Winter Blossoms

I like to think of my closet as having an ebb and flow to it... some dresses flow in, like the lovely Winter Blossoms.

And, finally, some are flowing out. Disco Mondrian is still up for grabs, but some people have wondered what became of our first Dressopotamia Giveaway. Little Moebius was on the verge of going homeless until one brave soul stepped up and left a comment on Facebook...

Earthly Delights

When I was doing my undergrad study abroad program in France, we were encouraged to take classes within the Parisian university system. This was at first thrilling (real classes! with real French people!), then terrifying (I once snapped out of a daydream when I heard the professor say, "Well, let's ask the American. Are they?" I said, "Excuse me?" He elaborated, "Are executions public in the United States?"), then, oddly, a sign of just how much we were being coddled (our French grades were translated, and by that I mean inflated, into their American equivalents).

Funny how the same facial expression can convey excitement, horrified amusement and disbelief at how determined private colleges are to give everyone A's.

In Bloom

A few years ago, a dear friend of mine went to Montreal and all I got was this incredible dress.

I know, right? (Note: I definitely encourage this sort of behavior.) I went to Montreal myself a while later in the hopes that lightning would strike twice, but I couldn't even find any vintage shops, let alone one with red polyester evening gowns.

Sunny Flowers

I saw this post on Facebook a few days ago, and it made me a little sad.

"No one will ever understand your crazy family like your cousins do, even if you haven't talked to them much lately. Share this if you have the best cousins in the world..."

Don't get me wrong, I love my cousins (heart you, Elle!)!  Cousins are great! But whoever wrote this clearly doesn't have siblings. I just wrote and erased about half a dozen sentences on how much my sisters mean to me—but they know.

Sunny Flowers always makes me think of my sister in Vermont.

One day several years ago, a little package arrived in the mail with no fanfare. Inside was Sunny Flowers, accompanied by—and this is important—a necklace.

Tan Lines

Why buy vintage? It's always easier, and often cheaper, to hit up zara.com or nyandcompany.com (which actually does have some really cute dresses right now, just saying), to know that you always have a while to make up your mind, to wait for sales and stay on trend, to replace dresses with dragging hems or splitting seams instead of repairing them, to buy clothes you can throw in the washing machine without worrying they'll be ruined. (I know most people don't treat their nicest clothes that way, just jeans and t-shirts, but I wear dresses as my casual clothes. It's the New Formality!)

I buy vintage for the thrill of the hunt; to keep beautiful clothes out of landfills; to stay in style by staying out of style; because colors make me happy; because older workmanship lasts longer; because I hate disposable fashion; because the conditions under which today's clothes are produced will make you weep, am I'm not just talking about the labor conditions, but the environmental ones as well.

If a gorgeous dress was produced in the last 10 years, but came to you as a hand-me-down, is it still vintage?

Seven Year Bitch

Have you ever seen The Seven Year Itch? It's one of the more angrifying movies ever made. Remember the first episode of Mad Men, where Peggy Olson shows up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at Sterling Cooper, and all the guys immediately start being gross to her? It's like that, only the people who made it were those guys, and they think this is a totally normal way to behave. It wouldn't be quite so wretched if the movie were just twerpy Tom Ewell trying to get his leg over with Marilyn Monroe, but the opening scene is basically a joke about gang rape (twenty "Indian braves" stalking a young woman walking by herself) and it sets the tone for making my head explode. (Billy Wilder also wrote and directed The Apartment—you win some, you lose some.)

But that dress.