All Balboa Weekend 2015 – Shopping and Vendors

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

All Balboa Weekend celebrated its 15th Anniversary this year and I celebrated my 9th anniversary of attending ABW. This Balboa homecoming/family reunion is one that I look forward to every year for the friends, the amazing dancing, and the wonderful vintage shopping that is available in Cleveland. This year, my report will combine shopping inside and outside the hotel, since some brick and mortar stores set up booths at ABW and other remain in their brick edifices. All are worthy of mention and this year’s shops and vendors did not disappoint!

My partner in crime this year was Berkeley, California dancer Alisa Szatrowski – I’ll give an honorable mention to Jack Flaps, a wonderful brunchy place she discovered and where we fortified ourselves before a day of vintage shopping.

1940's rayon blouse at Sweet Lorain — 1940’s rayon blouse at Sweet Lorain

Our first stop is my always first stop, Sweet Lorain, and the owner Redwin Lewis welcomed us with open arms and escorted us back to the 30’s and 40’s area, where he showed us they had pulled additional racks of 30’s and 40’s clothing out just for ABW. *squee!* Soon, Alisa and I were lost in a jungle of clothing, amongst the close and very full racks, calling out to each other as if we were playing Marco Polo to try to find each other to show off choice garments. Sweet Lorain did not disappoint and Alisa and I soon had a dressing room full of things to try on, with another helpful employee pulling additional garments based on our selections. Seriously, an A+ for customer service. We both left with some wonderful pieces and warm fuzzy feelings about everything at Sweet Lorain.

1940's dress with appliqués at Chelsea's Costumes — 1940’s dress with appliqués at Chelsea’s Costumes

Next stop was Chelsea’s Vintage Clothing and Costumes, which is an impressive warehouse full of clothing, and particularly has a large selection of menswear, which I wrote about more in-depth last year. We ran into dancer and DJ Bill Speidel and we did a quick run through the menswear, as I’m always shopping for certain dudes and the hubs. I left Chelsea’s empty-handed, but Alisa had great luck with late 30’s/early 40’s dresses in velvet and faille – dreamy!

The vendor market at ABW opens at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and we were there even a little before that, with anxious vintage lovers already hovering over the booths.

The first booth you come to is Re-Mix Vintage Shoes and this booth was abuzz all weekend, with ladies buying shoes, trying on many more, and ogling the beautiful wares. The big hit this year was a new style, Gabriele, which is a low heeled 1930’s shoe with a t-strap, an alternative to the Balboa Style, with a slightly different shape and different colors. I would love to hear some reviews from the ladies who bought them and wore them this weekend – I did see Valerie Salstrom try them on the first day and then didn’t take them off as she continued to set up for the event!

A wonderful display of hats from Flower Child

Next in the line of vendors was Flower Child, which is comprised of several individual vendors that make up part of the brick and mortar store, and which takes up most of the hallway. They are always good about bringing in new inventory every day, taking requests, and having a nice selection of clothing, accessories, and some novelty items and knickknacks from the swing era. My favorite ABW find for this year came from Flower Child’s booth, a fully functional scales brooch, perfect for me as both a Libra and a lawyer – for serious, the scales have tiny chains and you could actually put things in the bowls and the scales would tip, SO COOL.

New to the vendor list this year was Sugar Shakers, the handiwork of Joanna Kassoulides Thibault, who got her start stitching chorus girl costumes for a troupe of the same name in Toronto and decided, after accumulating a wardrobe of costumes, that she would sell some of these versatile pieces. I love a good trumpet skirt and Joanna had a nice sampler of trumpet skirts, polka dot wrap blouses, bakelite-inspired earrings, as well as sharing a table with her husband Mike Thibault‘s handmade earrings and Vintage Jazz Art prints.

Next in the vendor lineup is ChatterBlossom, aka Jamie Sturdevant, who is local to me, but for ABW everyone can see her amazing handiwork up close, with flowers and headpieces made from vintage millinery flowers and jewelry made from vintage buttons. Seeing in person is even better, as I noted people running to their rooms for garments, trying to match a bloom to a dress, and (I know I’m a broken record on this, but) the colors in the vintage flowers are just so right for vintage clothing, for obvious reasons, and they are so much more exquisitely detailed than most modern artificial flowers I have seen. Jamie does custom pieces, too, so you can find the perfect bloom for that one of a kind vintage dress.

1940's ties at The Cleveland shop — 1940’s ties at The Cleveland shop

Holding down the end of the hallway was The Cleveland Shop, which had a nice selection of men’s and women’s clothing, accessories, and jewelry. The owner would also bring in new items daily, and even brought in some divine tropical rayon fabric one day, that was gone before it could hit the market (I can’t wait to see that blouse, Jamie!). Oh, to have a warehouse full of endless vintage things to sell!

