Music: Phoenix - lisztomania *brat pack mashup*

I know this doesn't have much to do with vintage clothing or fashion (except that it is a video of the whole vintage brat pack, sporting their sweet 80s clothing, and has a shot or two of Molly Ringwald in her Pretty in Pink handmade creation) but Ems and I have been watching/listening to it pretty much non-stop, and I am loving the perfectly synced brat pack dance moves too much not to share.

DIY - tiedye tights

Maybe I've gone a little hippie, but I loved this project that BUST Magazine published in their Aug/Sept 09 issue: tie-dye tights! What a great way to reuse old white hose that have lost a little of their whiteness. Just a little RIT dye and some rubberbands, and you'll be ready to rock.

I'm pretty sure that Look From London couldn't do any better (or cheaper). Click on the image above to make it big and read the directions yourself.

Renegade Craft Fair - A Few Favorites

Okay, okay. This is the last post about some of the gems that the Renegade Craft Fair held. Just wanted to pass on a few of my favorite items that I saw, lusted after, and then went home without. (sigh)

Altered vintage portraits from Treatzone:





Handcut leather jewelry from tomgirl:




Still kicking myself for not buying any of these new "wearables" from the Black Apple, since she will probably never have any in stock in her online store since everything sells out so quickly:

Renegade Craft Fair - Animal Head Art

Scoped out a few more artists using animal heads at the SF Renegade Craft Fair over the weekend.

Matt Cipov (Masks! Just like us. I really just like the simplicity of these):





Berkley Illustration (where land, sea and skies all rear their lovely heads):

Greeting Cards that Don't Make Me Want to Throw Up in My Mouth

The Renegade Craft Fair was in town over the weekend, and there were some wonderful vendors out selling their wares, and the next few posts will probably highlight some of the great things that they were out selling.

One of my favorites was the unsappy letterpress greeting cards from Old Tom Foolery. Tender sentiments with qualifying footnotes. This is the kind of non-cheesy-Hallmark card I feel okay sending.




And my favorite Owly Shadow Puppet gal was there with some new "black" laser cut valentines that I got a real kick out of.


These overly honest thoughts made me want to do a quick round-up of some of my other favorite ways to express unsappy sentiments...

SnarkyCards:


Paper Stories:


And of course, the cheap and easy way to send someone some sass is via someecards.

DIY: Vintage Framed Wedding Photo Booth

I have always loved the idea of having a photo booth at a wedding to get some nice shots of all the guests, but this one officially takes the proverbial cake:





They covered wood with a pretty damask wallpaper, put a few large vintage frames over cutouts to stick heads through, and then hung wedding photos from the bride's and groom's families around the holes. Voilà! Wedding photo perfection.

(Via A Cup Of Jo)

Designer - Ashley Watson

Once upon a time, there was a little sewing machine toting fairy named ashley watson that would turn monstrosities that I can only imagine look like this:

into perfect purses and bags like these:




Each bag is handcrafted and one-of-a-kind, made from the recycled leather of gently worn jackets purchased from charity thrift stores. I love that the bags carry so many of the details from the jackets they once were! (I just want to know what they do with all the leftover shoulderpads once they rip them from the jackets.)

San Francsicans can get their hands on one at the Candystore Collective.

Punk the Recession: The Uniform Project

Have you heard about The Uniform Project? The idea is that one girl wears one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Every day she has creative license to "reinvent" the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which are vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies, as an experiment in exactly what you can do with just a basic black dress. She gets more creative on some days than others, but there are lots of easy ideas you can steal to dress up something of your own!




(via Venus)

You still need your share of accessories, but I do like the idea of better purposing some of the clothing we already own, and combining it in different and creative ways.

This actually reminds me a lot of a similar project from 2005 called the Brown Dress Project, where a woman named Alex Martin wore the exact same dress every day for a year in an effort to give a little f-you to our economic system that pushes over-consumption. Hers was less of a fashion statement than an attempt to confront consumerism, but should still get a nod for the effort. Same dress, every day for a year? Probably smart that she chose the color brown.

Animal Head Art - nylon-vinyl

We just got an email from nylon-vinyl saying that she found some inspiration in some of our photos and created a lovely little drawing from one of our pics. Ta dah!



I think it turned out just perfect.

Shop Launderette: the Shuffleboard

We have some lovely and talented friends down in SoCal that are trying their hand at launching their own clothing line, Launderette. The first item they have ready for market is a cute little vintage inspired scooter dress, with perfect pleats, a dropped waist and crafted from a lovely lightweight material.


And, at just $35 apiece (with shipping included) I feel like we must be ripping them off somehow. Pick one up. Your summer wardrobe will thank you.