stacks

a quick hello! just had a superb buy of 40s to 60s dresses in great prints and silhouettes...prepping and shooting frantically!

~Ang

new york, new york

congrats new york!!

now get busy planning those weddings! (ps, go vintage, it's not only fabulous but eco-friendly!)

seven!

Thrilled to make number 7 in LULU'S VINTAGE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS for 2011! It's always fun to win stuff, even more so to be a part of Lulu's lovely blog in company of such fine vintage sellers and websites. Vintage!!

Dyakuju!

~Ang

the breaks

I'm bad enough at keeping up with the blog on a good day, but these days are not so good. So heads up...the power that be behind Dorothea's is broken. I broke both bones in my lower left leg May 11, requiring surgery to insert (hammer, actually) a rod into the tibia...a cast, walker, the whole 9. I have help at my shop 3 days a week and a lovely assistant learning how to locate things to ship (and do the shipping!). Things are getting smoother by the day and the bones are healing as best they can, requiring much rest and consistent physical therapy in the hopes that one day soon I *will* walk again. Meanwhile, things will appear a little slower on the website and a few things may be screwy from those days spent on (lovely, lovely) pain meds....but all will be ok in the end. I'm still able to do buys and have some wonderful things coming up! Meanwhile, I'll be on a search for a very glamorous vintage cane to use by mid-summer!

~Ang

gaga for mugler

Who's the latest to fall in love with Thierry Mugler? The Lady Gaga herself, who made her first catwalk debut showing Mugler's Fall 2010 collection....

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Vintage Mugler (pre-90s) is scarce, but I've lucked into a couple new old stock pieces and am working on adding them to the website now! This jacket is perfect for a Mugler wardrobe basic....black wool tone on tone pinstripe jacket with wide sculpted shoulders, curved notched lapels and wrap to side closure snapping up the left hip. Worn alone over leggings or skinny jeans and heels or layered into a "suit" look, it's a smashing piece of Mugler history....

Emerald green lightweight wool Mugler dress with fantastic back interest....

Pictures click-link to the site....go see!

~Ang

black swan

All hats available at www.dorotheasclosetvintage.com, pics link to site.

in the swim

Today I came across this article online with loads of links and images of vintage swimsuits, on the MODERN ART NOTES website, by Tyler Green. Go go, check out all the links and eye candy! I don't deal in a lot of vintage swimwear (though I'd love to)....it's not terribly easy to find in Iowa! But my first thought when I saw the mention of the "Scandal" 60s swimsuit by Cole of California was of one of my favorite images of Little Edie Bouvier Beale wearing hers (in her own quirky style!)....

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And then of course, of my favorite swimsuit I've ever had the pleasure of selling (scandalous in it's own way!).....this 1950s Catalina swimsuit with print of sketchwork birds in rather compromising positions, which truly deserved to be in a museum itself!....

Some more past favorites.....50s bubble suit with ballerinas....

1940s palm tree suit...

Amazing deep sea diver print Kamehameha swimsuit from the 50s.....

Rose Marie Reid striped....

Some of the few I have available now....

30s gold satin one piece....

50s leaf print pin up...

Rare 60s paper bikini in orginal packaging....

Got a big house call coming up this weekend, crossing fingers for some good swimwear!

~Ang

Happy Groundhog Day!

Via this fab blog/artist I just found, ONE CREATIVE GIRL....

Enjoy! And if you've missed me, my apologies....I'm rocking both sinusitis and bronchitis right now so down for the count. I've managed to add a decent amount to the website and some (much easier to shoot while unwell) accessories to my shop at SENSE OF FASHION....listing of course as DOROTHEA'S CLOSET. Some stuff you won't even find on the website! If you want a quick overview of everything recently added to both, you can always check out the current album on my FACEBOOK PAGE. Now, back to the couch.

~Ang

good sense.

Just opened a teeny little boutique on a fantastic new fashion website called SENSE OF FASHION...a sweet shopping site devoted solely to fashion, from upstart designers to established, hand made to vintage. Love it! Many pieces there will not be available on the main website, so check it out and get shopping!

