My oldest mannequin, Fay – who like Phryne, is a creation of the late ’20s – paid a visit to the set of the second series, as set decoration in a fashion salon scene at Werribee Mansion.

The lovely ladies there sent me this shot: you can see she’s quite in her element! The bust seen on the table behind is also one of Circa’s.

I love my vintage mannequins and now will have an additional reason to look out for the next series when it comes out, hopefully later this year.

Here’s Fay back at work, in her day job – slumming it in late ’50s cocktail wear.

To accompany the workshops at the Across the Arts festival, I’m presenting a version of my popular talk on historical ladies fashions, illustrated with original garments of the time.

What: Talk on ladies fashions of the ’20s to the ’60s.
When: Saturday May 5th 2pm to 3pm
Where: Wangaratta library, 21 Docker St, Wangaratta VIC 3677
Cost: gold coin donation
Bookings essential: phone 5721 2366

This is one of only a handful of public talks that are scheduled this year – hope to see some familiar faces there!

I’m presenting a couple of workshops on up-cycling fashion, as part of the “Across the Arts Festival”.

This year’s festival theme is “Conserve, Recycle and Reinvent” and what better things to conserve, recycle and reinvent than your old damaged, unflattering, out of date or stained clothes?

The workshops are all day events and you have your choice of the Friday or the Saturday. Included will be some information about determining fabric types, repairs and basic restorations too, as well as talking about how garments can be changed to fit better or reflect current trends.

If you’ve ever wanted advice on all manner of things you can do to fashion, here’s your chance for demonstrations and practical assistance!

Here’s the blurb:
Nicole Jenkins, costume designer, fashion historian, blogger, Melbourne retailer with her shop “Circa Vintage” and author of the award winning book “Love Vintage”, has over thirty years experience of repairing and restoring vintage and antique fashions – she’s developed a series of techniques that can be used to save or modernise a garment.

Join her as she shares her secrets on how to restyle and recycle fashions by altering sleeves, hems, necklines, shaping and adding detailing. Bring one or more garments to work on: perhaps it’s already damaged or stained and you’d like ideas on how to save it, or perhaps something that you’d like to update or redesign

Here are some details:

What: Upcycling workshops, as part of the Across the Arts Festival
When: Friday May 3rd 10am to 3.30pm or Sunday May 5th 10am to 3.30pm.
Where: GOTAFE Auditorium, Docker Street, Wangaratta
Cost: $70 or $50 concession (lunch included). A subsidised Youth fee of $5 is available for the Friday session, for people aged between 12 and 25. Bargain!
More information and bookings at the website: Across the Arts Festival

Bring some projects to work on and your sewing kit.

Rina (Take 2 Markets) and I are organising a new vintage market that combines the winning formula of Take 2, but focusing on affordable vintage for fashion lovers.

No frills, just well priced and fabulous fashions!

The first event is planned for next month at the wonderful Northcote Town Hall – here are the details:

What: Strictly Vintage, a new event for the discerning vintage fashion enthusiast
When: Saturday May 25th 10am to 3pm.
Where: Northcote Town Hall, top of Ruckers Hill, High St, Northcote.
Cost: $5

Circa will have a stall of course, and I hope to see a lot of you there.

There are still a few spots for traders – good quality and affordably priced vintage clothing a must (pre 1990 please) – if you’re interested, please email Rina. Traders will be selected for their high quality and value. Stalls are a bargain priced $130 each.

Some of Paris’s hats and gorgeous vintage busts (I’d like one of each, please).

Named after William Beale, one of Melbourne’s most loved and successful milliners who produced beautiful hats under the label “Mr Individual”. Paris was fortunate to train under him and receive his amazing collection of hat blocks.

Here is a Mr Individual hat from the late ’50s, from the collection of Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.

Here are some of the hat blocks – surely this is Australia’s best collection? I could only dream about such shapes when I studied millinery as part of my costume design course.

