'I'll stop a car, and I won't use my thumb'

So I was sick in bed 2 days this week with some kind of sinus virus or infection. Dizziness, nausea, yuck. On the 2nd day I was actually on the couch, and watching tv. Of course there was nothing but junk on the tv during the day. I resisted the temptation to get drug into the Anna Nicole Smith hearings, which didn't leave much else to watch. Finally one of the old movie channels showed 'It Happened One Night' one of my favorite movies. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. You can't get better than that! Clark Gable is so cool. Why aren't any actors today as good as the ole guys, Gable, Cary Grant, William Powell, Jimmy Stewart? They had charm, personality and charisma that always showed through. Actors today are so flat and have no personality. They're the same in every role.
So, if you've never seen the movie, it's a about a sheltered heiress who marries a man that her banker father does not approve of. The guy is named King Wesley and he looks pretty smarmy to me. So Ellen jumps off a boat and gets on a bus to try to get back to NY. Peter is a reporter, who happens to also be on the bus headed back to NY and recognizes the heiress. He says he'll help her get back to NY if she agrees to let him publish her story about trying to get back to King, despite her fathers protest. Of course many adventures follow and many laughs are had. And well, you can guess it, of course they fall in love and Ellen realizes King Wesley is a smarmy money grubber.
There's the hitchhiking, where Ellen uses something other than her thumb to get a car to stop. The 'Walls of Jericho' at the motor inn. The bus passangers singing 'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze' which looks totally fun, but I'm sure long bus rides aren't really that fun. There's the famous scene where Clark Gable takes off his dress shirt to reveal that he isn't wearing an undershirt. The story goes that sales of undershirts dropped because men thought it was cool to go without an undershirt just like Clark Gable.



My one complaint about the movie is that we don't get to see much great 1930s clothing! We see Claudette in her two piece suit through most of the movie, her slip, mens pajamas, and 2 bias gowns. She does wear the cutest little hat though.

New Jersey's Reigning Vintage Queen

My tiara please!
Dianne from NJ My Way recently discovered the joys of vintage by wearing a 1960s Paris cocktail dress that had belonged to her mother. Dianne was writing a column for NJ My Way, and contacted me, since I'm a fellow Jersey Girl, for a few quotes about vintage clothing. So please check out her story here - Everything Old Is . . .

Rock rocks!

So, you know I love the doggies. I have a big weak spot for doggies. I'm a big fan of dog shows, especially Westminster Kennel Club's show , which was on last night and concludes tonight. I have so many favorite breeds, I love the bigs dogs and the funny little dogs. To name just a few of my favs- all the Mastiffs, St. Bernards, Newfoundlands (which we used to have 20 years ago) Rottweilers, Australian Shepard & Cattle dogs, Ridgebacks, Staffordshire Terriors, Frenchies, and of course the English Bulldog! Last night 'Ch. Cherokee Legend Rock' was representing the bulldogs, and he was awesome! Rock was shown by Cody Sickle, and he also bred and owned Boris' dad Robert, who was quite the show dog in his day. We don't know Mr. Sickle, but I always watch for his dogs in the shows. He's been breeding and showing bulldogs for 40 years. Boris' dad Robert won the Best Bulldog at Westminster 4 years in a row back in the 1990s. But, Boris never new his Daddy, who, like a Rock Star, had countless scattered childen with many different females in many different towns. Such is the life of a stud. Boris' mom had a show career too, and she won an award for obedience (but Boris didn't inherit that trait)

Of course, I want to cry and run out and adopt several shelter dogs everytime I see that Pedigree commercial, narrated by David Duchovny. I had a crush on him when he was Agent Mulder, so his voice always grabs my attention. You know the commercial? Sad eyed doggies in kennel cages, wishing that they had a loving home to go to. They show it endlessly during the dog show, so I had to go to the website and make a donation to help Pedigrees Adoption Drive - http://www.pedigree.com/dogadoption/?CSID=607

Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show

OK, I'll admit that I snagged this great link from the Vintage Fashion Guild Blog . But I had to post here, because you just have to check it out. The big Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show took place recently and someone from the show has put together a really great slide show, about 4 minutes long and 79 photos. Lots of great vintage eye candy to check out and very cool looking people loving vintage - http://www.jenniferdrue.com/pictures/mv-feb07.htm

So I had this dream about vintage and my old job . . .

Ten years ago, before I started my vintage business, I worked at the Rag Shop, which sold fabrics and craft supplies. I was the fabric manager, then I was an assistant manager, and I worked there for 5 years. Occasionally, I have dreams that I'm back working there. I don't know why. Usually the dream involves me being late for work, or else I don't know my work schedule or whether I'm suppose to be working that day or not. Or else I'm there working and I don't know anyone and I'm not sure if I should act like a new employee or just go do the things that I used to do when I worked there before.
So last night I dreamed about working there again. I didn't know anyone there, and I was in the stockroom talking on the phone to my aunt for some reason. Then I got called up front to help another girl at the cutting table, measuring fabric. When I got up to the fabric department, I had to settle a dispute over a piece with a customer. Then I was helping the cutter fold up the fabric and put it away. But mixed in with the regular new fabrics, were pieces of old fabrics - barkcloth, 1940s rayon dress prints and 1920-30s cotton prints - all in colors and prints that I loved. So I was grabbing the old pieces of fabric and was putting together a pile of stuff for me to buy with my employees discount at the end of the day. Then I was going down an aisle in the store and I saw an old green hooked rug with matching chair pads - grabbed them and put them in my pile of stuff to buy too. Then, I found about 10 pairs of 1940s shoes in my size that someone had hidden behind some silk flowers. I grabbed those too! It turns out one of the other girls had stashed the shoes, planning to buy them for herself when she had enough money. So then I was troubled as to whether I should buy the shoes myself that day, or let her buy them (she was in the wrong, you're not suppose to hide stuff to buy, and you're only suppose to hold things for a week and make the purchase with your next paycheck) Then I woke up.

