blue dress experiment

today i will sell a blue dress.  that is the challenge.  i woke up yesterday morning with a thrifting hangover....the result of too many good gets in one day....it can cloud judgement so its easy to make mistakes....like buying a couple of shirts without looking at the buttons....missing buttons are huge time wasters....to replace the buttons...need to match them...the thread...or cut them all off ...start over...etc.  if im buying clothing to move fast...i cant get all jammed up with a mountain of mending.

so back to todays experiment...i will take a $2 thrift store dress...dye it blue....see how much i can sell it for.

i'm learning about the pschology of item placement when it comes to retail...placing the item i want to sell out of context...so it appears more unusual, special.



the dress dyed beautifully..the lace is cotton (was white) with varying degrees of thickness and i knew the dye would take well...

3.6.....i did not sell the blue dress on sunday...however...i may be off the hook because its actually lavender....it took me 2 hours to steam the wrinkles out of the 3 layers...its a vintage jessica mcclintoch and per that style....there is a looooot of fabric going on....i want to alter the length ...i think it will work well as a short dress.

midtown strut

here are some of the midtown atlanta outfits/fashion that inspire me...

Afriyie...he designs clothing and works at revolution 11, vintage market on 921 peachtree st....he made the jeans...love them!

Lionel.....he is a costume designer whose favorite era is edwardian....he also does vintage clothing restoration....i immediately zoomed in on the jacket which was a thrift store find...yay!

atlanta midtown rulez!

good gets

today was a huge success! rag o'rama had the goods and i was eager to get get get!

the biggest steal was the louis vuitton garment bag....thats how the day began.  99.9% its authentic..and my instincts say it is....but i've been burned before so im going to have it checked out.

so the thrifting fortunes can turn on a dime....

but my favorite get today was at a goodwill....it was kitsch heaven!

its the same frame...
i cant tell which side i like best....the needlepoint...or the paint by numbers horse on the back.

monday 3.5
good gets from yesterday....

and its a box set!  oh that golden guitar magic.....

a zodiac sign clock!
....just needs some wood shop magic to be perfect.

absolutely gorgeous silk chiffon lined 1950s/60s cashmere needlepoint sweater.  i almost lost it when i saw this....you hardly ever find pieces like this anymore and i have never seen one so beautifully crafted and in such perfect condition.  i think a lot of the pieces i snagged yesterday all came from the same person...

the silk lining is hand sewn...really really amazing....i'll be listing this on etsy....size small.

the others...

the jacket on top is silk velvet...the coat below...cashmere...both with silk lining and the most amazing stitching! you have to pay buckets of money if you want this type and quality construction...beautiful!

its going to be hard to top these scores....so i'll end on this note

crack owl

this is where i will attempt to document my daily vintage finds and disasters.

its now 2 months since i left my job in the corporate financial services world to be a full time thrifter/reseller.
i have pretty much fallen off the radar and im sure that to most people it appears that i left to weave baskets or some such insanity.

every day has been a lesson in both human kindness and humility. 
my goal is to establish a vintage clothing and housewares business...todays "luxury" has lost its lustre.  everthing is mass manufactured poorly and quality has completely disappeared.
what i look for is what i call, "good bones".   these are garments that are well crafted out of good materials and are just waiting to be brought back to life.  im also a sucker for kitsch.

yesterday was my first auction experience....they could see me coming a mile away!  i bought my membership and wandered around trying to look jaded and experienced and ended up bidding waaay too much on a bin of paintings/drawings .....the auctioneer ended the bid with "there must be a rembrandt in here!"

some of the other more seasoned bidders came up to me at the bin of paintings..."so which one was the one you really wanted?"

mr owl

i cant wait to see what i find today!



here are some of the other finds from the auction experience...that upon reflection....was a pretty good haul...

this is a signd print from the artist richard evans younger....titled "serval" he is well known for his studies/portraits of animals in the wild...  i would date it mid-70s...its framed and matted well with the pefect amount of age around the corners of the print.  the artist captures this wild cat perfectly....you can see the tail twitching.  very elegant and so sad to realize that these images are more and more rare as our wildlife population disappears.

i love the colors in this wave curl....lovely acrylic seascape painting....i cant quite make out the initials..regardless of who the artist is...its a cool piece.

and then the kitsch collection...

jonathan adler eat your heart out!