Ladies, bring a plate.

So on Sunday the boy and I went to the Met for a drawing exhibit, which was ok though way too many people, but the best thing which made me clap my hands a bit was a Victorian photo collage show which was amazing (have been born in wrong century), little watercolours and drawings with cut out photos scattered in them, seems it was a pastime among Victorian ladies and I want to start it, one lady had drawn a turkey and put little pics of all her family in the feathers. While at the Met I kind of fell in love with these portraits of ladies, I am not into the ladies so to speak but there's something fairly wonderful about these paintings and in particular their clothes...so starting from the bottom above here is the lovely; Judith, A girl in riding habit (everyone should have one), Comtesse de la Tour-Mauberg, Portia and Salome (who is my favourite and coincidentally is the name of my lawyer who dresses rather differently)....Amy x.

p.s. these photos were taken very secretly with a slight frown as if I were reading a confusing text message, but snap!

Rebel Rug Dilemma

You know when you have a piece of clothing you somehow love but at the same time feel like an imposter when you wear it?

Sometime last year a friend Bonnie hosted a clothing swap, it was just so fun (and must be repeated very soon), bunch of girls, armfuls of cast-offs strewn on the floor, there was a fab mix of styles and tastes so plenty of options and it kept us happily digging and trying on for a couple of hours....after a bit there was scarcely much left, we had all bundled up a few goodies and happily traded things we just couldn't face wearing anymore. Before we started packing up I noticed what looked like a really nice piece of floral carpet folded up on the floor, turns out it was this crazy carpet jacket above. Everyone had just kind of picked around it as it was just a bit too wacky, I felt a little sorry for it on the floor and tried it on for a bit of a laugh. It quickly became one of those great clothing debates, the girls argued that I would see it on a girl in my neighbourhood and say to myself "I wish I had the balls to wear that crazy cool thing" so they said why shouldn't I take it and be that girl who wore it. This is all good in theory and I have worn it & sure enough each time someone says, that's a really great jacket, what is it? carpet? More often than not it hangs on the back of my closet and I just can't decide whether to keep it, put it on the floor for the cat to sleep on or maybe Ades and I should Etsy-it for someone who I know will fall in love with it's floral splendours.... just what shall we do with this rebel rug garment? It's weirdly comforting to see it hanging there though, like a possibility that one day it'll be the perfect weather for a hooded floral carpet jacket. For now it's right next to the gold lurex 1960's super duper tight dress that is equally upholstery-like and not yet worn....at least not yet in public.

What we kept...

Hello! It's funny how hard it is to switch off buying for yourself when thrifting or browsing in vintage stores, and start buying with others in mind! Adrienne and I have shopped for just us for so long that it's a real re-train of the brain, when we just went to St Louis we found equal amounts of great things for us and others, luckily! When we got back I realized everything I bought for me was in a very neutral beige or ivory, almost like they were all canceling each other out....the good thing about shopping with Adrienne is that she's colour gal so we always get a mix, and boy our stuff couldn't be different but we love it all! Above is one of my fave finds from the trip, we found an amazing store that was closing down & these ivory linen pants called my name....unfortunately there's a tear in the back that I need to get mended but the waist and little calf buckles are perfect!




So....I am wondering whether to get them mended with a neutral fabric or one of these vintage hankies given to me by my boyfriend's mother, Joanie. They belonged to her mother though so I'm unsure if having your loved one's grandmother's hankies on the seat of your pants is appropriate? (any mending suggestions welcome!)

Next on the neutral trail was this delicate crochet number, love it but am pretty sure each time I wear it a tiny rip appears, one day it's just going to fall off me in a little sad pile of thread on the floor.


This is another GREAT vintage store, Borough Vintage (also on Etsy here) we found in our last 10 minutes of shopping in St LOuis, such a cool spot, so well merchandised and easy to shop...so easy in fact that within 10 minutes Adrienne and I both had new coats, I've barely taken it off since and it nearly completes the neutrality when paired with the beige pastel flower scarf found at Alice's, do wish it wasn't closing down....


Alice's turned out to be a real treasure trove and so discounted it was hard not to walk out with the whole store (Victorian, 20's, 30's...all the way up....oooh la la!), the last thing I couldn't refuse there was this silk fringed thingy, had hoped it'd enforce me to make my bed but alas it just got me tangled up in fringe so it now resides on a chair untouched except by the cat....


Well it's been a weird old week getting our heads around this Etsy stuff and just generally falling in love with all the great stores on it...thanks so much to Kristina at Beulahveda for her Twittering about our new store! What a nice bunch everybody is....enjoy your weeks and please stay in touch!

Lilian Ivy

Hello there!

