wow....friendsies...are coming to The Helm...

I don't know how this is supposed to be quiet.is it? I need to check the blooogosphere.....but Mark just shared that his pals...will be playing a show at the helm..a music show.Gee it's so funny how 3 degress of separation we are from the helm.....I bang into to them in the oddest ways....Tacoma is tiny......that's why I take what you say So Personal !!!
Oh so who is playing in April.......well, I guess I will save that for another day, eh....

The Perfect Song for Tacoma....

because...well, you just can't like yourself can you? Not the old school folks that are fine with living and working and enjoying life without relying on their investments......I have always hated that "Gritty Tacoman"....we're not gritty. We're real people. And we don't take to insipid tenuous captions. Clearly, a working class Tacoman does not think of themselves as Gritty.........I know when you came up with that, you meant well, but you really missed the mark.

What we Tacoma folks are is the kind of people that work, get callouses, buy a round for our pals, and help each other pack up and move....we'll replace your head gasket and rotate your tires, in exchange for a hellAcious summertime barbeque party.....we love to go Bowling, but not in irony....

and that is really what is at the heart of the new-fangled "Tacoma" lover...You sit outside the working class, you believe (or truly did believe) that buying a house was a Good Investment...so you bought a few of them...and flipped them or whatever.....you won't patronize a business unless you are assured it has been Pre-Sanitized, or maybe you "slum" with your pals for entertainment.......

Since Broadway, and the other streets in my n'hood are ripped up, for one reason only....that is to make sure that the Condo-Buyers have pretty little sidewalks and pretty little parking and pretty little planters full of pretty little flowers in their daily world. God forbid...there would remain cracked sidewalks patched from years of pavement pounding, worn yellow lines that are so declasse....because, dammit, Tacoma is not Seattle's trashy sister.....Tacoma is World Class !!!

So I truly truly truly thank the people who are making the trek down thru the Huge Scary Machines and the Amazing Mud Puddles to spend money at the shops ...the teeny tiny small business that make your life Happy...and maybe you realize it and maybe you don't...but it's us, the Little People, the ones who repair your car, mix your drinks, brew your coffee, supply you with quirky delightful trinkets, clothes and furniture to funkIfy your daily life....who make life worth living...
The artists, the workers who empty your trash cans, the cab drivers that pick you up when you are too drunk to walk home, the artists, the small business person who works with no net and no Trust Fund, the artists, the folks who slap price tags on your food, Hell, the migrants who Pick Your Food...
we'd appreciate it if you would spend more money....and give back to us, since it was our money to begin with........
wink.






This song here is perfect for the Powers That Be In Tacoma....who are trying so hard to force Tacoma to become a High Class Call Girl instead of the greasy waitress that she is.
And Matt Driscoll, thanks for the recent opinion piece in The Volcano that addresses this issue of real vs. fake in Tacoma. It's not that we are against You People, but we know you are against us. And I must say, The Volcano, has become fairly relevant over the last year. Did the Swarners drop acid or something? Because real or not, they seem to better be able to fake the sincerity !

From Italy to your summer wardrobe...

If you land at the Naples airport, you can get to the isle of Capri.......the fabled tiny island off the coast of Italy, situated westerly from just about where a buckle would be on the boot of Italy. The deliciously beautiful Grotta Azzurra...the Blue Grotto mesmerizes with the unreal beauty of light upon water. Capri's natural charms have inspired much wonderous art and useful things including fashions that have been created to celebrate the bright and cheery colors of the island's features, and to relive and inspire the feelings of comfort, beauty and fun!


Emilio Pucci has said he was inspired to create his iconic designs and the mind-blowing colors because of the beauty of Capri. We can forgive him then, perhaps, for being so Italian that he was a fan of Mussolini! Pucci was from a rich Italian family, an athlete, and also a fine skier with Olympian talent. On that strength he won a scholarship to Portland's Reed College where he designed his first small collection ....the college's ski team uniforms in the mid-30s.



Pucci set up his first haute couture house at the jet set resort of Canzone del Mare on the Isle of Capri after WWII. His skiwear was discovered by a Harper's Bazaar editor, and Mr. Marcus of Nieman Marcus encouraged him to design other garments, and Pucci responded with the early designs in the stunning color combos we swoon over.

The isle of Capri figures prominently in another design we are are so familiar with......the capri pants....those cute little 50s calf length pants that have resurged back into the fashion world. German designer, Sonja de Lennart, produced a collection just after WWII calling it the Capri Collection because of her family's love of the island.


