Vintage! Vintage! Vintage!

I don't know about you, but any mention of the words "vintage," "retro" or "Salvation Army" and I immediately get all excited. I had some extra time this morning while the repairment tried to fix our air conditioners, so I thought I'd put together a little fashion spread for y'all. I was originally going to do my Favorite Vintage Fashion Finds, but when that list started creeping well into the double digits, I had to rethink. I decided instead to do my Favorite Vintage Finds I Don't Get to Wear Nearly Enough (or something like that. I was never very good at being concise.)

It was great fun to pull out my favorite not-forgotten-but-not-practical-for-everyday-use purchases. It was even funnier to traipse back and forth in front of the repairmen to take pictures of myself out on the patio. I'm sure they think I'm a complete lunatic. But, hopefully, a very well-dressed lunatic.

Let's begin:

I'd completely forgotten about this belt until this other day, when something triggered my memory and prompted me to go and dig it out from the back of the closet. It's a big plastic flower buckle on a wide elastic belt – somehow, a little bit ridiculous and kind of perfectly simple at the same time.


I generally have loved living in the tropics, where it is warm and palm tree-d and sunny nearly every day, except when I think of this coat. Because this is a coat that you just want to wear, as much as you possibly can. It was a thrift store find in Delaware – quite possibly the only really great find I've uncovered at the college kid-scavenged Goodwill in Newark – and it is one of those purchases that makes all the times you visit the thrift store and find yourself digging through piles of cruddy cotton totally worth it.



I took about fifty pictures of this coat and just couldn't get it too look as amazing as it really is. It's an emerald green vintage opera coat, and probably my most expensive vintage purchase ever, but the minute I saw it in at She Sells Seashells, a vintage store at 8377 W. 3rd St. in L.A. on a trip there last December, I knew I *had* to have it. It's made from about a hundred yards of fabric, just the most beautiful, voluminous pouf of a coat you've ever seen. It also desperately needs to be cleaned and pressed – I haven't had the chance to wear it yet – but I'm just terrified of giving it to the dry cleaners.


Here is a small story about this little flower bag: I first saw it at the aforementioned (and long beloved) Hooti Couture in Park Slope (their website has all kinds of great vintage links, and their book -- Alligators, Old Mink & New Money -- is supposed to be a vintage-lover's dream. It's currently sitting on my Amazon wishlist, waiting for me not to be so poor.)

But anyway, this bag. I went back and visited it again and again, but it was something like $25, which on my meager Editorial Assistant salary seemed like an awful lot of money to spend on something I could only use on special occasions instead of, say, bread and peanut butter and other items of immediate need. My birthday rolled around, and my great roommate Amy secretly bought it and completely surprised me with it, which was just amazing and is something I have never forgotten. So, it's the perfect evening bag *and* it has a very nice story to go with it.


I just adore the cut and print of this dress, which I found years ago at a now-defunct vintage store in Park Slope. It's been awhile since it's been worn, but I fell in love with it all over again when I put it on for this picture, and I think I'm going to wear it today. I love when that happens.

Also, I'm pretty sure the repairmen liked this one best too.