Debutante Clothing :: A vintage clothing and fashion blog for unconventional style where vintage and runway meet.

I love it when a LBD is two parts girly and one part naughty. This amazing body hugging dress is the epitome of the Audrey look and it doesn't get much better than a perfectly sized bow resting right on the girls. But the part I love the most is that this bow is actually just barely concealing, because if you look right beneath - well you get quite the little peep through that peep hole!

available at Dorthea's Closet
$185

The best of the vintage bloggers:

Debutante Clothing finds a wickedly chic vintage Halloween dress

The Vintage Traveler explains how not to store a wedding dress

iKonic Vintage starts off Video Thursdays with gothic glamour.

Want to join the vintage linking fun? Join us at Yahoo Groups!

I was checking out Start Up Nation's Home-Based 100 Competition and they have 2 new categories: Best Slacker and Most Glamourous. Of course I headed for the most glamourous and fully expected someone with a vintage clothing busines, but I didn't expect one called Debutante Vintage!

My online boutique is called Debutante Clothing. I started it in 2005, so I have been branding it longer. But hindsight is 20/20 and the smart thing to have done in 2005 is to register both domains. Lesson learned.

Learn from my mistake! Go out and register all possible domains for your site.

The lovely ladies at Dramatis Personae have just encountered an unfortunately common experience while shopping online - they got screwed!

Long story short: they ended paying more for their purchase even though it was supposed to be discounted due to fraudulent shipping charges.

The store in question is Pinup Girl Clothing. I admit that they do carry a great assortment of vintage reproduction clothing, although I have never purchased from them. My conclusion about all of this is that they are a small operation, probably run by fewer than 5 people, and they haven't worked out the bugs in their International transactions. I am not excusing it because it is terrible business and they better get it together if they want to make sales and not be virtually stoned by bloggers like us.

As a veteran shopper, both for old and new things, I wanted to pass down some handy tips so that you do not get screwed by online sellers.

Check the return policy
if the seller has too many restrictions when it comes to returns, keep moving. In this day and age, with online shopping being so competitive, online retailers need to get a clue and make transactions as smooth as possible.

Check shipping charges beforehand
I rarely shop at international e-commerce stores because the charges are so much. A good e-commerce company that is serious about making customers happy will charge a flat, reasonable fee. But, keep in mind that all countries are different when it comes to postage, taxes, etc.

Take measurements
You must know your measurements ladies! I will preach this until I die. A good e-commerce store will have a measurements guide. Please check it and yourself! I don't know anyone who can afford to pay for shipping charges just to try something on. Not everyone is Zappos.com where you pay nothing for shipping.

Vintage shopping has it's own set of rules. I've provided some handy information so shopping for vintage online won't be so stressful.

I hope this helps! Don't be afraid to shop online, but understand the constrictions.

So I just discovered that for the last month, some of you lovely readers have not been getting RSS updates. Don't ask me how I figured it out, because I really have no idea, but I do feel pretty darn smart right now.

Hopefully, whatever tinkering I did will fix this problem. Email subscribers, can you check in?

xo.

Do you love vintage as much as I do? Enough that you blog endlessly about it? Some of the members of the Vintage Fashion Guild and I are getting together for cocktails and blogging. The Vintage Roadshow will be a collection of the best vintage related blog posts on the web.

Vintage clothing, vintage housewares, vintage design - whatever your vintage passion is, if you blog about we'd love to include you!

To apply, sign up at Vintage Roadshow

AND

you get a cute little badge like this

Groovy goulie good times shall be had in this sexy Halloween black widow dress. I love the spider web sheer inset on the back. So much better than slutty nurses and french maids, don't you think?

available at Etsy.com
$45

This year, the Emmy Awards celebrated the big 6-0. I'm not a huge awards fashion hound, but I am always curious to see who has the most vintage inspiration.

Well I should have known my girl America would show up in style, but this year she did it in vintage. I don't know if she's going through a vintage phase, but I love it! She has the right body for pretty 50s dresses. In addition to gorgeous black frock, she is decked out in 19th century Fred Leighton jewels.

CREDIT: Frazer Harrison/Getty

And Sandra Oh looked gorgeous in a black lace Oscar de la Renta gown topped off with a vintage Chanel bag and Chanel pearled shoes.

