Identifying vintage and antique fabrics, I must admit, is not one of my strongest suits. I am constantly referring back to vintage catalogs for descriptions and fabric contents of similar clothing in my shop to get an idea of fabrics. Throughout the years of selling vintage online, I have gotten a bit better. I can identify rayons, silk, poly, cotton, linen... but there's just a few out there I get really stuck on. And well, when you get into more specific fabric terminology like pique, flannelette, jaconet... I definitely turn to my sources.

It is a dream of mine one day to own an antique and vintage fabric sample book. Can you imagine my absolute glee upon discovering these scanned fabric sample books from the Met Museum?

At first glance I thought these antique and vintage photographs were doctored up in photoshop with modern technology, but after a quick reading over at Wikipedia, autochrome lumiere was the first color photography processing technique patented by the Lumiere brothers in 1903.

I love vintage and antique photos so much, but seeing these in color is even more magical and dear to me. They are even more alive and timeless, like memories and scenes from someone's life flashing up on a big screen.

So thrilled to share these beautiful moments captured in time and in color with you!



These next set of French antique autochrome photographs are images captured by the sea and the French coast. So absolutely beautiful!



And these antique autochromes are just beautiful French landscapes and scenes. Just beautiful, no?



All images are originally from this wonderful website: BM-Lyon (French)

There are many reasons to love Downton Abbey, but one especially I would like to highlight is that the show has garnered an interest amongst the populace for Edwardian and World War I era clothing.

The teens era has always been a bit of a pretty murky area for me, definitely the 1920s were flapper dresses but as my knowledge in vintage clothing and fashion history expands, I am discovering that flapper dresses weren't really the norm until the mid to late 1920s.

So in my efforts to learn more about World War 1 and Edwardian fashions, I have been gathering images throughout the internet and wanted to share my finds with my lovely vintage readers.


Described as "Advanced Models of Distinctive Winter Styles" from an issue of McCalls winter magazine 1913. Look at those amazing details!
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"Daytime and Evening Gowns of Dainty Lace and Grace" from the Titanic era from a March 1914 issue of McCalls magazine.
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From April 1914 issue of McCalls magazine (two years after the sinking of the Titanic).
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These styles came in the late teens, 1918-1919 and were for Spring fashions. I can't remember where I sourced these from, I'm sorry!


Winter styles from an issue of The Woman's Magazine from December 1919.
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I feel that the Edwardian era and World War 1 era is often overlooked for the wonderful clothes and fashions that spanned these two decades. And most often these eras are just lumped in with Victorian and Flapper fashions. As I progress in my knowledge of antique clothing, I hope you will learn a thing or two as well!

This is the second part of Antique Hats 1913-1915 Edwardian Portraits post I did last week. Even more elaborate and stunning millinery to astound and be baffled over!



sources: une | deux

One of the loveliest vintage shop updates I've posted! Perfect if you have a wedding to go to or a formal affair or even if YOU are the beautiful bride to be! This shop update is all about pretty vintage wedding dresses, flowery gowns, and those golden little details.

the new site design is coming along nicely...and i wanted to start sharing some previews of the gorgeous vintage clothing that will be available in the shop soon.

first up is this most amazing bridal wedding set from the 1910s...probably early teens era. it is gauzy ecru tulle and silk with beautiful angel sleeves and waterfall overskirt. the lace veil is my favorite and is attached to a wax floral crown. the set also comes with an antique bride's bouquet with...*drum roll please*... tiny silver bells! i nearly died of glee when i discovered this small detail!




i would honestly get married in this antique wedding gown. i love that it doesn't look too costumey. well, maybe not to me at least. i would most definitely wear something like this to my own nuptials.