Each year the vendors at ABW are one of the things I look forward to most about the event and I truly appreciate the effort the vendors put into setting up, displaying, being there to sell, breaking it all down, and sometimes traveling great distances – I think Philip Heath, the owner of Re-mix Vintage Shoes, wins this year by flying in and shipping shoes from California, though past ABWs venders have flown in from as far away as the UK and Australia. We love that you do it and we’ll keep buying all the beautiful things. 🙂

Here are some more photos of all the lovely things:

Who knew the Cotton Club had a soda? At Jack Flaps.

1940's jumper with fringe and embroidered pockets at Sweet Lorain. — 1940’s jumper with fringe and embroidered pockets at Sweet Lorain.

1940's rayon dress at Sweet Lorain. — 1940’s rayon dress at Sweet Lorain.

Another 40's number in cotton from Sweet Lorain — Another 40’s number in cotton from Sweet Lorain

A cool summer jacket from Chelsea's Costumes — A cool summer jacket from Chelsea’s Costumes

Headbands in all the colors from ChatterBlossom

A selection of goodies from The Cleveland Shop

A closeup of the detail on this 1940's dress from The Cleveland Shop — A closeup of the detail on this 1940’s dress from The Cleveland Shop

More options to grace your walls, from Vintage Jazz Art

More of the man spread from Flower Child

Gorgeous 1930's dress from Flower Child. — Gorgeous 1930’s dress from Flower Child.

Gold bathing suit and the biggest sun hat I've ever seen, at Flower Child. — Gold bathing suit and the biggest sun hat I’ve ever seen, at Flower Child.

Aris Allen Red Velvet Oxfords – $5.99 on eBay

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

Another pair of dance shoes priced to move! Aris Allen Red Velvet Oxfords, size 7.5, starting bid $5.99. The shipping is a little steep at $18.35 *ahem* for Expedited mail, but perhaps you could convince the seller to ship at a lower/slower rate. I just sent Lindy Dandy a box of goodies to Kabul and it didn’t cost half that…anyway, bid away and don’t forget to message the seller about the shipping and perhaps some more details about the condition of the shoes.

30’s and 40’s Menswear on eBay

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

It’s rare that anything in vintage menswear shows up in multiples on eBay, but I kept coming across good things at good prices, so here’s a selection of menswear goods from eBay this week:

$T2eC16FHJF0E9nmFQU,mBP5cjS6gi!~~60_3 — 1930’s to early 40’s German “Stresemann” Suit means it’s business time – size 36 or 38, starting bid $10

$T2eC16FHJFoE9nh6m+bFBP5jOCpWJw~~60_57 — Another great 30’s/40’s German suit, size 36 or 38, starting bid at $10

$(KGrHqR,!lYE-dLy2ilKBP4iTin8cg~~60_58 — Double breasted navy 1940’s suit, about a size 42, bidding at $36

$(KGrHqF,!hsE-RcrILg7BPlL2Db6F!~~60_58 — Velvet 1940’s jacket – swanky

d1987 — I do love a tuxedo with a silk faille lapel…

Narrow-Footed Wonders

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

I’m going to begin chronicling pairs of shoes that I would shell out lots of money for, if only they were wider than 2.5 inches at the ball of the foot. I don’t know what sort of lives these 1920’s women led, but they must not have taken a step barefoot in their lives, have subjected themselves to foot binding, and been carried around in a sedan chair.

If you have narrow feet, for the love of everything wonderful, please start buying all these amazing vintage shoes!

I have three pairs in desperate need of reproduction this week (Re-mix Vintage Shoes, I hope you are taking notes. 😉 ):

$(KGrHqFHJFYE-k4ZhNYmBPuV(PK7w!~~60_57 — Black leather Mary Jane, with two straps meeting in the center before crossing the top of the foot, and the cutouts are just screaming AWESOME. Cutouts from the top, cutouts from the side, this shoe looks good at every angle.

574851380_tp — There’s no one angle that really captures the awesomeness of this shoe, but I’m a sucker for green two tone heels and this pair is really unique in the way that the two shades work with the straps and curvature. This would look awesome in purple, too.

574851339_tp — View #2 – check those straps!

