Vintage Clothes, Tiki, Bikes,Albums.....June 1st ...June 1st.....

Mmmm, Marimekko, Ralph Lauren, 30s and 40s and 50s vintage....



Chairs and stuff.....More vintage clothes...albums will go back here...



Part of the front.....Lots of stuff to come in and more work before opening day!

Old School Tacoma....Yes Vintage Tacoma....

How can you love Tacoma without being sad about her bad facelifts?
Yes She was already a lovely old girl with an unpretentious spunk......
Click the link to see the fantabulous efforts of
Tacoma Then and Now
if funkoma had extra hours in the day, we would do this also...
on a very consistent basis.....
and now, that she has been forced into capitalist servitude.......
WELL, you can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her change....
funkoma vintage.....Keeping the faith.....eating at the dives...
singing bad karoke all over town....
and keeping the best places secret...and all to ourselves!

Born In The USA...Kids Clothes...

I crochet, design, create and sew....a lot...I design clothes and cute stuff for your home....darn near anything except formal wear.
(I have a short attention span)
That's me in the links on the right...eBetty DIY....


So...I loved the Mini-EyeCandy...for kids clothes...I have made thousands of kids things....since I have 3 kids and 4 grands!

Cookie Magazine has a fab article on kid's clothes Made In The USA !

More Art Walk and Tacoma.....

Ahh yes, The Elks Club...No. 164 dates from 1916...
Everyone loves it.....some want to decorate it...
some have even
proposed fixing the old girl up
and selling beer
I vote for nothing less than a full bar.......

Williams and Dame had a hand in Portland's Pearl District...





I've been there...strangely, I liked it .....a lot...
because it had what makes a downtown/urban area inviting....Human scale store fronts, neccesary services and lots of fun things to do...
mini-parks, water features, respect for familiar old buildings and a minimum of confusing modern architecture......













From the Broadway side, a righteous doorway, and along the side.....

Below is a pic of the building from the front side.....from the City of Tacoma's Filthy 15......Tacoma is soooo stupid....more on that later......









along the southeast side are The Spanish Steps,
both lovelies are on the
National Historic Register....
and built by Architect Edward Frere Champney
in the classic Second Revival design. The steps lead down to Commerce Street and Tacoma's Link train....why is that important to me?? (See me standing there in the dark like a college-educated hooker?)


Because.....you can take the FREE Link Train from The Elks Club/Spanish Steps to the other end of downtown Tacoma, just a block from the funkoma vintage shop...and back again...How cool is That???
just nod approvingly......


The real ones in Rome
...

BioDiesel in Tacoma

Back in mid 2003 we first bought a Mercedes diesel car.....After Mark took classes to learn the chemistry and then made biodiesel, well, we had to find a car!
I'll post pics later....
(this is a similar car in Memphis)
It was a 1979 brown Mercedes 300TD and the symbol on the hood was in the glove box....so we replaced the missing trinket with Bowling Lady.....our mascot that we twisted off an old trophy and attached to the hood...this became my car after Mark bought a yellow 1980 Mercedes wagon ...the kind of car John Lennon drove....Mercedes that is.....
Everyone thought we were goofy...and we are........
Biodiesel? What's that?
Folks pretty well know we'll drive a beater till we kill it and then move on...because our old cars go the same places as new cars...it's amazing, I tell ya!....
Example: Had a lovely dinner last night at Harbor Lites with my sweet inlaws, and parked the Volvo wagon between a new Lexus and a new BMW.....
Biodiesel....at first we had to drive up to Seattle to get biodiesel at Dr. Dan's in Ballard.
Mark and I were interns for Take Back Your Time Day....and we would drive up for the organizing meetings and encourage people to Smell Our Tailpipe! Hey, it smelled like French Fries.....
When I was taking law classes in 2004 through 2006, I had the same car as a nice lady who well, came from the right side of the tracks ....if you know what I mean....she carried a
Dooney and Bourke bag, and so did I!

Sadly, the transmission launched....and we sold it to a fellow up near Bellingham.....which is only slightly more
Hippie than Olympia.....
We Went to School in Olympia...yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.....
Biodiesel!!
It's almost mainstream now.....with redneck farmers and that ol' environmentalist George W. Bush allocating money to manufacture it.....and now in Seattle and all over the Puget Sound are truck stops and a few gas stations carry it.....but back in the Wild West Days....Mark and I were pretty much on our own......
Now of course, everywhere we look, folks are copying us....(as if)...and driving old diesel cars exhausting French Fry aroma!
So, are we really so weird? I mean, we have something in common with farmers w/ rednecks and Bush....
Who woulda guessed?
Well, me, for one......I know that we are far more alike than different...really..