CREDIT: Frazer Harrison/Getty

Apparently Dana Delany wore vintage as well, but I cannot seem to find a picture. If I missed any other vintage, please let me know so I can drool some more.

While there weren't too many vintage dress (there never are), there was a whole lot of vintage bling. According to the Diamond Information Center, www.adiamondisforever.com, the following celebrities were decorated with some serious vintage ice:

Brooke Shields - Fred Leighton - Old mine-cut diamond leaf and vine earrings in silver on gold

Dana Delany - LILY et Cie - 1920's French diamond earrings set in platinum

Debra Messing - Fred Leighton - 19th Century old mine diamond fan pendant earrings, 25-carats

Emilie de Raven - H. Stern and Stephen Russell - H. Stern Victorian diamond earrings with cognac diamonds, valued at $8,300

Glenn Close - Fred Leighton - 1930's diamond pendant earrings

Jillian Dempsey - Fred Leighton - Old mine-cut diamond pendant earrings, 3-carats each

Kyra Sedgwick - Fred Leighton - 1930's diamond pyramid earrings in platinum

Olivia Wilde - Kwiat - 1960's diamond Decades Collection earrings, valued at $300,000

Cynthia Nixon - Fred Leighton -1920's buckle diamond bracelet; art deco diamond bracelet

Dana Delany - LILY et Cie - Three French 1920's diamond bracelets

Glenn Close - Fred Leighton - 1930's diamond bracelet

Hayden Panettiere - Fred Leighton -1920's diamond bracelet in platinum; 1920's diamond and onyx bracelet in platinum

Mary-Louise Parker - Cartier - Cartier tradition triple and double raw diamond bracelet, Cartier London 1934, including 85 cushion- and circular-cut diamonds with 28-carats of diamonds, 20 baguette-cut diamonds with approximately 1.4 carats of diamonds, and four rose-cut diamonds, valued at $335,000; Cartier Tradition pear shaped diamond bracelet, Cartier Paris 1951, 204 diamonds with 19.33 carats of diamonds, valued at $92,000

My girl crush on America Ferrera is no secret. So when I saw her wearing this lovely little vintage dress on Fashion Week Daily I was so giddy. This is definitely a vast improvement on Betty Suarez's wardrobe on the hit TV show (although she has rocked some polyester at times).

This dress reminds me a bit of Carrie Bradshaw's red floral dress in the Sex and the City movie. The one she wears to the auction. Although, America's might have flyaway panels rather than a skirt overlay. It's hard to tell in this picture. Either way, she scores a major 10 on my vintage scale.

In California, it's very easy to keep the same wardrobe all year round. I have a drawer full of sweaters but I rarely need to put them in storage when summer comes around. I also live in the 'burbs and have more closet space than a city gal, but sometimes it doesn't seem to be enough.

The ritual of changing your wardrobe for the season doesn't have to be daunting. This fall, many spring trends will transfer over, such as florals. Keep the darker florals in your closet and pair them with the latest shooties (shoe booties) for a fall ready look.

Booth Moore at the LA Times has some great tips for fall-ifying your closet. I especially love the advice about shopping at unexpected places.

Just because it's fall doesn't mean you have to hit the mall. Shop thrift stores, vintage stores and discount stores for trends. If you are lucky, you'll find something unique, not the same old piece you're already sick of after seeing it in the pages of InStyle, Vogue and Marie Claire. I recently picked up a 1970s-inspired, wood and gold drop architectural necklace for $19.99 at Loehmann's that's a dead ringer for a similar (much pricier) Tory Burch style.

I stopped at Shabon on Beverly Boulevard in L.A., one of my favorite vintage stores, and found a divine paisley peasant dress that could have walked right off the Gucci runway. It was $69. I can't wait to wear it with suede boots, tights and a chunky necklace. American Rag Cie is another good source for clothing that is vintage and also of-the-moment.

shoes: via spiga nikki $260, zappos.com

The ever lovely Stevie at LA-Story.com has "Hearted" me. What does this mean, besides the fact that I adore her in real life and apparently the feeling is mutual? It means I proudly get to wear this badge:

So what do I have to do? I have to pass on the love!

