Time to go shopping ??????

The lovely lace dress that Audrey Hepburn wore to accept her Oscar in 1954 for Roman Holiday is up for auction.

The ivory colored now iconic lace gown that Hepburn wore when she collected her one and only Oscar which she got for Best Actress will be going on auction by the end of this month.

The piece was reportedly adapted from a version designed by Edith Head that the actress wore in the last scene of the film in 1952.

She had the bodice changed by Givenchy to make it more of an evening gown. The delicate, sleeveless and belted lace dress features a full, flounced skirt and two spaghetti straps on the back.

The vintage lace dress was then stored away in a box at the bottom of a wardrobe, until it was decided to sell it, giving it to Kerry Taylor Auctions.

The gorgeous lace dress is slated to bring between $64,101 to $96,170! The auction is scheduled for Tuesday, November 29 at 2:00 pm at La Galleria on 30 Royal Opera Arcade in Pall Mall, London.

How to shop for fabulous vintage clothes

The clothing is more than something you put in the morning. Clothing represents – its values, its style and identity. There are so many different styles people choose to represent themselves. Vintage clothing is a specific style that many people are making their own. In fact, vintage clothing has set the fashion world on fire.
Not everyone understands what is vintage clothing. It is clothing that comes from an earlier era and are available in limited quantities. In fact, no two vintage clothing items are exactly alike. While there are a large number of people who appreciate vintage style, not everyone knows where to go to buy these items. It can be difficult to find quality vintage shop. Access to good fashion should be easily available to everyone.
Vintage clothes never go out of fashion. To find great fashionable vintage pieces you need to have a good eye and a plan. Before you go vintage shopping, you need to access your existing wardrobe. Look at your skirts, slacks, and favorite jeans especially. One of the easiest ways to put together a great vintage outfit is to pair a vintage piece with a modern piece you already own. This will make shopping easier on you and your checking account. So remember to pair with the basics that you already have.
Know what you love because vintage clothing shopping, it can be overwhelming. When shopping on line and the web site may haves more pictures than you can process. The sellers on line are trying to help you see the clothing from all angles plus any flaws that that the clothing may have. Take your time. Always ask for help by emailing the web site when you find that vintage piece that you are thinking about buying and ask questions.
Find styles, or time periods that you really love and fit your body style. Always do research on vintage clothing before starting to collect and wear vintage.
You need to know about the sizing of vintage clothing. A size 6 today is NOT the same as a size 6 from 50 years ago. Vintage clothing is generally 1-2 sizes smaller than they are today. Sizing has changed with each decade, so the truth is that although you might wear a size 4 in 2011, you could be a 6 or 8 in 1940s-era clothing. When shopping online, most vintage seller measure the garments flat. Check the site’s sizing charts or measuring policy of the web site that you are shopping.

2011

2011 by vintagediva featuring a scoop neck tee

Scoop neck tee
$25 - shopbop.com

Rupert Sanderson mary jane high heels
$505 - rupertsanderson.com

epearl

epearl by vintagediva on Polyvore.com

DRESSING IN THE 1930'S

Women in the 1930 had style but not a lot of clothes. Style comes from wearing a hat cocked just right and shoes that are shined, and putting yourself together before leaving the house.

The 1930s had terrific dresses, sensible yet feminine shoes, and cloches. To get the look right by starting with the right foundations. Back then, women wore girdles, and stockings hooked onto garters. The bras have to be right, and slips are worn.

For those who want to check online for the correct underpinnings, try GirdleShop . While some vintage girdles are available on other sites but remember girdle fabric doesn't hold up to the decades.

Also , you need to have the right shoes.

The dresses for the 1930s, you need to look for dresses with no back zippers. The dresses had side zippers. And while we're talking about the genuine silhouette of a dress then - no shoulder pads and from rayon print material.

All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny

• Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
• Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
• There's no such thing as too much candy.
• All work and no play can make you a basket case.
• A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.
• Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.
• Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.
• Some body parts should be floppy.
• Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.
• Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

Laver's Law of Fashion

I stumbled upon an interesting way to measure if you are appropriate in your dress, it is Laver’s Law. James Laver (1899-1975) who was an author, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959 created Laver’s Law. It was his attempt to compress the complex cycle of fashion change and the general attitude towards any certain style or period into a simple timeline. It first appeared in Taste and Fashion (1937):

Indecent 10 years before its time

Shameless 5 years before its time

Outré (Daring) 1 year before its time

Smart 'Current Fashion'

Dowdy 1 year after its time

Hideous 10 years after its time

Ridiculous 20 years after its time

Amusing 30 years after its time

Quaint 50 years after its time

Charming 70 years after its time

Romantic 100 years after its time

Beautiful 150 years after its time

He was also an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable. Why not check your wardrobe now and eliminate dowdy, hideous or ridiculous items. Perhaps anything older has a certain museum quality or will come in handy for those 70's revival nights. Seriously if it is older than 20 years and it has a good label and in good condition it may be valuable - ONE DAY - it is almost certainly already being collected by someone somewhere in the world and is described as vintage.

