Send in the Gowns

1960s vintage Herbert Sondheim dress

I decided to take a tour of my links to see what's on the vintage market right now. My first stop was Blue Velvet Vintage, which has a wonderful collection of 50s and 60s dresses. Pure Mad Men, in fact, can't you imagine Joan wearing this Herbert Sondheim dress?

She probably couldn't afford it even combining her salary as a secretary and her husband's salary as a resident M.D. in 1962. Herbert Sondheim dresses were demi-couture, sold only in the best stores. There's a post about Herbert Sondheim at the Coture Allure blog, with a picture of a day dress that sold for $160.00 in 1958. That's about $1200 in today's dollar. This dress was probably more expensive, which means it was a really good buy, at around $250.00, for whoever bought it between the time I started this post and today. Rats. It was my size, too.

Herbert Sondheim is also the father of composer Stephen Sondheim, who wrote Send in the Clowns for the musical A Little Night Music, which I saw in its first run in 1973. It was great.

Blue Velvet Vintage has a lot of other great things, in very wearable sizes, still in stock. Check out this great Audrey dress, and this oh-so-50's Suzy Perette swing dress. *Le sigh.*

It's the Holiday Season; do you know what you'll be wearing?

Nothing like the impending Holidays to get me browsing, indeed, prowling, through my favorite vintage sites looking for something special. These three caught my eye:

Groovy!

This first one, from Nelda's Vintage ebay store, is better suited to Hypotheca than I, but I know that when I was Hypotheca's hypothetical age I would have swooned on the floor of the Purple Giraffe (or whatever) boutique if I had seen such an item of beauty. (Incidently, having lived through I 60s I can say that I never heard anyone describe anything as "groovy," ever.) It's got a bit of an Ossie Clark air about it, doesn't it? And everybody knows that Ossie Clark was the coolest designer for rockstar-girlfriends ever, wasn't he? Kate Moss, collects vintage Ossie Clark, and whatever else you can say about Kate Moss, she knows her clothes. Anyhoo, this dress is a fairly decent size (bust 34) and the starting bid is only $9.99, so you can't go far wrong, can you?

Now this, THIS! is a prom dress.

And this is just one hell of a dress

The two red dresses are from Blue Velvet Vintage which has lots of lurverly and seasonal party dresses. I wish that I had successfully completed Project Waistline so I could fit into the balloon dress, but alas, I can't, so one of you will have to buy it. Wear it in good health!