Seems a shame to hide them away…

Just a small selection of some of the labels hidden away inside garments and hats, mainly from the 1960s.

January 1961 in Australia: Off-Beat Clothes to Beat the Heat

http://www.naa.gov.au/whats-on/online/find-of-the-month/past-years/2008/october.aspx

My little tweedy pie

Apparently, rules are meant to be broken. Today I have broken several vintage clothing "rules" and all in connection with one item.

Saw an overpriced, moth-eaten, stained tweed piper's jacket at the fleamarket this morning. My market companion looked wordless askance at the manky garment I waved in front of her, but I was smitten. Fitted shape reminiscent of Vivienne Westwood (are you SURE this is a man's jacket?), beautiful cuffs with raised darted details, complete set of original horn buttons, pocket flaps set just so on the hips, two back vents and the most lovely colour.

If pieces of vintage clothing have a history then this had been in a fight at a wedding (where its owner was playing the bagpipes), in the course of which it got blood on it and the sleeve lining tore, and has been but away for moths to feast on ever since.

On inspection, I discovered more and more moth damage, no matter: hey, I can sew, I can darn. Quiet words with the seller secured a hefty discount. Stains (blood?) on the lovely duck-egg blue tweed fabric an awful lot more difficult: so it's in the washing machine (aaagh!)

Golden rule: never wash a jacket - if the fabric doesn't shrink the interfacings will, it will go horribly out of shape and the colour will run - but I HAD to, dear reader. Although the remedy for moths is to put the garment in the freezer, mine is too small and too full of Quorn - yes really - Quorn mince, Quorn pieces... So it's in there on the cold woollen cycle with baby shampoo instead of detergent and my fingers are crossed.

I did do one thing right: I darned the holes before washing it. If you don't do this, a hole you could get the point of a pencil through beforehand you can get your head though afterwards. I might be looking at a mangled wreck of shrunken, bleeding, felted tweed in half an hour, but at least there won't be any holes in it.

P.S. Readers, it worked! One of my most successful salvage operations. I only wish I had taken some "before" photos to go with these "after" ones…

Baby, it's cold outside

It's dark, it's cold and it's the penultimate day of October. Thoughts turn to coats, where they have been for some weeks already to be honest.

I had a quick scout around the Dorset town of Wimbourne Minster today. I've had no luck there previously, but today The God of Charity Shopping planted a lovely coat there on the rack in 'Julia's House'. £7.50 for a 1960s coat made of heavy Dongeal tweed in a brown and cream herringbone weave, excellent condition with a lovely wrap collar detail. Thanks very much!

Alongside eveningwear (see previous post), second hand emporia are awash with vintage coats at all times of year. When I pick up a new coat in a shop they feel so lightweight and flimsy to me I cannot imagine them keeping anyone warm. (This may be the time to tell you that I am rather cold blooded. This always prompts the comment, 'But you're from the north - you should be used to the cold!' My answer is, 'That's why I don't live there anymore.' Sorry north, love you and all that but just cannot bear being cold.)

So anyway, charity shop, market, vintage shop, online... you've got your choice of places to find your winter coat, that's no problem. There's a lot of choice so you're going to have to be prepared to try them all on. Here are some tips to help you out:

• If you're going to be wearing it over big winter woollies or a work suit, make sure the fit allows for them - especially across the shoulders and back.
• Conversely, just a dress underneath? Make sure the coat isn't too big.
• It should fit across the shoulders, if you can't move your arms forward together it's too small, same goes if the hem lifts up at the centre back. If the join where the sleeve meets the body of the coat is slithering off down your arm it's too big.
• Similarly, if the front of the coat is dropping down making the front look as if it's longer than the back, it's too big. The exception is woman wearing a man's coat: army coats, utility, workwear etc - it's meant to be oversized.
• Missing buttons? Easier to replace the whole lot than to match the missing one.
• Dropped hem? Easy to fix.
• Torn lining - not quite so easy to fix. If the lining is torn at the hem it's usually because the previous owner caught the heel of their shoe in it or got it stuck on a chair leg. If the lining is torn at the back of the neck this is where the coat has been repeatedly hung up without a hanger and the weight of the coat has torn the lining; this needs to be repaired carefully and make sure there's a hanging loop, chain or tape attached to the inside of the collar just above the lining at the back of the neck, not attatched to the lining alone. Torn lining under the arms is the most difficult to fix, it's worth putting some strips of iron-on interfacing behind the tears before sewing to reinforce the area.
• If the lining is shredded (looks like a cat clawed it), it's had it and will need replacing. A coat without a lining does not hang properly so don't think you can just cut the lining out and it will make no difference.
• If the pockets are torn or there are holes in them, either fix them or sew them up. Nobody will see the inside of your pockets so it doesn't matter if the fabric matches and this will help you reinforce them so they don't tear again. Before sewing the holes up, put your hand through the hole (wearing a washing up glove might be a good idea, just in case!) and search around the hem where the lining is attached to the coat to retrieve any object which may have fallen out of the pocket. If you find weights, leave them alone - this is the sign of a good coat and will help the hem of the coat hang well.
• Get it dry cleaned ASAP. If it has metal, glass, ornate or fragile buttons, either take them off (leaving the loose threads so that you can see exactly where to put them back afterwards) or cover them in aluminium foil before dry cleaning to protect them.
• Check for moth damage. Moths love wool and other good-quality cloths.
• Ahem - does it smell? May smell a bit musty, that might just be the shop or a long time in storage (especially attics and garages) - a clean and an airing outside in the fresh air will sort that out. Look in the pockets for mothballs, they really pong and the smell is a bit trickier to shift.
• Is it an even colour all over? Take it to the front of the shop and inspect it in the natural daylight. I have often found one shoulder and arm of a coat to be faded where it has hung in a wardrobe for years. There's nothing you can do about this and suede coats are particularly prone to it.
• Trenchcoats, macs and suede coats are worth waterproofing onced cleaned. Camping and outdoor shops sell shower-repellant spray for fabrics and shoe repairers sell showerproofing sprays for suede.
• Is the belt missing? If it's meant to have a belt it probably won't hang properly without one, but you can usually get away with a leather belt instead.

