Catholicism, Hoarding and Ziegfeld Follies

What is happening now? The Polar Vortex , and at least before temporarily losing power, a little shopping mixed with Catholicism. 

I placed an order for Charlotte’s first communion dress; no, not b/c I’m crazy but because there was a note on this etsy shop that spots are filling up for 2014.  Charlotte picked the below dress, but opted to have it made in handkerchief linen (as opposed to the dupioni below)—she wanted to be different, and figured everyone will be in silk or satin.

She wants me to pay the upcharge for French seams (she knows what they are from sewing class, but I think the word “French” is swaying her), which I might do and she would like a matching dress for her American Girl doll, which I have assured her I will not do.  I’m thinking of paying to have her name and communion date embroidered into the slip—nice, or a cheesy way to spend $15? 

  

But crossing this off the to-do list has made me turn to communion veils.  Most modern ones are sort of horrible and cheap, but we (and by “we” I mean “me”) thought of going very plain, headband style and adding some vintage millinery trimmings…which made me realize that we should all be hoarding vintage millinery trim.  Seriously people:

A few observations to assist in your hoarding:  “vintage millinery flower” and "millinery trim" are reasonably wide searches on eBay; “French”, “german” “velvet” are all good terms to narrow the results.  Obvs you wouldn’t hit everything with velvet, but I find that velvet millinery flowers have aged better than a lot of fake flowers, and you can always see what else a particular seller has to offer (how I found that fab rose above).   Wax flowers are kind of interesting…used in wedding headpieces for years. 

If you want to learn more, click here (also, googling around about wax blossoms will take you to some amazing vintage wedding sites).   Charming, but pricey in today’s market (priced for weddings).

What are we going to do with all these vintage millinery flowers?  No idea.  Like none.  But they are so beautiful, and no one makes them anymore…that is all the reason you need to start stockpiling them like guns in Montana.  It is similar to how I feel about vintage horse ribbons, but with those I have the excuse of one day throwing a really fabulous Derby party.  

 (one hell of a dessert buffet back drop, no?)

The other thing that Char and/or God is forcing me to search on eBay is brussels lace, or just vintage lace in general.  Finding some awesome antique lace would be a charming veil.  And, oh yeah…old handmade lace is amazeballs. 

Again, I feel a need to hoard and I feel sort of bad for the ladies who slowly went blind making this stuff out of their homes in poor lighting, but I just don’t know what I would do  with lace.  Glad I wasn’t into lace when I was getting married…that would have been a monetary black hole (but also sort of sad, b/c really how did I not buy an antique cathedral length veil when I had the chance?). 

My ebay searching for vintage French veil resulted in a Mata-Hari postcard showing up in the hits (actually, “vintage French veil” without limiting your category will get you a lot of old, racy postcards…so best to try it out of the office).

Remember her?  Sort of?  She was a belly dancer and courtesan who was convicted of espionage and executed during World War I.  What I didn’t know is that she was Dutch..like seriously Dutch, and pretended to be Indian (having learned some belly dancing while living in Java with her Dutch officer husband).  Like most courtesans, a tragic but interesting tale:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Hari And a useful trivia/cocktail party reference. 

Tangents:  reason No. 3,451 why I love the internet.  And why I give money to Wikipedia.  

Hmmm…what to talk about this week for those of you who aren’t into kids, Catholicism or courtesans?

I finally saw Gatsby.  It was as underwhelming as the reviews, although I really thought Leo was a great Gatsby.  And I really dislike him, generally, so that surprised me.  The tinsel at JG’s parties was very Ziegfeld Follies…which I adore.  Obviously.

Interestingly, there does not seem to be a definitive coffee table book on the Follies.  I’ll have to wait for Taschen…but given Diana Vreeland’s love of them (she talks about it quite a bit in her recently reissued book, Allure) I’m confident the recent interest in DV will yield a good tome, hopefully for less than $200.  They are sort of the epitome of “The eye has to travel”

Which is really a good principal to apply to just about anything--decorating, or first communion apparel.