Author: Erin

If This Fits You, This Is Your Lucky Day

Erin5 Comments

This dress deserves to have the internetism completely spelled out: Oh. My. God.

Olive-velveteen
 

It's a 1950s olive pinstripe velveteen dress, any one of which adjectives would normally have me reaching for the "buy" button. Sadly, it's not my size (it's B36/W28), but if it's yours, you can find it here.

Here's what Robin (the seller) has to say about the designer of the dress, Mildred Orrick:

"I consider Mildred Orrick to be one of the secret weapons of ‘50s fashion. I think she was responsible for the best work under the Anne Fogarty label, throughout the mid-50s, AND she took over for Claire McCardell’s label when McCardell died in 1957. Her work is much rarer than both of those labels and just as great in design and quality. I'd also compare her to Tina Leser and Nettie Rosenstein."

Looking at the dress, I believe it! 

What's more, it has pockets. I TOLD you this was your lucky day … 

Welcome to Wednesday

Erin6 Comments

McCalls_9784

I thought that I had seen (and purchased!) every single vintage pattern with these lines but I either missed this one, or it has been erased from my memory by a team of top-notch dream-infiltrators led by a harried Leonardo DeCaprio. 

I'm not sure about the tame woolly caterpillars around the neck and sleeves of the gingham version, but since they don't seem terribly hairy maybe it means that the weather will be nice enough to wear this all winter. Right? 

I do wish I knew what both the models in this picture are eyeballing. From their eyelines, it's up on a platform or pedestal, and it's also something they don't want to look at head-on. My money is on a nude model who is also in the artist's studio where they are being drawn. What do you think?

(Also, apropos of nothing, Gingham Dress has weirdly modern shoes.)

This pattern is from Sheila at Out of the Ashes, and she's having a sale, starting today (8/25) and continuing through Wednesday, September 1st.  Get 20% off, with coupon code WASHDC. (She's going to be on a trip, thus the sale, but don't worry, she has her laptop with her and will acknowledge all orders …)

 

Frankly, My Dear …

Erin5 Comments

I think about a dozen of you have emailed me the link to the Ransom Center's restoration project for the dresses from Gone With The Wind — they're hoping to have the dresses restored in time for the 75th anniversary exhibition in 2014. 

Lisa from The Vintage Pattern Library is having a sale to help support the project – 15% off with coupon code SCARLETT. $1 from each purchase will go toward
the restoration project, and Lisa will match every dollar as well! Good
till the end of August, and she will combine shipping from Miss Helene's as
well, if you email her to tell her before you purchase.

Maybe you might get this pattern, in solidarity? (And doesn't the dress seem to match the curtains, in true Tara style?)

Simplicity_9761
 

Why I Don't Often Post About High Fashion

Erin19 Comments

So I was leafing through one of the ten or so doorstop-sized fashmags I have delivered to my house every August, and saw a really fantastic wool skirt from Marni. "Aha!" I thought. "I can certainly post about this because I love it, it looks vintage-y, and it wouldn't be that hard to make yourself …"

But can I find a reasonable picture of it, short of scanning the actual magazine page? No, I cannot. And I'm not willing to spend hours trawling through runway pictures or visiting dodgy ecommerce sites (some of which PLAY MUSIC ON LOAD, which is quite possibly the most annoying thing you can do on your website, just so you know) just to find a picture of it. 

If I were running a fashion magazine (which obviously I'm not) I would have a blogger index on the magazine's website with thumbnails of images, tagged with both issue date and keywords. Add watermarks if you like, and maybe even offer an affiliate program for linking certain images to online shops — you'd get people linking back to you with credit, I bet. You could even make bloggers apply for access. Does anyone do this? The only thing that I can think even comes close might be Polyvore.

Anyway, this is the best I can do: 

Picture 2

Please ignore the gratuitous almost-cleavage and the truly heinous accessories (although the bag is really cute, in a completely impractical way) and the model's expression, which I think is trying to convey a combination of stern disapproval of the entire goings-on, and suppressed laughter. 

You can't tell from the image but the skirt (if indeed this is the same one) seems to have four gores with a gorgeous pleat right in the center of each gore. It's swingy and modern and vintage-y all at the same time (that description should also tell you why I'm not a fashion writer).

If anyone knows the skirt I'm referring to (can't even find the magazine right now — ANOTHER reason why I'm not a high-fashion blogger) please leave a comment with a better description!

Camouflagellation

Erin34 Comments

So I was wondering if I've already posted about this dress, or if, because it's camouflage, it has merely blended in with the rest of the blog, and that's why I can't find it:

Camo_heidi
 

This is currently my favorite casual Heidi dress, even though the fabric is a bit on the pilly side. Here's a closeup of the bodice — I took this picture after I'd worn the dress about a dozen times, so you might even be able to see the pilling: 

Camo_heidi2
 

I do think it's a little disturbing, how much I love camouflage as a print. Perhaps it's my knee-jerk Gen X "irony" (in the debased sense of "incongruity") or maybe it's just that I am in love with idea that you need so much technology to ape what are supposed to be organic forms, or that I enjoy the absurdity of making fairly distinctive clothing out of something that was originally intended to make the wearer blend into the background. Whatever it is, I just keep doing it. If you had to categorize my fabric stash, the second-biggest category (after "Liberty," of course!) is "camouflage."

