Oh, Trashy Diva, oh, Trashy Diva, how lovely are thy dresses…Trashy Diva, the New Orleans-based retail and online seller of fantastic vintage-inspired dresses has added some new additions to their line of stretch cotton blend satin dresses. Notably, a very lovely shade of green in the Ballerina dress and the Dottie Dress. Unfortunately, these items are only available for pre-order, so you’ll have to plan for events after the holidays.
Available for purchase right now are a collection of vintage coats Trashy Diva has just listed on their website, including a glorious olive velvet 1940’s coat, several faux mouton coats, and a few models with fur collars.
Here’s a preview of the pre-orders:
Ballerina Dress in greenHoney Dress in steelCage Dress in magentaDottie Dress in green
Every now and then Urban Outfitters will have some home item that just blows me away. As I was pilfering through their website looking for gifts for the Boy, I came across these fantastic dress forms. Aside from sewing shops, I’m not sure where you would buy a dress form, but they evoke a certain nostalgia for me. I’d love to have one in my guest room/auxiliary closet to have around, perhaps displaying a particularly awesome vintage garment. From a functional aspect, it would be helpful to have one to hem dresses, or take in dresses, or accomplish some other simple sewing tasks I am capable of.
While these forms are not adjustable, you can buy one in your size (or a close approximation to your size). Available in plain muslin, two prints, and three solid colors. Consider the green one added to my Christmas wish list!
After finding this gorgeous dress on eBay, I was inspired to post about cheongsam (plural cheongsams?). I have loved these sexy Asian dresses since I saw the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as a kid. Also known as “qipao” in Mandarin, the cheongsam has a long history that overlaps with the jazz age and swing era.
According to Wikipedia, the original qipao was wide and loose, and meant to cover a woman’s shape, but “the modern version, which is now recognized popularly in China as the “standard” qipao, was first developed in Shanghai in the 1920s, partly under the influence of Beijing styles. People eagerly sought a more modernized style of dress and transformed the old qipao to suit their tastes…it was high-class courtesans and celebrities in the city that would make these redesigned tight fitting qipao popular at that time. In Shanghai it was first known as zansae or “long dress” (長衫 – Mandarin Chinese: chángshān, Shanghainese: zansae, Cantonese: chèuhngsāam), and it is this name that survives in English as the “cheongsam”…as Western fashions changed, the basic cheongsam design changed too, introducing high-necked sleeveless dresses, bell-like sleeves, and the black lace frothing at the hem of a ball gown. By the 1940s, cheongsam came in a wide variety of fabrics with an equal variety of accessories.”
Case in point, the amazing 1940’s cheongsam pictured at above/right, with a gorgeous silk pattern, double piped seam along the neck with fantastic toggles going all the way down the side of the dress. While the trend originated in China, this dress was made in Japan. I also see that the bust/waist/hip ratio on this dress is a little more forgiving than the versions sold today, which leave little room in the hips. Someone buy this dress because you will look so elegant in it!
If you’d like a new cheongsam, there are multitudes of them on eBay and other internet retail sites, some as cheap as $10.00. When I had to come up with an inexpensive costume for The Carolina Fascinators, I remembered that I’d been wanting one of these dresses and how they came in an array of colors, sizes, and prices on eBay. These dresses are not made of silk, obviously, but if we are going to sweat in them, perhaps a cheap dress isn’t such a bad idea. These dresses are visually stunning, in great colors and prints, and come in a variety of styles (sleeves, sleeveless, knee length, calve length, halter, etc.).
There are a few drawbacks that we discovered – they are cheaply made and we had to sew the snaps back on, reinforce the toggles, and if you don’t get the right size you may split a seam while dancing. Those slits are there so you can move, because this is supposed to be a form fitting dress. The cut on these dresses was not conducive to any of our shapes – narrow hips meant ordering a size that fit the hips and all of us had to have them tailored to take them in at the waist, or bust, or both. However, it was worth the tailoring and mending because the dresses looked amazing in the end.
