Erte' Display at Pittock Mansion

Yesterday I went with a friend to the Pittock Mansion to see the Erte' display and then we had lunch of 23rd street. It was a lovely cool, crisp, but sunny fall day. I wore a 1930's rayon dress - the dress is white with a black, light purple and green abstract floral design. I wore a black cardigan, white bobby sox, and black mary janes. I wore my vintage sunglasses and my black vintage patent leather purse.

The Erte display was beautiful, Erte's true name was Romain de Tirtoff but he was known by the French pronunciation of his initials - Erte'. He is most famous for his Art Deco illustrations of dramatically dressed women. He designed costumes and sets for theatre, opera, and Hollywood. He worked for Harper's Bazaar Magazine for over 20 years and created more than 200 covers. Often featuring women in flowing silks, furs, jewels, and/or feather plumes.

There were prints and sculptures on display for viewing and they were quite exotic and beautiful. As many of you know the Art Deco Era is my favorite so of course I had to go.

In Memory of my father.

In loving memory of my father June 17, 1930 to September 29, 2009.

William D. Wyss passed away on Tuesday September 29th, 2009 at Tillamook Hospital. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, JoAnn Wyss, sons William M. Wyss, James D. Wyss, Robert Lee Wyss, and daughter Lisa Bardsley. Five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

He enjoyed gardening, fishing, travel, building things and wordworking. He will be missed greatly.

Shopping on Hawthorne and Blade Runner as inspiration.

When life gets tough I shop, I had a traumatic thing happen this week so in order to cope I went shopping. At least I did not spend very much money and there of course can be much worse vice's such as drinking, smoking, or drugs.

First I went to The Red Light store on Hawthorne because I had a bag of stuff to trade, I found this most wonderful 1940's charcoal color wool ladies suit jacket, it has a nipped in waist with a little bit of a peplum at the bottom and three really cool looking buttons. When I got it home I realized that I have a skirt that is made from the exact same charcoal wool so I now own a beautiful suit. It has a very - Racheal from Blade Runner - look to it.

I also got a cherry red wool beret because they are always fun to wear in the fall in winter, I plan on dying a pair of pink gloves that I have the same cherry red color so I will have gloves to match. After the trade I only paid $4.oo for the jacket and the beret...not bad.

Then I went to Buffalo Exchange and I found a pair of Coture Donald J Pliner shoes, they are 1940's repro platform peep toe pumps in a brown reptile - they marked as a size 6 1/2 but they looked way bigger - I kept on thinking to myself, they look like they would fit. So I decided to try them on and they fit! They were totaly mismarked because I wear a size 7 1/2, they were originally $38.00 at Buffalo Exchange because I guess that Donald Pliner is a uber popular shoe designer right now (who would have known, not me, I just liked them because they look like 1940's peep toe platforms!) but they were marked down to half price because they were not fitting anybody with a size 6 1/2 foot (they had been at Buffalo Exchange since August) once I got home I looked up this designer and his shoes go for around $300.00 or just slightly under. My shoes do not even look like they have ever been worn. These shoes will go perfet with my nice 1940's chocolate brown and cream tweed suit that is piped in chocolate brown velvet, that I got in the middle of summer at the last Portland Antique Show. Now I just need to take the suit in and have the jacket altered. Which is what I finally did do with the black light weight wool 1940's jacket that I got from the antique show before the last., yay it was about time and just in time for the fall/winter.

The last thing I bought at Buffalo Exchange was a straw 1950's handbag - I always seem to buy things out of season but that is ok I just put it away and pull it out when the time comes and it is just like Christmas all over again! This bag is super adorable, it has red straw flowers and two tone green leaves that have been stitched on with yarn, it looks like a nice hand bag to go with my 1950's resort wear or perhaps I may be able to use it at Christmas time with the red and green it has going on.

After I am done decompressing from my latest trauma I will go back to volunteering at the office and I will have a whole new (vintage wardrobe) and I bet you can tell what my theme/inspiration will be...Blade Runner. Now I just need a big huge fluffy fur coat!

Brooksie drawing by artist.

A couple months ago I had an artist by the name of Joseph Washinowski contact me wanting to draw my picture and here it is. I had been anxiously awaiting my drawing for a while and I was so happy when Joseph contacted me with the results. I have also included the photo that he used for this drawing. If you are interested in seeing more of Joseph's work you can go to onemodel.com and enter his #181686.

Here is a close up of my sunglasses, you can see the shape better but you still can not see the intricate design work on them but oh well, I did end up having another professional shoot the other day and maybe with some of those you will be able to see some of the design work.

Fun new glasses!

I just thought I would share a picture of my new cat eye glasses (ones on the bottom left of course) I got for my Birthday. I know, I know, my birthday was back in June and I am just now posting but I have been so awful durn busy and I still am but I just had one moment of free time.

My friend Diana is an optition and one of the eye clinics she works for just happen to have a boxful of new old stock vintage frames. She knows that I am an avid vintage collector and wearer so she knew these glasses would be just perfect for me. These glasses are just for reading only, because I am far sighted, I only need glasses for reading. The last pair of reading glasses I had back in 2005 got ran over back when I was in truck driving school in Texas. I always said my next pair of glasses would be original cat eyes from the 50's. These glasses originally came from a company called Swank from France - the company I guess was big back in the 50's and 60's and I believe the company closed down about 30 years ago. These frames are in pristine condition because they were all wrapped up and sitting in a box for the last 50 years or more. They are a nice golden fawn color. The pearl eye glass chain I made (because I am a beader), lends both a classic and librarianesqe' look to it all.

The next glasses I want to get my hands on are my moms glasses that she wore when she was a kid in the 1940's (during WWII time) they are very thin gold wire frames - perfectly round with the wire that wraps around your ear. I will have her perscription taken out and my reading glass put in its place, thats what I have Diana for. These will be mine very soon one day, sorry no picture.

The ones on the left at the top are my new sunglasses that I bought for an incredible price from Diana, after she gave me my cat eyes for my b-day I mentioned needing some vintage sunglasses she told me that she had some of those frames too. The next day she brought me a few to look over and to pick out one. The ones I chose are the ones on the left - they are a silvery grey and I had her put in a grey, green glass lens. If I were to do it all over I would of had a very dark black lens put in it because my eyes are pretty sensitive to the light, these are great for over cast days, or in fall and spring when the sun is not as intense. So now I really need a very dark lens for summer.

These sunglass frames are again new old stock 50's from Swank optical from France. I will try to find a close up picture so you all can see the fabulous design work around the top and the sides. It looks like little intricate gold vines with leaves, they are versitle too and can be worn with either gold or silver jewelry - they are so beautiful and I get compliments all of the time on them.

New favorite blog - with a fabulous hat giveaway contest!

I have just stumbled apon my new favorite blog: Vixen Vintage. This blog is fabulous I would call it a vintage girls best friend. Right now the Vixen is having a great little hat giveaway so check it out: http://vixenvintage.blogspot.com/2009/08/giveaway.html

Get your entry in and goodluck!