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Heady Stuff
Dear Ms. Moore,
Loved your fashion review on ’60s and ’70s fashion in the last issue! However, there are a few ’60s/’70s fashion looks I wish would come back…doily and stenciled airbrush T-shirts, sterling silver Pegasus and unicorn jewelry, and other fantasy or “headshop” style jewelry. Even in vintage and thrift shops such heady or escapist shirts and jewelry seldom show up for sale a second time around, so vintage “headshop” items must be highly, HIGHLY coveted! Sadly, post Sept. 11, wild expressions appear to be on the wane, pushing up the value of skulled dragons, monsters, and other sterling silver-casted fantasy jewelry. It’s just getting harder to find counter-culture fashion.
I love to collect stuff that politically active hippies owned. These counter-culture items should be resurrected. I think it could be done without all the druggie/stoner stuff this time around because hardcore fantasy jewelry and airbrush T-shirts never hurt anyone! The recent crop of spray-painted looking message T’s are too early mid-’60s woody wagon looking! Bring back the moon and stars, seagulls and bird stencils, and do real retro airbrush art for once!
In the meantime, all of us ’60s/’70s die-hards should keep our noses in the vintage and thrift shops until the current crop of fashion and jewelry designers get it right. They’re doing great with the peasant blouses and lace-up jeans, but I wish they’d bring back crushed inlaid abalone and turquoise, round pendants with mountains, rainbows, suns and birds scenes and man in the moon faces. Mexican jewelers made a lot of it. There are people out there coveting and hanging on to it. Thanks and good luck.- Jody “Boho” Lawson
Fashion Update
Why Vintage - Now?
by Victoria Moore
“The reason vintage clothing is so in right now isn’t because people want to wear something old. It’s because they’re looking for something with the special embroidery, cut-work and other hand detailing that used to be commonly added to clothing in the past,” said David Sacks, owner of SACKS SFO.
Poetically calling it “Indian Summer,” he insists these are the m
ost important details showing up on this summer's skirts and blouses.
Dealers at the Federation of Vintage Fashion’s Vintage Expo, held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium May 4 and 5, must have been on the same wavelength because they brought enough circle, prairie, wraparound skirts and peasant blouses to sense this trend’s significance. The only difference was they gave it a Sarah Jessica Parker “Sex and the City” twist by throwing in loads of funky purses and fake flower corsages.
Coordinated by designer Patricia Field for Parker's quirky and long-suffering character Carrie, her madcap escapades through New York in Jimmy Choos, newsboy caps and ultra-chic designer duds have finally hit the mainstream, causing vintage lovers to look back and see the similarities between what she wears and what was worn. Sweet and slightly awkward, the thought of tra-la-laing down the street like her in the real thing could make one yearn for simpler times.
But does it mean returning to a cookie cutter society where you were ostracized if you were eccentric or had your own ideas? With all the diversity we embrace today, our new addiction must be individuality. So I’m asking the question again: Why vintage and why now?
“The public is buying it because they're rebelling against corporate America and their attempts to make us conform to their agenda,” said Anna McWillie, Editor of NoHo>LA.
Stop at a magazine stand sometime and flip through the latest Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar and you'll see this reactionary viewpoint is even affecting fashion layouts in strange ways. It’s almost spooky how familiar looking are a white tank top with a wraparound skirt, a tiny fitted blazer with baggy cargo pants and a chiffon caftan over distressed jeans.
Since summer also means sun, surf, and sweat, it’s not surprising everyone will be out hunting for comfort as well as cool. Dealers at the show met this challenge by selling the aforementioned skirts, empire-waist dresses but also plain cardigan sweaters in pink, orange, yellow and white, gingham puff-sleeved midriff tops, denim Western shorts, enameled flower pins, charm bracelets, 1960s sunglasses, plastic shopping bags, straw flower trimmed mules, men’s Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, rock t-shirts, checked golf pants and three-tone bowling shoes.
Usually I stay neutral whenever I visit the Expo, but this time Jolene Harris’ (Harris Antiques) green, orange and lavender circle skirt and grey wraparound with a Hawaiian print border made me break my rule.
"I didn’t know how popular those skirts were until people kept coming in on Saturday and buying them,” she said. “They almost bought out my whole stock.”
