As you know, Circa is hosting a vintage swimwear parade at the Wintersun festival in June, and it’s been a wonderful excuse to stock up on swimwear from the ’30s to the ’60s (not that I needed one).

Although I’ve bought quite a few lately, some styles are particularly hard to come by so I turned to the Vintage Fashion Guild for help. I’ve bought over thirty suits from fellow VFG traders around the world now and finally began to feel as if I have enough. That’s on top of about thirty or so that I already had.

But there was one style that I really wanted – and I found it on ebay, from a seller who wouldn’t ship outside of the US. Thankfully Jennifer from Vintage Visage came to my rescue, and the following beauty was mine for the princely sum of $3.99US. I don’t think the seller knew what she had…and she photographed it badly. Oh dear.

I waited eagerly for it’s arrival and here it is – from the late 1930s or early 1940s, it’s made of ribbed knitted wool and features a cut-out midriff and adjustable straps that can be worn either halter-neck or cross-over style. The straps have been replaced, and it looks like it’s gone a few rounds in a washing machine but all in she’s looking pretty good for seventy years old.

Here’s Fiona showing the swimsuit to much better effect:

In case you’re wondering why the swimsuit has suspenders attached, don’t worry….it’s not some wacky old-fangled kind of bathing suit, it’s just that Fiona (like all well behaved ladies) has kept her underwear on when trying it on. Doesn’t she look smashing?

If you’d like one for yourself, I found a nice stretch satin version on Glamoursurf’s website. This one will be appearing at Wintersun in June – and speaking of which, thank you to everyone who has volunteered to model or help out, I shall be contacting you soon with some shots of swimwear that will be available for the parade, and yes, we’re still looking for models – please email me at nicole@circavintageclothing.com.au

Hi all,

I’m organising a group to see Loel Thomson’s Costume Collection.

Loel is a private collector who has dedicated her time and resources to the collection, preservation and display of two hundred years of Australian fashion. Many of her pieces were included in my book Love Vintage. I’m sure that she has the best collection of Australian fashion in the country, as well as jewellery, accessories and lace. There’s also an impressive tea cosy collection!

When: Wednesday 17th February at 7pm.
Where: The Costume Collection, 39 Greenaway Street, Bulleen.
What: Tour and talk on 200 years of Australian fashion.
Cost: $5 which Loel donates to a local nursing home.
Bookings: call Circa on 9419 8899

For those who are interested in social history, the history of fashion or just beautiful clothes, I thoroughly recommend this visit. Numbers are limited and RSVP is essential.

Here are some links to photos that I took on previous visits – please note that Loel often changes the displays so you might see some of these but you’ll probably see others from her collection of over 3,000 pieces:
Early 19th century dress.
Victorian era.
Edwardian era.
1920s dress.
1930s dress.
1940s dress.
1950s dress.
Swimwear.

1950s swimwear from Loel Thomson’s Costume Collection.

UPDATE 8th Feb: As sufficient numbers have been received to fill the group, we’re now taking names for any one who might be interested in a second tour, hopefully in the next few weeks. Please call the shop on 9419 8899. Thank you.

Over the last century, the way we shop has changed a lot – from small shops, to mail order catalogues, to large department stores, to the boutique phenomenon of the ’60s and ’70s, to the large shopping centres of more recent decades – and now in the inner city we’re going back to smaller specialist shops whilst for many it’s still about heading to a large suburban mall.

The 1920s and 1930s in particular were a boom time for department stores – and although their numbers have dwindled, you can still see their beautiful structures in many cities and towns. Can you imagine shopping for dresses in a salon-style environment where you might relax with a cup of tea whilst beautifully coiffured and dressed models paraded gowns for your selection? You can see similar scenes in films like “How to Marry a Millionaire”, “Vertigo” and “The Women” (1939 version). It must have been quite wonderful – especially compared to today’s shopping experience where you’re faced with racks of clothing and don’t know where to start.

As a vintage clothing retailer, I try to combine the best of modern and old styles of shopping, to produce a pleasant environment – so I’m always pleased to find photos of old shops and their displays. They make wonderful sources for inspiration.

A lady with an interest in local history has found a large cache of photos at Perth’s state library and loaded them up to Facebook – I can recommend the community “Beautiful buildings and cool places Perth has lost” but it was the photos of Boans Department store that made my heart race.

Boans was Perth’s largest and oldest department store, opened in 1895 and rebuilt in 1912 to the building you see below. It sat between Wellington and Murray Streets, opposite the train station and was sold to Myer in 1985. The following year it was demolished to make way for the Forrest Chase shopping centre. At one time it was the largest employer in Western Australia, and had many suburban and country branches.

I remember Boans quite well – I used to go shopping there as a child in the late ’70s and would buy haberdashery and fabrics for my home-sewn dresses. It was a charmingly old fashioned shop and looked very much as it is in the photos below – but by that time it must have seemed very out of date and most shoppers were going elsewhere.

Here are some photos of Boans from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s – if you click on each, it will come up in full size.

Update: a book has just been published about the store: Boans for Service: The story of a department store 1895-1986 by David Hough. Might have to pick up a copy.

Boans Department Store – 1930s.

Boans Department Store – 1940s

Boans Department Store – 1950s

All images courtesy Battye Library with thanks to Michelle Turner and Facebook community “Beautiful buildings and cool places Perth has lost”

Recently we drove to Sydney for the launch of the book (more about that later, yes I really am that far behind on my postings!) and did a bit of a country meander over two pleasant days. We stopped in Goulburn for some lunch at the Paragon Cafe – we knew we were onto a good thing when the large room was packed at it wasn’t even noon yet.