Full skirts with wide belts were one of the first of Sonja's designs that became popular. But it was her 1948 design, the tight Capri pants, such a change from the Katherine Hepburn-style wide slacks, that took the world by storm. Designer Edith Head dressed Audrey Hepburn in capri pants, the skirt, the high-necked blouse and the wide belt....all designs by de Lennart, worn in Roman Holiday. Givenchy, a year later, dressed Audrey in de Lennart's capris in Sabrina.

From high fashion to everyday wear, movie stars and housewives, even the iconic Beatnik look of black turtleneck, capri pants, wide belt and flat shoes, can thank Sonja de Lennart.



I have these right now on etsy....in the shorter length we called knee-knockers...





fyi... a little list of Pants lengths.....all fabulous!

Bermuda shorts, and clam diggers or walking shorts, are from thigh length to just below the knee, while traditional capri pants are generally calf to ankle length and are form-fitting, perhaps with a small v at the hem. Pants that are cropped and wide are called capri's, flood pants, or pedal pushers. And then of course, there are Man-pris!!

Yikes, vintage Gym suits and Bloomers are kinfolk !!

Or, How to research a weird vintage garment.

So, a few months ago I found these:


All I could think of to call it was....gym clothes...bloomers...
I've lately been on a bloomers kick because this find started it last December when I was in the midst of whine-fest about how much I hate Winter (because I do)...


these are in my etsy shop, but I might reclaim them since they are So Cute!

So, I asked for help on the ebay Vintage Clothing board, and got tons of help, and the Thought of Gym Suit....stirred up a lot of painful, agonizing memories of Gym Class, and the Awful Gymsuit we were forced to wear in junior and high school. I suspect, that just at the moment when we are facing the horrifying changes our bodies go through in that time of our young lives, we are forced to wear the most universally unflattering garment ever devised.....save for tampons (not really a garment) or The Burka...maybe wood clogs are worse....
Let me introduce Amelia Bloomer....

this pic is from virgina.edu

Research revealed that the spunky Amelia Bloomer encouraged the wearing of long baggy pants with ankle cuffs that were just dandy for enraging the menfolk and the uptight women who aligned with them, and for actually Enjoying Life unrestricted by 42 petticoats and 4 layers of wool skirts...and that's just from the waist down...horrors on the rib cage squashing corsets...(another post just for that!)

Though the puffy pants and shorts are now known as Bloomers, Mrs. Bloomer was influenced by 1850's era Women's Libber....Libby Miller and her cousin Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Exercise and sports were becoming quite popular about this time with the invention of the bicycle and baseball towards the end of the 19th century, and new clothing styles were invented, since catching ones petticoat in the spokes could lead to catastrophe.(google Isadora Duncan for a sickening lesson on Fashion as Unintentional Suicide)



Middies , Middy shirts and Bloomers took over casual wear like wildfire because of comfort and cuteness. These 2 piece outfits for sports evolved to one piece for gymnasium wear and exercise. As things do, the middy lost its collar, tie and sleeves by the 30s, but kept the elastic bloomer leg. Buttons on the shoulder were the way in and out.
In the book linked above, School Sewing Based On Home Problems, published in 1916, we see a Middy gym suit, and a swimsuit with buttoned shoulders similar to mine.





I am koo koo for anything nautical, but I've never (to my knowledge) dated a Sailor. But I love middies, love nautical themes and love living near Big Water, aka Pacific Ocean.

(here's where I'll post some pics of mine...)

By the 40s, shirt styles with front buttons and collars with short sleeves were back in style.
These were paired with shorts, mostly without bloomers, but the bloomers were under the skirts or under the shorts.

In the 50s and 60s, they looked like this mostly.



A wonderful trip thru gymsuit land is here at Taffy's....

Take a look here at the Levittown High School reunion page for some gym suits, and lots of other fun 60s photos.

Here's a mid 30s label from a guy's gym suit...same as mine.


Another clue to the actual age of my vintage gymsuit (possibly a Teens swimsuit!) is the buttons on the shoulders. That is the only way in, or out. There's no zipper, no side snaps or buttons. That's another reason it's not 40s or 50s or later. The slimmer bloomer (say that fast 10 times) means they have escaped the madness of Big Bloomer Heaven that was the 20s, and moved on.
And, well, the color is either Jadeite, or Institutional Green, depending on your mood at the moment you view them.
Based on the label, the styling and the color, the history of bloomers and middies and the history of exercise and women's lib, I feel confident these are late 20s thru the 30s.