If Harris’ space had a couple of things that made me reconsider my rule, Kathleen Schaaf’s space for “Meow” made me tear it up for good, especially when I saw her white high-heeled rhinestone mules, blue-and-white one-piece bathing suit, white straw bag with fake vegetable detailing and ’70s red, green and white lace prairie skirt.
Finally leaving loaded down with a Chinese jacket and a silver cross for myself and a few goodies for my loved ones, I realized the answer to my question was “because it makes you feel good, and you don't have to go broke doing it.”
So what can you expect for summer? Tons of full skirts, floral prints, sleek shift dresses, flashy golf pants, elegant bathing suits, and classy but fun accessories.
GlamourCon 2002
- 5 May at the Airport Radisson by Nick Burns
Imagine all the photo-retouching airbrushes of the pin-up girl industry switching from blow to suck; all the stretch-mark and sun-spot camouflage lifted from the images in girly magazines everywhere. Now imagine all those newly and truly exposed bodies lifted from glossy, stain-resistant pages and on display under the fluorescent lights of a hotel conference room. You've just imagined the grotesque sexiness of GlamourCon.
Oh, I forgot to mention the second most poignant feature of the convention: its disproportionately large patronage of massively obese men. But let that topic lay wait for a moment.
Admittedly, there's a certain unique excitement to the live witnessing of the same gravity-defying cheeks and boobs that earned ogling by innumerable porno mag buyers: daringly revealing to the human objects of lust the titillating satisfaction of receiving unrestricted enjoyment from their bodies—though at the price of their requited affections.
By facing the models in person, the fans flaunt their protected power to gain—albeit vicariously—satisfaction from the women no matter what these women do or want. They may never sleep in the same bed as she with the double-D’s, but neither will these back-stroke lovers ever hear, “I'm not in the mood,” from their partners in romance.
The fandom's low-self-esteem-triggered misogyny makes for a thinly-veiled sociological undercurrent of the event; but since all get that for which they came—the girls, dough; the fans, wood—it's an ugliness conveniently overlooked.
As for all the fat guys, their link to porn may have to do with the similar inherent excesses on which both the food and sex industries capitalize. This, however, doesn’t explain another male image trend on display—the bad mustache. Simply a porn industry fashion staple, it seems.
Dear Ms. Moore,
Loved your fashion review on ’60s and ’70s fashion in the last issue! However, there are a few ’60s/’70s fashion looks I wish would come back…doily and stenciled airbrush T-shirts, sterling silver Pegasus and unicorn jewelry, and other fantasy or “headshop” style jewelry. Even in vintage and thrift shops such heady or escapist shirts and jewelry seldom show up for sale a second time around, so vintage “headshop” items must be highly, HIGHLY coveted! Sadly, post Sept. 11, wild expressions appear to be on the wane, pushing up the value of skulled dragons, monsters, and other sterling silver-casted fantasy jewelry. It’s just getting harder to find counter-culture fashion.
I love to collect stuff that politically active hippies owned. These counter-culture items should be resurrected. I think it could be done without all the druggie/stoner stuff this time around because hardcore fantasy jewelry and airbrush T-shirts never hurt anyone! The recent crop of spray-painted looking message T’s are too early mid-’60s woody wagon looking! Bring back the moon and stars, seagulls and bird stencils, and do real retro airbrush art for once!
In the meantime, all of us ’60s/’70s die-hards should keep our noses in the vintage and thrift shops until the current crop of fashion and jewelry designers get it right. They’re doing great with the peasant blouses and lace-up jeans, but I wish they’d bring back crushed inlaid abalone and turquoise, round pendants with mountains, rainbows, suns and birds scenes and man in the moon faces. Mexican jewelers made a lot of it. There are people out there coveting and hanging on to it. Thanks and good luck.- Jody “Boho” Lawson
Fashion Update
Why Vintage - Now?
by Victoria Moore
“The reason vintage clothing is so in right now isn’t because people want to wear something old. It’s because they’re looking for something with the special embroidery, cut-work and other hand detailing that used to be commonly added to clothing in the past,” said David Sacks, owner of SACKS SFO.
Poetically calling it “Indian Summer,” he insists these are the m
ost important details showing up on this summer's skirts and blouses.Dealers at the Federation of Vintage Fashion’s Vintage Expo, held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium May 4 and 5, must have been on the same wavelength because they brought enough circle, prairie, wraparound skirts and peasant blouses to sense this trend’s significance. The only difference was they gave it a Sarah Jessica Parker “Sex and the City” twist by throwing in loads of funky purses and fake flower corsages.