Also, don’t get hung up on the size labels. This girl needed an XXL for the hips. Those of you that know me know that the booty is not THAT big. Buy the size you need, based on the size charts provided.
I’ll leave you with a video clip of my initial inspiration. As an FYI, if you want Kate Capshaw’s sequin cheongsam, Sequin Queen will make you one for $250.00. 😉
I am always pleased when sellers list seasonal items during the right season – when you are in the mood for something, retailers usually respond, and right now it’s the smell of cinnamon, clothing that sparkles, and Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas playing overhead (how did they know?! 😉 ).
I can’t give you the cinnamon, but here’s the Ella, and some vintage dresses from each of our swinging decades that really sparkle:
This 1950's holiday dress intrigued me - I like the clean shape of the black dress, with long sleeves, and this sort of geometric corsage/pocket/thingy adds this modern bit of excitment and pop of colorI am so in love with this 1940's maroon/fuschia belted dress, with just enough detail in all the right places - oh, the embroidery and beading! *drool*What would a proper holiday dress selection be without velvet? Please ignore the crappy photography from this seller and focus on the awesomeness of the tucking, draping, and gorgeous belt buckle on this 1930's dress.A 1920's dress in my favorite holiday color, with ombre beading and beading on the belt in my size...now, where is that $220 I need to buy it...
‘Tis the season to be shopping and the pre-Black Friday sale seems to be the new Black Friday sale.
Everything on Tulle‘s website is now 50% off and all orders are free shipping, which is pretty fantastic, since Tulle already offers items that are reasonably priced. The best deal on the site is Tulle’s coats, which look impeccably cut and come in a fantastic selection of colors. Sale ends at 1:00 p.m. TODAY, PST, which means it ends at 4:00 p.m. for me and everyone else on the east coast.
Our friends at Shabby Apple have a 20% off sale through November 30. Use the code GIVETHANKS to take advantage of the sale and pick up one of their adorable dresses for the holidays.
I’m on a dress kick this week, so bear with me. Today we have this amazing 1930’s dress, in my favorite color, with lots of lovely details – the faux jacket (fauxlero?) with inset “blouse” in a slightly off (but complimentary) shade of green with a blossom print, contrast cuffs, Art Deco belt buckle, pleating on the front and back of the skirt, and a little “knot” at the back of the neck. So charming, this level of detail is fantastic, but doesn’t overwhelm. Can someone replicate this for me?
The seller has this listed as a 1920’s dress, but I would argue that this is a late 1930’s style, given the higher waist and the type of detailing. Thoughts?
As I multi-tasked through my emails this morning, I was contemplating making some cherry bounce for the holidays, then ran across this 1920’s dress in a cherry print. Serendipitous? Perhaps if it had been in my size…
Cherry prints are very popular for reproductions and can be found in vintage clothing every so often, but are usually associated with decades other than the 1920’s. Aside from the adorable print, this dress has some nice details, like mesh insets in around the arm holes, long sleeves with gold trim at the cuffs, and an adorable gold and red scalloped trim around the bottom of the dress that runs up the back of the skirt. Just fantastic!
Credit this dress to Emerald City Vintage, an eBay seller who consistently has the dress that catches my eye amongst the hundreds of eBay vintage dress offerings.
It’s been a while since I posted reproductions, so here is your reproduction retail fix: Tara Starlet is a UK based company that makes reproduction 1940’s and 1950’s clothing with an interest in recycling and creating eco-conscious products.
From the website: “We are advocates of recycling and we have a collection of original buttons and trimmings from our favourite era that we try to incorporate into our designs wherever possible, giving our collection true authenticity. Also we reinvent quality wool jumpers, injecting a bit of fifties glamour to give them a new lease of life! We use end of roll fabrics too, putting to good use what would otherwise be waste. This means that our designs are often made in a selection of different fabrics with a limited amount of garments in each, so you won’t find hundreds of other women wearing the same thing! On top of this, all of our clothes are made locally in London, to keep our carbon footprint dainty.”
