20 Apr 2011

WhatIWore:

When:
April 20, 2011

What:
Dress: vintage, thrifted
Belt: vintage
Shoes: Max Studio via Marshall’s

Where:
Studio

Why:
Over the weekend in Fort Wayne, I spotted this dress at the Dove’s Nest thrift shop.  I immediately loved the color and the polka dots, but when I saw on the tag “1938-39 $10” I got really excited.  I’m not very familiar with the silhouettes of that time period, so I asked some of the volunteers if they could tell me more.  One of the women had brought it in and it belonged to her mother, who wore it in high school between ‘38-‘39.  There’s no tag and it’s definitely home made.  The sleeves are a bit short on me (hey! I have some long arms!) but the rest of the dress fits perfectly.  It’s a thrifting/vintage dream come true! I love it so much!

When I put it on this morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about my grandma Dorothy, who would have been 20 in 1938.  I think the photo on the left she’s probably in her late teens or early 20s.  Doesn’t she look like a movie star?! What a classic beauty!  When my grandma was alive, I always asked her questions about her clothes - but I was more in my ‘pioneer’ phase and wanted to know about bonnets and aprons more than what she wore when she was a young women.  Oh, to have that conversation with her now!!   When she died and we were cleaning out her house, I went through her makeup and found purple mascara. She was so stylish her whole life!

As for how I put this outfit together - I tried on about 5 pairs of shoes and love how these leopard pumps purposely clash, but also look kind of neutral.  Way more fun than matching navy peep toes! I also played around with some different belts and thought this gold and clear vintage pulled everything together without taking away from the dress.