We vintage fiends love working ’90s, ’80s, and even the occasional ’70s fashion, from luxe Madonna leather to contemporary takes on boho flare pants in tropical colours. Perhaps it’s because even our grandparents weren’t around in the 1920s and 1930s that successfully acquiring and wearing pieces from this era is so much harder. Yet why should we forfeit the glamour of classical Hollywood’s nascency or the cheeky brashness of flapper culture and its quainter wave of feminism? We shouldn’t. So, without further ado, I’ll get into how you can capture the elusive softness of a well-worn phonograph or embody the aura of silent screen queens Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer as they enact melodrama to an emphatic live ragtime score. In other words, I’ll bring you back to a time when both jazz and plastics were brand new.
This Fashionista, intercepted mid-treasure hunt at U of T’s designated vintage haunt, Kensington Market, emboldens us to do the impossible with her: pull off century-old fashions in the dead of Canadian winter, a time where all most of us feel capable of doing is reluctantly scraping the salt from our haggard Ugg boots. The core of this Fashionista’s look is her distinctive vintage coat, which strikingly combines black poodle cloth with luxurious sapphire mink. She nabbed hers from a lovely elderly Russian woman named Olga at an antique show in rural Ontario, but you can have just as much old-world glamour with this inexpensive faux fur coat. The next element of this Fashionista’s look is her fun pleather fringe boots that combine the carefree movement of a flapper dress with a little 21st century pragmatism. You can find similar ones here. Now comes the time to discuss the nifty nitty gritties: this Fashionista’s seamless combination of a darling Scottie dog brooch, gold seahorse earrings cast in resin, ivory hair combs and a leather purse with an oversized pin embellishment. She tops off this ensemble, which is at once elegant and casual, with beautiful jade-like bangles made of Bakelite, one of the first synthetic plastics to hit the market in the 1920s. You can bring back the bangle and emulate the rustic charm of such collectable treasures here.
