Copacabana Style !

The heydey of the glamorous nightclub scene was the 30s through the 50s....
and Sanford and Son Antiques here on Broadway is hosting a costume prom on Saturday the 19th of September....got your tickets Tacoma?

the Copacabana was a famous New York City nightclub where many great entertainers got their start. It's a world-famous beach in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
And, it's one of my favorite films, the 1947, Copacabana,....with one of the Marx Brothers, The Sexy Sexy Sexy Sexy Groucho Marx, and fruitaliscious Carmen Miranda!

The glam styles of the 30s were a movie-goer antidote to the depressing Depression....gee, a lot like today!
Movies of the 30s featured lavish sets, exotic locales, and lots of gangsters and dames! Snow White, and Bringing Up Baby, and 42nd Street and all the fantastic Ziegfeld Follies movies with stunning aerial shots of limber dancers...by Busby Berkeley.
And of course, A Night At The Opera, with the sexy sexy sexy sexy Groucho, and his brothers.





The 30s were known for big puffy sleeves, slinky bias cuts that hug the body like a second skin....fitted bodices and full skirts. For the men, well, peaked lapels, pinstripes and brocade smoking jackets were the rage for fancy wear.






In my shop I have a few 30s and 40s dresses, an 80s gold gown that is a retro 40s style (a favorite theme of the 70s and 80s), and a modern peaked lapel dinner jacket.
And don't forget your Pencil Thin Mustache....



In the 40s we saw long luscious gowns of lace and satin...with a fitted bodice and a long slim skirt or a full skirt.....




This red lace 40s/50s gown is a 38" bust/ 28" waist, and is in my shop by appointment.
Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, and Lauren Bacall are a few of the glam and sexy 40s ladies whose style we can emulate today.



Don't forget about the military influence too....Sweetheart pins, sailor hats, nautical style, and bold shoulders that echoed an officers uniform, and the Katherine Hepburn wide full slacks are all icons of 40s design...





In the 50s men's fashion was a nice easy fit jacket and pleated slacks. A Linen suit or just a cream or white dinner jacket is always appropriate. Pair a rayon hot color Hawaiian shirt with a pair of creamy linen slacks, a pair of huraches and a straw hat and you got the luxurious tropical Rio beach rich playboy look...going on!

Tux shirts and a tux jacket are superb also. Top it with a fedora and you are stylin' !! Don't forget a fat period tie...the 30s through the 50s sported some wild geometrics, brocades and deep weird colors. Here's some in my shop...




Wanna go all out for a 30s/40s look? Add a fur coat ! Real or fake... Here's a full length paired with a 40s style 80s satin dress....and a white 40s style fake fur!

In just a few weeks it will be Autumn 2009....a few nights ago...was a tremendously buttercream full moon.....a preview of the true Harvest Moon...up in the sky.....

and the cold and the rains and the fogs will come........
and clear cold blue skies....
a crunchy leaves of russet, gold, burgundy, and orange....

A few fall items listed now and lots more to come in the next few days...




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Coats !



Boots !

Oh to be Young Pretty and Stupid...

so ...clicking thru some fashion links via the Mad Fashionista...I end up at the new york times.....coverage of Fashion Week in teh big shitty......

When my wondering eyes should appear to land on this asshat statement:

"Sometimes they’re wearing everything they own at the same time because they have no choice,” said the designer Keanan Duffty, who sometimes plays a game on the street that he refers to as “Fashion Stylist or Homeless Person?” “It is not intended as a lack of respect for people with no homes and no means,” he said. “It’s more a kind of admiration for improvisations people come up with in a dreadful circumstance.”

and for more asshattery:

Erin Wasson, a model turned designer, seconded Mr. Duffty’s view that the professionals could take some tips from the homeless. And she defended remarks she made last year in an interview with Nylon magazine. “The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest,” Ms. Wasson said....“It’s not like I’m saying, ‘Oh, God, that’s so inspiring — you got your clothes from a garbage can,’ ” Ms. Wasson said. What is she saying then? “When I moved down to Venice Beach, I found these people with this amazing mentality, this gypsy mentality — people that you couldn’t label and put in a box,” said the designer

Yes, let's not glamorize the homeless while glamorizing the... homeless....Oh, it's just sooo Hard...to be young and pretty and wealthy and successful and completely devoid of:

1. Morals and empathy.
2. Talent.

This recent spate of "designers" of "fashion" have lost all ability to think of something unique, clever, fun, inspirational, or with a bit originality...so they turn to ripping off the young or older, ahem, DIY designers like uh, me...and thousands of others who actually think, ponder,create and give to the world of vapid fashion-addicts...something resembling Dressing Artfully.

Long gone, for the most part, are the days when those who populate the world's runways to inspire and have a wee bit of fun...

The Fashion Designers...oh, Yves, oh Mr. Dior...Oh, Miss Cashin...Oh Claire McCardell........

I still can somewhat respect quite a few ..don't misunderstand...Mr. Lagerfeld and his team still astound me how they can reinterpret Chanel...again and again...Those tweeds...Those pearls ! over and over and never bore me, and I don't even like Chanel!



We know the story of Marc Jacobs and his wholesale theft of the Grunge..back in the 90s....and it's been all downhill after that...

