A day out shopping & waiting for the Oscars

Yesterday I spent a most pleasurable Saturday - first sleeping in, then an afternoon vintage shopping and discovering totally new shop - could there possibly be a better way to spend a day?

First, on the way to my weekly "big" grocery shop, I dropped a bag full of books off at the Caritas shop. German books sadly do almost not sell at the flea-market, but this Caritas shop takes only German books right now - and the shop assistant certainly was happy with my bringing them in. Of course that was also a good pretext for a browse around *lol*. And it was certainly worth it! First, a pair of new and un-worn Italian pumps - very chic, very comfortable, and I can already see them looking great with skinny jeans!
Also, the sweetest little blouse, made of black crepe and blush heavy silk and with lovely slightly puffed sleeves came with me. It's tiny, but it fits me ;-).

I love the label too, though my research has so far turned up nothing... sadly!
After that, I later took another bag - with English books too - to the Salvation Army. Again, the shop personnels' reaction to this was super-thankful.
They happened to have clothes at only 2.- a piece yesterday, but of course all the "good" stuff was already gone. And not a single dress left there! Well, two English books came with me at least, and their new special sales plan - of course the annual toy sale is always the most interesting.

Leaving the Salvation Army, I came upon a combination of graffiti and stencil art that was just too much fun not to photograph.
The quote reads "someone (female) has to do it after all".

My next destination were the new shops in the old railway viaduct near Geroldstrasse - Im Viadukt. There were shops there once before, but it was bare walls, darkness, musty smells and a general feeling of dampness - in short, it was pretty simple. Then they were all closed and the viaduct completely renovated. Now it hosts a row of hip shops, a market hall, restaurants, art galleries and other things, catering very much to the hip in-crowd that has moved into the area around it in the last years. But there are some jewels in between. Like the Caritas. The shop almost looks like a posh boutique, but the prices remain at Caritas niveau and the personnel was super-friendly. They have a whole rack full of evening wear, and I spotted quite a few very colorful 60s and 70s poly maxis. More vintage than my local Caritas shop usually has. I enjoyed it immensely and was just too sad the custom-made silk cocktail dress from Hong Kong that I tried on was about a size too big. Ahhh... black shantung silk with accents of hot pink silk satin... a shirred bodice with a low-sitting skirt - with several layers of softest tulle underneath *sigh*. Well, in the end I discovered a beautiful vintage Maggy Rouff silk scarf, which was a steal at 25.-.
Further down the road, the shop Famous Ape caught my eye. Now that is a place after my heart. It reminds me a little bit of Urban Outfitters, but on a much smaller scale. A smattering of trendy clothes from labels I admit I've never heard of, crazy t-shirts, loads of weird gag and cartoon things - both useful and useless, decorative and simply tasteless, and an interesting selection of vintage things upstairs. However, the prices were still on the reasonable side, and I have certainly never, ever, seen such a collection of the most garish, colorful, huge, sequinned chunky sweater from the 80s... you know the kind. Even better if they have shoulder pads... What a picture they made - the were even arranged by color. Well, in the end I left with a sweet new romper for summer, and an eel-skin purse from Denmark.
I continued on to the market hall, which is lovely and sells lovely food - better not look too long or I would have spend too much money on too much food... Memo to self: next time go there when the fridge is empty!

