Costume Season Wrap-up

Let me purge the system of the last 3 months worth of costume fun, and then maybe I'll move back to the subject of vintage clothing.

First, in early October, during Artswalk, artist Melora Kuhn and Dina Palin hosted a Victorian Dinner in the shop window of Historical Materialism.  It was dinner, costume, and photography all in one.  I called it the Fishbowl Feast; this picture was taken by Melora from the sidewalk outside.

We should definitely do this more often. 

Window Mannequin Izzy wore the still-high-in-google-rankings Morticia dress

while I got busy on my Halloween costume of an Earl dog.

If you don't know what an Earl dog (or cat) is, you don't live in Hudson, and are missing out on a wonderful local institution: the Earl painting.  Earl is a local artist who sells his work on the street.

Cats, dogs, birds, celebrities, musicians are his favorite subject matter.

He also does commissions, and makes house calls. 

Gretchen and I dressed up as an Earl cat and dog for Halloween.  

On the night of the big party, there was freak blizzard here in Hudson, and I had to leave my bootie paws at home

but I so enjoyed being anonymous all night, and I'm quite sure I want to do another paper mache costume again next year.

My dog head even had a moving jaw and wagging tongue, held on with (hard to find!) paper fasteners.

For Halloween Day/Evening, I opted for a Tweed Ride around town dressed as Miss Elmira Gulch. 

photo by Trixie Starr

(The zombie crawl thing I attempted in 2010 never caught on but I'm still game if anyone's interested in 2012)

I had a basket and a Toto, and might've freaked a few kids out, but it was fun, and I managed to keep the long skirt out of the spokes and chain somehow.

A few days later I got to revive some of my vintage Barbie costume at a Habitat for Humanity fashion show.  According to stats, this Barbie is still the main reason anyone ever visits this crappy blog.

photo by Aaron Enfield

My last-minute Winter Walk costume was basically a recycle/rehash of my 2010 Gaga costume,

photo by Gretchen Kelly

with a long sparkly dress added, and silver crown, gloves and boots.

This costume was very popular with the hundreds (Thousands?) of children out that night, and I plan to do it again next year.  I need to name it though. I got called everything: "Glinda" "Glenda", "Wanda" "the Fairy Godmother,"  "the Fairy Princess"  and the "Wicked Witch of the West".(?)

Christmas came and went , and I forgot to wear this wonderful old red and green dirndl I bought over the summer. 

 I seem to have accumulated a nice assortment of vintage dirndls, and they are for sale---but you have to ask to see them.  Hit me up, even if only to ponder

the amazing smocking on these things.

Lastly, New Year's Eve.

For the Red Dot Moulin Rouge party, Gretchen and I dressed up as can-can girls. 

                        Before we went out, Gretchen did some quick paintings

                                                         which are for sale, and

 

 can be seen better on her blog,  Gretch Kelly Art.

blog clog vol IV

OK, I think I've got a halfway decent blog post in the works for the near future---a good story about a treasure-trove yard sale purchase---- but in the meantime, I bring you another clumsy edition of 'blog clog'

to clean out some of the stuff in the drafts file.

1)
Let's start where I left off.
 Tommy, from my last blog post, came in the other day with his silver dread locks all freshly chopped off, and needed something for his new look. I had just a week before picked up this midnight blue dinner jacket with skinny black satin lapels -- and bingo--
--it fit like it was tailor made for him.

Kinda Blues Bros....

(which reminds me--- Tommy's Blue Sun Trio is playing at Savoia tonight at 9 pm 214 Warren St.)

2) Seen on the street

Nothing pleases me more than seeing Five and Diamond merch out there in the world-- weeks, months, maybe years after I've sold it. Saturday I was an art opening and spotted Gretchen carrying this 1920s floral pocketbook from 5 and D


She was totally working it with her hat and those bauble necklaces. Love all those colors!

Then a few minutes later I walk across the street to another art opening and there's Dawn in one of the Koos van Den Akker dresses she bought a few weeks ago.


The next morning I was walking the alleys and saw Holly wearing her new-old Catskill varsity jacket, (drat I forgot to take a pic!) and
then on Tuesday I'm playing Bingo at PM Wine Bar, and in walks this gentleman wearing a corduroy blazer from 5 and D.

(I so love the ones like this with the belted waist in back:)

Four tags in four days!

3) Delmar Bootery.


I want to get in a plug for the Delmar Bootery in Albany.  A couple of months ago I gathered up 6 pair of tattered boots from the back of my closet and took them to Delmar. All totally unwearable, but with which I still had serious attachment to.
It sort of felt like taking sick animals to the vet, and one pair even got rejected

"Sorry, there's nothing we can do...".


The five pair that they refurbished (Took only 10 days, BTW) came back beautiful

But I'm most excited about the really old Orange ones that I bought in a vintage store on Haight Street, SF in the early 80s , but wore 'til there was no heel left.

Here's a picture of me wearing them back then, marching outside the Museum of Modern Art in some labor dispute protest thing.

