An unusual 1950's suit

This is quite an unusual 1950s summer/spring suit that I purchased from 'Top Hat' vintage store in High St, Thornbury (873 High St). I saw it on the mannequin when I walked in, and had to try it on, as I have never actually seen anything like it before. I was a little worried it was 'too much' as the pattern and colours are quite bright. But I put a silver flower brooch and earrings with it and it seems to work.

Notice my unkept garden - I am not a good gardener I'm afraid!

Look at my white legs for goodness sake - they are almost as white as my shoes!

If you haven't been to Top Hat in Thornbury before, you must pay a visit. It is owned by a lady called Michelle and she is a real character. Her shop is chock-a-bloc with vintage goodies. The day I went there I bought four dresses and this suit, I just couldn't resist. it is a bit more 'ramshackle' than some other vintage stores and the changing room is a bit of a problem (a very small space at the back of the shop with a curtain across it) but its great fun. I don't necessarily think the prices are much cheaper than other places so don't expect bargain prices just because its a bit further out than Fitzroy, but the sheer volume of stuff is great. Plus, there is a great second hand bookshop across the road (and an okay cafe next door). See an earlier post to see another 1950's pink dress (with a bolero - I love boleros!) which I also I bought at Top Hat.

The suit is made of a lovely cotton material so is very breathable. There is no tag on it, so I think it may have been home-sewn.

 This picture below shows the colour and detail of the suit and the brooch and earrings a bit better:

Finally, a close-up of the brooch - I love these 60's flower costume brooches that are very easy (and cheap) to get on ebay. I forget exactly how much I paid for it, but I think the set (with earrings) was about $25. The set is in pristine condition, looks like it has never been worn.

outfit details

1950s suit Top Hat, 873 High St Thornbury (tram from the city stops outside)

brooch and earrings etsy USA

shoes Myer (years ago)

The Vintage Guru of Melbourne at Heritage Hill

I attended a talk yesterday by the lady who I believe is the Vintage Guru of Melbourne, Nicole Jenkins (owner of Circa Vintage Clothing store - Fitroy, writer and generally fabulous person).

Vintage Suburbia (left), Nicole Jenkins V.G. (rt)

Vintage Suburbia is wearing a 1950's dress Ebay Australia (a few yrs ago)

- see at end of post for a full photo of the dress

Nicole is also wearing a 1950's dress - very cute 

Nicole has been doing a series of talks in Melbourne to coincide with the publication of her fantastic vintage book 'Love Vintage'. If you do not have a copy of this, you need to get one now - seriously (see this link for where to buy it). It is like a bible for vintage collectors. I have a few vintage books at home, but Nicole's is by far the best - it has beautiful photos and is very comprehensive (she covers all the major designers of a particular vintage era and also things like sizing, clothing labels and the best places to buy vintage). Most other vintage books I have seen just discuss one particular designer (eg Chanel) or just look at where to buy vintage whereas Nicole's is far more broad-ranging than this.

Nicole signing a copy of her book after the talk.

The lovely lady to the left is a vintage seller from Mornington Antique centre.

In her talk, Nicole displayed and discussed a selection of clothes (mainly dresses, but also a 1760 pair of men's breeches!) from her collection. She had items from each important era of vintage, Edwardian and 1920's-70's. As Nicole is an accomplished seamstress, she loves to see how garments have been constructed and she turned many of the garments inside out to show us how to date clothing by the use of handstitching, overlocking and so on. It was very informative so I would encourage all of you to attend one of her talks. As well as having an encyclopaedic knowledge of vintage (she only had to take one look at my pink dress to tell me it was from 1953 - wow!) she is a really lovely person - very open, friendly and she has a great sense of humour. You can tell she has a deep love and appreciation for vintage, which I find very inspirational. I think we are very lucky to have such a great vintage person here in Melbourne.

The talk was held at Laurel Lodge, which is part of the Heritage Hill Museum in Dandenong. I have posted a few photos from the museum so you can see what it is like. I have also put up a full length photo of the pink dress I am wearing in the first picture in case you are interested. I wasn't able to get a proper outfit photo of it before I left, so I am sorry its just one I took last night with the dress on the hanger!

Cute fireplace - Laurel Lodge

Old fashioned milk bottle - how I wish we still used these! - Laurel Lodge

Oh my goodness, the most divine art deco era canisters - Heritage Hill Museum

And lastly, a not-so-great full-length photo of the dress I wore to the talk. My 6 year old photographer was not around when I was wearing it to take a proper outfit photo - sorry!

Below is a close up of the decorative panels on the dress (they are sewn on rather than embroidered straight on to the dress, Nicole did have a name for this, but I have forgotten sorry!)

And finally (really!) my favourite aspect of vintage clothing are the labels. This one says

'Duval of Melbourne'

I wished we saw more labels like these on modern clothes, then I might actually start buying them again!

The joy of vintage costume jewellery - Coro and Weiss

I have always been a collector of vintage dresses, but it is only lately that I have started collecting and wearing vintage earrings and brooches. I am not sure why, probably because they are relatively difficult to find in Australia (compared to the US). But the joy of etsy is that literally thousands of these vintage beauties are available to us now (and I think I have bought most of them!). I was also a little scared of wearing clip-ons after some bad experiences wearing my mother's clip-ons when I was a teenager, but they seem to be OK now (the trick is not to put them on too tightly).