It's Green ! Spend Some, Sing Some, what I wore...

let's flashback to Fall last year, when we were waiting to see if America was as stupid as box of Ronco Popeil Pocket Fishermans.... (i do own one, they are dumb)
Surprise ! President Obama ....ha ha ha ha ah ahahahahaha is Irish.



You have some Green? Get out and spend it! We all, everyone of us, depends on you getting out and buying stuff. Sorry ....that sound crass. But it's true. (There are other reasons we need you but today is Green!!) And go shopping, was the only smart thing that Geo. W. Bush ever said. Ex-President Bush ! I like the sound of that.

What I wore March 16, 2009. It's easy for me to dress in green.



It's a favorite color, and I have a green everything to wear if I choose. So...I wore my green and caramel striped Dries Van Noten wool sweater.......god I love this thing!!
Chartreuse, olive, caramel, chocolate......favorite colors and favorite foods!
Under that I wore a 60s vintage black cashmere cardigan and way underneath was a black tank top. I wore a pair of pale caramel boys slacks. Yes.




But the best chunk is my hat .......not only is it Green. Velvet. 70s floppy hat. It's Norma Kamali! I am not a label whore tho I just dropped the names of 2 biggies. But like I always say......buy Quality. Buy what you like. I spotted the sweater and had it in my hands only because of the colors...and later I found the Van Noten label. Bonus!
The Kamali hat...I've been looking for an authentic 70s floppy for about 2 years. So again, Bonus! 2 of my favorite designers....because they have a sense of authenticity and are true artists that became fashion designers.....



The Kamali hat came from etsy seller.......JPsuniqueboutique



*****************************
and I just stole this from Julie at Vintage Goddess.......

Why Vintage? begin a multi part series....

about vintage living....

I discovered a trunk of old clothes on the back porch of my childhood home/cabin at the Rex Hotel, a trunk full of slightly smelly dresses and shoes and boots and skirts. Well, a 10 year old girl, left on her own to amuse herself, I dressed up and paraded around the hotel, in the lobby, down the hall, and around Oscar's back garden as if I was the tattered princess of a long old times ago day. The Magnolia Hotel, in the yard behind the Rex was an abandoned old shell of stone, broken glass and rotting mattresses, decorated with dirt, empty wine bottles and busted furniture........in other words, perfect for playing.



So began my first memory of old clothes. I had always been fussy about my clothes...sensitive people are...I don't mean just style, I mean the actual feel of the fabric against the skin........the color, the design....

I only remember shopping for Back To School clothes, and a few summer outfits as a child. I had favorites that I hated giving up when I outgrew them. I'd have them today if I'd have been in charge!!

For me, clothes were an expression of my mood as a child, what I was thinking about, and what I was going to do with my day. It was very serious business.



The first rummage sale I attended with my mom was the beginning of an addiction......to clothes. I indulge myself.
It's an artistic statement.
Everyday is a theme.
Today we say "vintage clothes"....and rummage sales are out ! Not really. We call them yard sales, garage sales, and estate sales.



What is vintage?
It has to be at least 20 years old. Otherwise , it is just old clothes. Nothing wrong with old clothes. Wear them. If it's 10 years old, it's just old clothes. It is not vintage. Not yet. It will be.....in 10 years.
Period. Right now, young girls, and shady capitalists are trying to tell the clothes-wearing public that the mid to late 90s and even the early 2000's are Vintage.....No. Not yet.
Young girls don't know history. No one young does. But they will.
Capitalists are desperately trying to get in on this "vintage" thing.
But they can't because inherently vintage is anti-capitalism.
Vintage is a decision to re-use that which has already been created.
It takes some confidence to ignore FASHION, that which comes down the runways.
With only a few exceptions all FASHION is crap. Oh it is well made. It starts the trends and defines what an "era" or "decade" looks like and that is fine....
but that is fading away for several reasons...



Today, the smart people reuse, use up, rewear, and reinvent with what is already here.
Not to mimic (for cheap) what is on the latest runway....no....There are a multitude of Jump On The Bandwagon startups that shop the thrift stores, get a white backdrop, fancy lighting schemes and a model who is 17, striking very contorted and bored poses.........
to sell you old clothes. Ok fine.
To sell you the Idea, that you will Look Like This....if you buy this frock. And you see them on ebay, and the bids go into the ozone...and somewhere in America, a week later some poor girl with a 212.00 charge on her VISA card is walking around a mall with a 70s dress, chopped onto a mini, with black boots, yellow tights and a bored expression being "fashionable".

