One of the most sought after kind of dresses in the vintage world are beaded 1920s dresses. Fragile by nature, few have survived to the modern day, and those that have often require lots of restoration, as the weight of the beads damages the delicate silk chiffons and georgettes.

Last year I restored a ’20s evening gown for a customer who was wearing it for a special birthday. The bodice featured a beaded panel, much damaged over the years – the dress was unwearable as is, especially as she wished to dance in it, so I removed the bodice panels (front and back), matched the silk chiffon and silk charmeuse to new fabrics and (with the help of a friend) sewed them all together using silk thread.

Then I spent a week restitching the entire beaded panel. Originally sewn with cotton thread, it had deteriorated over the years and as I touched each bead, it came adrift – so there was nothing else for it, but to redo it all. It took me over fifty hours but I was happy with the result. I don’t think that I’ve ever spent so long restoring a dress for sale, and the resulting price did not reflect all the work and material costs that had gone into it. But it was beautiful and my customer was happy.

Please excuse the dreadful photos: as well as being out of focus, they don’t represent the true colour which is a delicate shade of pale green referred to during the Art Deco era as “eau de nil” (the first image, sans flash, is the closest). The original 1920s beads are a shimmering silver-white. I’m glad that there were enough intact to complete the task, as it would be hard to find more of the same.

The front is high and the back low, ornamented with a beaded rosette. The back detailing along with the silk charmeuse and bias cut skirt (below the drop waist) suggest that this gown is from the late 1920s, perhaps not long before the waistline returned to it’s natural place in 1929. Whilst featuring elements of 1930s style, it’s still very much a flapper dress, ready to kick up her heels at one more fabulous party.

The weather is so lovely today, perfect for catching up on some laundry for the shop. As you know, everything at Circa is cleaned before it goes in, and for most items of vintage clothing that entails hand washing.

Today I’m tidying up all the bits and pieces that haven’t fitted into previous wash days and that includes a big bag of gloves. I collect them throughout the year and every few months, do a big wash – this is a smaller one than usual.

Here’s a pic from an earlier Glove Day. I bought the local shop out of pegs before doing this one:

Today I divided them into plains and coloureds – plains are the whites, the creams and the beiges. Most vintage gloves come in these colours, and as unexciting as they are to our modern eye, they were the perfect companion to an outfit back in the day. And, of course, they usually matched her shoes and handbag.

These are the plains – the coloureds are next. I’m excited about some of those: there’s a long pair of ’50s gloves in candy pink and another in royal blue. I love coloured gloves.

This seems like a good opportunity to say a few words about vintage gloves. I believe that there is no easier way to glam up an outfit than to add gloves – it’s an accessory that whilst being essential in the past (every lady would put them on as she left the house) is rarely seen these days, out of very formal occasions like weddings and balls. Like the hat, they’ve been mostly relegated to history.

The vintage lover will find gloves where ever she turns – but if she chooses to wear them, she will soon encounter a size issue: our hands (much like our heads and our feet) are larger than our grandmothers. In the past, gloves came in sizes and the size was your shoe size. The most common sizes are 6, 6 1/2, 7 and 7 1/2. Whether you can fit your modern hands into them depends in part on the style and the fabric. For ladies with either broad hands or a foot larger than size 8, Circa stocks a range of new gloves alongside the vintage gloves. They’re made of stretchy polyester. They don’t come in the variety of styles, colours and fabrics that their vintage sisters do, but they will fit.

Most vintage gloves come in cotton or nylon, occasionally in rayon or silk. All can be a bit stretchy depending on the weave – knits are best. Most of the vintage gloves we find in Australia are from the 1950s or 1960s – during the latter decade their use gradually declined although older ladies still wore them because they were used to it (it must have been a shock when young ladies started going without. This is of course a big reason why Jean Shrimpton was so shocking in 1965 at Derby Day).

Ladies would have large collections of them – when I buy an entire personal wardrobe I often find that there are twenty or more pairs stashed away. One lady had 74 pairs, all in cream! They used special glove soap to clean them (nowadays, I just use hand washing liquid).

