Yesterday DublM and I visited Melbourne's first Vintage Clothing, Jewellery & Textiles Show at the Melb. Showgrounds and what a day it was!! Fashion parades, lectures and even a demonstration of vintage makeup and hairstyle techniques by lovely ladies from The Lindy Charm School for Girls. These girls worked hard over the weekend; they were also offering hairdos for $25pp (a bargain!) and there seemed to be masses of interest.
I decided to set myself a budget of $200 before setting foot in this potential treasure trove and am pleased to say I came home with only half of it being spent, thanks to my self-imposed rules. I find it best to have an idea of what you are prepared to pay for a piece; what is it worth to you? If you don't love it, don't buy it. Or as my Granny used to say: If in doubt, do without. To this day whenever I'm unsure of a purchase I can still her voice with it's matter of fact tone and it drives me nuts! Purely because it's true.
My other important rule is: Don't buy anything you can make. This rule has saved me many a time, mainly for current fashions but with my large collection of patterns it works for vintage stuff too.
This deep red hard-case clutch purse was too good a bargain to leave behind, I've always wanted one of these and it's only faults are a missing brass dot (too tiny to worry about) and it has had a crack repaired on the hinge side but due to the dark colour it's virtually unnoticeable. Ultimately I'd love to polish the scratches out, I'm thinking of trying toothpaste but if anyone has some tips they'd be much appreciated.
Next up is a copy of the Australian Women's Home Journal (1951), complete with patterns - the tennis dress caught my eye. I was also delighted to discover there's an 'Agony Aunt' section and some extremely bizarre advertising to boot. You can imagine my surprise to find a full page tampon ad talking about 'internal sanitary protection' right inside the cover! Not to mention Andrew's Effervescent Liver Salt, Dr Mackenzies Menthoids and Youth-O-Form capsules. Boy how times have changed.
These fancy looking navy and red buckles are simply to add to my ever expanding stash; you never know when they might come in handy.
Last up are the Bumpits - Hair Volumising Inserts and I have to admit they're a bit of a mystery. According to the stallholder they are supposed to help support your hair when doing a beehive or pompadour but for the life of me I can't figure out how they work. They were only $5 so I thought what the heck!
Oh and the Op Shop Guide Victoria was launched during the show so I had to have a copy of it too.
That's it for me, happy trails everyone!
