More vintage reproduction clothing websites

Clothes, clothes, clothes - will I ever get tired of looking at vintage reproduction clothes on the internet? I think not!

I'm currently recovering from a crazy intensive weekend of dance workshops, live band nights and socialising as part of the annual Christchurch Big Band Festival, but I wanted to get a post up on Diamond Dame so I thought I'd share some vintage clothing reproduction websites.

The first is Our Dancing Daughters (the title of which is a nod to the famous 1928 film starrring Joan Crawford). This custom garment creation service is based in California, and offers a spring/summer and fall/winter line of clothing.

You simply choose the garment style and pick a fabric from the choices on offer and fill in your measurements (including nice details such as your desired hem length) and you'll receive a custom-made garment for a very reasonable price.

My favourite designs on the site are the lovely 1930s 'Norma' dress (for tea parties) and the fun 1940s 'Ann' playsuit (for holidays in the sun).

Outfits inspired by Norma Shearer and Ann Miller

The 'Ann Miller' outfit reminds me of a similar ensemble worn by Rita Hayworth when she dances 'The Shorty George' with Fred Astaire in the movie You Were Never Lovlier.



My one gripe about Our Dancing Daughters is that for many of the garments there are no actual photos, only drawings, which doesn't give a really good idea of what the finished product will look like. And, where there are photos of some garments, they are not very professionally done.

So, all in all this website isn't up to the same standard as one like ReVamp Vintage but for only US$160 a dress that's made-to-measure, the value for money is excellent. I haven't personally ordered anything from Our Dancing Daughters - if anyone out there has I'd be keen to hear your thoughts.


Next up we've got an Australian-based vintage reproduction company Retrospect'd Clothing. They've got a store in Sydney but also offer a full mail-order service through their website.

The selection is not extensive and the styles are more 1940s-50s than my favourite 'spread' of 1920s-40s, but there are still some nice-looking items. I've got my eye on the 1940s style double button pants and the 1940s shorts.

Retrospect'd also has a limited selection of menswear, including some really swell looking high-waisted and cuffed trousers with the added loveliness of dropped belt loops!

I'm loving the dropped belt loops!

Again, I haven't ordered anything from Retrospect'd myself, so if any Diamond Dame readers have purchased any garments please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Sweet 'n' Hot vintage dance performances

Okay I'm going to do a bit of a self-indulgent post here, so please forgive me for tooting my own horn, but here we go ... TOOT!

A couple days ago my beau/dance partner and I - also known as Sweet 'n' Hot vintage dance & entertainment - were the featured performers at a fantastic event that's part of the city of Christchurch's annual Heritage Week celebrations. We did four dance performances at the 'Swing Time in Christchurch' show, where we took audiences on a journey through the swing era.

The venue was the main hangar of the Christchurch Air Force Museum and it was fantastic! We got to dance surrounded by huge vintage airplanes, and they even hung chandeliers from the ceiling! There was a fantastic live big band who played in between our dances, and an old-fashioned 'radio announcer' as MC.

Sweet 'n' Hot perform for a huge crowd
during Christchurch Heritage Week
photo by Neil Macbeth

We'd choreographed and practiced for four months leading up to the show and we're over the moon it went so well - the venue ran out of chairs before the show even started and we had standing room only in the huge hangar.

We had a couple of hitches in some of the dance sequences but we ad libbed a few spots on the fly and the audience would never have noticed - part of being a professional performer means you sometimes have to really think on your feet!

So, without further ado, allow me to share a couple of our performances with you. The first is a 1920s/early '30s Charleston routine, and the second is our tribute to the Andrews Sisters - including some original choreography done by the Sisters themselves in the 1941 movie 'Buck Privates'.

Enjoy!

www.sweetnhot.co.nz



Everybody shake that thing! This routine is a lot of fun to perform.


Sweet 'n' Hot's tribute to the Andrews Sisters



...and here's the original. This is my favourite Andrews Sisters song

A lovely award indeed!

