The best photo I've spied recently.
August 13, 2010
July 20, 2010
Shoegaze
These 1930's oxfords from SimplicityBliss' Etsy shop are other-worldly beautiful. I was staring at them yesterday, and I had to go back today just to stare some more. The details are just spellbinding...especially on the navy pair (those scallops at the toe-cap)!
If your tootsies happen to wear a size 7, you are a very lucky lady.
Me and my giant feet will have to make do with Remix's (lovely) repro versions.
June 29, 2010
Carnival Dress
After looking for just the perfect thing (and a few misfires) this dress is the one I found to wear to my opening for Lost On the Midway earlier this month. I can safely say it's one of the most beautiful dresses I've ever owned.
Cotton cardigan - via Modcloth with vintage knitted collar added
Striped 30's silk dress, golden heart locket & bag - vintage
Tights - Hue
Shoes - Remix
It is a gown from the 1930's made of rows and rows of scarlet satin ribbons sewn to a dark cream-colored underpinning. That lovely waist panel is silk-satin, too.
The colors alone were completely spellbinding -- the perfect (and unusual) warm, rich red with yellow-y cream. And all of the details are just so pretty - the ruching at the bust, especially. I knew it was the perfect opening dress for a carnival-themed show, so I nabbed it and altered it to suit me and make it wearable.
I was really sickly the actual night of the opening, and I was so sad that there weren't any good photos of the dress from that night. I wore it out last weekend on a date, and Josiah was sweet enough to take a few for me, so this dress would be documented at last!
June 23, 2010
A Child's Book of the Teeth
I picked up this little book o' toofs at the last big antique fair.
I love teeth!
It's a rather exhaustive little manual/textbook regarding everything a young person might wish to know about the current and future inhabitants of their mouths. Good ol' World Book!
Publishing year: 1920
It is very heavily illustrated, both with charts like the one above, as well as these fantastic little cartoonish teeth-men (and some tooth-ladies), like the ones on the cover.
I think what we are seeing above is a very pushy wisdom tooth.
This is my favorite part of the book - "Nicknames That Teeth Have":
The owly "wisdom tooth" illustration is pretty wonderful.
The "Army of Prevention"!
And I'll finish with the wonderful end-papers:
I love patterned endpapers, but lately I've been really dazzled by ones with a larger scene or image, like this.
June 20, 2010
Vintage Halloween Costume Patterns
I've been amused by/obsessing about these for the past few days. Via the Pattern Shop.
June 19, 2010
I'm no good at roller-skating...
But I think I could be good at wearing this dress.
I spied it a few days ago in the incredible Fab Gabs vintage shop. If you haven't happened upon their beautiful collection yet, you will probably get all kid-in-a-candy-store about all the dresses, slips, coats and things. The photos are really good at conveying fit, form and details, the listings are generous with information about the garments, and the whole shebang seems like one very classy operation.
Now, this candy-striped dream needs to appear on my doorstep!
* Edited: I just saw this dress in their shop - gasp!
Too much goodness in one place.*
June 15, 2010
Shoes & Ships & Sealing-wax
It's alive! A zombie-blog!
That was quite an absence! I have been so consumed with other projects recently, which intersected with a growing feeling that a blog purely documenting outfits and talking about clothes wasn't really a blog I had the interest to sustain these days. That's a wonderful kind of blog if that's where your heart is, but it just isn't where mine is right now.
So I decided to do a complete overhaul of this blog, and fashion something new from it. It has a snappy little new look, and I'm really excited about this existing more as a scrapbook of anything and everything old that I love. Right now, I'm foreseeing lots of vintage clothes/ensembles (of course) from my own closet and from other places, as well as scans and photos from old children's books (which I've amassed a growing collection of over the past couple years), photos, and ephemera, this & that.
I love a good hodgepodge, and I'm excited about this one.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax-
Of cabbages, and kings..."
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax-
Of cabbages, and kings..."
March 18, 2010
A DressBlouse
"Blouse" - 30's dress
Sweater + Wool Skirt - JCrew
Tights - Hue
Shoes - AllBlack
Bag - Vintage
I've been getting itchy to wear Spring stuff...and thought it's almost time for that, it's still far too nippy for a lighter-than-air dress like this green polka-dotted number. It's so sweet, though, and I've been dying to wear it! It has mustard (nonfunctional) buttons in the waist area (which you can't see), but that put the notion into my head to wear it with my favorite wool pencil skirt.
If you click on the detail photo, you can see that there are extra-tiny green polka dots on the ruffle that lines the collar.
So sweet! The unexpected details are most certainly one of the things I love the most about day dresses from the 30's and 40's.
February 22, 2010
Short Order
Cardigan & Tights - JCrew
Blouse - Dear Creatures
Shorts - Anthro
Oxfords - Chie Mihara
Beret - Forever21
Bag - Vintage
I've worn these dressy little shorts much more than I ever imagined I would this Fall + Winter. I thought about getting a second pair, as I said to the dressing-room lady, "Everyone will probably be tired of these fancy shorts in a year or so". She quickly replied: "I've been wearing dressy shorts for years now. They're not a trend".
I laughed a little to myself, but maybe she's right? Perhaps fancy shorts will last? They are a nice alternative to skirts.
Ruby Red & Robin's Egg
Blouse - Anais on Etsy
Cardigan, Belt & Skirt - JCrew
Tights - Hue
Shoes - Jose Saenz
Hat + Bag - vintage
I really love this blue + red together. So much that I'm apparently in a gleeful reverie in the photo below!
And I extra-love these dark brown patent oxfords. They have ribbon laces! And they're very comfy...those navy Chie oxfords have been getting all the wear, but these were my other Fall/Winter shoe purchase.
I need to remember to wear them more before it's too Spring-y!
