Vintage or Vintage Inspired Archives - Be Kind, Thrift and Rewind

Recently I had a birthday and my sweetheart gave me a pair of vintage rhinestone earrings from the 1950’s as one of my gifts. Mind you these are the type of earrings I’d never buy for myself. I don’t generally wear large, shiny objects of this proportion on myself. He thought they’d look good on me, plus Chris, the manager at David Owens Vintage, and David, the owner, thought they would too. When I thought about that I realized I have to wear them. I mean any woman who knows three men she likes and appreciates, who all agree she’d look good in something has to give it a try!! So I did. I haven’t worn them outside yet. I did finally decide on which dress to wear with them. I wore them for Easter at home for dinner. I hadn’t gotten the dress right yet. I had on a black skirt and a nice top but I felt like I looked like I was wearing a work outfit. After dinner I thought perhaps I should try on a dress my mother gave me that I haven’t worn yet since it is so fancy. I don’t generally go anywhere that would require such a fancy dress. These earrings need a fancy dress or a very simple elegant black dress, which I don’t have right now.

Meanwhile this dress was in the for-trade bag but the first store I took it to didn’t want to trade for it. Maybe it was because it is not in the height of fashion or a trendy look. It looks very much like a dance dress with its flouncy sheer fabric at the hem. I like dancing but I really don’t go out dancing much at all at this time in my life. Anyway I put the dress on and I asked my sweetheart if he liked it. He had a big smile on his face. Sometimes that kind of reaction matters more than anything. I mean if we have a fella we like to get a good reaction when we get dressed up, right? So I guess I am keeping this dress and wearing it out to dinner or something nice soon.

Meanwhile I didn’t really have the right shoes but for this post I wore my old red Kenneth Cole Reaction shoes. I just bought a pair of black Born shoes which will be better for my feet. They don’t have quite the heel these red ones do but generally I like to make my feet comfortable since I have foot problems. My black lace-up oxford type of Born with a heel might need a vintage shoe clip to dress them up a bit. I will have to look into that. I recently read you can use old clip-on earrings as shoe clips.

Anyway so that is how I ended up with these shiny rhinestone 1950’s earrings; something new that requires stretching my wardrobe to a degree that I need to get a bit fancier. Or keep an eye out for a simple black knit dress like I had before which would put all the main focus on the earrings, aside from my figure. I like how these earrings have such an art deco shape in their six strands of rhinestones that dangle down from the top two larger rhinestones.

I hope you all are enjoying the arrival of spring. I am enjoying when it is warmer but we still have some cold fronts coming in here in New York. I became a bit overwhelmed for a while with a temp job in midtown, back working for a brief period in the fashion district, but that is over now and I am back to looking for work again! I also have many creative things I am working on that hopefully I can share with you before too long. I am always trying to find new things to work on and to keep myself busy with being creative!! It keeps life exciting and gives me a reason to feel inspired when I wake up in the morning.

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For Fun Vintage, Antique, and Retro Resale Groups on Facebook

March 7, 2016

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A couple of months ago I decided to join some of the vintage, antique, and retro resale groups on Facebook. At first I was reluctant to add more and more posts to my news feed, but now after the fact, I am so glad I changed my mind and got a better attitude about joining these groups. The various posts by their diverse members are fun, and educational and brighten my days. I get to see so many pretty outfits and find out about some gorgeous pieces of antique jewelry. Now I look forward to enjoying these groups pretty much every day.

The groups I am in:

Vintage Pattern Bazaar

Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop

Vintage/Rare Sewing Pattern Exchange

We Sew Retro Buy & Sell & Trade

All Things Vintage, Antiques and Nostalgia

If you know of any other great group drop me a comment. These are the ones I have joined that display antique jewelry, vintage clothing, retro clothing, sewing patterns, and even antique china and art. Sets of linens dating back to 1800, plates and cups with covered wagons, all kinds of interesting finds, and many are for sale. Some are in the US and some are overseas. There are times that a member just posts a picture of themselves dressed up in a special outfit, particularly if they are sharing a special thanks to someone else in the group that they bought from.

The vintage pattern groups have patterns they sell and exchange, plus often they have vintage lace, elastic, or ribbons, for sale. If nothing else you can enjoy looking at the various patterns through the years.

Most of the groups have two thousand or more members. We Sew Retro Buy & Sell & Trade is the smallest one I am in with 1,800 members. Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop has 18,659 members! The group member’s sell clothing, jewelry and other vintage items in the US and worldwide. I see a lot of posts from the UK, but often they offer to ship internationally. The other good thing about these groups is that if you are a collector who doesn’t want to open an Etsy shop or sell at a flea market you could sell in these groups. Most groups have some basic rules as to being polite, what to post and what not to post, very basic guidelines.