I have pink, blue, bright green, and several colors of brown camo, in addition to this gray, but weirdly enough I can't seem to find what I think would be the ur-color of non-blending camouflage: blaze-orange camouflage. Wouldn't that be awesome? Hunter orange camo! If I had some of that I would probably have to be physically restrained from wearing it twice a week, but that level of absurdity and self-contradiction would make me really happy. So if you see some, let me know, okay?

In A World …

Erin39 Comments

Vogue_1311

I want to see the movie that this still/pattern image was taken from. Three college friends go to a dinner party thrown by some creepy old dude in a creepy old mansion on the edge of town (on a dare, of course, because in the movies just saying "I dare you!" makes people do all kinds of dumb things). Inevitably, they get separated and have to deal with scary stuff jumping out at them from dark corners. (Anything with that weird chandelier/sconce/creepy mirror in it has to be a horror movie, right?)

In the end, the blonde one dies (she's a bit of a ditz, and the ditz always gets it), the yellow-dress escapes (she looks too sensible to do anything but escape), and the one in the black dress, vacant-eyed, stays with the creepy old dude in the creepy old house (despite the tearful protests of Yellow Dress). Flash forward twenty-five years, and it's a group of male college friends going to a dinner party thrown by creepy old lady … dum dum dum dum … STILL wearing that beehive hairdo and the same Dior dress!

I'm assuming the weird necklace exerts a certain level of mind control. It's the only explanation for it. Bonus points if it's a scarab! 

My question: who plays creepy old dude?
 

Eh. Meh. Whatever.

Erin11 Comments

AnneAdams_4962

The very ordinariness of this pattern makes it special. So many patterns have Pictures! Of Exciting! Glamour! And! Hilarity! that finding one where the woman seems to be waiting for her husband to settle Saturday afternoon's golf foursome so that they can get back in time to run the babysitter home is somehow more of a coup. 

I hear her inner monologue as something like:

"Did I take the laundry in off the line? It looked like rain. I have to call Joanie's orthodonist tomorrow and reschedule her appointment. I bet I have spinach in my teeth; better keep my mouth closed until I can get to the bathroom. What's taking Angela so long in there? Oh, dear, Ted really is losing his hair, but I'll let his mother bring that up. I should ask Sheila for the recipe those stuffed mushroom canapés … I bet it's packaged salad dressing, that sauce. Someone's going to have to drive Keith home again; we should leave or else it will be us. Maybe I'll grab another one of those mushrooms before we go. "

(If you really want some excitement, maybe the fact that this dress is on sale (15% off! use coupon code SUMMER!) at Out of the Ashes will help. Sale starts now, runs all weekend!)

A Cape? Why not?

Erin12 Comments

Advance_8720

I kind of miss the days (not that I ever lived in them) where it was just NORMAL for a dress to have a matching coat. Or cape, as seen here. Where you would think "Oh, sure, I'll just wear my lavender dress-cape-purple styrofoam packing peanut-hat combo! I wonder if my incredibly long white gloves are clean?" 

Although, really, if you're going to match your hat, dress, and CAPE, wouldn't you go find some smoky lavender suede pumps, as well? It'd be worth the effort.

My favorite here though is the red dress — I love that neckline/midriff band combo. Such a sleek and oddly modern dress! It would be the world's best evening gown, slightly lengthened and in silver lamé, wouldn't it? It's so elegant, but you could throw a cardigan right over it (okay, not the silver lamé version) and go anywhere.

If it were one size bigger (it's a B34, anyone have it in a B36?), I would be buying this beauty … But as luck would have it, it's on sale at MOMSPatterns and for a good cause, too! Jen's very best friend in the world is visiting from England for a month, and she is a recent breast cancer survivor.. so in her honor, Jen is offering a 20% off sale with which 5% of the proceeds will be donated to Breast Cancer Research. The sale lasts until midnight EDT Sunday, August 1, 2010 — use coupon code 'sherri' to receive your discount.

 

A Mullet Dress

Erin22 Comments

Why is this a mullet dress? Because if you can look at this picture and NOT think "Business in front, party in the back," you are a better human being than I am.

Advance_4923
 

This would be a great dress to wear on those uncomfortable folding chairs they use for school assemblies — you know which ones I mean, the ones that are always painted "cafe-au-rancid-milk" brown. Built-in padding!

And this pattern and the rest of the lovelies at the Vintage Fashion Library are 20% off through Wednesday 7/21 … use code "Christmas". (Christmas in July!)