Retro Reimagined

My love for all things vintage started when I was 10 years old. That was the year that the movie Now and Then came out and I. just. couldn’t. get. enough. I loved everything about the way the movie portrayed the 1960s - the music, the banana seat bicycles, the cheerful decor, and especially...the fashion. My best friend and I spent that summer camped out in my cousin’s old “flower power” sleeping bags, memorizing the lyrics to every Jackson 5 song and riding our bikes around town wearing my mother’s old short shorts and floral tops from her own mid-century childhood. For me, it was an absolute love affair - one that is still ongoing. I still listen to Motown hits daily, I still decorate my house with bright floral prints, and I am still very much in love with vintage fashion. In fact, my love for vintage fashion even propelled me into a degree in Costume Design. What could be better than learning in-depth from experts about the history and development of fashion? As an added bonus, during my time working in the university’s costume shop, I got to spend untold hours sorting through and organizing their vintage costume collection. Ohhhhh, the gorgeous dresses I catalogued! For the last 15 years, I’ve been collecting vintage clothing of my own from thrift stores and estate sales - both to wear and to re-sell. I have found some absolutely amazing items, from homemade hostess coats to designer gowns. My favorite find thus far has been a homemade light pink wool dress complete with an attached photo of the original wearer at her 1958 piano recital. It’s tracking down and saving these little bits of history that thrill me so much.

After I finished my Costume Design degree, I got a job at a reweaving shop doing clothing alterations. Working alongside these reweavers reinforced my interest in vintage fashion. Here were incredibly talented craftswomen who were trained in the art of French weaving; they repaired damaged fabrics by reweaving each hole thread by thread. There was something about this shop that was so magically connected to history. This business had been owned and operated for 70 years by three generations of family. They kept clothing out of landfills by meticulously repairing any flaws. Priceless heirlooms and beloved garments alike found their way onto the weaving blocks riddled with holes, and made their way out the door in almost-like-new condition. I learned so much from these women about clothing restoration and preservation. It wasn't long before I became a co-owner of the shop - and not long after that, I married into the family. But that's another story for a different day.

My alterations work became both a means of satisfying my love of sewing and my need to pay bills. I had also amassed enough vintage clothing from my days hunting down treasures that I was able to open a booth at a local craft fair selling my thrift store finds. But simply reselling vintage clothing had proved to be not quite enough to satisfy my retro tooth. In recent years, I’ve begun collecting vintage fabric and sewing patterns. Knowing how hard it is to find quality vintage pieces in a range of sizes that have lasted through the years, I’ve made it my mission to turn the vintage fabric and patterns I'd collected into wearable dresses that fit the modern woman. There is something so interesting and compelling about creating a garment from the actual pattern a dressmaker used in days-gone-by. Sometimes, if you're lucky, there will be little notes here and there - "Cathy, sloping shoulder, add pad" or "needs 2 inches at waist." It really solidifies the idea that you're recreating history. Eventually I'd like to sell my creations somewhere beyond my Instagram stories, but for now I am content spending my days working side-by-side with my mother-in-law at our reweaving shop and my nights (after the bath time and bedtime routine, of course!) sorting through hundreds of patterns looking for perfect dress to become my next project.