Around the corner we found two rather special 1930s Art Deco style buildings – Elmslea Chambers and across the road, Halsbury House. I love the way they’re both wonderful examples at different ends of the spectrum: one clean and crisp, almost industrial in it’s commercialism – the other colourful and fanciful. Hope you like them too.

Last Wednesday we held the Melbourne book launch for Love Vintage, with a vintage parade of thirty outfits from the ’30s to the ’70s (most of which are featured in the book).

Without further ado, allow me to present some photos from the parade – if you click on each one, you can see it in full. All photos courtesy Victoria Bennett.

I’d also like to thank everyone who helped with the event –
Models: Candice DeVille, Samantha Doll, Becky Argent, Fiona Hamilton, Nici Blue Eyes and Nicole Gregurek.
MC: Andrew McClelland.
DJ: Nic Toupee.
Doorman: Jeremy Murphy.
Stage Manager: Anna Schoo.
Dressers: Esther Hayes, Remie Cibis and Denise Cox.
Hair and Make up: Carly Robinson of the Lindy Charm School.
Book sellers: Anna Knight and Tim Hamilton.
Photography: Victoria Bennett.

Big thank you to The Order of Melbourne for providing a wonderful venue, and everyone who came – including Jean, my step-mother, who flew over from Perth for the night. It was fabulous, the largest event I’ve organised and everything went off like a dream. Andrew as MC did such a great job, he had all of us laughing, especially the models! You have to click on the images to see their smiling faces now.

The books are of course, available to purchase from Circa and book stores every where – cost is $50. I’ve had some enquiries from outside of Victoria so tomorrow I’m going to get some postage quotes for other destinations (apologies to those who have emailed, response will be forthcoming).

And now a little contest…one of the dresses in the parade was worn back to front. Can you guess which one? Comment below (you can see the name of each photo if you hover your mouse over it) and a lucky person will receive a copy of Love Vintage, including postage to anywhere in Australia. Entries close COB Saturday (6pm Melbourne time).

One of my final tasks for The Book is to write small pieces on the major fashion designers of the 20th century – it’s been both pleasurable and frustrating because I love them so much, it’s a struggle to write only one paragraph. So I’ve been writing three – to do less seems insulting, these men and women have contributed so much to my world of vintage clothing.

Today I considered one of my favourites, the incomparable Elsa Schiaparelli. Not only did she have the good fortune to be operating at a very interesting (and glamourous) time in fashion (the ’20s and ’30s), but she was able to count amongst her many friends some of the most important artists, including Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

Schiaparelli collaborated with some of these men, whilst others merely inspired her – and the results were witty and fun, challenging and controversial. Here are some of her most talked about creations…they all date from the late ’30s and I love them all.

I love the colour green so thought you might like to see some of those frocks we currently have in stock.

Firstly – a lime crepe evening gown from the mid 1930s. It features a cowl neckline, plunging back and a small sash, which drapes around the sides and secures at the back – this works especially well when accessorised with a small diamante buckle of the era. Unusually for these styles, this one is very wearable size 10.

Second up is a rayon floral day dress from the late 1930s – a particularly vibrant combination of colours, the fabric drapes well and needs someone quite petite. Size 4 in modern sizes.

Thirdly is my favourite: a rich bottle green crepe evening gown from the early 1940s. In excellent condition, it features some interesting bodice draping (click on the close up for a better view) it’s a size 10-12.

The last dress is more modern – 1960s and an amazing leaf green velvet with satin ribbon trim and rosette trimming the neckline. I’ve never seen a velvet this shade of green. Size small, probably a 6 or 8 (’60s dresses are sized by their hips rather than waistlines so slim hips are needed).

And what to wear with your green frock? Some complementary vintage gloves of course!

As always, click on each image to see in full and again, to see a larger version. These dresses are all available for sale in store now.

UPDATE; I’m afraid that I had to repost this post after it crashed my site (bug, sadly) so the comments were deleted. Sorry – wish I could re-add them but they’ve gone.

Whilst we’re on a cycling theme, thought I’d show you these images that I found. I’m afraid that I can’t provide any information about them though, except to say that they were probably posted to various Livejournal communities and were saved without details. If you know anything, please let me know.

Hope you like them too.

We had some beautiful evening clothes in Circa’s window last week – golds and peaches, shiny and sparkly to ward off the wintery nights. Sadly, we sold the centre piece (a fabulous peach bias cut gown with elaborate slashed and frilled sleeves) the first day, so we replaced it with another gold and I took some pics before any more gowns found new homes.

We’re having some lighting issues with the front window and it’s looking rather dark – this should be fixed soon.

As you know, I do lots of hand washing to keep Circa full of vintage goodies – and this time of year when the sky clouds over and rain falls at least a little on most days, it becomes hard to keep up with demand. Lately we’ve been particularly short of dresses as dry cleaning has been the only way to keep up, and many fabrics are better when they’ve been laundered and dried in a sunny and breezy backyard.

My priority this week has been to catch up on my washing. Yesterday I spent the day at my circa 1942 green porcelain kitchen sink, hard at it. When the weather isn’t great it can take up to two days for them to dry so this morning (during a burst of sunlight) I snuck out there and took a few pics of what will soon be available in the shop. Note that they’ll look much better when they’ve been ironed and mended!

Bow ties – these are dried flat on a towel so that they don’t get peg marks on them.

Scarves – silks and acetates from the ’40s to the ’80s. Nice and colourful despite the cloudy day!

Edwardian chemise, Edwardian tea gown, nylon petticoats and 1930s wedding dress. Behind you can just see a brilliant yellow late ’30s ballgown.