Gosh, I'm tickled!

I've just received this Very Lovely Blog Award, courtesy of the Lisa Freemont Pages.

In order to comply with the rules of receiving this lovely peer-awarded honor, I must:

Accept the Award - done!
Post it on my Blog - done!
Post the name and link the person who has granted the award - see above!
Post the award onto 15 other newly discovered blogs and notify those bloggers - see below!

I don't actually read that many blogs so I don't think I'll make it to 15, but here are some top choices in the 'vintage' category that spring to mind:

It'll Take the Snap Out of Your Garters! - vintage lifestlye musings, great reading
The Art of Manliness - where real men do their reading
Super Kawaii Mama - fashion, glamour, life and style from Aussie glamourpuss Candice DeVille
Circa Vintage Clothing - one of my favourite stores in Melbourne
Finding Ginger - all things Ginger Rogersish
Sew Retro - self-explanatory!
Eva Dress - more vintage sewing

Vintage Hairstyle Video Tutorials

Now that I feel that I have a pretty good handle on vintage clothing and 'dressing the part', I'm turning my attention to the other details like hair and makeup. In my opinion these aspects can actually be more important to your overall look than wardrobe, as it's usually the hair and makeup that scream 'vintage' louder than the clothing per se.

Put me in a vintage gown and I look like a modern gal in a vintage gown. Put mid-1930s Ginger Rogers in a nondescript bathrobe and guess what? She still looks 'vintage' because of her hair and makeup.

Vintage hair and makeup are essential!

So - let's talk about hair! Pulling off a real vintage-style hairdo isn't easy at first, but it can be learned with some practice, patience, and the right tools of the trade. I'm still struggling with the basics (before I fell in love with vintage I had very short cropped hair for ages so I've never learned to 'do' hair or how to wield a curling iron).

However, I'm very pleased to turn you over to the hands of a real expert - a lovely and gorgeous vintage gal named Ashley who has the best and most professional vintage hairstyle instruction videos on YouTube. I highly recommend you check out (and subscribe to) her YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/LisaFreemontStreet

Here's just one sample to whet your appetite:



In a wonderfully fitting act of universal synchronicity she's just started a new series of vintage hair tutorials called "Diamonds and Dames", in which she'll be taking viewer requests for hairdos from movies. So if you've got a favourite hairstyle from an old film that you've been dying to try out, now's your chance to get the step-by-step instructions from a real expert!

I'll be posting more about hair in the coming weeks, and possibly some 'expert interviews' as well.

Melbourne Vintage Shopping: Part 3 of 3

Click here to read Part 1 of Melbourne Vintage Shopping

Click here to read Part 2 of Melbourne Vintage Shopping

And now for the third and final instalment of my vintage shopping in Melbourne saga!

After experiencing the delights of Gertrude Street in funk-tastic Fitzroy, it was time to broaden my horizons and explore Brunswick and Smith Streets, which both intersect Gerturde and have the same groovy-vintage feel to them.

Here are my highlights.

Brunswick Street - Top Pick:
Clara Fox
479 Brunswick Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne

Take the tram up Brunswick Street to Clara Fox, a tiny shop jam-packed with treasures. Their stock ranges from 1920's to 1980's but the bulk is 1940's, 50's, 60's - which is heaven to me.

The shop is physically small, and they've got a LOT of inventory, so be prepared to dive in deep. Clothing runs the gamut from eveningwear to daywear and bedwear. There's quite a good section of nighties and slips.

Day dresses, vintage fabric and a cubby hole
stashed with mint condition vintage girdles and bras
nighties, slips and bedwear

Dresses and gowns - that's an original 1930s
yellow crepe dress for a mere A$125

I trawled through the entire shop from top to bottom - and had a grand time doing so. Sadly none of the vintage girdles fit me or I sooooo would have bought one. I also found a fabulous mint condition 1940s dress that would have been mine had it not been a size too big. Ah well, the life of a vintage enthusiast is often fraught with disappointment.

