i have a friend.... a bff (according to the blackberry shorthand with which i still struggle). her name is bonny and she is my daily confident, my daily source of laughter and the delicate balance of "leap" to my "look before you do". she lives in east hampton, sells fancy schmancy real estate and is, in her heart, a grown up hippie. her ethics are pristine, her heart huge and her style decidedly "bonny". no fuss, no frills, no conciously chosen designer names. i once gave her a pair of gucci loafers and the logo was just too much for her. (now she wants a pair, but calls them "moccasins") bonny likes what she likes and doesn't bother with what she doesn't. so, much to my surprise, several years ago, when visiting her "cooks falls spa retreat" (my house and barn) she discovered my stash of 1980's fringed schmates. i mean STASH!!!!!! we have an entire room of just scarves and many of the boxes are the schmates. every college student alive in the 80's owned one or two or ten and wore them folded into a large triangle with the point down the front, wrapped around back and fringed ends dangling forward in a nice little scarf sculpture. i had never ever sold one, not one of these. bonny fell in love. you see, she takes a beach walk daily with her beloved lucy dog and needs neck and head protection. bonny has schmates in her car, in her office, scattered througout her house and needs at least 12 at all times. remember, this is the bonny who coined the rule of cashmere! cashmere rule number one: you need to have 50 at all times not including black or the ones that ride in the car. of course when your bff is in the biz that is very easy to accomplish. back to scarves. so, for years, bonny has encouraged me to put her favorite scarves out for sale. for years i reminded her that not one single person would buy any. a few years ago i gave in...bonny is VERY insistant. i sold not one. so you will appreciate my surprise when the weightiest vogue arrived in august and there in full color, full page, was a very upscale version of bonny's beloved schmate. it is the gorgeous embellished balenciaga version....but still, without the bells and whistles, it is bonny's schmate. so, i rejoiced, called bonny and told her she is a fashion forward trend setter. i went to the dreaded fourth floor of our warehouse, pulled out those schmates, washed them and gave them a trial run at the amagansett show labor day week-end. they flew out of the display basket and everyone thought i was so clever to present them for a cheap cheap anyone can buy one or two or ten price. you could buy 50 and still not be paying what you would for the single balanciaga offereing. but the heroine here is bonny and her faith in the almighty schmate. thank you bonny. and you, dear customer can thank her as well. i will have 100 of bonny's schmates (balanciaga?) at the manhattan vintage clothing show oct. 12th-13th. go the manhattan vintage site for a discount coupon toward the price of admission. come early and snag your favorite scarf of the season. see you there!

[ 3 comments ] ( 37 views )   |  permalink  |  related link  |   ( 3.5 / 603 )

---

it is august 22nd and i am wearing cashmere! my wolf hybrid (no, he is not a car, he is a dog) has started to shed his entire undercoat. i am well aware that it will, in fact, be hot again, but for today it feels like fall. lo and behold....what arrived in my mailbox on this pre-curser of weather to come? the two-ton tessies of the fashion world. september fashion magazines. now, i haven't yet lifted the weights and opened the pages to be lectured on the seasons hottest "must-haves". BUT, the sheer heft of the volumes is enough to demand your undivided attention. when i am all finished digesting the "shoulds" and "should nots" of the 2007 fall season, i will then close my eyes and imagine those rules for real people with real bodies. then, as is my habit, i will visualize a person actually wearing a plaid which is screaming rather than speaking quietly, a silouette crushing the ribs making an enjoyable meal a fanatasy, and all the other impossibilities that mold the extremities of fashion. i do this because you, dear customer, like i am, are a mere mortal. you like to eat, you like to see your facial expressions without competition from your blouse and you like to look, well, like you! some folks are born to wear the sculptural art from the runway, most of us are not. our amagansett show is on racks in the prep area of our warehouse, along with our sturbridge show. i assure you, all is wearable, current, and affordable. i do believe that extremes are necessary to keep the rest of us on our toes....to give us a jolt to move along in the stream of creativity....but please....let me breathe, bend, and eat while wearing the latest and the greatest.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |  related link  |   ( 3.5 / 599 )

---

the vintage clothing industry is famous for encouraging an expression of "self" through unique and sometimes flamboyant creations. we use our own bodies as dressmaker forms to layer, wrap, cinch and re-style limitless choices from the past. the result is performance art at the most personal level....what we choose to wear. lynne finch was a vinatge clothing devotee who was just such an artist. each and every show she attended was graced with her always upbeat attitude occasionally upstaged by what she wore. the depth of her spirit was colorful and patterned showing itself to the world through her passion for clothing. gorgeous pucci emsembles, amazing mexican skirts, embossed cowgirl boots....these were a mere appetizer to her extensive repetoire. what was most impressive about lynne was that her eye catching outward presentation was surpassed by the engaging and inclusive content of her character. the southern sweet voice accompanied by a requisite friendly hug made you feel welcomed to the world of lynne finch. and now that lynne has lost her battle with the cancer that made her life full of new challenge, we offer that same requisite hug to eachother...for comfort. we think of bill, lynne's husband and her daughters, knowing that the hub of their family mandela-like wheel is physically gone. we wish them peace in their grief so that in time the depth of that sadness will metamorphasize into living memory. we salute you lynne, for your courage, artistry and laughter. at the risk of sounding trite, you will be in our hearts, alive, always.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |  related link  |   ( 3 / 403 )

