As vintage dealers we hand pick every item for our store and showroom, and we often meet the original owners in the process. It's always great to hear a few stories about the items we purchase first hand. Other times we learn stories from friends and relatives who knew them, and often we are left with only a few clues and our imagination has to do the rest. It is especially exciting to discover actual photographs of people wearing the garments.
On one particular occasion we acquired a collection of beautiful 1930's & 40's dresses from a neighbor that had belonged to his Grandmother. His Mother had lovingly kept the dresses with photographs of his Grandmother wearing them pinned to each dress, along with a little note explaining when and where each picture was taken. It was a wonderful discovery and piece of family history, and something we enjoyed sharing with the customers who bought the dresses!
We made a similar discovery at a recent estate sale where we had purchased a number of things. On returning home we found 2 small plastic viewfinders hanging from one of the garments. Curiously peering through revealed an image of the owner wearing the outfit on a vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands, probably in the late 1960's! We don't know much about this mystery lady, but she wore it well! Take a look...
Late 1960's black & white dress & hot pants outfit!
The U.S. Virgin Islands slide viewers....
Inside the green viewer...
...and the pink one, fabulous!
We never tire of the serendipitous nature of what we do. With vintage you just never know what you'll discover next!...Stay tuned :)
What a great surprise!! excellent blog post, guys :)
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