Five-pin on Family Day: A photo essay

a dress a day #4

This dress found me at the Custard Factory’s vintage flea market held every Saturday in Birmingham, England ($30).  Its fun details made it stand out.  I adore the silvery bejewelled, empire waist. 

It’s label-less and homemade — demanding a trained eye to size it up.  In fact, all vintage dresses do.  I normally wear a US size 8-10, but I own vintage dresses in sizes 4 to 14; obey labels at your peril.   Wiggling into armfuls of musty dresses is key to finding just the right one.

A dress a day #2

There’s something special about being given a dress once owned and worn by a woman you admire.  Here’s a hand-me-down 80s vintage number.  Sans labels, it was bestowed on me by a hard-working, farmer’s wife from Tunstall, Kirby Lonsdale, Cumbria, England.  The centre of this tiny village’s life, she defines all that is great about the Women’s Institute.  Every Christmas hundreds of hanging cards sent from friends obscure the giant oak beams in her farmhouse.  A hard-working B&B owner, family is the centrepoint of her life and I learned much from her. 

A dress a day, #1

Sheepish fashion columnists agree wardrobe staples are the white blouse, a good trench coat and a Birkin (yawn).  But real staying power lies in the mighty vintage dress.

Maxi, mini, gown, pinafore, tube, bubble, sun, cocktail, wrap, strapless, sleeveless, shirt, smock, tunic, trapeze, sheath, kaftan, shift, swing, flounce — I dare you not to find one you like.  Best of all the frock constitutes an entire outfit: simple.

Following some of the better advice in Brit fashion writer’s Tamsin Blanchard’s Green is the New Black, I rooted through my wardrobe to pull out all my lovely dresses in a bid to dissuade me from buying more, more, more.

So this week, in a nod to the lovely A Dress A Day blog, I’m putting my vintage frocks on show, beginning with my first purchase.  Pink polyester with silvery thread can feel a bit like sandpaper against skin.  If only it felt like how I imagine Michael Kors’s new — and not dissimilar — pebble brocade dress would.  But I digress, this is one hot number.  The jewel-encrusted collar is especially fun.  A surbanite, GTA teen, I found this shift dress on one of many frequent visits to Kensington Market, for peanuts.

If you’ve got info on this vintage fashion label, please share the love.

 

birthday suit – part deux

My friend warned me she thought my new designer dress was a bit over the top for a casual housewarming party – with 70 of our closest friends.  But then, I don’t take her unsolicited advice very often.

 Following on the heels of last year’s vintage wrap dress for my big 3-0, this year was a wrap too, but flea market it wasn’t.  The undisputed first lady of the wrap – Diane von Furstenberg – designed this hot little number:

Which looks like this on:

How can a lowly, unpaid Walrus intern afford such extravagance?  Four words: Holt Renfrew Last Call.  Regular $445, this LBD was marked down to $150 with an extra 50 per cent off.  The deals were so hot, I picked up this maxi dress by L.A.s’ t-bags for $60:
 
And while Furstenberg isn’t a close, personal friend, I’m blessed to count two young, Toronto designers as my pals, mostly because they’re super awesome, but also because they make me fabulous things.

Jessica Smith, a French pastry chef, trained at Le Cordon Bleu who spent last year working at Yautcha, Alan Yau’s Michelin-star teahouse and dim sum restaurant in Soho, London – made this cake.  It served 100.

And Erin Tracy, an established jewelry designer who is taking over the world one bangle at a time, made me the necklace I’m wearing in the top picture, along with matching earrings and Grecian-inspired bangles.

Armed with designer cake, dress and jewels – there was just one more accessory needed – the perfect stubby holder.

($6 at the Beer Store) grrrr.