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September 24, 2009

I recently had a visit from a bride who needed a complicated hem in a limited amount of time.  The dress featured a lace overlay with extensive crystal beading and a scalloped lace hem.  We came up with a creative solution for chopping 5 inches off the bottom of her gown and she then mentioned that she would like a tiny birdcage veil.

There was a layer of tulle underneath the portion of lace we were removing.  I suggested we use the materials available from our reworking of the dress.  Excess tulle for the veil, attached to a floral section of the lace that I cut out from the train we removed.   To keep costs down and make it as simple as possible, I decided not to attach it to a comb and instead we just used bobby pins to attach the lace center to the brides short and simple pixie haircut.

We are now using tulle remnants and single earrings to make even smaller doll or toy birdcage veils.  Look for them soon, here at alexsandras.com.

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March 31, 2009

I have owned AlexSandra’s Vintage Emporium for what will be five years this coming June. Prior to that I worked in the basement of a warehouse located on Killingsworth and Michigan. In May 2004, I bought the house at 6726 N Interstate Avenue and hurriedly painted, landscaped and opened the shop in just one month’s time. Many thanks to my friends and family for helping me make that happen. There wasn’t much inventory to speak of and certainly more furniture than I could ever hope to fit in there now.

How quickly things change.

A mere year later, I was tricked into buying the entire contents of a house. Not just any house. The home of Gordon Sutterberg and his wife, located South of Marylhurst, built into the corner of an enormous hill. A sprawling 1950s ranch house with two, two car garages (one had a huge patio/deck on top), a finished basement and an expansive first floor. There were two catches to the deal. I was allowed to take everything without first coughing up the funds (we laid out a payment plan) but I had to get everything out in one week. With my 1990 Ford E150 Van. Again, many thanks to those who helped accomplish that daunting task. It was August, and every day that week seemed to get hotter and hotter. I remember being irate because gas had sky rocketed to over $2.50 a gallon *gasp* and seemed to keep escalating with the temperature that week.

At the time, the was barely anything in the basement of the Emporium. It quickly filled up. As did my basement at home. There was a couch flipped on top of my couch and just a trail through the stacks of boxes in my living room for several months. Because, although there were the average things every house of that age has, this house was special. Mr. Sutterberg collected cars, car memorabilia, and what I ended up with. Over 12,000 vintage car brochures. He also graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School, much like myself and I found his late 1930s Almanac yearbooks. Eventually, I discovered he belonged to the Ford V-8 club that my Uncle had a hand in starting. I even found certificates for club car showings that were signed Bill Bolger that I later gave my uncle for Christmas that year. I kept an Oldsmobile brochure from the 1930s that had a stylish lady on the cover. My first car was Oldmobile Cutlass Supreme that originally belonged to my Great Aunt and I have a sentimental attachment to the brand.

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This past weekend, I sold the last four boxes of car brochures in one fell swoop. They had to be dug out of their spot on top of the Sutterberg’s 1950s hi-fi stereo located behind a bank of other boxes. Today I was down there packing up eBay sales and realized that since there was a little more room, I could probably make the doorway to the shipping room more easily passable. Which it was not at all. While rooting through the high quality junque, I ran across many things. A Hamilton electric knife, mint in box. A salad shooter, 362 books of matches, a three sided piece of metal used to shield your stove from splatters that result from cooking bacon and a bag full of boxed Ava Gabor wigs. Then I found the scariest thing.

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A heavy, heart shaped metal plaque with a cross and tears written en française. Expressing sincere regrets for a baby named Nicole who died the day after Christmas in 1938 at a mere two months of age. I don’t know where it came from or what exactly I am going to do with it. Perhaps the website needs an “Oddities” corner.

Then I felt like such the lucky lady! I found a delightful surprise.

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A 1920s, Art Deco lavaliere style necklace. Blueish green beads with filigree spacers sway on a black cord, held together with a jeweled filigree connector. There is a huge chunk out of one of the beads, but Whoa Nellie! It’s still a beaut. I should probably save this for Mother’s Day as it is just the style my Mother likes. Something that draws attention away from one’s neck.

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March 8, 2009

So I was sharing a meal with the lovely Miss Ava recently at the Nighthawk Cafe, conveniently locate just up the street from AlexSandra’s Vintage Emporium. After we had finished eating, she pulled out her lipstick and turned up a lovely rich shade of red for which I had high hopes. She then dotted on the smallest amount possible and rubbed her lips together producing the slightest blush of pink.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I remarked. I asked if I could borrow her lipstick and she kindly turned it over to me. I found it amusing that two ladies could use the exact same lipstick and come up with two different looks. Ava mentioned that she doesn’t like to draw attention to herself and I laughed. Perhaps that explains my penchant for thickly applied red lipstick.

“If they can’t hear me talking, then certainly they will see my lips moving.” We laughed and laughed. Not being noticed is most certainly not my modus operandi. I insisted that we take a picture of our lips together upon our return to the Emporium. A further example of how everyone is different and two people can make the exact same thing work for each of them separately if they know themselves well enough.

Ava & AlexSandra

Ava & AlexSandra

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March 7, 2009

I was recently contacted by a lovely young lady who is a student at the Art Institute of Portland. She wants to be a textile restorationist when she grows up. Adorable! How fortunate am I to encounter her while she is still young and naive and thinks such a thing will be fun?

She came to visit me at the Emporium so we could meet face to face, get a feel for each other and discuss the details. I don’t know how much coaxing I really needed, because although I don’t know much about it and have never had an intern before, it sounds like free labor to me. Something I can always get on board with. Although I have learned: You get what you pay for.