Just added this amazing black deerskin suede 40s bag with loads of rhinestones and unusual slide-ring with side opening, inspired by the Victorian miser's bag....click to buy!

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Elegant and unique, measures about 14" handle to bottom. Flawless, as usual!

Go see everything Dorothea's has to offe, and pop by the site too!

~Ang

it's a cinch

every once in a while something truly breathtaking appears in my shop (not magically, and not for free....sadly, there is no vintage tree growing in an urn in the center of the boutique). yesterday was one of those days when not only one beautiful thing came in, but several! the rest for another day (think 20s gowns and Orientalist jackets, 30s velvets with cherries, surrealist silk 30s lounge wear)....but today, this.

silk ribbon underbust corset from around 1901 by Royal Worcester....breathtakingly gorgeous, shimmering pearl silk with bow and racy lacing up the back. available now!

truly a find~

~Ang

for the love of the dainty

will be closed today locally (but the website never rests!) to let people get their big box black friday on. but tomorrow the shop will be open 12-4 at 1733 Grand Ave in Des Moines, Iowa with gorgeous vintage lurvelies for the vintage fashion fiend on your list! sparkling sweaters, snuggly and glamorous robes, sultry lingerie, holiday perfect dresses, chic winter coats, stylish shoes....and if you aren't sure about size, go for accessories! you can't go wrong with a vintage brooch, clip earrings, chunky or pendant style necklaces....smart vintage handbags for day or night...vintage hats for dress up or winter wear....gorgeous scarves or gloves....there's no excuse for buying mall drek when you can shop one of a kind, eco-friendly uber-fashionable vintage! plus, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday with perks for using AmEx (which Dorothea's accepts) and even bigger perks for feeling good about shopping local and supporting small businesses! why line the pockets of a wealthy CEO when you can put food on the table for a small business owner's family?

lastly, mention the blog when ordering on the site and I'll refund 15% plus your shipping. yes, worldwide. and if you'd like to use AmEx or a card without going through Paypal, just email me at admin@dorotheasclosetvintage.com. now aren't you glad you slept in and stayed home on black friday? get shopping!

you talkin' to me?

The lovely folks over at JEZEBEL wrote up a pretty swell article today about learning which era's silhouette best works with your body shape (you can read it HERE...extra points to Sadie for a David Lee Roth reference!). As I took in the images she had chosen to accompany each era I noticed a print that looked quite familiar....

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So I did a quick Google search of Cybill Shepherd in the 1976 film Taxi Driver to get a better look....and there it was!

Exactly the same Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress I currently have on my site!

Sure, not *the* dress she wore (as far as I know), but the exact same print and color. And I've got the same textile done in a maxi length tee shirt dress from the same collection! Check out the video of the scene the dress is in.....

Certainly a swell 70s look to embrace, no?

~Ang

happy halloween!

from DOROTHEA'S CLOSET VINTAGE....clothes from Dorothea's of course!

~Ang

the legend of zelda

One of my holy grails in dealing/hunting vintage is to own, if only for a moment, a piece by ZELDA WYNN VALDES. When we think of the silhouette of the glamorous songstress of the 1950s, the look is definitely hourglass....and the hourglass definitely the signature look of a Zelda. Her dresses were as strong and powerful as she was.....the first black woman to own a business on Broadway in the 1940s and a favorite of talents like Dorothy Dandridge, Ella Fitzgerald and Gladys Knight. I've read she often had to be on hand for dressing her clients for stage to sew them into their form fitting gowns!

Who better to design the first costumes for the scantily clad Playboy Bunnies? Though tame in comparison to today's bunnies (or for that matter, for today's realty TV stars), the look was all Zelda....waist whittled, bust lifted, hips accentuated.

Her pieces are few and far between in the world of vintage collection, but worth appreciating if only in pictures!

~Ang

inspiration. shop re-decor....

Starting with the pathetic fitting room/restroom/shoe hallway area! LOVE this!!!

And check out the 60s mannequin head I got today at the antique mall! Gonna take her to the shop to use for necklaces and hats.....she needs a name!

Now to find time for all the ideas!!

~Ang