Coordinated by designer Patricia Field for Parker's quirky and long-suffering character Carrie, her madcap escapades through New York in Jimmy Choos, newsboy caps and ultra-chic designer duds have finally hit the mainstream, causing vintage lovers to look back and see the similarities between what she wears and what was worn. Sweet and slightly awkward, the thought of tra-la-laing down the street like her in the real thing could make one yearn for simpler times.
But does it mean returning to a cookie cutter society where you were ostracized if you were eccentric or had your own ideas? With all the diversity we embrace today, our new addiction must be individuality. So I’m asking the question again: Why vintage and why now?
“The public is buying it because they're rebelling against corporate America and their attempts to make us conform to their agenda,” said Anna McWillie, Editor of NoHo>LA.
Stop at a magazine stand sometime and flip through the latest Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar and you'll see this reactionary viewpoint is even affecting fashion layouts in strange ways. It’s almost spooky how familiar looking are a white tank top with a wraparound skirt, a tiny fitted blazer with baggy cargo pants and a chiffon caftan over distressed jeans.
Since summer also means sun, surf, and sweat, it’s not surprising everyone will be out hunting for comfort as well as cool. Dealers at the show met this challenge by selling the aforementioned skirts, empire-waist dresses but also plain cardigan sweaters in pink, orange, yellow and white, gingham puff-sleeved midriff tops, denim Western shorts, enameled flower pins, charm bracelets, 1960s sunglasses, plastic shopping bags, straw flower trimmed mules, men’s Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, rock t-shirts, checked golf pants and three-tone bowling shoes.
Usually I stay neutral whenever I visit the Expo, but this time Jolene Harris’ (Harris Antiques) green, orange and lavender circle skirt and grey wraparound with a Hawaiian print border made me break my rule.
"I didn’t know how popular those skirts were until people kept coming in on Saturday and buying them,” she said. “They almost bought out my whole stock.”
If Harris’ space had a couple of things that made me reconsider my rule, Kathleen Schaaf’s space for “Meow” made me tear it up for good, especially when I saw her white high-heeled rhinestone mules, blue-and-white one-piece bathing suit, white straw bag with fake vegetable detailing and ’70s red, green and white lace prairie skirt.
Finally leaving loaded down with a Chinese jacket and a silver cross for myself and a few goodies for my loved ones, I realized the answer to my question was “because it makes you feel good, and you don't have to go broke doing it.”
So what can you expect for summer? Tons of full skirts, floral prints, sleek shift dresses, flashy golf pants, elegant bathing suits, and classy but fun accessories.
GlamourCon 2002
- 5 May at the Airport Radisson by Nick Burns
Imagine all the photo-retouching airbrushes of the pin-up girl industry switching from blow to suck; all the stretch-mark and sun-spot camouflage lifted from the images in girly magazines everywhere. Now imagine all those newly and truly exposed bodies lifted from glossy, stain-resistant pages and on display under the fluorescent lights of a hotel conference room. You've just imagined the grotesque sexiness of GlamourCon.
Oh, I forgot to mention the second most poignant feature of the convention: its disproportionately large patronage of massively obese men. But let that topic lay wait for a moment.
Admittedly, there's a certain unique excitement to the live witnessing of the same gravity-defying cheeks and boobs that earned ogling by innumerable porno mag buyers: daringly revealing to the human objects of lust the titillating satisfaction of receiving unrestricted enjoyment from their bodies—though at the price of their requited affections.
By facing the models in person, the fans flaunt their protected power to gain—albeit vicariously—satisfaction from the women no matter what these women do or want. They may never sleep in the same bed as she with the double-D’s, but neither will these back-stroke lovers ever hear, “I'm not in the mood,” from their partners in romance.
The fandom's low-self-esteem-triggered misogyny makes for a thinly-veiled sociological undercurrent of the event; but since all get that for which they came—the girls, dough; the fans, wood—it's an ugliness conveniently overlooked.
As for all the fat guys, their link to porn may have to do with the similar inherent excesses on which both the food and sex industries capitalize. This, however, doesn’t explain another male image trend on display—the bad mustache. Simply a porn industry fashion staple, it seems.