I have just spent two hours in my sewing room trying to straighten up and get a little more room so I can finish preparing for the 2009 Vintage Bridal Show: Beautiful and Sustainable that will occur just one week from today. Everything that predates the WWII era and needs repair was put into a special INTERN box. There are two quilted, silk velvet Edwardian era coats that are (or more correctly, were) lined in silk. One was lined in cream silk, the other turquoise. Both have shattered beyond repair and should be relined. One was acquired in 2005 and I have had the other since before I opened the shop. I think I was living in my apartment on NEd Flanders. We’ll say In The Year 2000… Clearly, repairing these items has not been anywhere near the top of my list of things to do. Not even on the first page.

Victorian shirtwaists, pink silk and lace Victorian dresses complete with hook and eye closures and heavily pleated sleeves and even a black taffetta 1930s dress that has layer upon layer of ruffles. The thread is rotting and the entire garment needs to be restitched. I am excited that these items are on thier way back to life and will be available for sale here on the website in the up coming months.

Cheers to Anna Fabian!

Heavily pleated Victorian Sleeve

Heavily pleated Victorian Sleeve

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March 3. 2009

Well, I’ve certainly had my fair share of blogs.  I have one on myspace and have kept a paper journal on a regular basis for over 15 years.  Now that I am becoming more capable of working my own website, I have decided to dedicate my internet blogging to my own space.

I have just returned from the Spring Fling Vintage Fashion Show and Sale at Tony Starlight’s Supperclub and Lounge.  I do this once a month, typically on the first Tuesday.  We packed the house, which was not surprising as Tony’s was short staffed and all the surplus help was in the show.

I met a ton of new people, which always delights me.  Amy and Sara came with gentlemen escorts.  They had planned on going bowling for their evening’s entertainment but somehow ended up coming to the Fashion Show.  Much to both my delight and dismay.  Sara ended up with a charming brown and pink custom made dress, a DuBarry Fashion embroidered lace dress full of high style and a springy pink linen cordé dress, all from the 1950s.  She also took away my Sonni of California straw hat with orange linen trim and a little secret gift for someone special.  Amy took home a 1950s pink rhinestone necklace and earrings in their original box.

I also lost the pink straw floral topper, knit shawl, pink horsehair Sonni of California “Aretha Franklin, eat your heart out!” hat, both of the dresses BOTH Suzanne Moulton and Teresa Loveland modeled…  It was a boon for sales, but I often feel like my things (which are in actuality, my businesses inventory) are being ripped from my possession.  Undoubtedly I will be accessorizing an outfit for someone in the near future and think, “What this ensemble needs is…” only to recall that it has been sold.

I have a love hate relationship with being in retail sales.  I excel at buying and make quite the salesperson, but I really don’t like parting with my “stuff.”  Which is why I don’t care much for the internet sales and have always used eBay at a minimum and presume that my website will FINALLY be shopping cart ready in time for the 5th anniversary of AlexSandra’s Vintage Emporium (June 2009).  It hasn’t exactly been on the top of my list of things to do until recently when my inventory began to crush me.  In both my shop and at home.  The whole point of the story is this:  Once I sell it on the internets, it’s gone forever.  Schiaparelli necklace I just sold on eBay?  It’s now in the Bronx, New York.  Never to be heard from again.  If I at least sell things locally, people wear them to the fashion show, or other places they think they might bump into me and I am delighted to revisit my little hat, purse and jewelry friends.  Especially my jewelry friends…  I know that this town is small enough for us to bump into one another here and there.  Once I was at a women’s conference at the Convention Center.  I found amusement in watching the purses go by.  A Coach, a Gucci, a Judith Leiber.  Then I saw a little vintage purse.  Fire engine red and shaped like a baguette.  I was surprised as I remembered having one exactly like it and one rarely comes across the same vintage thing twice.  I looked up at the face of the woman carrying it and smiled as I realized I had sold it to her several years before.

So, like everything in life, I suppose there is an yin and yang to it all.

There is one more person I met this evening that I would like to mention.  I believe she said her name was Carol Drain.  Or possibly Carla, now that I think about it.  She introduced herself at the end of the evening.  I am also rather ill (isn’t everyone right now?) and loosing my voice.  I just barely managed to keep all my wits about me until the van was loaded up and I was on my way home.  So I may be a little off on my normally sharp, name recollecting skills.  At any rate, I had seen her sitting at the bar earlier.  She was draped in pearls with rhinestone rhondelle accents and a black vintage coat.  It even had polka dot lining!  Anyhoo, she introduces herself to me and shakes my hand.  She goes on to say that she lives up the street, above the Hollywood Library and recently moved here from Dallas, Texas.  She said it was her first visit to Tony’s.  She had a lovely time and was pleased to find a place to wear her fabulous things.  Then she said she’s been to my website, read my blog and even watched the hilarious movies of my Mother on youtube.  I thought I heard her say she found my site even before she moved here.

I just love the fashion show because, despite the seemingly never ending hard work, I meet the most interesting people who say the nicest things.  One of my brother’s former co-worker’s brought a large group of ladies.  Two of them bought a purse they are going to share and they mentioned they are having lunch with my brother tomorrow.  I told them to say nice things about me and they said, “Of course!”

Even my Uncle Bill was there.

I must admit, the very best part of the fashion show is that it has made a wealth of acquaintances into some of the best friends I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Kind and beautiful ladies who help me out on a whim and to whom I am forever grateful.  I’ll be sure to raise my next glass to them: The Vintage Vixens.