1. The nominated is allowed to put this picture on their blog.

2. Link to the person who hearted you. LA-Story.com

3. Nominate at least 7 other people and link to them.
Omiru
Gala Darling
The Coveted
Manolo Moda
Kristopher Dukes
PR Couture
Style IT

4. Leave a message on those people's blog to make them aware that they're nominated.

In honor of 9/11, Debutante Clothing will return tomorrow, when talking about fashion doesn't seem so frivolous.

Part of the reason it's been so quiet here is that I am hauling half my stock over to the Pomona Antique Row in downtown Pomona, CA. I have rented a small space at the Pomona Antique Mart (formerly Robbins) on 2nd Street. I really do need to get rid of stuff that I am just too lazy to photograph and keep the goods I think Debutante Clothing customers will want -- if they're still around since I've been so bad about stocking the online store as well.

In the process of crafting a cute little tag for my antique mall items, I came across some vintage Bally posters that are so graphic and sophisticated that I had to share. I won't pretend to be an art historian, or even mildly educated in the art world -- we have Jennine of the Coveted for that. But these posters remind me of Soviet propaganda posters -- with legs!

I ended up using the red and black version, since I think she most resembles the model in my header.

Maybe it's the influence of the smoky drama Mad Men, but I am seeing brocades in many fashion magazines. Done just right, a brocade can luxe, but many times you find beautiful patterns and colors on dowdy, unflattering dresses. Unless you are lucky enough to find a beauty like this...

available at Jazzboogie @ Etsy.com
$66.50

I am a member of the Vintage Fashion Guild. The VFG is a professional organization for sellers, journalists and curators of vintage fashion. The wealth of knowledge amongst its members is truly astonishing. If you are a vintage afficianado, I highly suggest you spend some time on their message boards or reading one of their many resources. You do not have to be a member to join the conversation - you can participate as a "friend".

A question was recently posed by a friend about cutting up vintage garments. I am going to stay very neutral, so bear with me. The VFG and its members, which includes me, does not promote the permanent alteration of vintage garments.

Some argue that some vintage is worth more than others and much of the most current vintage, meaning stuff from the 70s, is massed produced and would never really become all that collectible.

I know there are many vintage wearers who do permanently alter vintage dresses, especially the length, in an effort to make it more wearable in today's times. The problem is that essentially, you are damaging a potential piece of fashion history. As a self-proclaimed vintage expert, I feel I have the knowledge of what is potentially collectible and what is not. But what about the poor girl who hacks off the bottom of a Biba maxi in order to make it modern? It makes me faint just thinking about it.

And then there are people that I just want to shake...

and the original...

I know, I know -- it's not like it's a New Look dress from the '50s. But just because you wouldn't wear a caftan, even a Dior one, doesn't mean it should be hacked to death. What's going to happen in 30 years, when '70s clothing will become the equivalent of today's '20s flapper and '30s chiffon dress -- highly coveted but rare? Will we loathe the day we decided to take scissors to the hemline of a collectible piece, before we knew it was collectible?

With all due respect to E2, Michele Meunier and Olivier Chatenet, a Parisian design team, and CoutureLab.com, I get that they are trying to breathe new life into an old garment. Maybe I'm just looking at this too much as a historian and not through the eyes of a fashionista.

And go ahead and call me a label whore, but I can't help but wonder if murdering or at least mutilating desirable vintage names like Dior is worth it. Is this a crime against fashion history?

Sometimes I find the line between collecting and hording vintage gets a bit blurred. And don't even get me started on trying to sell the treasures I find. You should see my inventory. I am working very hard on trying to get back into selling mode and get things listed in the store, but I have to admit the blog has taken on a life of its own.

But when it comes to collecting, I only collect what I love. And I just can't get enough vintage costume jewelry. The great thing about shopping for vintage jewelry is that you can still find some great stuff in the thrifts and at yard sales.

Before you make your next thrift store expedition, check out this great video on vintage costume jewelry.

Even though California feels like muggy Florida right now, visions of fall are floating around in my mind.

Here is a perfect coat for the girl who needs to wear a bit of bling with everything from jeans to cocktail dresses. The marabou sleeves give this coat just enough softness to keep it from looking Vegas Glam.

available at the Urban Collection
$76