This is my lovely grandmother, Lilian Ivy, she passed away just a couple of weeks ago and this is my favourite photo of her, she's in the left corner at her brother's wedding, the dress and the flower! I am now thinking how great a vintage lingerie (a growing passion) store would be named after my two wonderful grannies, Yvonne and Lilian, now that would be sweet, thus also giving us license to further collect lacey knickers and bed jackets....the only thing with vintage lingerie is lying on the buttons isn't really that comfortable...

Look it's Noel, looking quite fabulous here too, this week I took a picture of Noel to my hairdresser and said please give me his haircut, she did a pretty good job too, what I love about this picture of Noel is that he's wearing a frilly shirt and we just posted a frilly shirt this morning in the store, the planets are aligned! If you don't know dear Noel, you must youtube the Boosh and the crack fox, tried to put a link but internet slower than a pigeon bringing a note in it's beak...

Amy x.

Long Skirts are Sweet

Long skirts are so nice. It's just that your legs also need to be long, we tried on this fab Ralph Lauren one we just found and both ended up looking Amish. Which is fine in some ways, not others....here's the skirt we found below, it has adorable buckles on the side and a sweet gold dome, it's just lovely, unfortunately these images are causing grief when uploading to Etsy, but we wanted you to see it anyway....got long legs? enjoy long skirt.

Etsy Bitsy blog post!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetClothesOfMine


So here's St Louis, the arch! We were told a bunch of times to go up it....but we didn't. Our hotel was however directly beside it so this fabulous view greeted us as we headed out with our rental car and GPS unit we named Margaret, she was good to us but occasionally declared she was recalculating...anyhoo, she got us to some great spots and we shopped till our snowboots dropped off (it was cold there, just a bit). First night we stayed in wacky huge old mansion, was pretty sweet, one of those fake fire things in the room and a couple hundred movies to choose from. Obsession with Bette Midler in The Rose resulted, the sequins! the trailing scarves! the drug addiction! the....well you get the idea, how'd we miss that? maybe because we were aged 7 and 2 when it came out.


Now that we are back in NYC (Ades leaves tomorrow, we'll be separated!) it's all about getting the Etsy stuff loaded, hope you like it, we want to keep this blog going as a musings type thing, next on the agenda is some logo tees and bags, so many people love Mr Reardon's logo that we think it's a great idea to have you walking around with it on your person! Well best we go get ready to take that very man out for a big old dinner to thank him for his considerable art skills, we would say a pomegranate martini is in order, or 3!

If you are a friend please click follow at the top here so we not bother to email you as much...which we are sure you might appreciate!

Bonfire of the Vanities

Just three sweet pieces this week, a wee jaunt through the 80's, come early January there's going to be a giant leap to the 60's and we can't wait, Missouri here we come, our hotel is a 'hunter's paradise', and they don't mean hunting for thrift...email us for anything posted here!

sweetclothesofmine@gmail.com

The Melanie Griffith Suit

skirt (S), jacket (S-M), both

Seems the old runway was loaded with boxy 80's blazers for Winter '09, many shows were harking back to the power suits of 20 years ago (20 years ago!). Now if this Dries number above is a little out of your price range we have a perfectly preserved Liz Claiborne shoulder padded extravaganza right here for, cut straight across & featuring a sweet single button to bring it altogether at the waist. We are selling these pieces separately as they are sized slightly oddly in that the skirt is for sure a 0-2, (waistband is labeled a 'petite 2'), whereas the blazer would fit a small to medium build rather easily. Blazer & skirt are lined with a peach silky fabric, both in power-fabulous 80's condition. Blazer measures 12.5" or 36cm from shoulder to padded shoulder, length is 20" or 50cm. Skirt hits just above the knee and measures 20" in length, waistband is 24" or 48cm, also features small 7" slit at the back & side pockets for relaxed pose while milling around the water cooler. Is Melanie still with Antonio?

Metallica Heels

Tuck in those acid wash stirrup pants and ride the lightening! Super cool 80's heels in perfect condition. Made by Margaret J who got crazy with this layered silver beige, cream Aztec wave pattern. These heels are perfect for tights or a good old bare leg, a size 6.5 & 9" in full length, they are 3" wide so a pretty generous 6.5. Now go tease your hair before you email us!

Sunny Side Up Wedges

Now here's the sweetest ray of sunshine for your feet! yes, yes we know it's roughly below freezing outside but in some glorious parts of the world the sun is shining! these bright yellow sandals by Merona are just what the sun doctor ordered and in a very wearable size 8, just over 10" full length. A sturdy canvas material & in fabulous condition, these bright babies feature lovely curved wedge heel and adjustable strap. Nice.