So what does this dream? Why do I occasionally dream about being back working at that old job? Why did this dream have me at the job with vintage goodies tuck in here and there? Plus all the vintage goodies were my favorite things, they were things I was planning on buying for myself, not for resale. Why was I on the phone with my aunt at work? Why did I snatch those shoes away from that other gal?

Vintage Clothing Altered Book mentioned in other blogs

Do you remember my Vintage Clothing Themed Altered Book that I did? Well, it has been pictured/mentioned in 2 other blogs. First is Collector's Quest - who did a story called 'For Art’s Sake, Don’t Throw That Out!' about altered books. In their story, they feature a page that was done in my altered book by another artist, and they link to my blog where I had posted about the finished altered book project.
A Slip of a Girl saw the same blog post at Collector's Quest and wrote in her blog about being smitten by the idea of making an altered book. My altered book was about vintage lingerie, so I think that's what got her attention, since she is a big fan of vintage lingerie. She posts some photos from my book and she also mentions my website in the post, which is great too. Her site is a little racey, so be warned.

Ghosts of Dresses Past

I don't know why, but I haven't felt the need to save images of everything that I've sold over the years. I've saved a few images here and there, as you will see today. But mostly I feel like once an item is gone, I don't need to see it again, (unless someone sends me a photo of themselves wearing it, then that's cool, I wish more people would send me photos hint-hint) Saving the photos may have been a good reference, but it would have been a big job to keep the photos organized in some kind of usable order. I was thinking about this recently, in my 9 years of business, I've probably handled between 20-25,000 pieces of clothing and accessories, and that's probably a low estimate. Yeah, that's alot of clothing and alot of photos to store. On occasion, many years ago, I did think now and then of saving photos and I just came across a floppy disk with some of the photos that I saved from about 6 years ago. So I thought I'd make them this week's blog topic.
First above, is a 1940s fuschia taffeta gown, photographed outside in front of one of my dad's old trucks. This photo I saved more for Boris than for the dress. He has this weird thing where he likes to walk under fabric and under bush/tree branches and let them rub down his back. He's silly. Photographing dresses outside was great, but my mannequin blew over in the wind one day and busted her boob (I've got a big bandaid on it now)

Below are three 1940s dresses. First is a classic black crepe cocktail with sequined flowers on the front of the shoulder. Next was a L'Aiglon in yellow and turquoise rayon, really a great print. Third is a white and navy rayon crepe with teared skirt. I'd like to have that one back for myself.




The mauve dress is a 1940s faille, by DuBarry, with fancy cord trim on the front of the bodice with rhinestones. The green satin was 1950s and had a great fitted bodice and full skirt. Those photos were taken in the downstairs of our old house.



A very cool 1940s mauve cotton velvet gown with scalloped neckline. Kind of Renaissance. It had some flaws that were hard to describe online, so it took awhile to sell. But it was a really nice dress. Next is a red, white and navy crepe 1940s dress. It has a zipper on the front with a big navy toggle. That's another dress that I'd like to have for myself now. Third was a pink and black 1950s wiggle dress. That photo doesn't show the fabric very well, it had a very cool texture. Last was an early 1940s silk velvet dress with a zipper down the front.



6 years ago, I bought a load of vintage dresses and girdles from a lady who was an antique dealer. She had contacted me thru my website. She was in NY, and she wanted to sell this big load of old stock that she had bought from a store that had been closed for many years. I sent her some money and she sent me several big boxes of stuff. What fun! I got about 50 dresses in assorted sizes from the 1950-60s, mostly cotton day dresses, all unworn with tags. I also got many girdles and bras, still in their old stock boxes, some seamed stockings too. Those were 1940-50s. That was a fun buy. The first dress below came from that load, an aqua and pink 1950s housedress, another that I wish I had kept for myself. The black 1950s dress came from a different purchase. I really liked that low wrap around the skirt. The last dress was a navy linen with appliqued felt ducks on it. The ducks had rhinestone eyes, really fun.




OK, looking at some of these dresses now, I know that I made the right decision not saving the photos, because I want half of those dresses back for myself now! They'd probably fit me better now too since I'm a little bit bigger size. Darn. There were two dresses that I wish I had kept photos of. One was a black silk Ceil Chapman with pointed neckline and sarong skirt, sold about 6-7 years ago. Another was a black silk Patullo Jo-Copeland with floral appliques on it, sold about 3 years ago. Those were just great examples of those designer's work. I would have kept the Copeland dress if I had somewhere to wear it.
Anyway, Thanks for taking a little walk down memory lane with me. One day I'll tell you about the time that I bought 2500 pairs of seamed stockings!
And please take the hint and send me some photos of you wearing something from my shop, whether it's a dress or hat, whatever! If you want, I can post it here on the blog with a little blurb from you if you have something to promote, or a story about you and vintage clothing.

Oh, gotta go, Heroes is coming on!