If you go to Clara Fox be sure to check out the display cabinet full of treasures:
I was able to look at a gorgeous and fully vintage white ostrich feather burlesque fan - just like what Sally Rand would have used! It was LOVELY, and I'm sure it will see its way back onto the stage someday when the right person comes along.

Smith Street - Top Pick: Lost and Found Market
12 Smith Street (near Gertrude Street)
www.lostandfoundmarket.com.au

It's called "Lost and Found" because
you will probably get lost once inside...

This place is gi-normous. Be prepared to get lost in what feels like a huge vintage garage sale. This really is a 'market', representing many vendors who each have their own 'area'. This means that the inventory is organised by vendor, not item, so each area features clothing, knick knacks, accessories, etc, and you'll have to traverse the entire place to find what you're looking for.

But if you've got the time, it's a fun place to wander around.

Lovely blue kimono

Totally cute vintage shoes -
why is all the good stuff always a size too big?

Other places of interest:
Let me just say you could spend days trawling the area, and there are many, many vintagey shops and wonderful bookstores, cafes and the like - far too many to mention. Here are a few to look out for.

Brunswick Street:
Shag
377 Brunswick Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne
As the name suggests, this is mostly an Austin-Powers-Groovy-Baby sort of place. It was a bit too mirror-ball-and-platform-booty for my liking, but they claim to stock 40s and 50s stuff so it could be worth a look.

Sheila Vintage
382 Brunswick Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne
One of the many, many vintage stores on Brunswick Street. I didn't find anything on the day I was there, but it looks like a shop that's worth checking out every now and then.

Smith Street:
Book Shop
Smith Street, near Gertrude

The name says it all...

There are so many cute little independent and secondhand bookstores in Melbourne! I popped into this one - I'm not sure if it has a name other than 'Book Shop' - and picked up two wondeful books on Art Deco Fashion and 1920s Writers - links are at the bottom of this post.

Vicious Venus
346 Smith Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne
www.viciousvenus.com
A sort of rockabilly-meets-gothic-princess store, their mainstay is the huge variety of custom fancy corsets - the kind you are meant to wear on the outside. They do, however, stock a limited range of retro reproduction dresses, including popular brand Stop Staring. I had about 10 minutes in this shop before I needed to high-tail it to the airport, which was just enough time to squeeze into this pink Stop Staring number:

I feel like Joan from Mad Men,
only somewhat less well endowed...

The Stop Staring dress was A$300 (yikes) but a friend of mine pointed out that they're less expensive to buy online from www.stopstaring.com (where it works out to A$162 plus about A$40 shipping).

Friperie
Cnr Smith and Johnston Sts (across the road from Vicious Venus)

I only just ducked my head in here, but it's a large-ish shop, laid out nicely and is definitely worth a look.



I hope you've enjoyed a taste of Melbourne Vintage Shopping - the city certainly holds a wealth of opportunities and I only managed to make the tiniest scratch in the surface! If you've got your own recommendations for Melbourne vintage hotspots please feel free to comment.

Happy Frocktober! A dress a day for cancer research

We interrupt your regular scheduled programming to bring you this important announcement...

I'm still writing up the third instalment of my review of vintage shopping in Melbourne, but I wanted to get a post up today to welcome everyone to the month of Frocktober!

"Frocktober, you say? But I haven't a thing to wear..."

That's right, the guys can get hairy for Mo'vember but we ladies can spiff up a month ahead during Frocktober, in which we endeavor to wear a frock every day of the month.

Kicked off by a lovely group of ladies in Australia with a view to raising money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, Frocktober is sure to take the world by storm.

Check the Frocktober Website for more info, dust off your dresses and join me for a frocking good time this month!

One of my many frocks that will be making an appearance this Frocktober