dresses – Swing Fashionista

Vintage colour swatch…burgundy beauties

So, I thought I would do something fun and start writing a regular post every 2 weeks that focuses on a particular colour. I will also include pics showing all sorts of vintage fashion items that were produced in varying shades of that colour, hopefully to inspire some new outfit combinations in the future. 🙂

Burgundy. It’s rich, dark, sensual and one of my favourite clothing colours, along with darker greens, browns, rusts, reds, black and navy. I’m not much of ‘bright colour’ girl (much to my father’s disgust…he always comments that I ‘wear too much black’) and I tend to accessorise with brighter pieces or wear a bright shirt with darker skirt/trousers etc. Burgundy usually screamsÂ winter and autumn to me but I do have items in cottons and linens in lighter shades and funnily enough; a pair of vintage suede burgundy lace up oxford shoes! Hope you enjoy this collection.

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Book: Fashion (The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute)

This is a book I bought myself for Christmas. It covers fashion history from the 18th century to the 20th century, with glossy photographs of the collection held by the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan. The book has been out for a while, but oh my, if you don’t own it yet, go out and buy it immediately! So much inspiration for any swing fashionista, the kind of clothes that are so beautiful it makes my chest ache. The Poiret, the Schiaparelli, the Chanel, oh god the Vionnet! The Vionnet, people! Now I want desperately to visit the Kyoto Costume Institute. A holiday to Japan anyone?

Seriously folks, this book is sheer fashion heaven. It is definitely now one of the favourites in my collection. You can buy it here on Amazon. Enjoy!

My sudden panic…

So I was procrastinating a few days ago, browsing vintage dresses on eBay with no intention of buying (no seriously, I went on a November shopping spree, so no more this year!). And I got to thinking about the photographs of vintage clothing for sale online. What a resource! When somebody sells a vintage dress online, they photograph the dress from all angles, with closeups of details and embellishments – they show more detail in those photos than most costume museum archives! It’s an amazing historic record. Plus, so many of these dresses are one of a kind, or at least, the last of their kind.

But the photos are online only as long as the item is for sale, and given that it’s changing hands to a new owner, it may never be seen again! Once the listing is deleted, that photographic record is lost to us! Sitting there, I had a terrible panic that we were losing a valuable resource, oh my word! And proceeded to nab as many photos of the 1920-1940s dresses listed as I could. So yeah, an hour later…

Anyway, what do you think? I’ve always liked to post the lovely vintage things I see on eBay and Etsy, here on SwingFashionista. That way, even if none of us get to buy them, we can still enjoy the pictures, get inspired by the style, and maybe even use them as a reference for making our own. And well after the original listing is gone and the item has headed on to its new owner. But now I feel like I’m on a mission!

What are your thoughts? Want to join my mission? Do you have that same photo-saving habit I do? Do you have a folder on your desktop, filled with photos of pretty things from the glorious internet? So why not start your own blog? Or send them to me and I’ll always post any gathered photos of original 1920s – 1950s fashions here on SwingFashionista. Drop a comment if you have a thought!

Oh yeah, and to satisfy, here are some of those photos 😉

Costume Exhibit in NY at the Met

If you’re in New York before the middle of August, you absolutely MUST go see the “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. Here is a preview of the exhibit that focuses on archetypes of American fashion, including “Gibson Girls” and “Screen Sirens”.