TVD: Not Quite Vintage, But Working On It

I realise the title of this post is unnecessarily obscure, but here cometh the explanation: today it hit me that this quaint little bloglet has turned one.  In fact, I kind of missed her birthday…how embarassment (PS does Acropolis Now count as vintage yet? Lord, how i long to blog about Effie).

Effie aside, this post marks a solid year of semi-consistent, semi-coherent ramblings about my love of All Things Olde (and nerdish factoids). There will be cake (not in the weird Daniel Day Lewis milkshake way). Or, as my all time favourite birthday card once said, Carpe Cakem (seize the cake). 

Other than cake, what better way to mark the occasion than to share my semi vintage-related new year’s resolutions? I’m not a virgo, but i do love a list, so here goes nuffink:

Stakeout: The Golden Age of Couture Exhibition, Bendigo, 7 December 2008 – 22 March 2009

Now look, I know I’ve been something of a Layzee Detective of late, and, being conscientious by nature (less fun than the rap group Naughty by Nature, but more likely to get an excellent tax return), I feel badly about this. I do. But between getting my sorry ass down to the apple isle (yes, I’m broadcasting from Tasmania, the greatest place in Australia for vintage and antiques – seriously, it’s Tasmazing), The Family Christmas, doing PhD related BS and eating myself into a crème-brulee-coloured haze, I haven’t had a whole lot of time on my hands. Plus I still don’t have the internet. I’m writing this in Hobart’s sole internet café, underneath a portrait of Errol Flynn in tights…be still my beating heart etc etc. Sincerest apologies.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to tell y’all about the Golden Age of Couture Exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, which I visited a couple of weeks ago. I first found out about this exhibition via a free postcard, which I swooped on with a fury normally reserved for the Boxing Day sales (hey, topical) or the last strawberry cream in a box of Roses (fine, you like caramel or whatever, I get it – change semi-hilarious gag as needed, you have my permission).

Where was I? Ah yes, le postcard, bearing that most famous photo of a bunch of models wearing one of Christian Dior’s collections. It’s pretty hot. Though it’s interesting to look at models from the 1950s…there’s so much range in age and height and size. They’re basically normal. Some of them are even hideous, and not in that ‘what, I’m jus’ some funny looking haute-couture half-giraffe half-elf half-female child, being awesome’ way. More in a ‘I’d rather be wearing my mum-jeans’ way. You know it.

Anyway, if you’re wondering why such an exhibition (it showcases couture from England and France between 1947 and 1957) would be held in Bendigo, and not be touring Melbourne, I think the answer is

Free Sampler? Not Likely

Another barely-relevant fact that you don’t really want/need to know about me: I’m a volunteer at the RSPCA, in quarantine, which means I spend a lot of time scrubbing shit (i almost wrote ‘poop’ then – why?), herding kittens and smelling like disinfectant. But, while lining litter trays with old pages of newspaper a few weeks ago, I came across a fascinating article on an aspect of collecting that I know next-to-zero about: embroidery samplers.

(PS: am I the world champion segue-maker or what?)

Now, all youse hipsters out there, groaning because I’m not blathering on about the return of Reebok pumps and how much your original Sir-Mix-a-Lot cassingle from 1992 is now worth, be patient. I didn’t think I was into embroidery either. Every time I so much as think about folk art I get this constricted, claustrophobic feeling, like I’m being smothered by dried flowers and decoupage and calico dolls with corkscrew hair. The Horror. But trust me – framed embroidery is a whole other board game. It’s hot. And the prices for this shizzle are rapidly getting out of control.

Trinny and Susannah Publish Book About Vintage

Is it just me, or is Trinny and Susannah’s latest book (now don’t get all snooty on me, I know you love watching their blunt-school-nurse/mother-hen routine as much as I do) pretty much a homage to vintage?

I Love Lucite

Before we begin, I have to admit that I can’t take credit for the above title. For those of you who, like me, were glued to the adventures of the cast of ‘Friends’ throughout the mid-90s and beyond, the phrase will no doubt sound familiar. This is because it’s the name of one of the shops that Joey finds listed on his ginormous credit card statement after he gets fired from Days of Our Lives (or falls down an elevator shaft, as it were). Remember when Friends was funny? I do. Makes me feel about a million years old.

Nonetheless, I do have a whole lotta love for lucite. Why?

Stakeout: The Way We Wear Fair, Williamstown, November 22 – 23 2008

Gee it seems like a long time since I’ve done any op-shopping/thrifting/vintage rummaging. I’d love to say that this is because I’m getting all, like, zen man and simplifying my life, but the truth is that I’m holed up working like a dawg to try and get a conference paper finished and thus am gadding about in more birkensocks/’house’ jeans (ie the jeans that are too old and/or ugly to wear out of doors)/’Barcelona ‘92′ t-shirts than glamorama frocks and such.

However, as the Summer ‘The Way We Wear’ Fair was held in my hood over the weekend, I decided to temporarily come out of my burrow and have a look around.

Costume Envy: Vivre Sa Vie, 1962

I am in no way a smoker. Can’t stand the stinky things, plus it always makes me think of Bert Baxter and his hideous cigars in the Adrian Mole books. But the seedy glamour of Jean-Luc Godard’s classique of Nouvelle Vague cinema, Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Life/To Live One’s Life/It’s My Life) is enough to make even the most staunchly anti-tobacco peeps out there sigh wistfully as the tragically chic main characters blow smoke and think about life and stuff.

TVD Dress Up Box: Olde Time School Marm

Well, well. This won’t be a long post. I’m off to a costume party tonight, for which the theme is ‘School’s Out’. And seeing as every other Young Lady my age is bound to rock up wearing an old school uniform with about twenty inches or so taken off the hem, I’ve decided to go as…an olde time school marm.

For this costume, I’m going to wear the following: 

Costume Envy: All About Eve, 1950

Have I already blathered on about how much I’m loving my local library at the moment? I hope not, because here goes – It’d been a good long time since I’d headed in there, mostly because the selection seems to extend only to Westerns (for the gents), neon-pink spined Rrrrrrromance novels (for the laydeez) and Large Print (for the elderly, who, let’s face it, make up the bulk of the public library’s clientele). But a few months ago I wandered in and, while the books were mostly still el crapola, the dvd section was now out of control.

Thus, I’ve been watching a whole lotta free movies/old BBC TV series lately. I won’t lie, there have been hits and misses - among the misses, I would number The Nanny Diaries (great new york apartments, shame about the script) and the off-putting Bottom (yes I KNOW that’s the point, but it still sicks me out. Bring back the Young Ones, etc etc).

Which, in a roundabout way, brings me to that masterpiece of the Golden Age of Hollywood, which I happened to borrow this week - All About Eve, starring the one and only Bette Davis, along with Anne Baxter and a very young Marilyn Monroe.

Lea Stein Delaunay-Inspired Brooch Hits the Market

Just in time for Christmas (well, actually I think it was released a little while back but I only just heard about it while googling around like a bmx bandit) Lea Stein & co has released a new design – so, following on from Dragon and Moustache earlier this year, what will it be?