---

as irony always wins the weather game, our first show in the hamptons, memorial day week-end, was so hot it seemed like it was august. and, of course we had slaved away preparing 150 cashmere sweaters for the cool summer nights and relentless chill of air conditioning. usually memorial day week-end is still cool enough to entice the shopper into the cloud-like embrace of cashmere. so, there we were, in amagansett, sweating by 9 AM shrugging our shoulders and exchanging the chit chat inspired by weather. the show opened, and lo and behold, my loyal fashion-minded customers hit the cashmere. yes, the sundresses sold well. yes, linens went to new homes. yes, crisp victorian petticoats and nightwear found new owners in a new century. even beaded sweaters were packed, wrapped and charged a la visa and master card. but the winner and still champion was the tried and true cashmere sweater. it may have been close to 90 degrees, but those sweaters slipped over heads, clung to bodies and reflected the elegance of affordable indulgence back from the mirror. so, i offer my thanks for an amazing customer base, braving the challenges of summer in may to snag the perfect "schmere". see you in july....tweeds anyone?

[ 1 comment ] ( 5 views )   |  permalink  |  related link  |   ( 3 / 315 )

---

i have a friend...a special friend....her name is bonny. she and i have our own "ba-ba" dictionary (bonny/alice-bonny/alice) and we understand life (or don't understand life) from sympathetic points of view. she has a bracelet. a beautiful and very hard to find victorian button bracelet. she wears it always, and always i say how beautiful the bracelet is and how very perfect it looks on her wrist. i wear almost no jewelry...but have always said i would wear that bracelet if i had one. over the course of the last two years i have had the opportunity to be a little helpful to bonny in encouraging an important business deal to move along. on our shared vacation in florida this year, as a thank you, i was presented with a "sister" victorian button bracelet. i was amazed, speechless and beyond delighted. it was more than a piece of jewelry. being so difficult to find, this bracelet was like our friendship...rare, comfortable, satisfying and "vintage". it was one of the most perfect gifts i have ever received. i will skip to another trip later in the season. i hesitantly took my bracelet along. hesitantly because i still needed to add a safety catch. i was aware of it each moment it rested on my wrist. when it was time to come home, i decided not to wear it for fear of losing it somewhere in the swaddling of winter clothing. it was packed carefully and the decision was made that it would not be worn again until the safety catch was in place. we arrived home "plane delayed" and exhausted, but i wanted to make certain my bracelet was where i packed it. it wasn't. it wasn't anywhere....and i mean anywhere. panicked i tore apart everything that was even remotely connected to having been with us on the trip. we did notice that, upon claiming our luggage, the zippers had been opened and our belongings were disturbed. my mourning began for the theft of my never to be replaced bracelet. and, i had to tell bonny. AND, even worse, i had to tell her husband mel! all bad news delivered, the search began for a replacement for the non-replaceable. by the way, after the initial shock, both bonny and mel were saint-like in understanding. i was, martyr-like in my guilt. "why did i have to wear it before i had a safety catch? blah blah blah". between then and now, as only bonny could or would, another bracelet was found on ebay. you thought i felt guilty before? try giving me another version of a rare bracelet and see if it will EVER leave the jewelry box! humbled, yet again, i wore the bracelet briefly and then put it safely away. today, on my way to the warehouse i realized i had forgotten my cell phone and turned around to go back to the house. something shiny caught my eye. my heart stopped. it was my original bracelet. sitting in the still frozen dirt of what should be a spring garden was the miracle of my returned bracelet. who says i don't have a green thumb? i grew an antique cherished bracelet right here in cooks falls...in the dirt....out my back door! here's the mystery...where did it come from? i have walked that same path for six full weeks...back and forth to and from the warehouse. how is it possible that i could not have seen it before? ron refers to me as "sherlock holmes"...i don't miss much. and more importantly, how did it get there in the first place? a mystery. here it is passover and easter...the world's religious homages to miracles...and for little me, right here in my own backyard....a miracle. elated and confused, i called bonny. we are still elated, and still confused. i have my bracelet and not one of us can figure out why. the journey of the bracelet is complete. not only is it rare, comfortable satisfying and vintage....it is capable of a miracle....just like my friend, bonny.
P.S. the second bracelet will be returned to bonny. it will have to create it's own story.


[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |  related link  |   ( 3.7 / 589 )

---

Next