The length of the glove worn was dictated by the style of sleeve and time of day:
- wrist and bracelet (half way up your lower arm) lengths suited day dresses and ensembles, usually worn in plain white, cream or beige.
- below the elbow was for an evening event with a short sleeve (eg, party dress)
- above the elbow suits a sleeveless dress (eg cocktail dress)
- opera length, the longest, almost come up to your shoulders – was best for a strapless gown.

During the early 1980s when sophistication made a comeback via the New Romantics, gloves came back into vogue. That was when I first started wearing them and my favourites were a pair of 50s opera length gloves in an intense cobalt. They perfectly matched one of my 50s party dresses, and I wore them to a 21st where upon I drank too much and ripped apart some garlic bread without taking them off.

Later, the birthday boy declared it was the sexiest thing he had ever seen…my gloves might have been ruined but it was worth it for my Dolce Vita moment.

Vintage lovers, I spend a certain amount of time online and one of my favourite occupations is in the perusal of blogs – especially those from ladies who like nothing better than to frock up and show the world how fabulous and stylish they are.

Here are some of my favourites:

Alice Jean’s – vintage living in a modern world
Kesenya is a lady from another age, and like me, prefers the pre-1965 world (in most but not all ways). Her blog is an ode to vintage living, complete with handsome husband.

Esme and the laneway.
I love everything about Marianne’s style – from the red and white polka dots to the victory rolls. Mixing vintage with modern, her style is feminine and whimsical.

Fleur de Guerre – diary of a vintage girl
Fleur is based in England – as she puts it, “part-time pinup girl and full-time Forties enthusiast” and her blog is full of great images depicting her glamourous life.

Super Kawaii Mama
Circa’s favourite glamourpuss, Candice updates frequently with fashion, style tips, make-up and hair tutorials as well reflections on life as mother to two (inevitably stylish) young daughters. Like Marianne, Candice mixes real vintage with more modern styles to produce an individual look.

As you know, some of my older garments are on display in an exhibition at the City Museum called “What Women Wore”. It was with sadness that I read on the weekend that the museum will be closing.

Thankfully it won’t be until the latest exhibition on vintage toys finishes on the 14th of March – and in the meantime, I’ll be giving a little talk on vintage clothing to accompany the What Women Wore exhibition.

What: “Join Nicole Jenkins – long time vintage lover, author of Love Vintage and proprietor of Circa Vintage Clothing in Melbourne – for a lively discussion. Enjoy a glass of sparkling wine on arrival. ” Copies of Love Vintage will also be available for sale.
Where: City Museum, Old Treasury Building, Spring Street Melbourne.
When: Friday 19 February, 6pm.
Cost: Adult $10 / Concession holders and children free (incl glass of sparkling wine).
Bookings: please contact City Museum on (03) 9651 2233.

If you’re interested in cultural events at the City Museum, please see the latest newsletter.

1920s silk devore dress and 1920s silk embroidered coat – in the background you can just see the polka dots of a silk 1950s dress, couture by Le Louvre.

I get a lot of enquiries about creating vintage hair and make up looks. Next weekend some lovely ladies are holding some workshops to pass on their skills to creating the perfect vintage You.

From the website:
So if you’ve ever wanted to become a pin-up gal and learn how to pin curl, victory roll, set your hair in rollers, finger wave, or recreate vintage make-up, why not book a place at this workshop and transport yourself back to this glamorous era.

What: Lindy Charm School – 3 hour workshops on hair, make up and vintage stying.
When: Saturday 15th August or Sunday 16th August

Apparently there aren’t many places left so if you’re interested, please email Chrissy asap for details on where and cost at: christine@marinaoceanus.com.au

More information at the Myspace Page.

Thanks to Super Kawaii Mama and her Events Page where I found the details.

The Sydney Design Festival is now on and a number of interesting workshops are scheduled. In particular, ESMOD is hosting several that may be of value and inspiration to the vintage clothing enthusiast:

Tuesday nights until September 8 – 20th century Haute Couture and the origins of Ready to Wear, with a different era covered each night (tonight is Victorian, next Tuesday is Edwardian, the week after is ’20s etc).

This Saturday is Embellishment: couture beading and embroidery techniques.

This Sunday, a one day seminar on Conservation and Restoration.

There is also Visual Appeal: colour and textile in fashion design and Fashion Drawing: the ESMOD methode.

For more information, follow the above links or check out ESMOD’s site.

