Black Friday / Green Velvet

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is purportedly the biggest shopping day of the year. Even with the U.S. economy nearing (in?) a recession, I still imagine the malls are swamped today. Luckily for me I no longer shop at malls!

To celebrate the most hectic shopping day in the U.S., I will be playing board games with friends, and then heading to the Deerhunter show downtown tonight. But because I know many people will be shopping (and not always just for others!), here are a few beautiful dresses that would take you to all your holiday parties and back. Oh, those shades of green!

Green Vintage Velveteen Winter Dress from Pixel and Pen

Vintage 1950s 'Paper Doll Dress' from Beat Vintage

Vintage 1950s Green Velvet Party Dress from Grace Vintage

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, (North, not including Canada or Mexico) Americans!

This is the first Thanksgiving I have celebrated in two years (this time last year I was living in Japan), and it was the most fun one I've had in awhile. I spent the day at my boyfriend's aunt's house eating, playing games and bird watching. Birds are so cute when they rinse off in bird baths! Little sprinkler systems. And as far as people go, it's really nice when you get to that mostly-comfortable point with your significant other's family. I've been around long enough that no one forgets my name and most of any possible social anxiety has worn off.

My Thanksgiving outfit:

I know this picture is fuzzy, but I wasn't fast enough getting outside before the sun went down and I hate flash. Taken outside of my boyfriend's parents house.

I love this dress but for some reason I have only worn it a handful of times. I bought it this summer in a vintage shop in San Francisco right after I moved back to California. There are cuffs on the sleeves in the same material as the little white collar, and the whole dress is so nice and soft. Why does anyone buy newly produced clothing anymore?

vietnamese coffee/ of the sea

last night:






In other news (an oft used phrase of mine), I was successful in getting my boyfriend to play photographer today, so I should be posting lots of beautiful new things to my shop very soon! Teaser:

Featured!

Thanks to Capitola Girl for featuring my black vintage dress in her great article on accessorizing the LBD!

From taking a look at her etsy shop I saw that we grew up in the same area, and she is living in the area where I went to college! I guess I shouldn't be surprised since California is a pretty big place with a massive amount of people, but still! How funny.

In other news, I stayed up impossibly late (and for someone with a schedule like me, that is actually more like impossibly early, like, other-people-in-the-house-getting-ready-for-work-early) last night organizing my 'home clothes.' Ever since I was little I have had two different wardrobes--- 'normal' stuff for wearing out in the real world, and 'home' stuff that I'd change into when I got, well, home. I guess you could think of these things as pajamas, but my 'home' wardrobe really transcends sleepwear. The vast majority of this clothing are hand-me-downs from my older sister, my mom, aunts, even my dad. And as I was trying to decide last night what I could part with, more often than not the newer, could-be-worn-without-looking-like-a-vagrant clothing was the stuff to be carefully folded into the donate pile. There is just stuff I can't imagine giving up. These are the kinds of old, ratty t-shirts that you'd pass right by in a thrift store, not lingering long enough to wonder what it meant to it's original owner. I actually have a box in my closet (which I will be adding to shortly) marked "nostalgic t-shirts: keep." I have no idea what I will end up doing with these shirts, that came from all sorts of past endeavors: my high school dance team, the few long distance races I ever ran (ohhhhh so long ago), even some stuff from traveling (that Slovensko shirt couldn't have possibly ever fit me). I've had the vague idea that I could make a quilt out of all these, but unfortunately for my shirts I am probably not the craftiest person you will ever meet. I'm definitely not planning on tackling a quilt anytime soon. Anyhow, it is a job I need to finish up today, though I can't say it's easy.

And while on the topic of my childhood, it has occurred to me recently how funny it is that it took me this long to realize I would really enjoy something like vintage dealing. A lot of girls like to play dress up when they are little, but I think I took it to the extreme. Unfortunately for my young social life, I think it took me more than a few years to draw a distinction between okay-to-wear-at-home and okay-to-wear-to-school. Oh well. Growing up I always wanted to live in a different era, so I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier to get into vintage.

I'm excited today because this evening my boyfriend, a grad student who lives about 5 hours north of me, is coming home for the long Thanksgiving weekend. He'll be busy a lot of the time with his work, but I hope to cajole him into being my photographer so I can get a lot of new listings up in my shop. I have three absolutely stunning black vintage 1950s cocktail dresses that I've been itching to post! And just yesterday I found an a-m-a-z-i-n-g red vintage cashmere coat that I really need to sell before I decide to keep it for myself.

Finds: Day Dresses (#1 of Many)

It seems that some people covet shoes, slips or warm winter coats, but dresses will always be my first love. Here is just a small sampling from my favorites on etsy:

1950s Sundress with Matching Bolero from Bad Luck Betty Vintage
(fireworks! such a classy silhouette)

1950s Crepe Dress from Rarae Aves
(cutest Peter Pan collar, and a steal at just $12!)

1950s Day Dress from Winifred and Bance
(the best colors, and I love the V stripes on the bodice)

There is a pretty, light bird blue 1950s day dress that is currently "in the shop" for a small fix (I have never been much of a seamstress, and I trust delicate things only to professionals!) that I think I am deciding to give up and put in my shop. It is so classic, light and comfortable that I don't want to sell it, but as another vintage seller said on flickr recently, [paraphrase:] at some point I gotta face the facts--- my bust isn't getting any bigger. At least through the Internet there is hope of 'finding a good home' for it. If someone else can be happy with it, that will make me happy. I think satisfied customers are by far the best thing about selling vintage. It is probably really silly, but I get so happy when someone else is genuinely excited or pleased with something they've found through me. Yay vintage.

Mad Men

Apparently like every other girl who lusts after mid-century fashion, I have fallen in love with AMC's Mad Men. Not only is it an engaging and thoroughly original-feeling show, but the makers are so detail oriented that everything seems just period perfect. I have a hard time imagining watching the show without inwardly oohing and aahing over all the clothes the women are wearing, even if I do remind myself how constricting and uncomfortable the undergarments must have been at the time. A couple choice looks from Season 1:

I LOVE this blue dress with the button detail topped by that little bow. Adorable and va-va-voom at the same time.

Oh, the bolero with the bow!

Day dresses from the 1940s through early 1960s are my absolute favorite piece of clothing, and comprise the majority of my etsy/ebay searches. I am starting to post pictures of me sporting some of them on my flickr.

A Start

So, here I finally go. I registered this blog back in September when I opened my shop on etsy, figuring at some point I would get around to actually writing something.

I think for awhile I was kind of intimidated by all the amazing fashion blogs out there--- and I don't mean blogs of the 'this is what's gonna be hip next week' variety. There are so many fantastic style blogs by girls with a real sense of individualism in how they dress and present themselves to the world. After awhile of reading these, it finally hit me that what it's really all about is people inspiring one another, to explore their personal style and to be bold. And I am not going to go so far as to say I'll be anywhere in the realm of inspiring, but I do want to enter in and take the chance to catalogue some of my own ideas. I'd also like to use this blog to help advertise many of the great shops out there, as I know I've been super appreciative when anyone has featured me. It just feels like good karma to spread the love around.