From Helen's closet to Kimberly's closet

                                                     This is Helen P.

I purchased a nice carload of vintage clothing from Helen last May when she invited me to come over while she was cleaning out her family home across the river in Greene County.

 inlcuding the yellow and blue silk ensemble she is holding in the photo at top.

Helen served as a nurse in the Vietnam War, and had the outfit custom made during a visit to Hong Kong.  

 Just like the good old days (and still common overseas) You'd walk into a tailors shop, get measured, pick out styles and fabric, and then the outfit would be constructed, personalized with embroidery, and delivered to your door in a sturdy cardboard suitcase.

The ensemble included a blue purse to match the blue coat, and yellow shoes to match the dress.

This is Kimberly.

Unlike many customers throughout the summer, Kimberly was interested in the entire ensemble as a whole, (while everyone else just wanted the coat, or just the dress). She got the whole shebang for $50.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in a ca 1970 wool Nurse's Uniform, I promised Helen I would find a good home for that too.  It's about a size 12.

Happy Veteran's Day.

Helen Shaw: First Lady of Fly-Tying

I'm pretty much a sucker for clothing with interesting provenance, and will usually gobble up any history I can get on the garments I find. These opportunities are sort of few and far between-but fun when they happen.

Last week I went on a house call here:

a little cottage in the woods by a stream, where Helen Shaw and her husband lived for some 35 years.
This is Helen in the left of this photo

Helen was known as the First Lady of Fly-Tying.  Originally from Wisconsin, 
she was an expert fly-tier.   She and her husband Herman, who was a photographer and art director for Field and Stream Magazine, collaberated on a few popular, ground-breaking books on the fine art of fly-tying.

Herman died in 1993 and Helen died just last year at the age of 97.
A major auction house got all the fly-fishing stuff and sold it all on ebay last week;

I got access to the clothing in the closets.

Judging from their wardrobes alone, I would have liked to have known these two.
They were artsy Manhattanites who had moved to the country in the 70s. Down-to-earth sportsmen, but with fashionable good taste.  Brooks Brothers, Abercrombie and Fitch, Saks Fifth Avenue.  Labels with fishies jumping off of hooks and such---and all very wearable.  And--- a big yummy necktie collection that Helen carefully stashed away with home-made sachets ...

This is one of Helen's fly -fishing ensembles, with all these gizmos on it for I-Don't-know-what:And this is one of her silk cocktail dresses:
An olive green suit: and a wool lounging gown with gold embroidered paisleys:
I like to think my customers are as interested in provenance as I am, so I decided to make some special price tags just for Helen's stuff.  When someone buys one of Helen's pieces, they get a little herstory with it.  A photo of a beautiful, talented woman, who once wore this...

I think it would be fun a hundred years from now to buy an old anglers jacket at a flea market, take it home, and find a picture of Helen in the pocket that says ---"this once belonged to Helen Shaw....the First Lady of Fly-Tying."

Flippin' Leather and Lace

I'm stealing a moment on this rainy morning to post some pics while I do laundry.
Things have been crrrrraaazy lately -- I still haven't recovered from Labor Day weekend...

On Saturday I went on a house call here:
...a 3 million dollar estate on the Hudson that had a fantasy attic full of old stuff (not to mention a 25 foot ladder to the widows walk tower), including tons of very old clothing, lace,  and sewing notions (yum). The owners had emptied out trunk after trunk of stuff onto the floor to let me pick through.
Too fun. I made a pile, and made an offer.

Back at the store later that day, I let this customer paw through one of the boxes that I hadn't even gone through yet.  
She had her own little quiet treasure hunt going on on the floor, and dug up this stunning lace victorian dress I hadn't seen yet. I gave her a price and she bought it-I think to get married in.

The next day I sold this black lace flapper dress, also from the lot, about 2 hours after hanging it up behind the counter.It has a divine asymmetrical hemline.

On Monday I was exhausted and almost didn't open the shop. Pernille stopped in to say Hi and I asked to her model this new leather motorcycle pullover I'd just gotton on Thursday. Pretty hot, no?:
 She ended up buying it.

We also had a rare celebrity appearance at Five and Diamond... Parker Posey--and three delightful friends
who seemed to have a great time time in the shop playing dress-up. Here's Parker in the 40s rayon dress she bought, zipping up her friend in the 70s maxi.
You can hardly seem them in the pic, but Parker also tried on the tap shoes and showed us her "untapped" tap-dance talents. Shucks I didn't get that picture.
Here they all are with Gracie the dog, sitting on the newly-painted stoop (Thank You Alan!)

All told (not really, this is the super-abridged synopsis), it was Five and Diamond's best weekend ever. Thank You everyone!