$(KGrHqV,!p8E9lb5Q31LBPr(oZm15!~~60_57 — GAH! These are just too much, the snake skin, velvet, stitching, cutouts… *passes out*

Field Trip: Hunting for Vintage in Iowa City, Iowa

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

Death by milkshake - the chocolate bourbon pecan pie shake

This past weekend, I attended the Hawkeye Swing Festival in Iowa City, Iowa. As far as dance events go, the University of Iowa has an ideal setup to run a weekend of dances and workshops, with a student union that has both a giant ballroom with a stage and an attached student-run hotel, where the event attendees can stay. Everything you need is within walking distance of the venue/hotel – shops, restaurants, bars, fro-yo, pie shakes…mmmmm, pie shakes. Ahem. Needless to say, I had a fantastic time dancing, meeting new people, and listening to some sweet music over the weekend provided by the all-star bands headed up by Bria Skonberg, Solomon Douglas, Chase Garrett, and those Seattle darlings, The Careless Lovers.

But what about the vintage? While Iowa City did not turn out to be the vintage Mecca I had hoped, it was certainly a lesson in vintage hunting, which is that vintage can be found just about anywhere, you just have to look for it. I photographed just about every swing-era item I could find, and some 1950’s dresses – my partner in crime, Beccy Aldrich, and I had a fun time scouring these stores and I am proud of our efforts. What is waiting to be unearthed in your corner of the world?

Waiting outside for a table because all the people waiting for shakes took up the waiting area inside

Our first stop, after sleeping in, was for brunch at the Hamburg Inn No. 2, which was recommended to my by Andy Nishida (foodie, dancer, alum). On the outside and inside it looks benign, a typical local, greasy spoon, but then you look closer at the menu and see tons of good eats, then there’s a chalkboard listing 20 different delicious pies, THEN you see in the menu that any pie on that delicious list can become a shake! The line at Hamburg Inn No. 2 was not to dine in, it was full of college students waiting for their shakes. And rightly so, it’s a fantastic way to have two desserts in one and, with it only available in size large, is an ample meal replacement. Beccy, my husband Lucian Cobb, and I split a chocolate bourbon pecan pie milkshake and it was divine.

We sent Lucian to the hotel for a nap and headed to our first stop, the White Rabbit, a wonderful little eclectic boutique with a selection of gifts, handcrafted items, and new and vintage clothing. In the back of the store were a few racks of vintage clothing and Beccy and I each found wonderful plaid 1950’s dresses (both of which were too small for our respective waists, meh). That was the extent of danceable vintage, so we ventured out to locate the next shop…

…which was a consignment shop called Revival. As far as consignment shops go, Revival is very hip and was packed with shoppers. They carry consignment and new clothing, as well as a couple of racks of vintage clothing, new and old accessories, gifts, and some other lovelies, knick knacks, and a cake plate of cupcakes for sale. Beccy found the only pre-1960’s item, which was a cheerful yellow 1950’s dress, which also ended up being tiny. They had some fantastic sunglasses, reminiscent of 1930’s sunglasses, and a lovely umbrella, but little else that would interest Lindy Shopper. Onward!

Our next stop was Ragstock, which I was warned is a chain store and we were not likely to find anything early 20th century here. They were right, however, Ragstock had a huge selection of generic Keds in every color and the sales clerk gave us a great tip on another place to try, so we ventured…

…to Artifacts, which was an antique store with some vintage clothing and a lot of cool other stuff. If I had larger luggage I would have come home with two Art Deco era cake carriers. This is the only store where we found swing era garments, one gorgeous 1930’s velvet suit/dress and a faille late 30’s/early 40’s dress in crimson with rhinestones. Deflated that the red dress was too small, I consoled myself with cheap bakelite bangles, which I purchased at a fraction of the cost of bakelite at other vintage/antique stores. They even had a collection of bakelite scottie dog pencil sharpeners which were, oddly, more expensive than the bangles. Rare? I have no idea, but the bangles were more useful to me anyway.

And that, my friends, is a wrap! Thanks so much to Beccy for being a wonderful companion for the afternoon’s adventures and to Joe Smith and the rest of the Hawkeye Swing Festival organizers for putting together such a wonderful event!

Love the color on this plaid dress at White Rabbit

The adorable plaid dress Beccy found at White Rabbit

Cheeky ties - Victrola tie for the DJs and cat-with-laser-beam-eyes tie for...?

The cheerful yellow dress Beccy discovered at Revival

Gorgeous 1930's velvet dress/suit, but so fragile - at Artifacts

Gorgeous red faille dress at Artifacts *sigh*

Adorable bakelite scottie dog pencil sharpeners at Artifacts

Field Trip: Trashy Diva, New Orleans, LA

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

This past weekend was my first trip to New Orleans, LA, which meant I was going to get a double dose of nerdy obsessive bliss – trad jazz and Trashy Diva. The occasion was to celebrate, bachelorette style, the upcoming nuptials of my dear friend Danielle McQueen, who also loves good music and beautiful dresses. On our Saturday in New Orleans the bride and bridesmaids headed over to Chartres Street to shop…

I blubbered like a blithering idiot when I got into the store, I was so excited to be there. The shop attendant was skeptical as I introduced myself as a blogger and asked if I could take photographs of the shop, but I probably sounded like a lunatic. The store was beautiful, so quintessentially French Quarter (but without all the Mardi Gras beads), and, most importantly, it was stocked full of every lovely Trashy Diva dress you can see on their website.

