Vintage Fashion

The attics of Camden, Maine, a famous summer colony for the ‘haves and have yachts’ of the Gilded Age, are just the place one might expect to find period Louis Vuitton luggage.

Duke’s of Dorchester’s annual vintage clothing auction on September 5 will include a Brussels lace wedding dress from c.1908.

Over 200 items of vintage couture belonging to a former fashion model will be offered at an online auction by CJM Auctioneers on July 25.

SO successful have been the three vintage fashion fairs organised by Sally Woodhead and Sam Tankard at the Queens Hotel in Leeds that they are moving to one of the city’s finest Victorian buildings, the town hall, with their first vintage fashion fair there being held on Sunday, February 4.

JUDITH Lidell is celebrating the success of her first vintage fashion fair on her home patch of Newcastle-on-Tyne on Sunday November 19.

ANITA Bott of Vintage Fashion Fairs is adding another venue to her bimonthly vintage fashion fairs at Battersea Arts Centre, events now firmly on the fashionistas circuit.

VINTAGE fashion fair organiser Edwin Dyson has banned the sale of fur at his events.

TO raise funds for the Stratford-on-Avon Hospice, Jeannette Laight of J&G Vintage Clothes Fairs, and Matt Curtis of Stratford-on-Avon hair stylists Toni & Guy held a vintage fashion show at The One Elm bar and restaurant, Guild Street on Monday September 11 where models Dani Davies and Sam Rannage, right, took to the catwalk and paraded some of the clothes that you won’t find in Top Shop.

A THIEF who used a key to get into a display cabinet and avoided being filmed on CCTV has made off with two unusual artefacts from a museum in Surrey.

It’s well known that diamonds are a girl’s best friend but handbags surely come a close second. The two combined can be a killer combination.

The regular sales of costume and textiles at Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) occasionally produce surprises. What seemed to be a sleeper in their March 15 sale was the mid-late 18th century linen court petticoat shown here. It was made from four oval split cane wooden hoops and half hoops on the hips for extra width, suggesting that it was intended for the most formal occasions.

SOUTH London based Paola-Francia Gardner who operates as P&A Antiques, has been a pioneer of the now booming field of vintage fashion and she holds her first fair of the year this Sunday, January 16.

This rare silk and bullion embroidered doll’s or child’s dress from the first half of the 18th century will be offered at auction on September 27.

WHEN Oscar Wilde left Reading prison, Reggie Turner presented him with the gentleman’s black leather travelling or dressing case, seen right.

AN airheaded and insubstantial vice it might be, but plainly vanity has lasting appeal at auction, judging by the success of the coromandel veneered lady’s box, top right, and the gentleman’s hide toilet case, bottom right, offered at Amersham Auctions Rooms (15% buyer's premium) on June 6.

THIS Sunday May 16 will see, for the third time, Vintage Mayfair Frozen in Fashion being held in the Music Room of Grays Antique Market at 26 South Molton Lane, London W1, just two minutes from Bond Street tube station.

ON Friday April 2, this distinctive silver and 18 carat rose gold Boucheron lady’s minaudière, pictured right, 5 1/4in (13.5cm) across, was stolen from the Pullman Gallery at 14 King Street in St James’s.

ALREADY a good day out for the public, there is increasing trade awareness of the Oxford Brocante, the third of which will be held on Sunday April 18 at the Randolph Hotel in Beaumont Street. With the emphasis very much on decorative works it also offers vintage fashion.

2004 is shaping up well for arts publishing, and publishers of books which cover the genre also reported excellent sales last year, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Here, the Antiques Trade Gazette takes a look at some of the books on offer this year, many of which will be reviewed.

VINTAGE fashion seems to be one of the most vogueish collecting areas internationally, and I hear serious fashionistas queue up for hours to get among the frocks at the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show, to be held on October 10 and 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in New York City.