Tonight is the night of the Oscars! I admit, I record the whole show every year, and watch it all. I'd never watch it live though - too many commercial breaks, and I do have to work on Mondays... Why do I watch it? Yes, of course I want to see all the dresses. Call me shallow, but honestly, I want to see it all, the good, the bad and the ugly. Again and again I am mystified by the fact how some Million-Dollar worthy movie star can turn up in a dress that looks so bad no sane woman with less money (for example - me!) would wear it if given it for free. And there is always at least one of those. Of course, I also want to see those whose style (or stylist's choices) I nearly always like and who seemingly can't do wrong - like Cate Blanchett or Kate Winslet. And it's never the same seeing a dress "in action" as just seeing it in a magazine. But then, the magazine is part of the yearly ritual too - next week I will buy at least two celebrity magazines to get the low-down on everything I didn't see on-screen. This really is the one time of year I go a little celebrity-mad (unless there's a big-bang royal wedding on *lol*). And of course the whole thing has to be capped off by going through the good, the bad and the ugly with someone - an over-the-phone-glee-fest with my mom. "Did ya see that dress...?!" Oh the joy of it!
Well, of course, this year, I also have to keep all fingers crossed for Colin Firth - he really SO deserves it! I haven't seen "The King's Speech" yet, it only started in cinemas here last week, but he's such an amazing actor, and he already didn't get it last year. And his performance in "A Single Man" was so incredible, so heart-wrenching, so... can't even fully describe it. But then, I always found him an amazing actor. And he looks goo on top of it, no questions asked. And if you must ask, yes, I did first see him in "Pride and Prejudice", but it certainly wasn't because of that wet-shirt-scene that I adored him immediately. It's funny, when people nowadays talk about that series and Colin Firth, it is always about that scene. Let me be honest - it never impressed as being so terribly sexy that I would have to swoon - which it sounds like judging by certain comments (in my humble opinion - the fencing scene and his muttering afterwards "I will conquer this" is much more so). No, I just loved his acting. Just upon watching the whole series again in one go a few months ago, I thought to myself, show this to someone who doesn't know the story and tell them to pay extra attention to his facial expressions - and they will know exactly where this is going. It's all there in his face, without saying a word or without overdoing it. And that is what impressed me from the first moment.

Scarf of the month, new vintage finds & more

I know I haven't been exactly communicative for some time - sorry 'bout that. Production of our new brochure was harder work than usual (not that we hadn't know that) and the last week, when the goal was pretty much in view, cumulated with a few ummmhh... night shifts. Anyway, I have have learned a lot, and the thing is at the printers' now, so I actually have my life back!

I know, the Scarf a Month is already overdue, so I won't dally but introduce it right here:


Silken polyester??? What an incredible idea for a fabric! The weave certainly looks like a heavier silk, but the touch, even the sound of it and the way it falls immediately give it away as synthetic. Still, I like it! I've a mind to test it that claim on it being water repellent...

Despite all the chaos at work, the late evenings and the rare time spent at home, I did make some more fab online vintage buys, and I shall present them here in time. The first search, which I had started on already in December, was for vintage housewear. There was a time when one would have a house dress or lounging gown or whadammayacallit... The idea was that it should be "dressy" enough to answer the door in - or even receive friends in it, if it had to be, yet it was something that could be pulled on fast & easy, and it should also be practical for wearing probably all-day at home. Styles, and maybe also reasons to wear it changed over the decades, but anyway, after spying some fab pieces online, this seemed to be just THE thing. Stylisher than a track suit, and maybe even comfier. Of course, the best pieces also command prices that you probably wouldn't pay for something you buy to slouch around at home in. In the end, after a few long evenings searching through etsy and VFG member shops, I came up with these two that I finally bought:

Okay, this is later than what I had been looking for, my guess is early 70s, but it's just too darling not to buy it! Synthetic velour, but comfy & warm enough, easily washable, and the victorian styling is adorable.

This is about what I'd actually been looking for, and it was just a little bit over budget, but too perfect to resist. A beautiful 40s house dress, slightly longer in the back, with a sweetheart neck, a long zip down the front and two big, practical front pockets, made from the most beautiful rayon. The fabric is relatively heavy and falls beautifully. And of course the dress has shoulder pads too... (and no, I have still kept two track suits - for cleaning...)

Even though I said that my living room walls are full... they have recently received a few additions. First is this lovely set of illustrations, which might originally have been ideas for book or advertising illustrations. They're beautifully framed, and even though the black and yellow would fit perfectly with my bedroom's color scheme, their style is just too pop-artsy as not to put it up on one of my living room walls.

Also, my gorgeous vintage souvenir plates have finally found their place just above my sewing table.

Why not in the kitchen, you ask? I found that I don't have a heart to take anything on those walls down, to be honest! And besides that, my sewing table has recently developed such a "domestic kitsch" leaning, that it seemed only naturally to put them there.
In fact, that all started with a Christmas gift - the cutest ever pincushion, made from a vintage silver plated cup and saucer. Add to that a small porcelain pot that I took out of my display case when selling part of my small china collection online. Nobody wanted this one - no wonder, besides the hand-painted Augarten and Herend stuff, this one here, whilst pretty, is transfer printed and just didn't impress anyone. However, I've decided to keep it to hold my sewing machine needles, which keep lying around here & there because I have to change them quite often, depending on the fabric I'm working with. Add to that my new sewing machine cover, which I whipped up on a Sunday afternoon when I desperately needed to do "something different". Fabric courtesy of Forget Me Knots in Christchurch.