Some of my vintage jewellery collection.

Notice the teal and blue Coro set in the bottom row, centre box. Divine detail.

That was bought from Callie at Camberwell Markets. Notice the Lisner clip-ons, bottom row, right hand side, purchased on ebay USA. I have not had a chance to wear these yet though - need to buy a nice green dress to go with them obviously. What good luck!

I like to store my brooches and earrings in the boxes they came in, stashed away safely in the drawers of my art deco dresser (away from the destructive little fat hands of my little 2 year old Mr Moppet). Most of them have tissue paper or 'packing fluff' (not sure of the proper name for that!) to add to the protection.

 

The large silver flower set (top left) is a beauty, but needs an appropriate outfit. The cameo with the silver edging (top right) was from that cheapo costume chain store found in every mall across Australia called Kleins - does a great job of filling in whilst I save up for the real thing - fake it till you make it girls! The divine blue brooch (bottom centre) with white figurine is Wedgewood and at $80 is probably my most expensive purchase. I probably paid too much, but it is very beautiful I must say. I also have to mention that the darling little pearl clasps (bottom right) are from an op shop in my little home town of Boggabri, NSW (pop 1,100 - so cute!). I would seriously consider moving back there just to get my hands on real true blue rural vintage treasures!

I have purchased most of my earrings and brooches from etsy, with a few from Ebay USA and some really beautiful ones from Callie, a seller at Camberwell Markets (I have mentioned her in earlier posts, so search for her name on my blog if you are interested - she has some lovely Coro pieces in particular, really good quality items). 

I had never heard of the great vintage jewellery names of 'Coro' or 'Weiss' before, but if you are not familiar with them, I would really recommend purchasing some of their pieces. Callie from Camberwell Markets actually recommended a great book to me, which I would thoroughly recommend to you for increasing your knowledge of this actually quite huge area of vintage. Its part of the 'DK' book range and is called 'Costume Jewellery' by Judith Miller.

 

I was able to borrow it from my local library, but you could perhaps find a second hand copy on Amazon or ebay. It has an 'A-Z' of the top designers, as well as a section on unsigned pieces. The pictures are sublime - warning, you will want to buy simply truckloads of these pieces after reading this book!

Hope you find a lovely 1950's Coro brooch to make your day soon!

The Red Shoes at the Astor Theatre (and a great latte!)

I went to see the lovely old ballet film ‘The Red Shoes’ at the Astor in Chapel Street today.

For those who are not familiar with the film, ‘The Red Shoes’ tells the story of a ballerina performing for the (fictional) Lermontov Ballet in Monte Carlo. It was made in 1948 and stars, amongst others, the famous Australian ballet star Robert Helpmann. To tell you anymore about the film would give the plot away, so I will just say it is a lovely film to go and see on a Sunday afternoon, especially if, like me, you dance, or love to watch ballet. And what better place to watch it than the beautiful art deco Astor.

I took my little six year old daughter to see the film and it was a lovely girls day out for us. We went to see the movie, and then had a latte, lemonade and treats at a local café in Windsor - Dino's Deli (34 Chapel St, Windsor).

Outfit: 1950s dress   Circa Vintage Clothing, Fitroy Melbourne

Shoes   Myer (some years ago)

vintage earrings   Clara Fox Vintage, Brunswick St, Fitroy North

The name 'Dino's Deli' does not really conjure up images of great sophistication I must say, but I would highly recommend this cafe. It is a lovely Parisien style café, only a stone’s throw from the Astor, it has GREAT coffee (I am sooo fussy about my coffee so if I say its good, it is good!) and lovely little homemade treats like small baguettes with jambon (ham!) and little pastries served on vintage plates - all a vintage girl with a coffee obsession could ever want!

I have had horrible luck with cafes on Chapel St, which is a surprise given it is such a popular shopping district. There is nothing quite so bad as a bad latte! I was impressed with the fact that this café had snacks that looked and tasted like homemade, not just the mass-produced fare you normally see at cafes in Melbourne. And as a plus, it is right next door to two fabulous stores: an Art Deco print shop and a great second-hand bookstore (the latter of which is currently having a 20-50% off sale - when I went there I got some Trixie Belden books for only $2 each - yaaahh!)
 

L to R: Second hand book store, Art deco print store and Dino's Deli, 32-34 Chapel St Windsor

 

If you want to see 'The Red Shoes' it is only on at The Astor for the next two weeks, so get in quick, I have set out the session times below. Happy dancing!
 
The Red Shoes
see http://www.astor-theatre.com/
Season: Sunday, March 21 to Sunday, April 4.
Sundays & Saturdays — 2 PM, 5 PM & 8 PM
Mondays, Wednesday to Friday — 7:30 PM (no screenings Tuesdays)

What to wear to a fashion show?