I love the idea of reusing original materials – there is waste where there is leftovers, even from the 1940’s, and if we can reuse these notions and fabrics, it creates a really interesting hybrid vintage/new garment and eliminates the need for modern manufacturers to re-create these items. The original stuff is better anyway, right?
Here are some of my favorites from the shop:
Autumn Starlet Dress - adorable, and with sleeves!Schoolgirl style + halter = awesomeSatin Sweetheart DressSailor BlouseBright Sailor SlacksCosy Cape - how cute is this?
It’s already wonderful that the Eastern Balboa Championships is just a short drive away, but this year EBC really had the feel of a top notch swing dance event, brimming with a level of excitement and enthusiasm that is almost unrivaled. EBC already felt like a Balboa family reunion, bridging the gap between All Balboa Weekends, but this year it felt like EBC really came into its own as an event. The new hotel for this year’s EBC, the North Raleigh Hilton, provided a lovely ballroom space, a big hallway with chairs and tables for vendors, registration, and for hanging out, and there were no shortage of extra rooms for practice space. There were competitions for everyone and I am proud of the newer Raleigh/Durham Balboa dancers, some of them only dancing Balboa for a few weeks prior to the event, taking the challenge head on and entering their first amateur competitions.
Some of the Vintage Collective spread
This year, EBC grew from one vendor to four vendors. The solo repeat vendor, and one that is near and dear to my heart, is the Vintage Collective (Andi Shelton, Claire Villa, and Laura Churchill Pemberton), who paid attention to what was bought and who purchased it last year, then went out to their sources to find even more of these vintage goods that swing dancers wear. The result was four large racks of clothing from the 1920’s through the 1940’s, both men’s and women’s apparel, three tables of accessories, and a giant shoe rack. The Vintage Collective was only set up for one day, Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and I was there with my fellow vintage poachers at 9:00 sharp, freshly rolled out of bed and ready to commence with the hunt.
I intended to go grab the goodies I wanted, then go back to bed, but it was so exciting trying on clothes with my friends and choosing outfits for people that it was lunchtime before I knew it. I think Rita Shiang got my two favorite dresses of the day – a 1930’s sailor dress with red trim and a 1940’s brown floral rayon dress with amazing draping and a fishtail attachment in the back, you know, for sass. Again, I forgot to take photos of all this good stuff until the end of my shopping visit, I got so wrapped up in the experience…
So many shoes!
Next, we have Dancestore, the anchor vendor of any major swing dance event and one that is continuously welcome, as they continue to provide reasonably priced, reproduction dance shoes that are essential to any swing dancer’s wardrobe. At one point, Frankie Hagan stopped dancing and came up to me to show me that his heel had come off his shoe. About 10 minutes later he came back up to me to show off his new pair of Aris Allen cap toes. THIS is only one of the great reasons to have a shoe vendor at your event. Another is to be able to actually try on the shoes to ensure a good fit. Then, at the dance on Sunday night, Kara Fabina announced that Dancestore would be selling their entire inventory at the event for 40% off for the next 15 minutes. YES!!! There was a rush to purchase the discounted shoes and even I decided to replace my pair of white mesh oxfords that I had danced a hole through the toe – at 40% off, how could you not?
Creations by Crawford is Sharon Crawford’s name for the hair flowers, fascinators, boutonnieres, and other clothing ornamentations she makes. I was a bit confused when I saw Sharon’s vendor space, as there were a few items for sale, but it mostly looked like a craft studio, with supplies everywhere. Then Bill Speidel showed me his boutonniere and explained that Sharon had made it custom to go with his outfit. I looked over and Sharon confirmed, as she furiously sewed together one of her creations for a customer. This is a new approach and one that can work at a weekend event – you have a bit of a captive audience if the shopper is there for the weekend, why not make something to go with what they are wearing if they have the time to wait? By the end of the dance you can have a custom piece that you know will work with something you have.
