing Swing to Panama City and the Disabled.
3) Set up an Etsy Treasury of your favorite handmade blooms.
5) Can’t afford more flowers? Make your own with help from Jesse Hanus’ blog post Hair Flower Tutorials, with advice and links to tutorials on how to make your own flowers for Floweruary.
In a new turn of events, it looks like Floweruary has some haters, but there’s nothing redeeming about a blog that serves the purpose of relaying apathy and negativity. Clearly, we all have better things to do.
Floweruary is a celebration of joy, beauty, and charity, and we’ll keep that in mind all month long. Happy Floweruary! Let the blooming commence!
It’s been a while since I posted some Re-Mix love, so here’s a promo for their most recent sale, featuring the It Girl, the Greta wedge, and all colors of the gorgeous Emily shoe! If you aren’t on the Re-Mix emailing list, I’d highly recommend it for just such occasions. Now, which color of the Emily to get…
Someone is selling their inventory of Remix Vintage Shoes Deco model of shoe on eBay, multiple colors, multiple sizes – is it too good to be true? The price is about $50 less than you’d pay regularly (once you factor in shipping) and every little bit helps. I’ve messaged the seller to see how we choose the color or know what colors in the sizes listed are in stock, but haven’t heard back from her – will post an update here when I do!
It was time to grow a bit, take on some more responsibility, and find a theme that was more compatible and adaptable. Unsleepable, you’ve been a great theme for Lindy Shopper, but we are going to try Coraline for a bit. Readers, I hope you find the new layout as clean and efficient as the old one.
If you have any ideas for my header (or prefer that the site not have one), I’m all ears…
I am still mourning the fact that my schedule will not allow me to attend either Jazz Age Lawn Party at Governors Island this summer. In honor of the June JALP this past weekend, here is a selection of 1920’s items inspired by the event on eBay:
A light, breezy dress for a hot summer dayYellow floral 1920’s dress with a touch of blueBlack satin Mary Janes with cutouts on the strapsSheer and floral is always a winner!Abel & Son Inc. straw boater hatFreakin’ awesome clocheNavy and white straw clocheBlue and pink clocheI wouldn’t mind having a pair of these adorable t-straps!To be one of the bathing beauties you’ll need something in wool…Deadstock white linen knickers? Yespls!
I’ve decided to take the next social media step and sign Lindy Shopper up for Twitter – if you’d like to follow me, I’ll be tweeting as @LindyShopper. Expect bits of personal life, shopping links, and perhaps some instant uploads of desirable items when I’m out and about…
The Lewis Ginter Recreation Center, Jammin' on the James' awesome venue
This post was written by Lindy Shopper.
It’s been a busy week for Lindy Shopper, after a trip to Portland and organizing a dance featuring/birthday party for Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators (and housing the band for two nights), I’m leaving today for Jammin’ on the James, a workshop weekend in Richmond, Virginia, to DJ and sing with the Blue Crescent Syncopators. But I haven’t forgotten the blog, I promise! When I get back, there will be a report on both Portland and Richmond vintage shopping. 🙂
This weekend I’m heading to Portland, Oregon for some non-dance-related business, but I will be meeting up with Etsy seller, Portland native, and swing dancer Kim Cullins (aka Jitterbuggin) for some vintage shopping. Expect a report when I get back…
See all those ties? That's just a small part of Paul Cosentino's (of the BMJB) tie collection. The man always looks good.
You may not be able to play the clarinet like Paul, but you can get in on the snazzy tie action. Here are a couple auctions:
5 vintage Cutter Cravat ties, starting at $20 (click the photo for the auction)4 more printed ties, starting at $9.99 (click the photo for the auction)
eBay is THE place to find lots of ties at reasonable prices. Many printed vintage bow ties are made of rayon (synthetic silk), so they’re not often of the highest quality, so keep that in mind. With a bit of luck and vigilant searching, you can find some awesome deco ties made out of silk.
By the way, do check out the Boilermaker Jazz Band’s newest CD (linked above). 19 rock solid tracks of extremely danceable tunes (They recorded Pure Imagination!)
Happy hunting and I’ll see you on the dance floor!
April 21 marks one whole year of blogging as Lindy Shopper – has it been that long already? It’s been a wonderful year and your growing support encourages me to continue writing this blog. I was worried I wouldn’t have enough material after a few months, but wonderful things keep coming my way, in part because of the large network of Lindy Hoppers worldwide who talk about products they love or sell themselves. More great content came from Lindy Dandy, whose insight into menswear and dressing well is universally applicable while maintaining Mr. Dandy’s own personal sense of style. Thank you all!
How many people read Lindy Shopper? It’s hard to say, but we are averaging 132 page views per day right now and are just shy of 30,000 views for the year. I am fascinated by the stats and probably spend more time following stats when I should be checking my posts for spelling and grammatical errors. 😉
Some more stats:
The most page views in one day, 234, occurred on April 4, 2011, when I wrote a post about My Heinies. Clearly, there is a need for bloomers in the swing dance community!
The most popular post of the year, with the most views of all time, was the post on Leluxe Clothing Co., maker of gorgeous 1920’s beaded reproduction dresses and Lindy Shopper’s first “supporter.” Leluxe also has the most “clicks,” the number of people clicking on a link to a particular site.
The most frequent search terms people have used to find Lindy Shopper (other than “Lindy Shopper”) are “bettie page clothing,” “reed shirtdress,” and “saddle shoe sneakers.”
Lindy Shopper 