Color Blind?

I have a confession to make - I'm really bad at picking color names. I often need help to describe the color of my vintage items and turn to a color thesaurus. Even then, with the thousands of shades and names available, it can get quite overwhelming!

Here is an example. The color red. It's not just red but....

Cherry Red

Scarlet Red

Fire Engine Red

Free Speech Red

Sangria Red

Dark Red

Maroon

Fire Brick Red

Venetian Red

and on and on.....

So you can imagine the difficulty I have with red, the glare of photographing and choosing the color that describes it well. Here are some red dresses I recently acquired.

See what I mean? So forgive me if I default to Red. It's still stunning in a vintage dress, no matter what you call it.

New Creative Vintage Item!

A new Creative Vintage dress that has just been listed! A 1950s pink chiffon dress with wide ruffle hem. We have added vintage petals with modern jewels to fix this beauty. It was actually never worn just stored badly and still bears the original "Rainbow Dress Company" tag.

  Now available!

When I grow up...

As collecting, buying and selling vintage becomes more and more popular, there is an abundance of vintage clothing sellers to choose from. More now than ever, and the competition is fierce let me tell you!

However, there is one store in particular that I love. When I first toyed with the idea of selling my collection online, I visited Vintage Textile and fell in love. It is not the website that is particularly trendy, or colorful for that matter, but the quality of this fine lady's garments are something to behold. She was my inspiration and continues to be to this day. I want to be like Vintage Textile when I grow up.

Have a look at the superb collection. Swoon. 

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

I live on a lovely lane by the sea, and on my morning walk I pass by a home with a beautiful rose garden. Roses fill this yard and the owners have made sure to plant a row of roses right by the fence so people walking by can appreciate the smell. In this yard I see crimson, peach, yellow and white and some colors are divine mixes of two or three.

This made me think today about our love affair with the rose, and how it has been translated into fashion. Some roses are bright and bold and others are dainty and delicate. There are tea roses, cabbage roses and wild roses. We've managed to represent just about every type of rose into the garments we've worn over the years and I've selected a few lovely rose adorned pieces of vintage fashion for your enjoyment from members of the Vintage Fashion Guild. http://www.vintagefashionguild.org.

For cocktails in a swanky bar, we have this divine late 1950's rose print hourglass cocktail dress in a delicious mix of greens at The Vintage Vortex, http://www.thevintagevortex.com. She is in near mint condition and a definite head-turner!

If the beach is your destination, check out this adorable 1960's black and white stylized cabbage rose print swimsuit, available at http://www.propervintageclothing.com.

When dancing is on the agenda, this sultry 1940's black rose cocktail dress from Posh Girl Vintage will have you doing the Tango in high vintage style! http://www.poshgirlvintage.com.

A night on the town in this stunning 1950's rose creation from DeniseBrain Vintage will earn you a basket full of compliments! http://www.denisebrain.com

And finally, you will be a vision in white chiffon as you walk down the aisle in is rose adorned confection on your special day! Exquisite 1950's ruffled wedding dress available at http://www.coutureallure.com

Style Icon: Grace Kelly Exhibit

Everyone knows who she is. One only needs to whisper her first name and an image of cultivated beauty arises. An exquisite style and integral woman of Hollywood, she embodied elegance and well fulfilled her namesake.

I am speaking of course, of the charming Grace Kelly.

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is exhibiting a spectactular collection of her wardrobe. Dresses from some of her movies, High Society and Rear Window, as well as couture gowns from her own personal wardrobe. Her favorite designers were Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Yves St Laurent.

This exhibition explores, through her surviving clothes, the story of her transformation from Hollywood actress to a princess of one of Europe's oldest royal families. Examining her enduring appeal as a style icon, it features her film costumes, the much-publicised dresses made for her trousseau and wedding, and the French haute couture - a different kind of costume - that she required for her subsequent role as Princess of Monaco.

I hear the ash cloud has dispersed enough to allow air travel again in Europe. I would go just to see this!

