I have been collecting vintage for as far back as I can remember. True, in the early days, it hadn’t cemented as a true passion just yet. Hours spent in the costume closet of my high school theatre made me feel a kinship to the garments I would find there. As if they too were the misfits, where a layer of dust and circumstance had rendered them forgotten pieces of fashion past.
We are finally feeling the last strains of summer give way to autumn. I can almost see the humidity leaving the air here in NC and hear a tussle of leaves as a cool breeze starts to bring in the first strains of fall. I’m always a bit sad when summer starts to end, yet can’t wait to start busting out some cozy layers.
There are a lot of questions I feel are highly inappropriate, yet are asked almost daily of most women. I’m sure we all face them – ranging from what our salary is to what dress size we wear to when we’re getting married to when our womb is going to start busting out children. Statements that are made to clearly tell us the things we should have. Should want. Pointing us towards what is normal, with the implication being what is most certainly not normal. And although many of us have found ways to pivot when those questions arise, there…
I was never really that little girl who always dreamed about her wedding. I didn’t envisage myself as princess Diana, I never had a fantasy of a white knight. I’d never planned my wedding down to each detail, just waiting for the character of Groom to be slotted in. I didn’t even really know what I wanted for my engagement ring (and it wasn’t until I saw the one that my Mr. had designed that I knew it was what I had wanted all along). It’s amazing, for someone who thinks so much about her daily wardrobe that I really…
A few weeks back I had my annual closet clearout. It’s always such a good feeling to pass on things you no longer wear to fellow vintage-lovers who can be another chapter in their story. But, as my husband always says, it’s not really a closet clearout. It’s really a “Make Room for New Dresses.” He clearly doesn’t know me at all…
I must admit, the last few months of summer have been pretty blissful. Although there’s the normal stress of day to day, I’ve luxuriated in the lack of frantic lecture writing and racing between campus and my office. I think it’s so important to stop and appreciate the downtime, because before I know it, the fall semester will be greeting me with a knowing smirk.
There’s a way that we in the vintage-community refer to The Dress That Got Away. Either we saw it for sale but were a second too slow, or we found it in a size that would fit only one leg, or we spied it from afar on someone else, only to forever be burned in our brain. We refer to these elusive creatures as our Unicorn – whether it actually exists in nature in our size, to cross our path at the right time, we may never know. But that doesn’t mean we ever give up the hunt.
When readers email me and ask for advice, I’m more than happy to give my opinion. More often than not, it’ll turn into a post of some sort: my favorite crinolines or my makeup must-haves. Well, lately the running theme seems to be: where can I get the vintage look in modern sizes? And whether you love vintage but want a few vintage-inspired pieces to mix in to your wardrobe, or you love the look but don’t have the time to put into the care true vintage requires, or you’ve become a bit frustrated with your favorite vintage-inspired retailers: this is the…
One thing I’ve found very interesting about blogging is that I will never really know what the people want. I write to please myself, and I can only hope my ramblings are of interest or in some way can help one of my lovely readers. But, I’m always intrigued when I see which posts strike a particular chord. Sometimes they coincide with my personal favorites, but most often it’s the underdog that surges to the head of the pack.
Yeah, so that thing happened again. You know, where you blink for a second and an entire month has gone by. Where you catch yourself saying, “I can’t believe we’re in March already!” and some kindly person has to pat your arm gently and say, “Ummm…sweetie? Yeah, it’s April.” Oh dear….