I’m pretty adventurous about buying clothing online, but it was so nice to be able to try on the dresses in the store. Candice Gwinn‘s designs are even more fetching in person. We all leaped in with gusto, each of us hitting either the jewelry counter, the dressing room, or both to take in all the wonderful things we spotted that wanted to come home with us. Danielle left with the dress of the day, the gorgeous deep red velvet Natasha dress, with beading at the shoulders and all around the waistband. The photo on the website doesn’t begin to do this gorgeous dress justice – it’s simply to die for – and it’s perfect for a Christmas or New Year’s Eve cocktail party or a winter dance opportunity.

We were running out of time, so we peeked into the Trashy Diva lingerie store next door to take in the wares. So many lovely, tiny, lacy things on racks! Of note, there are (what looked like) some excellent reproduction slips and nightgowns.

The bachelorette ladies flew out the next day, but I opted to stay an extra day so I could go dancing at d.b.a. to Tuba Skinny (so worth it! I even ran into Lindy Dandy!). This left me with most of Sunday to myself in New Orleans. Since the girls didn’t have time to visit the Trashy Diva shoe store the day before, I headed back to Chartres Street. The shoe shop is truly divine – an entire table is devoted to Re-mix shoes, a selection of the most adorable Aris Allens, and then there were even more fantastic and unfathomable shoes, as well as some more practical-yet-fabulous flats.

I struck up a less blubbery, but excited conversation with Rachel Scott, the keeper of the shoes, and managed to introduce myself like a human being, with coherent words and a Lindy Shopper business card. We proceeded to chat about so many wonderful things over the next hour and a half or so, shopping for shoes all the while, and the whole experience was delightful. After this conversation, I’m definitely looking forward to what Trashy Diva has in store for us in the future and have a greater appreciation for what Trashy Diva offers now in terms of products. Rachel also referred me to some other keen places in the French Quarter, where I could find bakelite, wigs and sparkly hair accessories, and some amazing pralines. To top it all off, the weather was perfect and sunny all day and I didn’t even need the sweater I packed in my bag.

If you ever make it to NOLA for ULHS, Jazz Fest, Girl Jam or what have you, you simply must go!

The view of the dress shop from the door - instant meltdown.

Knit dresses greet you at the door, with fantastic necklaces

Lovely pink and gray - dress from the new bridal collection

The beaded detail on the silk Sadie dress

The jewelry counter, with fantastic fakelite

Rachel and the domain of delectable shoes

$20 Off – Aris Allen 1940’s Black Velvet and Mesh Mary Jane

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

Continuing the shoe theme of this week, for a limited time Dancestore.com is offering their 1940’s velvet and mesh Mary Jane for $49.95. Regular retail price is $69.95, so this is a significant reduction in price! No word on how long the sale will last…

More Colors! Aris Allen 1940’s Velvet and Mesh Mary Jane

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

I can’t believe I missed this (how long have these been out?), but Dancestore.com has come out with three new colors of the Aris Allen velvet and mesh Mary Jane – black with white mesh, indigo with white mesh, and brown with white mesh. I have been admiring the black velvet and black mesh Mary Jane for a while, as I find that shoes made with mesh let your feet breathe while dancing. They are all so lovely, deciding which pair to order will be difficult!

1930’s/40’s Green Velvet Party Dress

This post was written by Lindy Shopper.

It is so hard for me to resist vintage velvet – nothing is softer, silkier, or more delectable. It drapes like charmeuse and feels like a kitten. The season for wearing velvet seems so small in comparison to the amount of time I would like to be wearing velvet.

Perhaps you are contemplating your New Year’s Eve outfit for Lindy Focus or a special holiday dance? I would recommend this lovely dress (and if I’m posting this kind of love, you know it’s not in my size), a 1930’s/40’s green velvet party dress from eBay seller love_kats. The draping, the sleeves, the rhinestones on the bodice…and the twirl potential on this skirt looks really promising! There are a few noted minor flaws and some mending, but I can tell you from several vintage velvet purchases that these kinds of repairs and conditions have been universal for my purchases and have not detracted from the garment, nor been difficult to repair. Love. This. Dress.