I think I'll leave it there for now. I could go on all night... I will post some of my favourite coats tomorrow. They always seem to have a story behind them. I used to wear a coat of my dad's when I was doing my A-levels and on my art foundation course. It was a black wool coat with a single button and an astrakhan shawl collar. He was big burly man so the coat was huge on me. My mother took to hiding it and telling me she'd thrown it out to stop me wearing it (didn't work of course!) The pockets were so big I could get a pint glass in each pocket when I had to leave the pub early and get the bus home when we went out after college.

Nowadays my criteria for a good coat is not how much beer it can help me smuggle onto public transport - you can work that one out for yourselves!

Visit me at Frock Me! this Sunday

I will have a stall at Frock Me! this Sunday (24th October) at the Corn Exchange in Brighton. Opening hours 11am-5pm.


I'll be selling vintage clothing, bags, jewellery and a new range of hand-made brooches.

http://www.frockmevintagefashion.com/index.htm

The cocktail hour

Eveningwear is a great way into buying vintage as it is surprisingly easy to find great items, dresses especially, in excellent condition. They may have been worn only once and will usually have been kept in a dry-cleaning or garment bag in a wardrobe away from the two biggest enemies of old clothes: UV light and moths, as well as the wear and tear of everyday life and laundering.

The New Look silhouette of the fifties with its fitted bodice and full skirt (first picture) is great if you want to show off your waist; "wiggle dresses" of the fifties and early sixties (see the green one with diamante dress clips at the waist, second picture) suit those with bigger busts and/or hips; straight-up-and-down Mod shifts of the sixties with block colours and bright prints are great if you have a boyish figure (not shown here as a boyish figure is something I do not have!) Another common shape from the sixties is a very flattering A-line shape, usually sleeveless with intricate beading or embroidery like the pale blue one shown here.

All styles look great with either modern shoes and minimal accessories or the full vintage look with shoes and jewellery from the same era.

There are two very important things to look out for. Firstly, the original owner may have had only one night out in the lovely dress you've just spied on the rail, but it may well have been one hell of a night - look out for stains, more often than not a post-dinner coffee. These fabrics aren't usually washable, so check the garment thoroughly before buying. Secondly, make sure it fits - and if it doesn't, have it altered. Gaping armholes, straining seams and fallen hems will be much more noticeable on ornate, shiny or sparkly fabrics.

Where to buy? This is the good news. Those charity shops full of dull and dowdy stuff have yielded so many of my evening dresses - the dresses of the fifties, sixties and seventies shine out from the rails like beautiful sweet wrappers. Specialist vintage shops always have eveningwear in stock but they will put more out on the shop floor closer to Christmas and New Year's Eve (and may put their prices up at the same time).

To sum up:
• Visit all the charity shops in your area often
• Examine garments closely for stains (drinks, food, sweat, rust, even blood), missing buttons or broken zips, damage and evidence of moths
• Try on to check for a good fit. Don't try it on over your jeans or a bulky belt!
• If it needs repairs or alterations, factor that in to the total price you are willing to pay
• If you're in a market and there's no mirror, get someone to take a photo of you using a digital camera or phone. Some stallholders will let you go off to look for a mirror if you leave a bag or something behind
• Don't forget the rear view
• Think creatively: maxis can be shortened easily, buttons changed, decorative trimmings can be removed (but check how firmly they are sewn on and if it will leave a mark)
• If you aren't sure, ask them to hold it for you while you go away and think, or put down a deposit
• If it's cheap, don't put it back and come back later - she who hesitates is lost!

Oh - and take off jewellery and your watch when trying on vintage eveningwear, it's easy to cause damage if you catch the fabric.

Done all that? Found your frock? Now get out on the town and show her a great time!

Photographs by CJ Taylor. http://taylormadeartistblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/carole-seatory.html