So, I sent some vintage clothes to New York or LA...or SF.. or Paris...I know they are used for inspiration and that is just fine...we are inspired by that which has come before ...

What I see too often on the runways...are designs that are simply ripped off from the clever ones all over the globe...via...all the blogging that's going on...

I stand and sit and stare at the multitude of materials I have in my workshop..."Where The Magic Happens" and try to come up with something a bit different...as I assemble ...bricolauge...collage....

But looking at the homeless and thinking "mmm Fashion!" and thinking no more. Stop. It. Now.
It's nothing new to look at Gypsies (Roma), Africans, or peasants, in general....it is crossing a line of morality to use the homeless for fashion muses, and do nothing about the homeless...

I could feel better about this (maybe) if the Young, Pretty and Vapid...would be less smug about the tremendous good fortune that has fallen into their collective nimble laps...to be Young and Pretty is just a gift...You did not earn it, You did not request it...

Please do not brag about your fortune, on the backs of those for whom Misfortune has befallen...these folks are on their knees....

the least you could do, is to stand up on your feet and act like a caring feeling grownup...and if you really must mock the homeless as "fashion", Keep your mindless PieHole shut.
We don't want to know you for an asshat....we'd prefer some mystery there.

Hello Followers...

I see you seeing me! I vow to send you more fun content...more bang for your buck...oh, this is Free! anyway...Good stuff is on its way !
thanks for being a funkoma fan......

Another funkoma vintage Project...

see me at wardrobe_remix...
first time ever sending a pic of me to them...to the stream...I'm not wild about photos of me...but I relented because I dress in black a lot...and I'm gonna document many different me's in black. Ha.

So...my latest project...is a saffron vintage coat with some cute tartan and big red buttons...
this was hanging on the rack last winter for a few days, and one day, I noticed......someone had cut the buttons off!
So back in the box it went...I didn't know what I wanted to do with the coat...great style, nice size, fab color...

I've been saving these buttons for a while looking for a perfect project...and one day my eye spied...some classic red tartan.......

So your peanut butter is over my chocolate....and here we have a wonderful twist on a basic 50s/60s coat....
it's available at etsy...click my link over there on the right...or email me...

bean me up Scotty

If it has leather and a buckle I'm
probably wearing it......
I have worn out a few pairs of LLBean boots...a few pair of lace-up calf high boots, and most recently ..a pair of LLBean mocs that I wore for the few years I gardened pro-style on the water for the Rich People.
I just passed them on to a thrift, so the next person could buy them for a couple of dollars and have the rubber replaced for about 25 bucks. Yes, these are items that are Fixed. Repaired. To wear again.


This is a weird concept in the throw-away culture that has boomed in the last 25 years. I'm glad I'm old enough to know what life used to be like...and I'm thrilled to see the very beginning of a turn-back to the ways of buying quality and not spending every penny on crap clothing.
Of course, giving you excellent quality things is what funkoma vintage is all about. I don't deal in the stupid fast fashion......Every item I deal in ...has to be something good!







I'm a classic-sturdy-quality-tomboy clothes nerd.
I love rubber, and stitching and leather, and canvas, and rawhide, and denim and wool, and tweed and corduroy.....I adore these:
But these are really my LLBean Boot heartthrobs........




So can you imagine my delight when I found these a few days ago?
a LLBean boot with a belted buckle across the vamp.



I love them better than the lace up kind or the mocs...and I lurve them.......

Maine Hunting Shoe
L.L.Bean Inc.
Freeport,ME.
I don't know exactly how old this style is...that resembles an Engineer or motorcycle boot....I'm gonna guess 80s or 90s tho.
And that's the deal with The Classics.

Because the style changes very little over time, it can be hard to date.
At the very bottom of this post is a little video to watch of the real LLBean factory right here in the USA.



LLBean is one of the many labels I always buy......because I'm trying to raise the level of usability and do it with style........
The Pacific Northwest, the West Coast has its own style......
Oh sure these are from Maine...a shoe factory in PNW? Quite a few along the West Coast tho.......Magdesians, Kimel, Fleuvog.......West Coast Shoe Company, Nike...er not.

But Danner in Portland will recraft their fine boots just like LLBean.......



These LLBean shoes are so darn cute.....they have everything I love in sweeeet footwear....quality name and materials....cute cute cute overload style....
rubber and leather......just what a gal needs for a rainy Pacific Northwest day..

and bonus...pick your favorite colorway....here's just 3 choices......


These Coffee and Chocolate are my faves.........

Zombie Zombie Zombie

When Night of The Living Dead played at the drive-in in Napa, I was 14. It was a hot summer night and my friends and I sat outside the car on a blanket with plenty of candy, popcorn and beer!

About halfway thru the movie I wanted back inside the car...it was dark and who know what the hay was wandering around the black night...

Not only that, but my boyfriend kinda resembled that ^^^ tall blonde guy with the Buddy Holly glasses...

A 1968 film directed by George A. Romero...so ...who knew it was gonna become such a favorite family film...
ha.

I saw this weird fabric at the fabric store...and I had to possess it...possess it ....like eat its brains...and I made some leggings and I wore my pair of black....



but for more zombie goodness on etsy...just click...