Stanley Marcus, the former president of Neiman Marcus, recounts in his memoir Minding the Store how Laver’s Law was used by Neiman Marcus clothes buyers in the late 60’s. There was a heated internal debate on whether the trend for that next year would still be the mini skirt (which was the current fashion) or the longer midi skirt. Marcus asked Laver point blank if the mini skirt was dead. Laver told him that the mini skirt had at least another 2 years to go — against expert opinion at the time. His forecast was right, the midi was a complete flop, many women continued to wear the miniskirt, and those who couldn’t or wouldn’t make up their minds went into the pants suit. Pants were bound to come, but the skirt-length controversy made pants acceptable at an accelerated rate.

Do you think it applies today in the average person dressing plan? If you walk the street in your town, you will find an array of dressing styles from the sedate (ladies with proper teas dresses) to the tough and wild (biker babes in Ed hardy and Harley Davidson covered in tats). Just look around at your local mall or shopping center. Just remember that in a few years it’ll start to look bad. In 10 years it’ll look REALLY bad. Then, after some time, it will be appreciated — or even revered — again.

vogue flapper

Hats of Bill Cunningham from the New York Times

What a surprise I had when I was reading the New York Times this morning and found out that their writer Bill Cunningham had created some marvelous hats starting in the 1950’s . His colleagues in The Times’s photo got him to  share photographs of the hats he had concocted decades ago as an aspiring — and very imaginative — young milliner.

Mr. Cunningham designed his first hat for his mother to wear to the World’s Fair of 1939 and she decided not to wear it.  He continued working as a milliner under the name William J. because he did not used his last name because his family was embarrassed until the late 1950s.

 Mr. Cunningham’s inspirations came from nature. He enjoyed working with feathers. His hats were different but stylish. In the New York Times article he said that he did not make a living off of his designs but they paid for themselves. He said that he didn't  think that many sold  because he created exotic hats.

I would love to be able to wear one of his little cocktail hats. I think his hats would be such fun to wear.

Please go to this link and see the wonderful hats that he created.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/bill-cunningham-a-rare-birds-feathers/?ref=fashion

Goodbye! Elizabeth

Things to remember

Today was not a good day so these are things that I need to remember. The next posts will be more on vintage clothing. Take care.

Love,
Vintage Diva 

VINTAGE SUMMER

vINTAGE sUMMER by vintage diva featuring an esther williams swimwear

It's time to start looking for that vintage swimsuit to show off your curves.

Katherine Hepburn

Untitled by vintage diva on Polyvore.com

On the runways of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in NYC, there was short dresses in bright colors and bead embellishments, sleek pants, and high teased hair were retro-inspired looks many designers incorporated into their Spring lines.
The 70s Bohemian vibe has been around for quite some time now, but is it back as embellishment on steroids. You will see tassels, lace, crochet, and beaded embellishments make their way onto many Spring 2011 tresses. This trend doesn’t stop there— wide leg pants, wooden clogs, and retro inspired floral prints are back and ready for Spring 2011.
A new trend that has evolved from the “motorcycle chic” trend, is the “80s punk” trend. This look includes lots of studs, heavy boots, safety pins and leather pants.
Looks like it’s time to go vintage shopping again ............................................

A Sparkling Zipper

Most women wrestle with zipper through their lives. Those zippers are on dresses, slacks or jeans. I found this zipper while I was doing the required reading of what was going on in the world and I stumbled upon a zipper that I would not mind having to struggle. The well known fashion writer for the Washington Post and the New York times gave us this sparkling news about a zipper from Van Cleef & Arpels.

“The white gold teeth clench and then slide open — the zipper reveals throat and then breastbone, as a diamond tassel quivers in the cleavage.

Van Cleef & Arpels’s zipper necklace

The zipper necklace, set as a cluster of geometric gem stones, is a marvel of workmanship. And its history at Van Cleef & Arpels goes way back — to when a special client in 1939 asked the Paris jeweler for a diamond-encrusted working zipper.
This feat of technology for a madcap jewel was not achieved until 1951. By then, the client, Wallis Simpson, had become the duchess of Windsor, and she never did have a diamond zipper to close the back of her little black dress, as Elsa Schiaparelli, the surrealist designer, had suggested to her.
The sartorial link between dressmaker’s zipper and couture clothing is not a coincidence. The Van Cleef archives are rich with lace “collars” and gem-set cords that have linked the jeweler to fashion. “The zipper shows jewelry’s capacity for transformation — in its function and its ability to make the ephemeral eternal,” said Stanislas de Quercize, the chief executive of Van Cleef & Arpels. ”

This is an except from an article entitled Jewelry: Unzip the Bling By SUZY MENKES,Published: January 31, 2011 in the New York Times and a version of this article appeared in print on February 1, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune.

The Secret Lives of Dresses Blog has become a book!!!

Google alert just let me know that a wonderful new book is being launched on February 10,2011 by a member of the Vintage Fashion Guild,Erin McKean. She will be at the San Francisco vintage clothing store Ver Unica to launch her very first book - The Secret Lives of Dresses (inspired by her blog, www.adressaday.com).

The Secret Lives of Dresses tells the story of Dora, a college student who decides to run her ailing grandmother's vintage clothing store.

The Secret Lives of Dresses Book Launch. Thursday February 10, 2011, 6-9pm at Ver Unica, 526 Hayes St., SF.

Happy News Year's a little late!!!!