On another note, I have also recently received a few issues of a very interesting vintage magazine. My friend in Vienna found them - don't ask me where. They're practically falling apart, and she thought they might provide some fun additions to my Willy-nillies. It's called "Little Puck" and was a bi-weekly magazine aimed at those wanting to learn or better their English. It contained a few pages of short essays, conversations, jokes etc. with explanations of more "difficult" words, together with some readers' letters and some grammatical explanations. Judging by the ads, the target audience of Little Puck seems to have been young men (the kind who needed to earn their own money) all over German-speaking Europe. The letters from readers and companies in the ads range geographically speaking from Switzerland to Germany to Austria-Hungary to Romania and wherever else German was spoken at the time. They were all published in 1909 in Hamburg. A lost world, if you will. I don't know yet if I will cut them up or not, to be honest. Somehow they feel too much like a piece of history.


Those living in Switzerland will have seen the cover of last month's issue of the fashion magazine Annabelle everywhere I guess... To celebrate the 40th anniversary of women's vote in Switzerland (yes, we are THAT much behind!), and aided by the fact that our national council for the first time in history is dominated by women, they put said four women on the cover. Nope, I did not buy the mag. I don't usually spend money on fashion mags - too many expensive ads and not enough brains if you ask me - but this issue miraculously landed in my letter box as a "try out issue". Oh yes, once the Ringier publishers have your address, you're registered for life! I'm just wondering I haven't received one of their famous "would you like to subscribe" calls yet. Honestly. Oops, sorry, I'm losing the thread! Anyway, to be honest, I found the cover pretty bad. Stilted, posed, and the black & white didn't help either. Can't see why they needed a "star photographer" for that. Sorry. However, upon opening the mag, I found a spontaneous shot that is just so much better...!
And will I subscribe? Or by the mag again? Nope. They may say all they want, and Annabelle might have a little more brains than most of them, I still can't get into it. I'd rather spend my money on the occasional celebrity rag - at least those are a laugh!

On a last note, as today was my sew & mend day it seems, I also took care of this little lovely, which I picked up looking like this last autumn at the Caritas:


Even though it had two rather nasty looking, but not very big, stains, I bought it. The embroidery is exquisite, the fabric a lovely, soft, light cotton, and the price was reduced due to the stains (I have already reduced them but am still working on them).
Looking at it at home, I came upon some obviously newer alterations like shortened straps (it actually closes with metal snaps at the straps on one side), a not very nice, more utilitarian looking cotton ribbon through the loops, and some traces of darts, which had been removed at some time.
I asked the VFG forum about it and they deemed it older, possibly even late teens to early 1920s, probably a shift - the thing you wore underneath your corset. Wow.
Well, today I removed the old ribbon, added a nice satin one (though that's just for show - I will have to buy one that's a bit wider), ironed it and re-sewed the darts, which give it a bit more shape:

Now, I have the idea of wearing this in summer. Don't know yet with what underneath, bit it a non-see-through slip, three-quarter-lenght leggings or whatever... (suggestions, anyone?). But I finally found that perfect wide waist belt at Yendi on Saturday (so much so that I bought it both in white and black), and I say I find it rather fetching paired with that:


Well, that's all for now... there'll be more to read here again sooner than the last time - promise!

Christmas presents, a scarf a month, pirate silk & the laugh of the day

So, time focus on those Christmas presents for a bit. This year, there were two beautiful pins and a retro-style dress clip in for me... and a very interesting and informative book about advertising posters in Vienna in the 1950s ("50er - Plakate aus der Sammlung der Wienbibliothek"). Sound boring? It ain't! There are many well-designed posters, but there is also quite a bit of text to ready about life & society in post-WWII-Vienna, and a thought-provoking look at how some poster designers clearly borrowed from or picked up pre-war or even war-time design ideas...



One other very special pressie reached me from Vienna - the all-year-long-present! It's a pile of twelve differently-wrapped pressies, each marked with a month, and held together with a ribbon.
The idea? Of course, there's one to be opened each month! Well, curiosity killed the cat or whatever they say - I allowed myself to open the first one already now, and I promise I shall open the other ones when I should - and I will blog them, so stay tuned! The first one is a pretty combination of reds and pinks - very becoming.