Also some of the members are very interesting. There is one young lady who lives in Russia who regularly finds and shares some of the most amazing vintage photos. She is an art history major. Another woman had a photo of herself with walls from doll houses wrapped up in her hair. What an amazing profile picture. I recently ended up in a vintage clothing discussion with a young man who had some lovely pink vintage dresses that could lead any woman to a case of envy.

One of the pages I like that is not a member-based group is Boylerpf Antique Vintage Jewelry. The reason I mention it even though it is not an open group is that if you love vintage there is a huge amount of lovely jewelry being posted regularly. They have everything from ring collections to rare jewels and they also post pictures of pieces that are housed in special collection in museums, or perhaps private collections (the photos often say “with”….. meaning with either the photographer, or the owner I assume.)If you enjoy seeing these types of items it is worthwhile to like the page and see what they share. They recently shared a photo of a brooch by Salvador Dali made in 1949. It is called the Eye of Time. A blue-faced enamel watch is revealed in an open eye, which is surrounded by diamonds on platinum. A small ruby cabochon is the tear duct. This piece is so unique and beautiful. It is a treat to even see such an item.

My favorite piece they shared recently is an 18^th century German Chatelaine Perfume bottle made of hand-finished crystal. It is suspended from a silver chain with silver angels on the side. I am sorry I can’t share the photos with you. You have to either like the page for this jewelry business or join groups to see their particular photos.

I did search for some vintage pattern pictures on Flickr and I hope you enjoy those. Please stop by the comment section and share any other groups you find or know of. It would be fun to know what other readers are finding as well.

Also on the topic of resale vintage or thrifting, things further down the chain of mass production, recently I was quoted and my blog mentioned by another blogger, Nicole Molders, of High Latitude Style. She wrote a recent post called “6 thrifting blogger’s secrets for great fashion finds.” So if you’d like you could read that and visit Nicole’s blog. I was so excited that she asked me to participate in the post!

I hope all of you are looking forward to spring as much as I am. I have enjoyed winter and I was glad we had some snow. I am rather excited that spring is on its way though, along with all the flowers and buds and pretty leaves that come with it.

These photos link to Flickr

Vintage Embroidered Blouse And A 1930’s Style April Cornell Skirt

February 23, 2016

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Recently I finally got around to shortening this April Cornell skirt I bought sometime around 2001. Originally it was floor length but for one thing it couldn’t really fit my waistline anymore and for another I thought I’d wear it more if it was mid-calf length. I have always thought the blue velvet around the lower part of the skirt was gorgeous. It really makes the skirt elegant. The skirt always lent itself to a 1930’s look even when it was longer. When I shortened the skirt I took the fabric from the waist area. Then through the years I managed to find this black cotton blouse with the black embroidery along the front. Together I think they really create a nice pair for a 1930’s looking outfit.

I am not sure how old the blouse is. I think it may be from the 1930’s due to the pleated sections on the right and left of the blouse, in the front and back. The length of the blouse is short. At first I was tempted to add some black lace to the bottom to lengthen it but then when I was at the Pier Antique Show back in November of 2015 I saw a few very similar blouses and they all were this short length. So I decided to preserve it the way it was when I found it. The only other thought I had was to perhaps sew a small ribbon on the back so as to be able to tie it in the back. I did see one like that at the show but I still couldn’t bring myself to alter the original design of this blouse in any way. The blouses I saw that were similar to mine at the show cost anywhere from $125 to $200 dollars each! Recently I have, for the most part, been wearing the blouse with this skirt. I have also worn it with black jeans for a mix of modern and vintage. When I worked in the fashion industry I liked to wear it with a black pencil skirt. I always feel like my blouse is very unique.

The embroidery is what confuses me most about the timeline for when this blouse was made. I found on a fashion archive website that Joshua Heilmann designed an embroidery machine back in 1848. By the 1870’s there were apparently fourteen companies manufacturing embroidery machines in Switzerland. So this blouse could easily be from the 1930’s. The embroidery does look like it was sewn with a machine. If any of you reading this think the blouse is from a different timeline let me know in the comment section. I like how the black embroidery on black fabric kind of lends itself to white work, which was a type of embroidery very popular in the 1800’s, particularly with white stitches on white fabric. They were typically buttonhole stitches. White work is a fading craft and I myself hope to get into it someday before too long.

