A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff ... great read especially for the vintage clothing lover

From the jacket:
Phoebe Swift always dreamt of opening her own vintage dress shop.
At the launch of Village Vintage, Phoebe feels the tingle of excitement as customers snap up the fairytale dresses. Her dream has come true but a secret from her past is casting a shadow over her new venture.
Then one day she meets Therese, and elderly Frenchwoman with a collection to sell, apart from the one garment she won't part with.
As Therese tells the story of the little blue coat, Phoebe becomes aware of a profound connection with her own life, one that will help her heal the pain of her past and allow her to love again.

I can see this becoming a movie soon.

A time of elegance

My neighbour called me in yesterday to meet her dear friend who had just arrived from northern NSW by bus to enter her beautifully knitted garments in the Brisbane Royal Show this year.
Her garments inspired me to look for patterns on the net and I found these amazing designs from the 50s. It was such an era of elegance ... the styles, the accessories, the photography, the models. And people actually had time to knit.

Just listed ... vintage 50s Oleg Cassini couture

Just love the fan style back detail on this gorgeous Oleg Cassini dress.
It is now for sale at www.vintageclothing.com.au

Just listed this amazing vintage dress from the 1950s

I am so excited about this gorgeous vintage 1950s dress that I have just listed on my website vintageclothing.com.au
I can just see it at the Spring Racing Carnival this year. Imagine the hat you could wear with it.
The sleeves are so now too.
What is amazing is it has never been worn, just carefully stored all those years.

Jackie Kennedy's fabulous wedding dress

When Jacqueline Bouvier married then Congressman John Kennedy in 1953 she was wearing the most divine gown by Anne Lowe an African American designer from New York.
It took 50 yards of silk tafetta and 2 months to make.

Back to the seventies ... I'm told

Can it be? Have just read on one of my favourite blogs www.alltheprettybirds.blogspot.com that the seventies is making a comeback this European summer.

Tamu McPherson, the blogs author who roves the streets of Milan and Paris with her camera goes on the say 'Yes, I'm obsessed with fashion's return to the seventies: camel tones, flare pants, structured handbags, platforms and wedges! '

The look has always been around but I look forward to a major resurgence.

Just love this quote from Mutton's Guide to Fashion

Above: The fabulous Italian fashion writer and style icon Anna Piaggi

Mutton's philosophy

Ignored by fashion designers, invisible in the fashion press, generally mute on her actual age for fear of rejection, the woman over 40 needs to develop a split-personality in her fashion life. She is presented with clothes cut for prepubescent girls, shown on the catwalk by skeletal amazons and on magazines pages by teenagers. Through extraordinary mental gymnastics, she needs to imagine how those clothes and styles would hang and feel on her, a woman over 40 who looks nothing like the women for whom the clothes were designed nor the women who model them. Caught between two equally unattractive fates - fading into greyness or the ridicule of "mutton dressed as lamb", she needs to skillfully navigate the treacherous fashion waters.

Help is at hand! This guide intends to sift through designers' collections, retailers and magazines, and highlight what works and doesn't work for women over 40 and make fashion fun again!

For more go to http://muttonsguidetofashion.blogspot.com/

Brisbane Arts Theatre are having a clothing sale

Vintage lovers - mark Saturday 26 June in your diaries now!
The Brisbane Arts Theatre is holding its annual sale of gorgeous vintage clothing and costumes.
I'm told prices start from just $1 and it begins at 8 am.