Photo courtesy ESMOD.

I’ll tell you a secret: I really enjoy hand washing clothes, especially vintage clothes. It’s a good thing, because I have to do lots of laundry for Circa, and when you wash a garment it tells you it’s secrets – what it’s made of, how it’s made and how it wants to be treated. A lot of old garments are made from non-colourfast dyes so they need to washed separately (to avoid staining others) and in cold or lukewarm water.

Every week I wash lots of clothes but gloves and scarves get special treatment – I’ll save them up and every few months do a massive wash when the weather is just right. Yesterday was such a day, and as we go into Racing Season, the turn of the gloves. Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful enough with my colour treatment, and some dark green gloves ran and managed to spoilt a few others. Thankfully I had some “Run Away” on hand to save them.

The gloves aren’t as colourful as the scarves but they still make for an interesting pic: here be over 300 gloves of all different sizes, colours, fabrics and styles. Will be in store in the next few days, once we’ve matched them all up again and sorted them into categories.

The Heritage Hill Museum in Dandenong is presenting a series of professional workshops, including a full day textile care workshop on Friday 29th August. This will be presented by Christina Ritschel of the National Gallery of Victoria and include issues relating to the preservation and display of textiles.

Older fabric and clothing can be quite delicate and is often damaged through the process of wearing, washing and storing – this is a rare opportunity to meet with an expert in the field and discuss how to identify damage and prevent it’s future occurrence. Places are limited – if you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to book a place. Cost is $25, which includes lunch, morning and afternoon tea (how civilised is that?)

For further information or to book contact Heritage Hill on 9793 4511.

Photo courtesy of the La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.

I’m always on the search for wonderful vintage buttons – vintage garments have often lost them or might have had them replaced by “wrong” versions over the years so where ever possible, I like to restore them with the sort of button they would have had originally. They can make a such a difference to something plain as well.

Circa has thousands – all sorted into every conceivable colour, material and type (shanked, two hole, four hole or other) and grouped in little zip lock bags. It doesn’t seem to matter how many we have though, we don’t always have the “right” one so we need button specialists as a back up.

Thankfully, there is a small and dedicated group of ladies around who cater to just this need, whilst indulging in their own fascinating hobby. We get asked a lot about who we recommend, so here are the main ones we use:

Habadash, 8 Templeton Street Castlemaine – well worth a trip to the country and this treasure trove of buttons, sewing ephemera, vintage jewellery and linens and other goodies. I can’t go into Sonia Collard’s beautiful shop without wanting to buy something so it’s lucky that she has no shortage of fabulous trinkets at reasonable prices.

Here is some of her amazing bakelite button collection – they look like lollies, don’t you think?

In Melbourne’s Nicholas Building (corner of Swanston and Flinders Lane) you’ll find Buttonmania – Kate Boulton has the largest range of new as well as vintage buttons and conducts workshops and regular sales (a good time to stock up). I love her set of small drawers, where many of the goodies are kept:

Photo: Estelle Judah from The Age.

I also go to see Miranda at Chapel street Bazaar (217 Chapel Street, Prahran) – she has one of the best collections of vintage haberdashery all at market prices – as well as regular half price sales. My favourites; gorgeous french jet buttons from the 1940s.

Speaking of markets, there’s a wonderful lady at Camberwell market on Sunday mornings – especially good for large plastic buttons from the 1950s, and buttons in quantities. I think all of hers are brand new, unused old stock, like Miranda’s.

Of course eBay is a wonderful resource too – although I must admit to preferring to be able to touch them, see how they look up against my fabric and inspect them for small damages – as well as use them immediately!

You can find vintage buttons every where that old things are – my last two favourite sources are op shops, where lucky customers might pick up an old tin or jar containing an old lady’s collection going back many years, and vintage fashion fairs like The Way We Wear Fair and Sydney’s Love Vintage Fair.

Vintage buttons come in all manner of materials, many of which the modern appreciator might not be familiar with – a handy guide to testing buttons to determine their material can be found here.

Increasingly, students ask me to help with assignments that they have on vintage or the history of dress or the industry – to make things easier, I thought I’d answer Jenny’s questions here. If my responses are of use to you, you’re most welcome to use them with accreditation. Thank you.

(more…)