Meet a designer: Louella Ballerino
“Quiet Louella Ballerino has created a perfect furor down here. Everybody corners you to ask, ‘Have you seen Ballerino’s things?’ — so of course, everybody…
Meet a Designer: Dorothy O’Hara
[Author’s note: I initially wrote this post in January 2015, but I lost a lot of images when I switched hosts, and I felt like…
Ballerinas on the beach
In the late 1930s and early 40s, a popular silhouette for beach fashions was a slim torso flaring to a short skirt, as seen in…
Meet a designer: Don Loper
For a serious Hollywood designer, there is a surprising dearth of information about Don Loper. A lot of people know he designed for I Love Lucy,…
More Lilli Ann: 1940s
I know I write and post about Lilli Ann a lot, but recently I found several ads and photos from the 1940s that I thought…
Claire McCardell mystery dress
I love a good mystery. I love collecting clues, assembling narratives, and ultimately (hopefully) solving mysteries. When I bought this black Claire McCardell dress a…
Lilli Ann princess coats
I find markets fascinating. I think it’s interesting how things become valuable and why, the cycles that trends and objects and styles go through. For…
I’m glad it’s plaid
Here in California, we had the warmest October on record. It was consistently 80 degrees or warmer just about every single day, so I was…
One more photo post: The Vintage Fashion Expo
I LOVE going to the vintage fashion expo twice a year. Usually I have much bigger budget than I did this year, but it’s still…
Things I saw and liked, October 2015
Just a few things I saw at the Long Beach flea market this past weekend. Some fabulous hats, two legit E. McKnight Kauffer posters, and as…