Since it will be open only until the 13th of February anymore, mom and I visited the "Soie Pirate" exhibition at the Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum) today. Turns out - today was get-in-for-free-day too! Well, lucky us! The exhibition was built around the Abraham fabric trading company's archive, which was given to the museum some two years ago. First, there's a quick re-telling of the company history, but then it's first and foremost about the fabrics. It seems that also the archive is most about fabrics - books and books of fabric samples, old 19th century sample books from Lyon that served as inspiration-givers, and so-called scrap books. From 1955 onwards, books upon books were meticulously filled with magazine cuttings from every possible fashion magazines showing clothes made from Abraham fabrics. While the archive seem to be thin on actual company papers and actual history, they seem to contain everything there is when it comes to the fabrics. Furthermore, the company each year kept a roll of 4 meters of their "best" fabrics - so there were plenty of fabrics that could be displayed in all their glory. Among their main or most faithful clients were Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Balenciaga, so there were also a couple dresses on display from these three designers (and not behind glass - whoopeee!). One of the best parts also was seeing the actual fabric, and the pictures of the Haute Couture outfits made from them. On the exhibition's German website, there is a short video too, which shows a bit of the exhibition.

The Landesmuseum has also published two books to go with the exhibition. One is strictly on the company's history, the other one features just a short introduction and then focuses solely on 100 of their best designs - pure eye-candy! Although the books don't come cheap at CHF 69 each, I think it's a good idea and they certainly were beautifully made. Someone like me who is most interested in pictures can opt to buy only the second book. It goes by a simple principle - it's done chronologically, and the right page always shows the fabric (mentioning also name, year and material), while the left shows either a big photo of one Haute Couture design made from it, or pages and details from the scrap books which feature a dress (or sometimes even two different ones) made from that fabric.

Of course I realised that a lot of the clothes that I saw in the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition in Montreal in September 2008 must have been made from Abraham fabrics. In fact, I even recognised a fabric or two - or pictures of actual outfits (if you click on the exhibtion's link - for example, the black-and-white dotted dress with the big hat). At home I picked up the exhibition catalog, and lo and behold, it actually mentions who by the fabrics were for each design shown! And yes, Abraham does feature a lot (btw - of course Schlaepfer is there too - they were featured amongst others at the Landesmuseum's Bling Bling exhibition a few years ago). Ok, so there's a dress that I saw in the exhibition, in the book, YSL's sketch of it is shown, where a small swatch of the fabric is tacked to the sketch. In the exhibition today, I saw the 4-meter "leftover" of the self same fabric displayed - and the Landesmuseum's book, the dress is shown in an original color photo.
How cool is that? On some of the sketches shown in the book, he actually wrote "Abraham no. ....." on it, as an instruction which fabric was to be used.

Being who I am, slightly OCD on finding the "connection" between things, I grabbed my October 1958 edition of "Elegante Welt" - I guess this must have been Germany's first and foremost fashion magazine at the time, showing all the latest Haute Couture goodies. I had noticed that the scrap books shown in the exhibition often showed cuttings from this magazine, and I remembered that my edition showed the latest from the Paris winter collections, mostly the latest from Christian Dior - one of the first collections by the young Yves Saint Laurent actually. The photo of this outfit actually mentions the fabrics being by Abraham:
And the dress on top here actually turns up in a tiny shot on the scrap book page above too - no doubt this is all from the same collection:The magazine also shows a Balenciaga dress, that is obviously being modeled by the same model as in the Dior dress on the bottom left of the scrap book page - and with the same props that turn up in the smaller shots just above...
I admit, I like seeing things "come together" like this. I'm also still trying to find the painting that's on the prop stand. The scrap book shot shows it relatively clearly, though small - it looks like the 15th century portrait of a woman wearing a hennin, and somehow it feels familiar. I wouldn't be surprised if I found it in one of my many art books!

After all the "heavy research", I took a detour to a blog that sounded fun - Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Those who know me well know that I'm an unapologetic reader of (historical only) romance novels ever since my teens. I will read almost anything from Dickens to Clancy, but every now and then, my brain needs some sugar too, just like my taste buds. My taste buds get chocolate, my brain gets romance novels. Nothing better to read on a long flight, when I'm sick, when life generally sucks (sorry!), or when I've read something rather "heavy" like the latest by Steven Booth or the biography of Sir Richard Burton (not the actor - the other one!), just to air out my brain. Let's be honest, we all need a good, soppy happy ending every now and then! Anyway, the blog is about all kinds of romance novels, and the ladies there love straight talkin' which I like. And they provided my biggest laugh today - this post on a romance whose title already sounds completely ridiculous (honestly, I would have thought that in today's world, a title as bad as "The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable Girl" could only exist in cliché!) had me in stitches. Click on "more more more..." at the bottom and read all about the "complete tool". Geee, I'm starting to laugh again even while writing this!

