Warm Coat Cold Winter

In the winter of 2015 - 2016 the nasty boy El Nino is coming back to the planet earth for a visit. He's bringing rain and wind, and snow and ice, but where will he drop his weird weather?

Along the west coast of the USA where funkomavintage lives, El Nino will drop us some rain and wind, which is pretty nice after 4 years of a bad drought, but will it rain where we need it? Hope so. Up in the PNW, it will be warmer and somewhat drier, as will most of the east coast of the USA. Along the center, perhaps there will be more tornados and more snow and more cold, and along the southwest of the USA, wet wet wet...

Doesn't matter where you live, winter does always return. Some of you don't have much of a winter any year, but winter is coming.

In early 1955, photographer Dennis Stock followed James Dean around New York City, and also when Dean returned to his family farm, to his little town of Fairmount, Indiana, he chose to wear a long wool coat, a WWII US Navy military trench coat. And you know, if it's military, it can face, oh, I don't know. Oh a War!  Here is the coat he wore. I mean, A US Navy coat JUST like the coat James Dean wore.
clicky here to view it, this 40s US Navy uniform trench coat.

Quality and style, this is a vintage 40s WWII Navy trench coat. It is like the one James Dean wore in his famous series of photos by Dennis Stock, walking in the rain in New York City, and visiting his hometown and family in the Midwest.
It's an authentic WWII Navy overcoat with adjustable cuffs, and all the details that only vintage military has. Top quality, made to wear like iron, and it is always in style.
Double breasted buttons, cuff buttons and it's lined in dark navy satin. It has its original belt too.

funkomavintage has a lot more awesome vintage winter coats for men and women, and you can find them here in our etsy shop (clicky)
and we have more vintage winter coats in our funkomavintage website store too, so clicky here.
The photos of James Dean are by Dennis Stock, link:   and first published in Time magazine, link.

Beret Beret and slouchy

The beret hat is a fun circle of wool that sits so niftily on the top of your head and always looks smashing. Allow me to demonstrate...

pic 3 & 4 are from Chictopia, link here,   and pic 5, below, is from lookbook.nu, link here.

Each of the above outfits are fantabulous all on their own. but the Beret adds that little bit of sophisticated polish. And your head stays reasonably warm too.

................................
Here is a picture of Princess Diana. Look. She is wearing a beret. And the beret she is wearing is most likely a Kangol. They have been made in Merry olde England since the 20s. Kangol berets are all wool, made in Cleator, Cumberland, England. It is known as the  Anglobasque beret.
However since the late 2000's Kangol isn't made in merry olde England but in some other place. I blame the upper crust and their unabated desire for profits profits profits at the expense of quality and tradition.

That's where funkomavintage comes in. We always stock Good Olde Fashioned Quality stuff.
Like the selection of vintage wool and suede berets in the Etsy shop right now!

Princess Di photo is from kangol.com

We have a red beret, a navy blue beret, a gray beret, a black beret OOO la la! The Kangol beret in camel. We have a dark brown beret, and one knitted in the Irish Fisherman pattern in creamy wool, and we have a darling vintage 60s one in deep blue suede leather. I know, right?!
Search the shop for beret. They will probably be there, but they do sell fast as soon as the weather turns cold in the USA. 

Not in need of a beret? I find that hard to fathom. However a cowboy hat or a pom pom beanie, or other charming slouchy hat may suit you too.  Click click click

Boots. Tall boots, short boots, low boots. Boot weather is here in the USA and other parts that are above the middle earth.
What's funkomavintage got in the boots department?

Grab your loops, grab your laces, shove your foot in and let's get going!

Black roper boots. Brown Granny boots. Prairie boots. A great all-purpose rugged boot for the ladies.

brown roper boots with fringe. these look great with dresses and with denim jeans. 

hey, Rust Orange suede lace up boots. vintage, from the late 80s. 

anybody want a peanut? Tall cowboy-ish vintage leather boots for any Princess Bride Cowgirl! 

Purple Suede!? yes, funkomavintage has got 'em!  this is a style and a color of vintage boots you just don't see everyday.
Pirate ladies with pure style, will love these. Prince Purple! 

and riding boots. fantastic vintage style. these are also a neat style choice that pairs with dresses for a really cool look that's a little bit safari, and a little bit city. 

we got 'em in black with brown tops, and in all brown. Freedom of Choice!

Brown chocolate and sunflower seeds, leather roper boots and the bomby.

Buckskin leather. Vintage boots with  the pull on the loops, slip your foot inside and get going. Another choice for wearing with skirts and dresses and with faded blue denim jeans.

The Classics are not Boring

Classical music, classic clothes and manners are often deemed... Boring. No they aren't! They are the old reliables in a very fast fast world.
Classics are always the right choice. Everybody likes them. They raise your IQ by several points.

Funkomavintage loves the classics. Music. Tweeds. Denim. Leather boots. Pretty calicos. Sturdy wool sweaters. And classic Disney movies.

Oh sure, the classics need a little tweak from time to time. Perhaps the hem is shorter, or longer, Perhaps the lapel is wider or slimmer. And sometimes, the eye and the brain just need a little expansion.

Classical music was moribund. It was boring. It was pastoral. It was classy! But Russian Igor Stravinsky changed all that on the 29th of May 1913. When he presented the The Rite of Spring at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, it caused a riot!
Yes, corsetted women in fur and velvet, and mustachioed men in silk and lace and fine woolens stormed the Ballet Russe stage in Paris France. While Stravinsky's score has some familiar elements of melody and chords, and seemed like Russian folk music, it marched and flew and stormed off into avant -garde heights of near-madness and sheer acoustic delight.

Igor Stravinsky with 'Dancers' by Matisse

The chords were wild, the music was not soothing. It was chaos. It was brilliant.
Eventually, it was accepted, and in 1940 Walt Disney chose it to score a segment of a brilliant Disney film, one of funkomavintage's favorites.

Click this link to Cornel1081 to watch and listen to Disney Fantasia, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Rite of Spring, and the brilliant (there's that word again) efforts of these talents.

• Directed by Bill Roberts and Paul Satterfield
• Story development/research: William Martin, Leo Thiele, Robert Sterner, and John Fraser McLeish
• Art direction: McLaren Stewart, Dick Kelsey, and John Hubley
• Background painting: Ed Starr, Brice Mack, and Edward Levitt
• Animation supervision: Wolfgang Reitherman and Joshua Meador
• Animation: Philip Duncan, John McManus, Paul Busch, Art Palmer, Don Tobin, Edwin Aardal, and Paul B. Kossoff
• Special camera effects: Gail Papineau and Leonard Pickley 
• (this info bit from the Disney Fantasia Wiki, click here) 

What does funkomavintage have in store? Lots of 517 and 501 vintage Levi jeans, Tweed jackets, Harris and vintage midcentury, those sturdy sweaters and boots boots boots! 

vintage Harris Tweed jackets --

Sturdy vintage sweaters --

and vintage leather boots -- tall or short --