It’s one of the best times on the blog again, where I’m turning the Spotlight On a favorite vintage store! Given my penchant for mid-century garments, it’s no surprise I’ve stacked up quite the collection. But in doing so, I’ve also stacked up quite a few amazing lovely sellers-turned-friends along the way.
I have probably seen the Sound of Music about 12 billion times. The music, the family dynamic shift, the historical context, Julie Andrews twirling on a mountain top – I just love it all. I remember coveting Liesl’s dress in “I am 16, Going on 17” and having serious wardrobe envy over the drapery-meets-dresses, make it work moment (clearly). But, the song I find myself still humming today always starts with, “Raindrops on roses…”
Mayhem is the perfect way to describe this month. I was lead into a false sense of security at the start, thinking this month would be more relaxed (relatively speaking), but it ended up like all the others – full of deadlines and moving goalposts. On the plus side, I crossed a few important projects off my list.
Nothing makes me happier than discovering new shops carrying vintage or vintage-inspired dresses. It’s like uncovering a hidden treasure trove that, for that moment, only I get to know about. And then, of course I get so excited I immediately need to share it with all of you!
I think we all have certain elements of clothing we just can’t resist. For me, that element is a beautiful print. In particular, a scenic print. And it honestly doesn’t matter how many scenic print dresses Bernie Dexter produces – I will want them all! I try (with a certain degree of effort) to minimize my scenic print craze to one-print per style, and I’m proud to say that while my resistance often fails on many counts, this is my first of her Paris style dresses.
Something you may have noticed in all of my ramblings, is that I tend to write the way I speak (not that you’ve all necessarily heard me speak, but I’m sure you can imagine it. Picture a whackadoo american-aussie hybrid accent speaking way too quickly). On the blog, I try to keep my writing fairly conversational and will jot down most things that pop into my head. Along with my stream of consciousness prose comes a tendency to abuse ellipses… You know, those magical three little dots that indicate a pregnant pause. An omission. A fill-in-the-blank…
Ahhh it’s so nice when life returns to it’s normal level of crazy! It’s incredible how disruptions in the regularly scheduled program can make things feel all out of whack. But (for the time being) I’m actually in this time zone, healthy, and experiencing a workload that only makes my head spin the standard amount, as opposed to helping me audition as an extra in The Exorcist…
I find that there are certain dresses you just can’t seem to get out of your head. This chocolatey number was just scrumptious – so much so that I would ‘visit’ her regularly (via the Trove Vintage Etsy shop), but never took the plunge to purchase her. She was one of those dresses that I couldn’t shake though – with amazing shoulder detail and the twirlable skirt of stratified cocoa hues, like the delicious layers of a hot fudge sundae, melting into perfection.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – one of the best parts of learning how to sew for me is the ability to see a dress that is very likely to be forgotten or discarded, and give her the opportunity to feel like new again. I spied this cherry red cutie at Pursuing Andie Vintage – an absolutely stunning Vicky Vaughn with lace trimmed collar and sleeves and a scalloped drop waist, all wrapped up in a cloud of dotted swiss adorableness.
There’s nothing quite like a vintage novelty print. Though I admittedly love a good rose or gingham print, novelty prints somehow manage to feel like they go a bit against the grain. You know the ones I mean – the prints that were the rebels in school, with a healthy disrespect for authority, who marched to their own drum. They stood on the outskirts, removed from the plaids and the ditsy florals, listening to bands you had never heard of. So confident and cool, less entrenched in the opinions of others.