Lusts and Loves from the Dallas Vintage Show

First off, apologies for my highly sporadic posts lately. Last week we were prepping for the Dallas Vintage Clothing and Jewelry Show, and this week we have been, well, recovering. It was a great show, and it’s always so nice to meet other dealers and see some of the amazing treasures they have discovered. Here are a few of our favorites:

This vendor took great pride in presenting the most unique and unusual items for sale. Our favorite pieces included this chain-link vest. A little Jean-Paul Gaultier, a little Medieval, a LOT Madonna. Which, I guess goes without saying when you mention JPG. I’m not sure who wears this, or to where, but there’s something so fabulous about it. Oh if only I were a bit more daring!

Chain Link Vest

The same vendor also had this great armadillo handbag. Now, we have had a few 1940s Cuban baby alligator bags come through the store, but never anything as disturbing and wonderful as this little guy. Definitely not a purse snatcher on the planet that would come close to grabbing this off of your shoulder.

Armadillo Handbag

One of our favorite dealers is Ken Weber, owner of Vintage Martini in Carrolton. His collection is to die for and when you have amazing pieces, you can create amazing displays. We are visiting his store soon and I have a feeling I will never want to leave!

Vintage Martini

Ken’s mother, Janet is also in the business with her online shop Woodland Farms Vintage. They tend to travel together on buying and show trips and never, EVER fight over who gets what in their picks. Janet has a collection of 1920s cloche hats that are truly works of art. Probably not hats that you would actually wear, given their age and fragile nature, but beauties to look at!

1920s Cloche Hats

Just as with the cloche hats, anytime you find a garment from the 20s that is wearable, it is a true find. This beaded silk dress was appropriately put up on a mannequin high out of reach of hands itching to touch. Including mine!

1920s Beaded Silk Dress

Finally, there were two booths of jewelry across from mine. Normally, I’m so overwhelmed by the massive amounts of rhinestones and bling that I tend to stay away from these booths. But, there is always down time, and boredom and curiosity drive you to wander and check out what everyone else has. The one piece I did fall in love with was this snake pin. Of course, we are all about snake jewelry in any form so it’s no surprise that this caught our attention. However, at $225, a bit out of our price range!

Snake pin

The next show will be in March. If that chain link vest is still there, I am SO buying it!

The Greatest Thing to Happen to Texas since….

We have been traveling the world, also know as Texas, searching for some incredibly unique finds in preparation for our show this weekend. We will be joining over 50 vintage dealers from all over the metroplex, dealers from online shops, and from other parts of the country in the Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show in Grapevine, March 16-17. Other vintage shops from DFW will be there as well, such as Zola’s, Vintage Martini, and Dolly Python.

The show itself is the first of its kind in Texas. One of the promoters is quoted as saying you can find everything “from Mad Men to Downton Abbey”. This sounds like a perfect excuse to duck out of work early on Friday and head over to Grapevine! Doors open at 3pm, but if you’re like me you can get in an hour earlier for $20 and beat the crowds. Not to mention, secure some of the best deals for yourself.

When our store does shows like this throughout the year, the first question is always what to take. We’ve hit the vintage lottery so much in the last few months that it’d be hard to not take everything! The 80’s Carolina Herrera dresses, the silk Malcolm Starr, our lot of vintage skin bags…who can choose? And our plethora of vintage cowboy boots, they get lonely without enough attention. But don’t fret! We won’t empty the store. You’ll still have plenty to play with in our store this weekend. We know that Easter is right around the corner, and scoring that one of kind, would hurl yourself over a pew if you had a twin at service that morning, Easter dress is top priority. No Easter is complete without a great vintage hat to match.

Pastels mean Spring, and while we hope that was the last cold front of the year, Spring is coming! Whether you come to the store in Fort Worth, or the show in Grapevine, we hope to see you this weekend, with some sunshine and good weather to keep us all in a better mood.

We have the pleasure of meeting some really cool people in the shop from time to time. On Friday we met a couple in town from Austin, escaping the SXSW craze. It was their first time to Fort Worth, so we got to chatting with them of course. He is an inventor, and vintage lover, and she is an adorable young lady who makes everything vintage look good. He is the creator of Vintage Vanities, a small, but soon to be large, company that hand makes pocket sized mirrors. He cuts the glass, crafts a copper material around the edges so they are smooth and never rough, and places a unique image in the other side. His images, he’s chosen carefully, hand picking each to his own taste. Some of the images include the graffiti artist Banksy, Duchamp’s Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and many other classic images of vintage beauties like Bridget Bardot. Not to mention this pretty awesome David Bowie! Love the hair dude. He also has a line of 19^th century images that would make you laugh, or blush, but are great to say the least. These we’ll have to let you discover yourself. His mirrors are carried in stores all over Austin, and are quickly catching on all over. When creativity and small business come together and meet success, that always makes us smile! Happy soggy Monday, vintage lovers!

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