We've probably all done something like that.....
The reason dressing in vintage, and creating our own look is valuable is because...
1. Cheap.
2. Original.
3. Reuses. (saves the earth)

And this is another reason I don't buy, and haven't for many years, buy much of anything that's new. We don't need to. I could care less if Target has a plastic purse on sale for $17.00 !!!
It was made in China by a slave and the poison from manufacturing is dumped in the drinking water of the town where the purse was made, so the worker can then drink it.

This is a lot of information to take in! This is why this is a series of posts. Think of it like chapters in a book. Because it is.

I am lovin' etsy....

I got a Jones...I got an affliction...I am hooked on etsy...
it's fresh, and earnest and doesn't dwell on irony...tho they have a well-developed sense of humor....which is far more fun than irony, po-mo irony anyway.....
so I've been having a great time selling, oh sure, you meet some very swell folks there........
I love the smallness, the celebration of the smallness...
I could cycle thru The Treasury...for hours, and um, have.
(I been chosen to be featured in a few Treasury (treasuri)...

This dress is cute. If I was 200 years younger, I'd wear it with very holey jeans...
but I am not that young, but someone is.
and it is in etsy's Redefine Your Style gift guide....here, see for your self...





Yes, it is a frock for Chubby girls....tee hee.

Thank You....Thank You....

as you know, the City of Tacky has decided to rip up the Broadway area to install pretty pretty places to walk and breathe in that "urban atmosphere"...and I just wanted to say............

Thanks to everyone that is still making the trek to our block and dodging the Press Machines, the Big Dig Machines, the Dump Truck, the Roller Balls and the cute girls and boys with Signs..........
to make your way to all the groovy shops on Broadway.......
and especially my shop!!

funkoma vintage...........
712 Broadway.......
yes the address is written on the wall with a Magic Marker.......
because if we had a fancy schmancy plaque made of brass....
saying something like:
Founded 2008....continuing to amaze you in 2009.......
that would just be pretentious.........
and if there is one thing you can say about us..........

we ain't pretentious............
We love you, and we love that you love us.......
and when we are closed due to construction, or lack of utilities.........
We Will Always ReOpen.........
as soon as we can..........
It ain't easy being cheesy...........




since youtube won't allow the embedding of this......please click to listen to Jeff Buckley sing Hallelujah...

and below, my favorite Tim Buckley song...Once I Was.....Jeff's dad.....

What I like now....

funkomavintage is in an etsy Treasury highlighting VLV vintage goodies...
thanks to carmenandginger....

oh sure some snowflakes showed up this morning...but the sun came out...and well,
Spring is just a few days away!
Here's what I like ...for those days...that aren't
Winter but not quite Spring....

these are all in my etsy shop, and mention VLV and I'll refund 10% of the price before shipping is added !!

First Lady Fashion.........

A slide show of First Ladies....
clicky

Michelle.....Mrs. O...has captivated us... all of us, the whole world over. Her intelligence...and her style. Because I guess, what you wear reveals so much about you on a first impression.
In recent memory Jackie Kennedy had an identifiable style that was copied...it was sleek and uncomplicated.......


Here's a 60s vintage Bridal set or not...paired with all black accessories, it would be stunning at a luncheon date and because it's 2 pieces, it will mix and match and play very very nice with what is already hanging in the closet.
click here to go my etsy shop!










Coral dress for day or evening party........and a LBD for a cocktail or dinner party......











ending soon on ebay...clicky

What I'm Wearing March 5 2009

getting dressed is important to one's outlook on life...I have cute jammies and cute slippers, but I can't go out like that....well, I can.....I choose not to (yet)
Today I'm wearing a pink and purple with orange fringe scarf I think I got from Annie...that I love love love...both Annie and the scarf, a pair of jeans, Levis nothing special, a pinky sweater dress over a stripe shirt, and a pair of wine leather boots...(that look like these for sale on etsy!)....
All thrifted....
the inspiration is SPRING...If I can dream it, I can dress it....
look for more pansy-inspired outfits daily.........
The 2nd bested thing (besides the scarf) is this flower pin I garage-saled last summer (Mark got a cute fat little teapot)...
it's like a Rudbeckia in lime and fuschia with black, and a long acid green stem, made of metal, and its best part is the cluster of black stamens......
This year I shall co-ordinate my collection of flower pins...and my collection of sparkly rhinestone stuff....