Karin

Back for good

I know, I know... haven't been a good blogger recently. Somehow, all the work and the Christmas preparations have been eating up all my time since I returned from New Zealand on November 22. And what free time was left, was sorely needed for a bit of rest. And sleep.

It all just seemed so unreal - I left at the end of October, feeling like it was the middle of autumn, and Christmas was a looong time away. The trip, a good three and a half weeks, seemed to stretch out in front of me forever. Then it somehow passed by in a whirlwind. And whilst shopping in Christchurch the day before I flew home, the local department store, Ballantyne's, was already in full Christmas swing, with music, catalogs, gift ideas and what-have-you. Though the whole setting seemed utterly surreal to me - after all, it was spring, it was warm, and all the shop windows featured the latest beach wear for the coming summer - I ended up buy most of my Christmas pressies there. I had barely arrived back here, when the first snow came, and I realised that it was time to get started on baking Christmas cookies, or they would never arrive in time on the other side of the Atlantic... oh dear!

However, I haven't been lazy about vintage fashion on my trip! I spent a few extra days in Wellington, where I spent two afternoons trawling the vintage and second hand shops on Cuba Street. At Hunters and Collectors, I found the most divine early 60s shirtwaist dress:


It's by Julie Miller, an American label. The dress came in very handy for a dinner I was invited to by Tourism Wellington - after everybody had kept telling me that the restaurant, which I had mentioned to my tour guides earlier in the day, was the latest, trendiest in Wellington... I knew I'd wear this instead of what I'd packed for the occasion. Traveling light and dressing nicely isn't always easy...

In Christchurch, I walked into Gertie's Vintage Fashion on High Street, a vintage shop right after my taste! A lil' bit chaotic, and chock-full to the rafters with goodies. An incredible red 1940s jacket by Fashionbilt made it home with me. The fabric is butter soft, the tailoring is impeccable and it has some amazing details - what more does one want?


I had been talking about having created a new Willy-Nilly before I left. Since this one, which was a gift, has now reached it's destination, I can finally show it here:

Coming back to vintage fashion, the last few weeks have also been a good time to wear vintage! First, it was time to debut a gorgeous forest-green, supposedly 1940s dress I'd bought on Etsy late last summer. I admit, I only got around to make the 2-3 small repairs it needed some two weeks ago - and to take a closer look at it. It fit beautifully, but something told me that it felt more like 30s than 40s...

So, I asked the VFG Forum, what they thought... and they kept telling me that I was wearing it the wrong way around! I was still sceptictal, I admit, but in the end, tried it on the other way 'round, and after some contorsionist-worthy moves to button it up in the back and close the belt buckle - suddenly everything fell into place! I had a really good laugh at myself! I really had had it on the wrong way, not even thinking that the buttons could be in the back! They did love back detailing in the 30s after all - and this dress is definitely 30s, though it has been shortened.

Anyway, it's a cute dress and I love wearing it!

Another dress that I bought last summer had it's debut this month too - it went to the opera, and turned a few heads... with everybody wearing black, a red dress was all that was needed to stand out in the crowd!

It is quite a bit faded in some places, from having been exposed to sunlight, but I bought it anyway because I liked it's shape so much. And it is perfect. To be frank - the fading doesn't bother me at all... And it's real secret is actually it it's back:


Speaking of the VFG Forum, I can't say just how much I enjoy the discussions there - and seeing the new stuff in their online shops, which they show weekly. It isn't just about fashion, there is so much more involved, and so much more to be learned! About life, about society, about history... and it's such a fun community too.

Recently, this incredible Emilio Pucci tie fascinated me. Just trying to imagine what it would look like with a dark suit and white shirt. Great!

