Speakeasy Style
London
The new going-out trend among the hip crowd, it seems, are these pop-up speakeasy-style venues where, to be let in, one has to be totally and authentically done up in late 1920s-style clothes and makeup (which might explain all the men I've been seeing with handlebar mustaches). Having scored an invite to one such event this week, I went out in search of slipdresses of the non-lacy, non-clingy, non-grungy variety —which I've found nearly impossible to track down in the States.
But at the Antique Clothing Shop, which is stuffed to the brim with early twentieth-century pieces and hidden behind a line of street vendors above Portobello Market, I discovered two silk dresses that were exactly right. They were cut straight across at the top, then loose through the body, and brilliantly were only $40 each. The long black one —which has contrasting nude straps and these ingenious metal washers hidden in the seams (one on each side at the hip and the hem) to tame the volume —I wore to the event with my long hair pinned up into a bob and dark, smoky eyes; and again all the next day with beat-up brown leather boots and chunky wood bangles. It's the perfect slipdress. The second, in a peaches-and-cream color with a scalloped hem, I'm saving for when the weather turns cold and I can pair it with a long superfine cardigan (I've got my eye on one from 3.1 Phillip Lim back home: It's heather gray with black lace insets).
The shop's owner, Sandy Stagg, has recently launched a bridal service downstairs which houses the most gorgeous, vintage, non-bridey gowns that I have ever seen.
282 Portobello Road, London W10. Tel: 011-44-20-8964-4830
The new going-out trend among the hip crowd, it seems, are these pop-up speakeasy-style venues where, to be let in, one has to be totally and authentically done up in late 1920s-style clothes and makeup (which might explain all the men I've been seeing with handlebar mustaches). Having scored an invite to one such event this week, I went out in search of slipdresses of the non-lacy, non-clingy, non-grungy variety —which I've found nearly impossible to track down in the States.But at the Antique Clothing Shop, which is stuffed to the brim with early twentieth-century pieces and hidden behind a line of street vendors above Portobello Market, I discovered two silk dresses that were exactly right. They were cut straight across at the top, then loose through the body, and brilliantly were only $40 each. The long black one —which has contrasting nude straps and these ingenious metal washers hidden in the seams (one on each side at the hip and the hem) to tame the volume —I wore to the event with my long hair pinned up into a bob and dark, smoky eyes; and again all the next day with beat-up brown leather boots and chunky wood bangles. It's the perfect slipdress. The second, in a peaches-and-cream color with a scalloped hem, I'm saving for when the weather turns cold and I can pair it with a long superfine cardigan (I've got my eye on one from 3.1 Phillip Lim back home: It's heather gray with black lace insets).
The shop's owner, Sandy Stagg, has recently launched a bridal service downstairs which houses the most gorgeous, vintage, non-bridey gowns that I have ever seen.
282 Portobello Road, London W10. Tel: 011-44-20-8964-4830
September 27, 2007
Today I discovered a tiny shop called Respiro, tucked away on a backstreet behind Carnaby Street, that famous swinging-'60s site. It's owned by Mei Hui Liu, the designer behind the clothing line Victim, and it's filled with jewelry made out the most interesting mix of pebbles, embroidery, and satin, as well as heirloom-quality frilly dresses she exquisitely hand-sews out of Victorian lace, washed silks, and tea-stained fabrics in her mini-factory downstairs. While her pieces look insanely expensive they really won't kill you: I bought a very elaborate necklace for $140, and dresses retail under $500. Most of her items are one-offs, but for next spring she's producing things in multiples and, for the first time, selling stateside. 
Heart motifs are one of those perennial favorites, like animal or floral prints (check out Erin Fetherston's interpretation —she included wood heart pendant necklaces in her collection for Target, available this November), but these takes seemed so new to me. These brand new Biba sunglasses and this vintage belt from Once Upon a Time (one of my favorite London spots, just off of Portobello Road) are a little abstract, and slightly baroque.
