Category: vintage
Patullo-Jo Copeland x
This wasn’t the post for today..but there’s a gremlin in my computer that won’t allow me to upload new photos – one of the burdens of working by yourself is there’s no IT department to demand help from. The internet is also proving cranky..there’s a storm brewing outside and I’ve noticed when the air gets thick, so does the wi-fi. And it was a Bank holiday in the UK yesterday so everything’s a bit upside down..Charlie’s school bag never made it into school and I’m convinced today is Monday…which I’ll probably be grateful for when Friday comes..
These are photos of the work of designer Jo Copeland, working under the label of Pattullo-Jo Copeland. She worked in New York from the 1916 all the way through the major fashion decades till she closed her label in 1970 and for me, is one of fashions forgotten heroines.
She had an impeccable eye for detail and effortlessly understood the female form, knowing exactly what to exaggerate..and what to skim. These shoulders are a sculptural delight..
and make that waist look tiny.
She proves that good design stands the test of time even when the fickle finger of fame passes on..
Laters, Kate x
Hellfire!
Wearing a pair of knock-out shoes is like delivering an ironic joke with perfect rumpled nonchalance; If you’ve gone out in a sack, they’ll still make your outfit.
So it’s been a bit of a joy to discover Miss L Fire (with bases in both the UK and US) and it’s heady mixture of new and found..
Bright and compelling, silly but sharp they’re a pop pickers party bag.
Designed with retro in mind, they’re not slavish reproductions but vintage with a twist.
And very happy to burn rubber with a pink tongue to poke out at unbelievers. 
I think I’m in love. I just want to dance down the summer streets to the mellow sounds of the slapped strings of a double bass accompanied by low husky vocals to carry me home.
Laters, Kate x
Still Thinking Ahead x
One of the surprise pieces I bought this year was a vintage 1940’s coat. A surprise because of the shape..it’s dark brown sheepskin with pure american football style shoulders. And my, those shoulders make you feel gooooooooood…I call it my bitch coat…
Perfectly balancing out the flare..
The shorter shape works too..
I think I need another one..
Laters, Kate x
Result!
What a difference a packet of dye makes! One session in the washing machine with half a kilo of salt and the jacket now has the patina of something between oil reflecting on water and that titanium jewellery which was very popular in the eighties (made from stainless steel with an electric current through to make wonderful, unexpected, rainbow-like colours?)..honestly, you couldn’t replicate this if you tried..I and absolutely love it!
It’s bluer than these photos..and the alterations were surprisingly simple – I took out the zip, took off the blouson cuffs and removed all the velcro square buttons. Then removed all the elastic out of the waistband and ironed it flat. I’ve got some black binding just to tidy up the sleeves, that job has yet to be done. And I also want to add a tie fastening three quarters of the way down..
The one draw back of the dye process was it exposed some small holes in the cotton, exposing the white of the filling. There were four particularly prominent ones on the bottom of the shawl collar..so I’ve started doing some hand quilting in the style of the Kantha quilts of India, in vertical lines but with random spacing. If I had the time and the patience I would quilt the whole coat with all sorts of patterns..but I want to wear it!
It’s thrilling to think that from this reject, my butterfly was born..
Laters, Kate x
Joseph’s Coat x
This is not an April fool, but one of my purchases from the South Bank Classic Carboot…a rather vibrant 80’s number picked up for a pleasing £10. Some would say there’s a reason it was so cheap..
But I think it has potential for a bit of alteration and a re-dye..I love the collar, the padding, and the shape of the arms..
At the moment I’m thinking dyeing it a midnight navy blue to knock back the yellows to a dark green and the pinks to a purple…here’s hoping..I’ll post the result tomorrow..
Laters, Kate x
Vintage Classic Car Boot x
If at heart you’re an emotional scientist when it comes to clothes, you’ll find it harder than the coating of Apollo 13 to resist the temptation of a vintage car boot..
The South Bank Vintage Classic Car Boot took place this weekend in London and was the bright, sunlit intermission on a rather cold, grey, damp couple of days. It’s a wicked combination of vintage cars..and everything else besides..go for a wander..go for a rummage..you never know what delights you’ll find..
