Carly, our wonderful new Circa lady has started this week so I’ve been quite busy and have fallen a bit behind in posts but thought you might like to see three new 1960s dresses that have recently come in.

1960s black and gold cocktail dress – Fiona is modelling a knitted dress made of pure wool and pale gold metallic yarn. This dates from the mid-1960s.

1960s linen shift – This mid-60s shift makes good use of the stripey fabric and features subtle shaping. Great for summer as is, or in winter, it could be worn with a blouse or skivvy underneath.

1960s black polyester knit day dress -

Fiona models a “fit and flare” dress with polka dot gores under the box pleats. This very flattering style dates to about 1967 and be great for winter with knee high boots. Note the longer hem length, as the mini-skirt begins to dominate less.

It’s going to be a busy week –

On Wednesday evening is the group tour to Loel Thomson’s Costume Collection. Now, the tour is fully booked but it’s likely we’ll do another one soon for those who’ve missed out. If you are coming, please meet us out the front (35 Greenaway Street, Bulleen) just before 7pm.

On Friday evening I’m doing a talk on vintage clothing at the City Museum – please phone the City Museum on (03) 9651 2233 for bookings. I’ll be bringing some garments from my collection.

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced office or studio space, a friend of mine is looking for someone to share in Collingwood – Circa’s stockroom is at the Langridge Design Centre so I can vouch for how good it is – more information can be found here.

Coming up: on Tuesday March 2nd, I’m giving another talk on vintage at Heritage Hill in Dandenong. Please phone phone 9793 4511 for bookings.

As well, the 20% off Sale continues at Circa all week – here are some of the goodies in store now, all are available at a nice discount – thank you to my wonderful model and shop lady Victoria.

A new product line has arrived – pure nylon black seamed stockings from UK company Kiss Me Deadly.

These are similar to original vintage stockings, and have little stretch – so are available in five sizes, three of which are currently in stock (sizes 1, 3 and 4).

Stocking-loving ladies, if you’d like to pop in and tell us what you think of them, it will encourage me to order more and (when they’re available) stock the full range of sizes.

The stockings go particularly well with the Van Doren suspender belt, available at Circa in black or white – and yes, that is an excuse for another lovely shot of Morgana, my favourite lingerie model, in her vintage peignoir (looks ’40s to me, very nice).

All photographs reproduced with the kind permission of Kiss Me Deadly.

Some of my favourite things are the beautiful cotton print frocks they produced in the 1950s. I bought my first one in 1980 and I’ve loved them more and more with every year – cool and comfortable, they’re the perfect dress for a hot summer’s day and with care, will last for many more years.

Here’s Victoria swirling around in some of the current favourites – sized between 6 and 12 so many are clipped to her slim frame. Available in the shop now. Petticoats are also available – in white, red or black.

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.

This month Circa is featured in Lady Melbourne’s fashion feature in street magazine Fashion Journal.

Lady Melbourne has styled a few outfits based on the influence of designer Luella, and created some lovely romantic Spring looks.

Here’s Lady M in one of our frocks, you can find it on Circa’s day dress rack:

Late 1940s puckered nylon sundress – photo courtesy Lady Melbourne.

We have a few copies of Fashion Journal instore if you’d like one – or you can see it here online (although it’s much easier to read with the magazine). Thanks LM!

As a sewer, I’ve always been a big fan of vintage patterns. I like to play a little game with them…first I examine the fashions, accessories, hair and make up and secondly judge from the style of illustration. Then I try to guess the date. Lastly, I turn the package over and look for the date of printing on the reverse – and see how accurate I was.

Vintage clothing never comes with a date, so paper patterns are a great way to test your skill. I’m going to make it easy for you though as I’ve already read the dates on these and can confirm that they’re all from the 1950s. They’re from the selection we have in the shop, dating from the ’40s to the ’80s. Prices vary from $8 to $25. Brands include Simplicity, Vogue, McCalls, Butterick, Pauline (based locally in Smith St Collingwood), Style and Weigels.

We also have some vintage haberdashery: trims, braids, ribbons and sequins from the ’20s to the ’70s. Might have to take some photos sometime so you can see how pretty they are.

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.

We’re slowly expanding our Kiss Me Deadly range of beautiful vintage-inspired lingerie.

Just in – more of the gorgeous and popular black six strap garter belt. Six straps to hold your seams nice and straight – you’ll find them strong and comfortable and wonder how you ever got by without one. Available in small, medium, large and extra large for $68.

New to Circa we now have black Alouette waist cinchers in small, medium and large ($120) and a small number of Vargas Girdle dresses ($145). Catherine from KMD tells me that we’re currently the only retailer in Australia stocking these lines and you best be fast – the first girdle dress was snapped up before they were even ticketed. I’ll be ordering more, but the full range of sizes won’t be in until October.

Here are some lovely images courtesy Kiss Me Deadly.

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.