I haven’t been able to find any pictures of women wearing boots with their 1930’s dresses or outfits. They must have been cold at times and worn them. In the winter I tend to wear my outfit with black lace-up boots, which gives it a slight grunge look. I really like the grunge-vintage floral mix so that is fine with me.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post. Spring should be approaching soon but we have still had some bitter cold even as recent as last weekend. So I am still wearing my winter clothing and enjoying wearing my vintage sweaters and lots of layers.

1930's look vintage outfit

April Cornell skirt

1930's embroidered blouse

Thrifted T-Shirt Dress With a 1920’s Look

January 29, 2016

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Several months ago I found this lovely T-Shirt dress (yes that is also the brand name) at St. Luke’s Thrift Shop in the West Village. They are located at 487 Hudson Street. It was on sale for half price and I really liked that it had a mid-1920’s look to it. The drop waist is an attractive twenties feature and I like the twist in the neckline. I was excited that I found myself another Anthropologie-type dress since I really like their website but can rarely afford to buy clothing from them new. Plus the whole idea of something further down the chain of production is great as far as I am concerned. This dress was the second t-shirt dress I found at St. Luke’s Thrift Shop last year. They generally have really good quality donations coming in on a regular basis, so I find the shop to be a great place to find a new outfit. Their shop is very small, which means they have a lot of sales to keep things moving quickly. The T-shirt dresses I bought were under $15 each! When items aren’t on sale expect them to be expensive for a thrift shop since it is the West Village. The quality of their clothing is really worth it though. If you want a real deal just wait for the sales, which is what I generally do!

I changed necklaces a few times for these shots. With a shift dress this simple it is all in the accessories to liven the look up. I didn’t have a super-long, heavier pearl necklace so in one photo I wore two pearl necklaces slightly different from one another, yet close enough in color. I look best in pale pink pearls as opposed to white. They match my skin tone best. I really like grey pearls though! I think they are super- elegant. The lariat necklace that is burgundy is one I made myself many years ago. It is supposed to portray my personality, in the colors and shapes that feel at home in my vision of myself. Of course I was somewhat limited in portraying all that by the shapes, in order to get the necklace to tie. However that was the basic concept behind the design. Lariat necklaces were big in the 1920’s. They were often very long, light and thin so they had the velocity to swing around when the ladies were doing the Charleston. If I had wanted to wear black accessories I could have worn the black Austrian crystal lariat necklace included in the photos for this post. The pearl necklace with white and blue beads I also made for myself years ago. I liked those bluish pearls that are around the center piece, which is an opal-colored teardrop.

The scarf I wore with the sweater is an old April Cornell scarf from when I worked at one of their shops years ago. My honey-brown sweater is from Uniqlo. The shiny beige shoes were from Target. I saved them since I really couldn’t wear them due to my bunion and hammertoe. Now finally I can wear them as long as I don’t walk too far. They don’t have the best support for my foot issues but they’d be fine to wear on occasion. I like that they have that 1920’s look with the little heel.

The flat shoes with four straps were a screaming deal I found at St. Luke’s Thrift Shop a couple of years ago for $25! They are John Fleuvog shoes and usually are very expensive. When I bought them they were practically new. They also have a 1920’s look with the four straps. I first saw shoes like these in the movie The Hours, in a scene where Virginia Woolf was at the train station. I wanted them that instant! It took a while but I finally found them! It took some patience to get them since the manager at the shop had separated the shoes because they were not part of a half-price sale. I kept calling and following up until finally the manager was available and took the other shoe out of hiding! Anyway John Fluevog shoes are wild, funny, zany and super-unique!! I am a big admirer of his shoe and boot designs.

Oh, I have a quick update on my right foot. Now I can run for ten minutes!! I couldn’t do that before my surgery! Those of you following the blog know I had surgery last September. I feel like Forest Gump when he kept shouting “I am running!”

Well I hope you enjoyed this post. I am sure some of you readers are also out looking for vintage or thrifted items and shopping further down the chain of mass production. If you haven’t started thrifting it might be a good goal to learn and discover how much fun it is. It is not only a great way to save some money on clothes but also a way to help out our planet at the same time. Every time you buy something vintage or thrifted it helps cut down on the energy involved in mass manufacturing. Plus I have also discovered that with thrifting it is not that difficult to find items that are made in the United States if you really look for them. This T-shirt dress was made in Los Angeles. If you would like to know more about the whole topic of the effect of mass production on our environment you could read my post about the book, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Elizabeth Cline writes about her journeys traveling the world and learning about how much it costs our planet to be constantly buying mass-manufactured clothing. If you choose to read the book it really makes you think before you shop.

Well happy thrifting!