One of which was Julie from Vintageattitude with her own stall! She always has such inventive, creative offerings..dog coats on the table (check out that tablecloth!), pom pom lampshades..and my personal favourite..hanging at the back..summer jackets made from vintage tableclothes..genius.
(A close up of her rather fabulous skirt. So true…I love her style.)
I want this fridge..
This is the poshest buggy I have ever seen..it converts into a tricycle when the baby converts to a toddler..and then hopefully a little hatchback..and then maybe a small maisonette??
This guys coat was made from a GI bag..Buster’s pretty cool too..
Such joy…I often feel that modern offerings are just the plastic parody of the past – it’s so much better to liberate the originals and I came away with bulging bags..but more on that in another post..
Laters, Kate x
Into the Blue x
You’ll find these dresses in my dreams…
Mine’s the chair on the left…
Laters, Kate x
Into the Darkroom..
Guy Bourdin was a photographer best known for his surreal work for French Vogue from the mid forties to the mid eighties and for his graphically strong and charismatic work for the shoe company, Charles Jourdan. He’s now the subject of the brilliant Image Maker exhibition at Somerset house, London.
Whilst conventional fashion images follow the general generalisation of the world: making beauty and clothing their central elements, Bourdin’s photographs offer something grittier..more radical. In a glossier, more vibrant, tumbling world he created desire and lust..then subverted it with hints at dark fantasies and suggestions of depravity. In beautifully created and calculated illusions, his camera acts like an unwanted intruder..
He invites you in…
Welcomes you to the unexpected, wickedly carving up the narrative, his subjects caught in the headlights. Disgraceful, flashy and all handcrafted with love and terror.
Where he’s happy to leave a layer of shocked emotions smeared across the floor..
But always with humour and heart.
The colours are intense: heightened, enhanced, almost hyper-real: Red, blue, a specific yellow, black and white. And always with a life and energy that our modern day editorials seem to have lost.
In our age of endless image manipulation and photoshopping, there’s something incredible about Bourdin’s sheer creativity and endless imagination. Look, no digital re-mastering..
(This is my lovely friend Sophie at the exhibition in our own photo homage)
This exhibition is cool statement strong balls with scalpel sharp insights and seductive eye candy. Go see it…then see it again..
Laters, Kate x
MiH Magic x
MiH, the original British jean brand have brought out their easy wear, always stare SS15 Collection.
With their love of denim and lashings of groovy inspiration, their designs are classic, pragmatic, clever and very independent.
You really sense it’s an high energy, slow process with thought and quality poured in.
They catch the nostalgic vibe of pre-mass market, when things were built to last and gently soften in the sun, improving with age and use.
To be worn collecting sea-shells on a sandy beach..or blinged up with statement jewellery at a posh party in London.
They work.
Wholesome, exhilarating food for the eyes, I can eat it all standing up…and always want more.
Laters, Kate x
French Fancies x
It snowed in London last night – not a lot, but enough to make a new ,white world and Charlie a very happy boy. I’m just grateful we got our boiler to work again..why is it that boilers start staggering on what will be their last legs just when the coldest weather kicks in? And why are modern boilers so crap??
As a distraction from impending doom and financial ruin, I’ve been ogling Tommy Ton’s street style photos from the french Couture Shows, which have to be some of the greatest shots to obsess over: The ideas, the outfits that should look promisingly awful but by small strokes of magic give irony and imagination pride of place..
Maybe the cut out and keep part of the twenty-tens will be eclecticism. That heady mix of anything goes and modern-old-soul..
The power to dazzle by mixing high with low, latest and oldest, hard and soft, summer and winter with mesmerising narrative power…things that shouldn’t work in an outfit…working..
It’s a cocktail of collision..it’s dangerous territory and a high risk way of telling a story..easy to hype or misjudge. Or not.
(All photos Style.com)
It’s an organic development that creates the dramatic pulse, exploding the rules and energetically galloping over the baseline..
It’s the stuff of dreams…
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 