Monthly Archives: September 2012

New vintage dress love

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Ok, so strictly speaking this dress isn’t new to me…but it feels like it because I’d never worn it.

The dress in question was bought in a job lot of vintage way back in my first year of uni (oh the perils of job lots…this was in my first ever job lot purchase if memory serves me correctly). I sold everything else from that job lot and kept this with the hope that eventually I would get round to repairing the zip…I didn’t but thankfully took my lovely dress to Splendid stitches for repair and it is now looking back to its best!

The dress is by Judy Clare of London. I just love the way it fits me and the ra ra skirt means it is perfect for swishing about it. I’m wearing it here with Butler and Wilson spider earrings and Miss L Fire shoes. Apologies for the weird places for all the pics, I’ve lost part of my tripod so can’t take pics how I normally would!

Mary McFadden

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Under normal circumstances I am not a particular fan on 80s fashion. But, on some occasions I will make exceptions as every decade in my opinion has its design merits. This dress has to be one of THE best 80s pieces I have ever come across. The dress is by Mary McFadden, which (in my humble opinion) is one of the most collectable labels of the era.

Find the dress on ebay HERE

Not only does it have a Mary McFadden label, but a Saks Fifth Avenue label too.
Find the dress on ebay HERE

McFadden is best known for her pleated silks and polyesters which closely resemble those of Mariano Fortuny (Fortuny took the secrets of his pleating process to the grave…so these could never truly be replicated). This was a permanent pleating process. McFadden started to experiment with these processes in around 1975 and it is her designs in the late 70s and early 80s which still prove popular. There is a certain air of Fortunys work and an art nouveau/ deco feel to a lot of her work.

McFadden interests me because like Valentina before her she was her own greatest publicity asset. She often wore garments by her brand and had an overall exotic style.

The Met Museum has a wonderful selection of garments by McFadden demonstrating her design prowess. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Pleated silk dress 1978

Amazing early Mary McFadden coat c.1972. Once owned by Diana Vreeland. This shows the ethnic influence in McFaddens designs.

Pleated silk ensemble 1976. This is pure Fortuny if you ever saw it! The lines of this dress and the colour ring true to the rich vibrant colours that Fortuny used.

If you want to find out more about Mary McFadden there is also a wonderful book about her:

Mary McFadden
A Lifetime of Design, Collecting & Adventure

If you want your own piece of Mary McFadden I have on listed on ebay right now starting at just 99p!
Just follow this link.

Vintage repairs

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A few weeks back I took a few of my dresses that needed repairs to the wonderful Nanna Sandom aka Splendid stitches. I left 6 of my dresses with her, and what can I say? She did a WONDERFUL job. I wish I had taken pics of the dresses before so that you can see what I had done, but these are just a few of them dresses I had fixed.

Now, I have a bit of a thing with altering vintage. I will only ever alter things that have been altered previously, and this was the case with all of these garments. If a piece is in really superb original condition I don’t like to do it as I feel that it “alters” the history of the garment.

This is my infamous giraffe print Horrockses. The back of the dress had been altered at some point and was incredibly messy. Look how great it looks now! I think I’ll be wearing this at Epsom festival of vintage…it should make me pretty easy to find.

This one had a new zip put in it. I think I bought this about 4 years ago and hadn’t got round to putting the zip in. I’m so happy to have this back in my wearing collection…I’m wearing this one tomorrow night so I’ll share pics of this properly on tuesday!

And this STUNNING Rhona Roy dress is one of my best recent purchases. This had been previously taken out, so I had it taken back in to fit me better around the bust.

If you need your vintage repaired visit splendid stitches website.