Good Karma...Buy Vintage...Bad Sarah Jessica Parker

Well, Sarah Jessica Parker has a new fashion line! Yippee....It's called Bitten...and I hope it comes back to bite her in the butt....Why???
Because the only possible way to produce new clothing to sell for under 19.99 per item is to use sweatshops around the globe.

And...Right There...is another reason to buy vintage clothes.....Many items were made in Union shops where workers had a way to organize for fair wages and safety....remember Norma Rae?


When you buy something already made you are not exploiting a new worker...and you're saving energy and materials today...

We can't change the past.....but we can change the future!
Want to know what you can do and get some more information? Yes!

Below is a small example of well-known companies that use underpaid and exploited labor around the world...Here is where America's labor union factory jobs went:
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=24
Labor

In April 2001, Nicaraguan court ordered Chentex, a Taiwanese-owned maquila that was making jeans for Kohl's, J.C. Penney, Kmart, and Wal-Mart to rehire nine illegally fired union leaders. Chentex had been targeted by the National Labor Committee for its union-busting activity, while workers earned just 18 cents for each $24 pair of pants they sewed.

-- U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project
Source URL: www.usleap.org/Maquilas/PastMaquilaCampaigns.html#nica

Go here for more information:
coopamerica
corporation information
how Chinese sweatshops skirt the law

Harborside Skunks In Love In Tacoma?

Oh sure....we know 70s shirts were often silly....wild prints, odd florals or tiny calicos and refashioned urban scenes, cracked Old Master paintings, Disney cartoon characters inserted into photo-realistic pictures.....
Here's one I have now.....and lucky you ....it's for sale in my ebay store.
At first glance....just a print of ships and boats in the harbor....but look closer..green skunks...painting art....giving flowers! what is going on? I don't know...but somehow, I can't help but think of Tacoma's waterfront...and in honor of Third Thursdays ART WALK today......I offer to the universe....this!

Why So Skinny ?

Ok so I'm sitting here in a 70s poly shirt...and they are skinny thru the shoulders...thank goodness they are knit! I have broad shoulders but I love the color and breezy/silliness of those 70s shirts!!!!



If you were there...or if you are wearing 60s and 70s vintage clothes.....you know they are slim thru the shoulders and everywhere else...

this might explain something......
"[Biba founder Barbara] Hulanicki found her niche designing clothing for the postwar, protein-deprived young women who were growing girls when rations dictated the size of their suppers."
click the Fashionista.com link for more...and a link to The Telegraph for the full article.

Oh yeah....Love that shirt ?? click it to go to funkoma vintage on ebay....

Drinky Crow... as art...and motion......

funkoma vintage has always been a big fan of Drinky Crow...appearing in Maakies cartoon strip.....we've adopted the "dialogue"...
dook dook dook....and use drinky crow as an affectionate knickname for anyone we see that maybe has had a wee bit of too much of the "Liquid Funmaker"......
so I have mixed feelings about the strip becoming a TV show....I don't have cable....but I guess I can watch on my computer...ha ha!

here's an article in the New York Times!

I love the back story because I love it when an artist.....an Art School graduate... makes a living from....art!
And Tony Millionaire is gonna make some big Coin!
the mixed feelings come from the weird idea that it is so esoteric....only a few thousand people, heretofore, prolly knew about it and refer to it in conversation.....so...the Crow is out of the Bag, well, no, the Crow is in the Bag.....but is out......and coming to a paper and/or a screen near you!

from gawker.com

funkoma vintage has pals and friends all over the globe...because the funky is fun.....well, one of my New York City pals, yes, that New York City.....is The Fashionista of the lively ....
Diary Of A Mad Fashionista blog
******************************
buy here...see Bucky.......
(well, I must say it was Bucky the Wonder Dog, that pushed me over the edge...thou who loves a tiny dog who will tolerate tiny hats always impresses me!)

She, the Mad Fashionista, has a well-informed and adamant opinion about Clavicles ...yes, those collarbones things that are hanging out all over ....the new sex spot, apparently.....She...was quoted in the New York Times, fitting to print a quote from our esteemed colleague ....The Mad Fashionista.....Go Now to her blog....and fill your weekly quota of SMART-writing .......sadly in as short supply these days as a politician who subscribes to the belief that rising tides lift all boats........