I attended my first fashion show yesterday at the GPO in the city (Melbourne, that is, for my international readers). I was quite excited as it was my first visit to a runway show. I agonised over what to wear of course, as I usually wear 'full-on' vintage and didn't really want to stand out too much amongst the skinny panted young fashionistas. In the end I just thought 'to hell with it' I am going to be myself and chose a black and white 1950's vintage dress .  . .

It turned out to be a good choice as it was about 30 degrees on the day and the show was held under the portico at the GPO at lunchtime. This, together with all the bright lights, made for a fairly warm experience!

The fashion show was great fun. It was quite theatrical (they had two dancers at the start prancing around with plates of fruit - sounds weird but looked great!) and the clothes were, by and large, lovely. The show featured GPO store designers such as Lisa Ho, Leona Edminston, Wayne Cooper and Akira. My favourites were a long dusty pink dress from Leona Edminston and a hot pink and red outfit by Akira (odd colour combination, but it worked). Some trends I noticed: skirts are either very, very short, or extremely long; also: quite a lot of feathery vests. One thing I didn't like was the use of snakeskin like material on some of the dresses and jackets (see for instance in Wayne Cooper's collection) - sorry, not attractive at all in my book!

Unfortunately I was a naughty blogger and forgot to recharge my flagging camera battery, but you can see some photos taken by blogger 'Melbourne girl' at this link.

I would recommend going along to this fashion show next year. For a start, unlike some of the other LMFF fashion shows which in my opinion are too expensive ($48 to see a fashion show - I don't think so), this one is free! Just sign up to 'GPO lovers' on the GPO website and next LMFF they will send out an email about tickets and you just reply (which is what I did). Easy! (and you get to sip champagne out of a straw and eat chocolates from Cacao too - lovely!)

1950's dress Frocks and Slacks, St Kilda

Bolero Laura Ashley (2 yrs ago)

Bag St Vinnies, Oakleigh

vintage earrings etsy

flower brooch Portmans

Melbourne Fashion Week Bloggers Forum - 1940's jacket, Cue pants

On Saturday I went to the Melbourne Fashion Week Blogging Forum, held at Guildford Lane Gallery in the city.

The bloggers who spoke included the lovely Phoebe from Lady Melbourne and a very talented artist called Angie from Patsy Fox who does beautiful fashion drawings. The bloggers spoke about a whole range of issues, such as getting a blog up and running, intellectual property (copyright) issues and the role of blogs in the fashion world.

The forum also covered the thorny issue of sponsorship and advertising. I think the general consensus was that it was quite difficult to do this as many companies don't yet understand blogging and simply want to have their name mentioned in a blog for free (!). Some also want full editorial control, for instance, ask for the right to review all photos and content prior to blog publication. It was all very interesting, particularly as I am a baby blogger. I actually had no idea it was so complex.

L-R Angie Rehe from http://www.patsyfox.com/; Phoebe from www.ladymelbourne.com ;

Nathan from www.lovebento.com.au; Alistair from www.melbournestreetfashion.com.

The Guildford Gallery itself is worth a visit. It is a great space - very light and airy (it looks like an old wood-chopping factory downstairs - fantastic!). It is currently showing some great fashion-related pieces, including Patsy Fox fashion illustrations, and other installations . . .

I usually wear pure vintage but decided I'd mix it up a bit for fashion week. I am wearing a 40's jacket teamed with black cue pants. I had wanted to keep my outfit simple to show off the collar and pockets on the jacket which are quite unique. I am not sure it worked, I think its a bit too much black and please excuse the bad photo - the light was not good that day!

This is a much better photo which shows the beautiful scalloped art-deco style collar on the jacket.

1940's Jacket: Clara Fox, Fitzroy North

Pants: Cue from many years ago

Shoes: Myer

Two Days - Two Styles - Red Cherry and 70's Hawaiian

The last week has seen some variable weather (to say the least!) but I managed to wear my blue and red cherry dress on one of the warmer days. This is one of the few vintage 'copy' dresses I own and I am still not sure about it. It is a wrap around, reversible style but I can only wear it one way at the moment as there is a big split at the back if I wear it reverse style (it flares up at the slightest bit of wind, showing off my gorgeous beige Target undies - not a good look!). I need to put some clasps on the back and then it should be absolutely bloomer-proof. As you can see, it is a little low cut for my liking - but what the hell, if you've got it (or even if you haven't, as in my case) flaunt it!

(you can wear the dress with buttons at front too)

A more respectable look with green cardie

Cherry dress: Ebay Australia (2 yrs ago, when Ebay Australia was quite gd)

Green cardie: Girly store in Chadstone (3 yrs ago) - can't remember name!

Green necklace (repro): Frocks and Slacks Vintage store, St Kilda

The next dress is a 1970's (I am guessing) Hawaiian dress purchased from Ebay a few years ago. I am a real 50's girl, so I don't normally wear this type of dress, but its nice and casual - perfect for walking over to the shops with the pram and picking up my daughter from school (I am not going to worry too much if my 2 year old smears jam on it, totally washable)(and it would probably just add to the pattern!)

 

Hawaiian dress Ebay Australia 2-3 years ago

Cardie: from non-descript store in CBD many years ago!

Gloves: Ebay Australia