Finally, we have Vintage Visage, the brainchild of Kathryn Meyer, who had a fantastic display of vintage-inspired hats and accessories for sale, including hair flowers, fancy gloves, hats for ladies and gents, and the ever essential fan. Whoever has the foresight to sell fans at dances is always tops in my book. If you are looking for Kathryn and her wares after EBC, she is a regular vendor at Richmond’s Second Saturday dances.
And that about wraps it up for another great year at EBC! Here are some supplemental photos of the vendors:
My favorite Dancestore wedge in brownNelle Cherry models a Dancestore limited edition two tone mesh and leather heeled oxfordSharon shows off her handiworkKathryn and Meghan with the Vintage Visage spreadHats and purses - even a 1920's cloche! From the Vintage CollectiveAdorable socks and ties from the Vintage CollectiveThe Vintage Collective's shoe rackElizabeth getting ready to hit the dressing roomLovely fabrics from the Vintage Collective dressesHappy shoppers!
There are vintage stores that seem like they have everything but the kitchen sink; then, there are vintage stores that are “curated,” full of carefully selected items that may evoke an era or perhaps only carry the choicest items. I could tell that Dear Golden Vintage on Etsy was one of these stores, even before I read the store description – the collection of items in this Etsy store is truly choice, and selection of things more lovely than the last.
Dear Golden Vintage sets a beautiful scene with clothing and accessories and you should definitely peruse all the online offerings, but here are my favorites:
Blue 1920's cloche1920's silk chemise1940's chocolate curl heels - WANTBlue suede and brown leather two-tone shoesCotton eyelet 1930's dressI'm a sucker for a chevron dressAdorable plaid 1940's dressBlue peplum dress with cutouts - HOTTTTT1950's party dress with giant pockets
It was another wonderful year at Richmond, Virginia’s Jammin’ on the James, both the dancing and the shopping. Some of my favorite vintage shoppers – Lily Matini, Elizabeth Aldrich, Bill Speidel, and, a new addition to my vintage cavalry, Josephine Stewart – made cameos at the event this year and it made Saturday an exciting and bustling day at the vintage shops in Richmond. I reported on my trips to Richmond’s two best vintage shops, Halcyon and Bygones, after last year’s Jammin’ on the James, but there’s always new inventory to scout.
Step into Halcyon!
Halcyon is my favorite Richmond store because it is so inviting – beautifully decorated, not too large/too small/too crowded, with a carefully chosen selection of garments that leaves you with the feeling that the entire store is filled with the “good stuff,” no filler. This year was no exception and I left with one beautiful 1930’s dress, but there were several other things I probably could have taken home if the budget had allowed. After we expressed interest in ties, Angelica from Halcyon pulled out the hidden rack of beautiful 1930’s ties, including one with circles and butterflies that Bill and I both claimed, but, ultimately, Bill won out because my husband wouldn’t answer his phone to tell me if he would wear the tie. Bill also scored a vintage Alexander Calder inspired tie by Carnival Jones, Elizabeth left with a lovely black faux fur jacket, and I left with a 1930’s silk dress. There were some really lovely pieces from a Richmond estate, including a 1920’s dress that must have had over 100 green bakelite buttons down the front and both sides.
Next stop was Bygones, which is famous for its window display and top of rack displays. This season’s display did not disappoint, with an Egyptian revival-themed window-dressing and an inside display of furs and faux animals that just begged for some taxidermy or, as Bill said, the barrel of a shotgun peeking out from between the furs. Josephine had great luck here, asking for tiny sized clothing and they definitely delivered. Favorite pieces included two 1940’s suits, one in light aqua velvet with quilting detail on the jacket and another in green silk velvet with amazing trim detail on the jacket.
Check out the goods from the photographs below!
