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Tag: 1950’s vintage clothing

My Recent Vintage Store Finds

It is so nice in Toronto right now, so it is pretty much impossible to stay home at night. So on one of those beautiful nights I took a walk down to my local antique store for some treasure hunting. I was pretty excited to do this because normally I'm with my husband and he is not much of antique shopper and so I usually get 5 seconds in before he starts giving me the “please can we go!” look! Not tonight though he was working so I was free to take my time.

My plan… To find some amazing 1930s-1950s real-life pictures of well dressed people as this has recently become my obsession. I just love seeing how everyday people dressed as opposed to movie stars who had lots of money and designers on demand (not that I don't enjoy those photos too, Oh I most certainly do!). Tonight though was about the regular folks and I scored huge with the following 4 images.

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Photo number 1: A wedding photo from the 1940s, clearly during war times. Don't you agree that the bride and groom are so gorgeous together that they could have been movie stars?? Sigh…so fantastic!

I am just swooning right now over the handsome groom in uniform and his equally handsome best man in his navy uniform. Love.

1940s wedding photo

Now the lovely bride. That dress is making me just drool all over my ipad right now with envy. The cut, the sequined design on the bust and that corsage..wow! Just beautiful. In my mind the dress is a gorgeous blue or maybe green! And how adorable are the peep toe shoes (on both ladies)?? This gal has style and her maid of honour is just as stylish too! I want a 1940s suit badly and honestly one like this would make my day. It is such a nice fit on her and I think she made a wonderful choice by wearing this.

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Photo number 2: 1940s woman. This photo was the first image I found and I nearly died from how amazing this image was. Like seriously, how could you look at this photo and not think “Wow that woman has style!”? I don't think it is possible and that was the exact words that came out of my mouth.

1940s woman in dress

First off her 1940s gown fits her like a glove, look how tiny her waist is? The detail at the hip adds to the slim look of her waist and I'm just loving it so much (great undergarments I'm sure are helping too). The fabric is just as wonderful with the random flower detail and I envision this dress to be black with the flowers and dots to be silver (do you agree?).

Now let's talk about her hat. Yes her hat is one amazing work of art with a giant pouffy flower (I think) as the embleshment. Even with the giant beautiful corsage on her dress I don't think the hat is too much. Ohh I have a thought! Maybe she is the mother of the bride to the couple above?? Most likely not but she is going some where wonderful enough to wear long black gloves (question: are they gloves if they have no hand part?) and I'm sure will be the hit of the party.

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Photo number 3: 1940s gentleman. This image when I saw it, reminded me so much of Cary Grant or Clark Gable and I just knew he had to come home with me. I was also really drawn to how well his suit fit and how he paired it with a bow tie and two toned oxfords, classy! The hand in the pocket says “yup I'm a man of style”. And yes mister handsome well dressed man, the Vintage Inn agrees.

1940s man in suit

Photo number 4: The final image I found of this 1950s woman playing with her cat, made me want to buy it for 1 reason and 1 reason alone….her saddle shoes. Yes I know saddle shoes are not rare in images from the 50s but what intrigued me even more was the fact that I believe this woman is not a young girl but much older then that.

You don't see very often older woman wearing saddle shoes, in fact I have never seen it and was always under the impression that that style was for the “younger” generation. Now that might be true but clearly this lovely fun loving lady does not care and she is rocking them anyways and for that, I love her style and she deserved to be in this post.

1950s housewife in saddle shoes

So there my wonderful readers is my most recent vintage shopping find. I hope you enjoyed looking at the images as much as I did when I bought them.

Have a fantastic day!

Liz šŸ™‚

 

 

 

 

Toronto Vintage Clothing Show-The Highlights

So this past Sunday I was excited to be able to work the booth for the Toronto Vintage SocietyĀ at the Toronto Vintage Clothing Show. We were there to raise awareness of our society, sell some beautiful “Make Do and Mend” sewing kits and also sign up fellow vintage enthusiasts for our meetup group.