Shake That Booty

A modern approach to the wiggle dress - 'Shake that Booty'. I'm sure that's not how the designers of the wiggle dress imagined their creations to be thought of, nor wanted that label - but within these dresses lies the ultimate shimmy.

A recent post on the Vintage Bulletin brought up a great point about wiggle dresses. A true wiggle dress is where the hemline is narrower than the hips - this causes the legs to be closer together and create the wiggle. I have visions of Marilyn Monroe in the movie "Some Like it Hot" departing from the train in her feather trimmed dress, the camera pans to her backside and voila - the perfect wiggle. I was trying to find an image of it, but had no luck.

This deep blue 1950s wool dress is a true wiggle silhouette. I just love the satin ruched cummerbund waist trimmed with wool cross piece and bow. Dorothea's Closet, now available for $195.

Double-Duty Clips

A dress clip is one of those vintage accessories which is simply not used enough today. Popular from the 1920s -1950s, pairs of dress clips were often mounted on removable pin-back frames so they could be worn together as a brooch as well as separately. I just love double duty accessories!

A dress clip was used in various ways- as a quick update to a dress, or often to accent one's neckline. Worn for a symmetrical or A-symmetrical look, many styles of dresses needed a weight to accent the decolletage.

The dress clip is worn to one side to softly gather the dress for an asymmetrical look.

A pair of dress clips worn symmetrically.

These weigh down the sides of the dress to create an elegant neckline.

Not just for dresses, they can be added to anything!

Pinned to a stunning cloche hat, it is a perfect accent.

This stunning 1950s dress clip set (a.k.a. duette) are rhinestones backed on chrome metal.

Available on ebay, current bid is $20.10.

Vintage Clothing Ethics Continued

I would like to continue a bit on the ethics of vintage clothing, having thought about it a little more over the past few days, I find it fascinating.

As women continue to fight for rights today, we must be careful to examine our wardrobe alongside our fight. I have always been a proponent of dressing well, no surprise here - preferring well-tailored clothes to throw away styles. Not that I don't mind picking up a "one season" item now and again, but the styles we choose to wear are a great indicator of who we are or who we wish to be.

If, as a collective of women we wish to show strength, courage and intelligence then I believe very strongly in dressing appropriately. Too much cleavage exposed, thigh high skirts, skin showing where it needs not be showing - all contribute to diminishing the hard work of our mothers and their fight for equality.

This fight continues to be a difficult one. As women grow more confident, we care not what we wear -  knowing who we are on the inside. A grand and noble destination, but one which continues to have problems. If we choose to continue on our path of eternal youth, our clothing seems also to become younger - competing often with teens. I greatly admire women who can wear plunging necklines and look terrific, as many of them do. However, it is the general message and first impressions I still concern myself with today.

Less clothing and more skin may be a sign of feminism and modern ideals - but is it appropriate to the message we wish to convey? A message that we are strong, capable and can do anything we want can easily be inhibited by the lascivious looks received by others. Caution needs to be exercised when choosing an outfit - as important as the color combination is the significance of the theme displayed.

While I love the feminine vintage dresses that are back in style and wear them lovingly, are we misinterpreting what our mother's went through for our fight? Is a pencil skirt too sexy? That is a personal opinion. I love pencil skirts and wear them often as on my petite frame a full skirt becomes overwhelming. But I find I am now wearing them with the realization that I am a strong and confident soul - one who wishes to be attractive but not force others to stare. I am aware of the feminist struggles and do not wish to impede them - is there a happy medium?

What do you think?

My Vintage Vogue

The next best thing to looking at a fabulous vintage garment, is looking at stunning vintage photographs. My other love of beautiful photography and images has been captured over at http://www.myvintagevogue.com/. Jessica has been collecting images since a very young age, and what an eye she has. These images are stunning and conveniently categorized by decade. A beautiful section of movie star style and one devoted entirely to Audrey Hepburn. I suggest you hop on over there to have a look.

Here is a small sample to drool over!

"Stars with Style"

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s