(This is pretty much how I survived those horrible 80s: mini skirts, turtlenecks, vintage men's jackets, Cowboy boots).



4) If the dress fits /Letting go again

Some dresses hang around the store for ages and only get ooohed and aaawed at. In the case of this border lace dress, only a very tall person could wear it, sinse it can not be hemmed. I asked this lovely 6 foot tall woman to model it for me,and when she came out of the dressing room told her she could have it for half price. Done.


Sorta similar story with this gorgeous Best and Co. velvet coat that was very, very tiny. In this case, way too many non-tiny people decided to try it on and button it up anyway, busting out the corner waist seams on it.  Argggh. You cannot repair L-shaped corner seams, people.

So I let Ngonda have if for 75% off!

5) Resolving
One of my New Year's resolution ideas for this blog was: For every picture I post of something sold, to also post a picture of something I haven't sold yet. I doubt I can stick to it, but will try here with some winter cover-ups.
First, the SOLDs:

And now for the UNSOLDS:








6) Grrrr. I really, really REALLY REALLY  REALLY hate google blogger today.
Really.  nightmare. When are we forming a local Hudson bloggers support group?

blog clog volume iii

Nothing in particular to blog about today

so in between stirrings of yet another dye bath

(virtually everything shown in my last blog post sold quickly, and it seems I've created a bit of a demand for chocolate, plumb, and eggplant clothing now)

I'm just going to unclog the accumulation of random shop-related tidbits show-and-tell style ---

1) You may notice a box at the right of this page, showing a Five and Diamond facebook link. If you're on facebook, I urge you to "Become a Fan". The statuses will update you on any special news or events, like the big sidewalk sale I usually have during Hudson Artswalk (Columbus Day Weekend), or, special open days/hours, secret passwords for secret discounts, etc etc. If you want to post pictures of your Five and Diamond purchases on the page (or here on the blog), we can arrange fun stuff like that too. Anyway, just join up; I promise it won't be too spammy.

2)

The Twister™ window:

Big Hit. I found the circa 1970 numbers dress on a trip upstate a few weeks ago, the same day I took this picture of the Partridge Family School bus out on Rt 23.

I generally don't like primary colors (hate'm really),

but they were calling out to me from everywhere that day.

Even the bad paintings I bought that day (occupational hazard, and only $5 each)

were all about blue, red, yellow.

3) I visited the Adirondack Museum recently, and really enjoyed that they feature a fair amount of old, interesting clothing in their exhibits.

Check out these mittens made out of guess what--- Collies! Yikes.

And here's Teddy Roosevelt's overcoat,

which in fact was pretty damn boring except that I noticed that all the buttons had been moved over substantially at some point, making the front of the coat awkwardly asymetrical. I'm guessing Teddy must have lost some weight and was too frugal to buy a new one that fit...? Fascinating, right?...

I did love what they called a "camp dress":

and this corduroy blazer, (both ca. 1920).

(I highly recommend the Adirondack Museum if you're ever up that way.)

4. This is drummer, singer, songwriter, poet Simon.

Simon likes to call me at odd hours and make me open the shop on my days off.

Sinse he's a travelling, rambling musician on-the-go I always accommodate him.Then he picks out some stuff and haggles relentlessly (I love him anyway).

Recently I had to talk him out of this totally yummy leather jakcet

because I hadn't had a chance to put it on a mannequin and show it off yet. I talked him into this one instead, which was $100 cheaper:He still wanted to haggle.

But I think 85 bucks for a beautifully worn in motorcycle jacket that fits like a glove is a total steal, so I stood firm.

5. Oh, yeah, guess what- the 80s are back.

"..for like the 80th time" (- Mike Albo)

Exactly.

Enough already. I'm too old to appreciate the "vintageness" of the 80s (and those primary colors), but I did slip up a bit the other day when I bought this 80s cocktail dress, because it's a throwback to the 1940s. And is backless. And sideless. And has a cleavage keyhole.

I've got it priced at $35 so it doesn't take up precious space for too long. If it were really from the 40s I'd want almost three times that price. Come and get.

6) It's getting cold out. Here's a great old authentic US Navy P-coat I picked up at the Madison-Bouckville flea market in Auugust.

Check out that fat collar. I don't think they make them like that anymore.

Plus it's as wind-proof as an x-ray blanket.

It was 90 degrees the day I was there, and I didn't want to schlepp it around, so I tried my best not to buy it. just keep walking, just keep walking...

The seller started barking at me:

" It's the real deal, but it goes in the dumpster if nobody buys it", He said.

"Dirty Trick" I said.

Then he showed me the inside.

The lining had a whole hand-me-down provenance of all the sailors who wore the coat.DC = discharge.

VC =Very Cool.

The deal was sealed. What was also kind of sweet was how me and the seller simultaneously pulled out our identical pocket spiral notebooks, and jotted down our identical record:

"P-coat ... $5"

7

Last but not least, some recent happy customers

(who I forgot to say "Smile!" to:)

: