Inspiration: Museum Vintage

Here are a few of my favorites from The Met Costume Institute website.

Jerkin, ca. 1580
Spanish
Brown silk voided velvet trimmed with metallic bobbin lace

Corset, late 1760s
French
Silk, linen, leather, wood, baleen
(Baleen! Cool!)


Robe de style, 1924–25
Jeanne Lanvin (French, 1867–1946)
Ivory and black silk taffeta trimmed with pink and black silk velvet rosettes

Coat, ca. 1919
Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944)
Black silk and wool blend with white leather appliqués and white fur trim

Evening dress, ca. 1884–86
American or European

Silk

Pagode: Costumes Parisiennes, 1914
Étienne Drian (French, 1885–1961)

Ensemble, late 19th–early 20th century
Slovakian

Cotton, silk, wool

That last one is my favorite, I think.

Inspiration: Victorian and Goth

The last photo is of me attempting this look. You can't see my pin but it's Victorian and has children on it. (I'm planning on doing a Victorian jewelery post anyway later- and I bet everyone's excited!) It was accidently put through the washing machine but survived, which is a testament to the quality of old stuff. Normally I try to avoid posting photos of myself, but I feel proud I added this border, which I think has a daguerrotype feel. The dress is from the fifties, but the fifties were, in some ways, a throwback to the nipped-in waists and structured femininity of the late 1800's. It's a Lanz, which is a preppy vintage label I have always loved. Also that door is 200 years old or something so I am so vintage.

Can you guess which photo is of a post-mortem baby? You can't get much gother than that. The objects left behind by Victorian people would suggest they were obsessed with death, in a sentimental sort of way. My Victorian jewelery post will confim this! The stills are from Beetlejuice and 60's camp/cult classic Spiderbaby.

Inspiration: Victorian Children's Clothing

I hate when people diss old things for not being "up-to-the-minute" enough. So many people are obsessed with modernism that they can't see past the fact that everything they think is modern right now will look twice as dated when it is out of style in ten years (if we are ever tired of seeing things shaped like white cubes, that is), just like everyone who threw out all their old stuff to turn their house into a track-lit 80's box probably wish they hadn't now. It kills me that people are still ripping down old buildings to build glass-fronted rectangles with white particle-board walls. I think all these pieces, designed for children many years ago, look fresher, more interesting and more avant-garde than what is usually sent down the runways. Well-designed things stand the test of time. Mark my words!

How I Wish I Was a Victorian Orphan

While regular vintage clothes are all well and good, there is a special place in my heart reserved for vintage children's clothes. No, not because they’re all wee and stuff and make me wish I had a baby to force into bonnets and pantaloons (as we all know, my official stance on this is "whatever"- though if I did have a kid I probably would force it to wear a tiny Victorian suit), but because I really wish they were my size. I have bought the occasional fat children’s dress on with mixed results- but I’m always hoping to find some dress overlooked because it was made for a twelve year old that I can squeeze into. Also, once I forgot to bid on this 50's girl's skirt with a Bambi print and I'm still upset even though it would have perished in the fire like all my worldly goods.

Anyway, vintage children’s clothes are amazing because they have the charm, fit, and quality of vintage but often with a little dash of crazy thrown in. Super-adorable novelty prints and details like big buttons or embroidered collars abound on vintage children’s clothing. PS: For more, check my flickr!

Wow, I can see Pippi Longstocking in these, which are probably pre-1920's.

I know this kind of looks like something a hipster would wear today, but it's a 1950's boy's shirt.

Chloe seriously ripped these off. Look how high they are in back! What design!

Though this appears to be a charming-enough Victorian little girl's dress, take a look at the close up:

That's right, it has skeleton keys all over it. Ohmygod I want to wear this dress, and probably deserve to, but it is unfortunately made for a child. It's just the gothest, most Secret Garden-y dress ever.

Hair, Beautiful Hair

Back in the Victorian and Edwardian days, mourning was very fashionable. If you were a woman who were close to someone who died, you were required to wear black for a certain period of time- some widows wore black for the rest of their lives. (Men, I believe, were largely excluded from this practice- men have always been much more encouraged to wear clothing for practical, as opposed to symbolic or aesthetic reasons.) Mourning jewelery, made of dark stones like jet or onyx was very popular, and so was jewelery made of hair.

Hair jewelery was sometimes made from the hair of departed love ones, but sometimes it was meant to symbolize other things, like friendship- you might have a locket with your friend's hair braided inside and a poem about being BFFs engraved upon it, like one of the Best Friends broken locket necklaces I used to buy from the Oriental Trading catalogue.

There were hair chains, watch fobs, earrings and pins. Hair was even braided into elaborate framed pieces. I can only imagine how difficult it was to craft these items- and can't help thinking about how strange and almost talisman-like they seem today. My mother, who used to wear a Victorian hair ring all the time, said she'd buy me some hair jewelery for my graduation present. I would love to have something this amazing, but this one was a bit expensive- it was listed at about $250 on eBay. But then again, that's not that much more than some pair of designer jeans, or something made by Juicy Couture, so if anything, it's a steal.