A lot of the Vintage Fashion Guild members also have blogs, and I enjoy reading them too, though I don't always have so much time to read them all. This post on the Kickshaw Productions blog caught my eye today. I remember the lively discussion on the forum well enough - and also the differences about British and American English. I admit, I'm terrible with distinguishing the two, and my own English is probably some bizarre mixture between the two - however, that whole discussion certainly had me in stitches - not even certain Youtube videos have made me laugh so hard!
Since Jonathan had to re-do his blog, after it got deleted when the Fashion History Museum website went online, a lot of his older posts showed up as "new" and I had a good browse and read around this afternoon. This post might be already a year old, but it certainly provided an amusing look back on fashion of the 00's, and made me smile.

Karin

And now... for a little pause

So I'll be off for a bit of time soon - see you all again next months and hopefully I'll have some great new stuff to show then. Well, there will at least be a new Willy-nilly, which I can't show yet, as it is a gift that will only be given when I've already left... So, stay tuned!

Timeless Beauty

Time to blog some more of my dollies... Timeless beauty? Yes, for sure! These are all vintage 1960s outfits, all of them favorites, and certainly timeless! So timeless, that they look perfect on modern dolls too - which most of the ones shown here are. And the outfits might not all be complete either - I buy what I like, and some of them look great with modern accessories as well.

Living Barbie, one of my very favorite vintage dolls, wears the appropriately called "Color Kick". Can it possibly get anymore colorful? The doll was a unexpected flea-market find, the outfit from a charity shop - from a whole heap of separate pieces that weren't all clean and many in need of repair came this beauty - it's in pristine condition. That's the thrill of the hunt for vintage stuff!

Quick Curl Deluxe Skipper and Brazilian bombshell Passeio Viky wear matching outfits - "Red Sensation" and "Sheath Sensation". Skippers first outfits all matched her big sisters'. Sounds corny? I think it's cute. And that sheath dress (which was available in a number of color variations later) is one of the sexiest things from Barbie's early wardrobe, which was quite sophisticated. And that color - not for the faint of heart!

Oh, those 1600 outfits! Mattel produced some of the most beautiful (and also most sought after) outfits in 1965/66 with the 1600 stock numbers. "Pretty as a Picture", which Florida Midge wears, is just such a one. Both a vintage Burda sewing magazine and a Finnish fashion magazine from the same year showed similar dresses - same shape, same combination of solid color and small checks. Now, who said it's all the same styles everywhere these days?! Meanwhile, Francie wears "Checkmates", her cute little suit. To lighten things up, the blouse has a lovely embroidery decoration.

Midge (don't tell her, but she's probably the oldest doll in my collection!) wears "Sporting Casuals". I adore vintage Barbie knitwear - these little sweaters and cardigans not only are the height of timelessness, they also look so realistic due to the very fine material. Just beautiful. I fact, I'd love to have that sweater myself! Corduroy Cool Barbie wears what she's been wearing ever since I bought this outfit - "Orange Blossom". The hat is still missing, but never mind! It's such a simple but elegant dress, and just shows how good vintage outfits can look on modern dolls.

More 1600s wonders! Sitting Pretty Kira wears "London Tour". Leather look was all the rage then! A piece of Barbie trivia: Mattel repeated this outfit name in the early 2000s on a Fashion Avenue outfit. I wonder if any of those who thought that up actually realised it. Hollywood Nails Barbie is ready for "Lunch on the Terrace". Another dress I'd love to have myself! The polka-dot top makes sure the whole Vichy-check thing doesn't go overboard. It's such a fun contrast.

Pyjama Party Courtney is "Fresh as a Daisy" and Hip 2 Be Square Barbie's "Pleasantly Peasanty". This is one of many "granny dresses" Barbie had to choose from in the late 60s and early 70s - and probably one of the prettiest. At least it's the that's been in my collection the longest, among all the dresses of this kind. I guess the bright color does it.

Logo-madness is nothing new! The vintage Barbie logo-prints are nothing if not cute. Skipper wears "Day at the Fair" and Picture Pockets Kira wears "Barbie learns to cook" (or "Lunchtime as it was called later). That dress is way too pretty though for the kitchen - Mattel forgot to add an apron to keep the dress spotless! It's a classic little shirtwaist dress, but the vibrant print makes it anything but boring. I found this at a flea-market. There was a box full of newer, badly played-with dolls half-hidden underneath a stand - and one of the dolls wore this dress! I bough the doll with the dress for about $5, kept the dress, cleaned the doll up and sent her on to a new "home". Jewel Girl Teresa finally wears "Knitting pretty", without the matching cardigan, and with the addition of sexy modern heels. Sassy!