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Here I am with the lovely Larissa from Blonde Moxie at our booth. I’m wearing a Ethel of Beverly Hills sweater that got so many likes that day and even one lady wanted to buy it off me while at the show šŸ™‚

Toronto Vintage Society

Photo Courtesy ofĀ Larissa

We were also joined by some of the other lovely ladies of TVS. Lisa, Larissa and Irene from Petite Plus, Meow!

Toronto Vintage Society

All of us togetherĀ (minus our fearless leader Jacquie who was out-of-town on business).

Toronto Vintage Society

Here is a picture of the mending kits we created with vintage fabric for the pin top. Inside was candy, vintage buttons and everything else you need to sew up something fabulous.

vintage mending kits

Image courtesy of IreneĀ 

We had a draw at our booth too and it had lots of wonderful goodies that any vintage loving person would want (there was some greatĀ items for the men as well, but just not showing in this pic).

Toronto Vintage Society

Ā Image courtesy of Shermy from Shermette

At one point during the day our booth even had some swing dancing happen. Here is somewhat blurry but fun picture of myself and my friend Dean doing some Lindy Hop.

Toronto Lindy Hop

Photo Courtesy of Blonde Moxie

Then there were more dancers…yay!

Toronto Lindy Hop

Amongst many of the wonderful visitors that stopped by the booth, one was Diane from the Costume Society of Ontario. She was wearing the most amazing Edwardian outfit! Don’t you just love it on her?

Costume Society of Ontario

After socializing and promoting TVS, I finally got my turn to head out to the show and do some shopping. I managed to pick up a couple of things but did not snag any clothes because I’m in saving mode for VIVA next month in Vegas, where I know I will be buying a lot of outfits.

Here are my purchases….

My kitschy Leather Poodle Pin..love it!

vintage poodle brooch

Second purchase was this absolutely gorgeous green 1950s hair piece with the more glorious feathers you have ever seen. It was being sold for $40 but some of the feathers needed a glue gun and so I managed to snag it for $20. Yippee! This baby is coming to Vegas with me.

1950s hair headband

Now I did not purchase this but a friend of mine did and it truly was the PURCHASEĀ OF THE SHOW!Ā 

A skirt out of Marimekko 1960’s fabric. They did not know the significance of the pattern or the fabric, which is why she only got it for 30$. It is signed too. Quite the find and you can read all about the extensive history of this brand here. Good job Erica!

marimekko

 

Now here are some pictures of what I wish I could have purchased.

Lets start with the granddaddy of them all…a 1950’s Vintage WITH TAGS Alfred Shaheen! I have never seen a for saleĀ Shaheen in real life (online only) AND with tags. This dress was a unicorn at this show AND also too small for me. ugh šŸ™ If you are in Toronto it’s being sold at 69 Vintage on Queen St. West.

Alfred Shaheen

If you are an xsmall you could have taken home this beautifulĀ 1950’s swimsuit! I just LOVE the buttons and the skirt portion and of course the fabric. Wonderful piece.

1950s vintage bathingsuit

Going to prom? Then this beautiful stunner of a 1950s prom dress would have been perfect.

FYI: The dress is still for sale at “House of Vintage” on Queen St West.

1950s vintage prom dress

Those were basically the only pictures I had time to take from the show butĀ if you head over to the Toronto Vintage Society website you will see a wonderful post on the event.

On another note, I have been doing a pin-curl set lately with my hair instead of foam rollers and I’m really really enjoying how it is turning out.

vintage hairstyle

P.S. did you see my eyelashes?? Look how long and fantastic they look. I just recently got extensions put in by Shangri-Lash and I love them! Stay tuned for a review on that experience.

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In the end the whole day was a success and we ended up with a load of new members to our group and we met so many wonderful vintage shoppers!Ā I look forward to getting to know many of them at future events.

Did you do any vintage shopping this weekend? Score any great deals?

Liz