Oh Amelia....

I love flying....it makes me dizzy....I haven't flown much in my life but I have always thought, in my dotage, I would take up flying lessons....
So how delighted was I when Joni Mitchell released Amelia......


I keep a beat-up caramel leather jacket in my wardrobe at all times, and a few long silk scarves, and tall brown leather boots.....I mean, you know, just in case I must pilot a plane....

In 1932, Amelia became the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic.
Amelia Earhart is of the 20s...surely one of the top 3 of My Favorite Eras In Which I Wish I Had Lived....say that fast 5 times....
My bedtime read right now is Beryl Markham's West With The Night, her 1939 memoir of her time in Africa in the Edwardian era as a child and into her adulthood as an Aviatrix...In 1936 she flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean from London to a crash landing in Newfoundland.
....Such juicy details of her and Amelia.... a topic I'll come back to again and again.....
Vintage? Yes...Fashion was influenced by flying women....how bold of them to Fly! They captured attention then and they surely capture mine now.....
Amelia...it was only a false alarm....
clicky here for a Style.com Slideshow

See Some Shops...while waiting for funkoma vintage.

I am a voyeur...I like to watch...which is a real handy personality attribute to have if you are an artist ...or writer...or nosy...or curious .....and I am all of the above. From Stylebubble is this loverly treat of shops around the world...and I'm all about looking at shops right now since I am designing one...the accomodating mr. has been doing most of the work down there/up there while I am slaving at home....

Above is a picture of a shop sign in NYC, taken by the eponymous ms. bubble.....clicky here for the groovenest post today.....
See them here!

Yes, I make up words to suit my mood...I should publish a Tress-tion-ary for translation purposes.....

Moving right along......

This week was wall-whacking....busted up by several trips to Homeowner Hell.....stud-counting and sheetrock hanging.....It's a fairly bare room about 20' x 40' plus a bath and a closet and a back hall that leads to the backyard weed patch...(Yes, oh Joy...a pre-garden),and the basement.
Looking towards the back.......and Inside looking out my front door....


See that black hole there? That is the dressing room....don't worry.......










I brought a palm and a Boston fern in first.....good feng shui....
and went next door and chatted

with Kenny about promotion......
Keeping it real....and providing another venue for ART.....
We are a block up from Tacoma's Link to downtown....To get here you take
Exit 133 and turn right....Pass Brown & Haley makes 'em daily......and stop in front of Yung's Teriyaki....say hi to Kenny when you eat lunch in his sweet little cafe......

Don't worry...we won't get big swelled heads...Because we have a fantabulous view...You can see our Bright Blue Building from almost anywhere in that part of T*Town
Don't tell anyone....but we can see the switching yard, Brown's Point, all of downtown, the Spur into City Center......We Rock!

A few more pieces of sheetrock and we'll start the painting.....a lot of ragging and sponging.....and we're gonna Pollock the floor.....Jackson Pollock that is.....don't worry .....we won't sell it for 5 bucks like that potty-mouth retired-truck-driving Granny on 60 Minutes.....She's my kinda people....

I'll post pics of the outside soon and I'll draw you a map!
Meanwhile feast your eyes on the first flyer....up there on the right side....soon to be littering the streets of T*Town...press Releases next week...late....and then after Mother's Day...we start moving in the goodies.....

We're shooting for opening day...June 1st...in this neighborhood...we'll get our wish....Bullseye Shooter is just down the hill, nestled across the parking lot from Alfred's Bubble Room! Yup, guns and liquour.....my kinda neighboorhood!

Vintage Clothes, A Shop & All About Tacoma

Hi There ......
funkoma vintage sells vintage, recycled and DIY stuff
to make your life a better place to live!
We recycle style.....Yes....we are in Tacoma.....thanks for asking.........
and we are opening a shop........
Meanwhile.......

Visit us
on ebay

At funkomavintage you will find
Classic Vintage,30s - 80s, Retro,DIY & Quirky
Clothes,Sunglasses,Eyeglasses
Jewelry,Boots,Shoes,Lingerie

Lace & Leather,Mod,Sailor
Edwardian,Cashmere
Party,Levis,
Rockabilly,Cowgirl,Cowboy
Gothic,Military

FAB stuff for ladies,men,kids,animals &your cool home.

In the next few days.....we'll post the progress of our shop.....it's an empty space....now

We like to talk about vintage, fashion, the stuff of daily life, politics-lite, and what is going on in Tacoma.....and the people and places we know and see and have fun with....