Closet clean-out & why I buy secondhand

I've just spent a very successful weekend - fashion-wise, so to speak. It was time for my bi-annual closet-clean-out! It was time to change from summer to winter - get the big sweaters down from the top shelves and put the shorts etc. up there. It's not just a necessity, since I can't keep ALL of my clothing on eye level, it's also a good way to keep one's closet in shape - I can only recommend it!

What do it take?
1. Time! This ain't done in an hour...
2. Power food - an energy drink, a cinnamon roll and some gummies (I KNOW this isn't healthy, but hey, energy is what this takes!)
3. A duster and the vacuum cleaner
4. A trash bag and a big paper bag for clothing still good enough to go to charity
5. Enough fresh anti-moth paper
6. Good music! Recommend - good girl stuff like "Voilà" by Belinda Carlisle or "The Bridge" by Melanie Fiona...

So what I do is basically - get the stuff the winter stuff down, vacuum and dust the shelf, replace the anti-moth paper, and look through both the stuff I'm taking out of "storage" and the stuff I'm putting up there. Why? There might be stuff I still wore last winter, but looking at it now, "from a distance", I realise how bad it actually looks. So worn? How the ***** could I still wear this?! Out! Otherwise, there's summer stuff that I realise I haven't worn all summer, and maybe once last summer? Might be a good time to chuck it out! What's totally out of whack goes into the trash bag, what's still nice, but for whatever reason, not a keeper, goes into the bag for charity (rule: only clean stuff, no damage, no underarm staining - this is not a cheap way of getting rid of one's clothes, someone's actually still going to want to wear this!). It's a piece of work, yes (everybody who knows the size of my closet knows what I'm talking about...), but it's worth it. It also helps me remember what stuff I actually have! I can only recommend it!

So I have two big paper carrier bags full of stuff to take to the Caritas charity shop around the corner and down the road. I admit, I couldn't be happier that I live so near to one of them *g*. Gotta bring them some new stuff, since I did a bit of extra retail therapy there this Saturday, on the way to my weekly grocery shop. It's become sort of a habit - I look in there most of my "shopping Saturdays" - it's on the way anyway, and what do I know what I might find... Doing a quick calculation, I think I can safely say that there's no other clothes shop where I spent so much money this year, than the Caritas. Why?

All clothing that lands there won't land in a land-fill or wherever in the trash. Yes, it probably will some day, but for every piece I buy there I probably buy a piece less new. Fact is, they run a nice shop, everything is clean, the personnel is always nice... yes, there might be cheaper places here in Zurich, but that's where you'd find the dingy stuff (ok, you might just find that hidden treasure too, but that former subterranean carpark turned thrift shop that is the Brocki-Land makes ALL clothing they sell smell damp - ugh!). Still, they have reasonable prices - but not the prices the "trendy" vintage shops in the inner city have. An as-good-as new Ann Taylor pure cashmere sweater for 30 CHF, anyone? No kidding, that's what I found on Saturday. No way I could afford this new. I'm not looking for "names" or labels, but I know when I'm holding something that's good quality. I'll probably have this sweater for a few years... And it's not just people who can't afford to shop anywhere else who buy their clothes there - believe me, I see people of all ages and from all walks of life shopping there! Besides, they usually have a big summer sale - and beautiful shop window displays that change monthly. Quite the boutique! Of course I'm always looking for vintage - but I'm ok with finding new stuff at low prices too. Who cares? If it looks good and it fits... Yes, 99% of their stuff is pretty much every day, but in the two years and a few months that I have been a regular there, I've also found the some true vintage treasures - like the 1950s Dior by Vivier shoes... for a mere 60.-. And there might always be the odd home-made or otherwise one-of-a-kind piece - like the lovely shantung silk evening dress for 55.- that I found on my last "raid". No better way to stay well dressed and wear beautifully made stuff that no one else has (BIG point for buying vintage!). And the other nice "side-effect"? These shops give jobs to people who might not find a job otherwise. At least part of the money I spend there goes to Caritas projects here in the city - after all, I do want this to be a live-able place not just for those who have enough money. And if I take my old clothes there, I know where they're going. They're always sorting through stuff when I go there.

So there you have it. I can't buy everything at this shop, but I think there's loads of good reasons, especially in these crazy times of consumerism that we live in...

Karin