A lovely coat from HalcyonThe dress of 100 buttons at HalcyonHalcyon's bakelite offeringsBill, the tie snatcherA 1940's dress with shoulder pads fit for a linebacker...still a gorgeous dress!The winner! Step into Bygones...The fur display at Bygones, complete with Mr. FoxBakelite at Bygones, including a set of strawberries, with necklace and earringsThe Bygones display casesThe pale aqua suit with quilted detail at BygonesA lovely 1940's dress at Bygones - the photo doesn't do the color justiceBygones carries reproductions, like the rack of Leluxe dresses shown hereThe menswear section at BygonesWhich smoking jacket?Josephine in a glorious green velvet suit at Bygones
A close up of this great rayon print and the button detail are the eye-catchers
I was scanning through my eBay search emails today and came across a listing for this 1940’s rayon print dress that showed a detailed photograph of the fabric and a button, rather than a photograph of the entire dress. Some sellers choose to do this, but don’t always capture the detail in a way that is compelling, the way the a photograph of the entire dress would. This listing, however, caught my eye because of this fantastic punctuation-themed print and the butter-colored buttons with metallic trim. On closer inspection, there were even more details in the dress, like smocking at the shoulders and what looks like smocking on the bodice just above the skirt. This seller, mir.a, is smart because just looking at the dress by itself, at a distance, it appears nondescript on its own and somewhat shapeless without a model – but showing off the dress’s fantastic details is enough for me to give this dress a further look (to discover it’s not in my size). Laid flat, measurements are 38 waist, 43 bust, free hips.
The smocking detail at the shoulder.The details become lost because the dress is a puddle on the ground - the smocking can't cinch a shoulder or waist without a shoulder or waist to wear it!
It’s been a while since I checked on Heyday!, my favorite UK retailer of heavenly high waisted trousers, but I see that they have been busy. They have expanded their line of women’s and men’s clothing and have some pretty impressive and hard-to-find pieces at not unreasonable prices. Men can pick up some more casual style jackets, like the gab jacket or the Hollywood jacket, or some elegant 1940’s trousers. Women who are looking for separates will find several styles of adorable reproduction blouses, 1940’s style suits, dresses that are great for dances and work, as well as those famous trousers that make everyone’s bum look like a million bucks.
Here are my favorites from the website:
How sharp are these! Get your Gene Kelly on in the Anzac trousers, available in 9 colorsYou just can't go wrong with these swing trousers - available in 14 colorsFleur wrap dress, available in 6 printsHollywood jacket, an alternative to the traditional blazerOlivia blouse - stinkin' adorable, in 11 colorsWant this suit!
I was not prepared for the cold weather we had over the past weekend. North Carolina’s typical Indian summer that lasts well into October appears to have abandoned me this year and I’m disappointed to be sitting here in a sweater typing this blog entry. Shouldn’t I be in a sundress for at least another two weeks?
Then I see this lovely vision of fall, a gorgeous brown silk 1930’s dress with an accent print along the neckline, a beaded belt buckle, wonderful detail at the shoulder, and *gasp* long sleeves. Perhaps if this dress were my size, fall would be a less chilly, more fabulous? Bust 44, waist 38, hips 52.
One of my shopping challenges this year was issued by NashPhilly dancer/instructor/DJ/blogger, Breanna Perry, to find her a vintage red dress with a peplum. This is a fairly tall order, given that most of the vintage dresses I come across with a peplum are black, not a color. I found one older dress (was it ’80’s does ’40’s?) dress that fit the bill on eBay, but the auction was lost in the end.
There have been a few modern dresses with peplums popping up on ModCloth, but today’s dress really fits the bill. The Red-y For Anything Dress looks like a fabulous contender, with a lovely rounded neckline, nipped waistband, cheerful peplum, and a clean-lined pencil skirt. This dress is super hot! My only complaint is that, in the item description, ModCloth refers to the peplum as a “dainty ruffle” – in my opinion, there’s nothing dainty about something that changes the entire silhouette of the dress; let’s call it what it is.
Lindy Shopper 