Short courses available:

Sewn beading and it’s applications for millinery 6 participants per class
Saturday 13th April 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

Beaded Wirework for Millinery 6 participants per class
Sunday 14th April 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

NEW Toy hats in felt 6 participants per class
Monday 15th & Tuesday 16th April 2013 (Two night course) 6.00pm – 9.30pm $160 per participant

NEW Toy hats in straw braid 6 participants per class
Monday 22ed & Tuesday 23ed April 2013 (Two night course) 6.00pm – 9.30pm $160 per participant

Blocking, draping and sewing leather for millinery 6 Participants per class
Monday 29th and Tuesday the 30 of April 2013 (Two night course) 6.00pm – 9.00pm $140 per participant

5 Ingenious trims made from felt off cuts 6 participants per class
Saturday 4th May 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

Sewn beading and it’s applications for millinery 6 participants per class
Monday 6th and Tuesday the 7th of May 2013 (Two night course) 6.00pm – 9.30pm $150 per participant

Blocking, draping and sewing leather for millinery 6 Participants per class
Monday 13th and Monday the 20th of May 2013 6.00pm – 9.00pm $140 per participant

Stamen Magic 6 Participants per class
Sunday 19th of May 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $170 per participant

Turban making in interlock fabrics 3 participants per class
Saturday 25th May 9.00am – 5.00pm $220 per participant

Making a pillbox from straw braid (with no foundation material under it) 6 participants per class
Sunday 26th May 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

Feathered Flower Making 6 Participants per class
Monday 27th of May 2013 6pm – 9.30pm $70 per participant

The Complete set of Classic Wirework Techniques 5 participants per class
Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 9th of June (Two day Course) 9.00am – 5.00pm $330 per participant

Beaded Wirework for Millinery 6 participants per class
Saturday 8th June 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

Sewn beading and it’s applications for millinery 6 participants per class
Sunday 9th June 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

Velvet covered 20/20 cocktail pieces 6 participants per class
Saturday 15th June 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $180 per participant

5 Ingenious trims made from felt off cuts 6 participants per class
Sunday 16th June 2013 9.00am – 5.00pm $160 per participant

For more information, or secure your place – contact Paris Kyne.
Suite 205, 343 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000, 03 9602 4905

Here are the two posts that I wrote:

1 – The fashion detective: Looking for clues.
This post expands on the mysteries that labels reveal. Previously I wrote a similar post about 1970s fashion labels as part of the Vintage 101 series, but this post has more general advice including a timeline which will help you date vintage labels.

Here’s a Norma Tullo label (Melbourne) from the early ’70s.

2 – The fashion detective: vintage sale.
The second post is about setting up and shopping at the recent National Trust vintage and designer clothing sale – and some of the goodies that I bought there.

The National Trust sale only happens once a year and it gets better and better – the ladies are now accepting donations for next year’s sale, items should be good quality and in good, clean condition – please email Nance. All funds raise support the National Trust’s wonderful historical costume collection.

Here is one of the ’50s frocks that I snaffled from this year’s sale – I love the rosebud print and that good, sturdy cotton fabric. It was made by Melbourne label “La Rhonde Fashions” – I love how they’ve matched the print up on the left side of the neckline.

Thought you might like to see this faintly creepy vintage Easter bunny: I can’t help thinking of Donnie Darko – thankfully these early ’50s glamoupusses don’t seem at all concerned.

If you’re having some time off, I hope you enjoy it – all the best, Nicole.

Those lovely people at the Bendigo Art Gallery really are becoming the premier destination for fashion exhibitions – this year they’re giving us something new and different: the best of ’80s and ’90s fashion, sourced from the museum of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Great to see them forging strong links with important overseas collections.

From an article from The Age:

“Starting with a Vivienne Westwood-Malcolm McLaren T-shirt and denim collaboration, the collection of almost 60 items from the museum of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles will offer a glimpse of garments from some of the biggest names in contemporary fashion – Issey Miyake, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld and Miuccia Prada among them.

The exhibition also breaks into 21st-century design, including a paper dress from 2002 by Sarah Caplan for MPH depicting the twin towers of the World Trade Centre before the 2001 terrorist attacks.”

What: Modern Love, fashion exhibition
When: October 26th to February 2nd, Open daily 10am – 5pm
Where: Bendigo Art Gallery 42 View Street, Bendigo, VIC 3550
Cost: TBA
See more at: the Bendigo Art Gallery website closer to the date.

I’ll update with more information when it’s available but here is a pic of something that will hopefully be on display:

Alexander McQueen’s ”peacock” dress.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to purchase some costumes from the film “The Mystery of Natalie Wood” – I still have some, but most went off to happy homes including a Kimbra film clip for her song “Settle Down” and Candice DeVille’s personal wardrobe.

A costume from a film about Miss Wood is one thing, but an actual costume she wore in one of her major roles is another thing entirely.

Then Peter walked in the door with a box full of sparkles – the costume that Miss Wood wore as Gypsy Rose Lee for the finale in “Gypsy (1962)”. Here she is:

And here she is strutting her stuff and singing “Let Me Entertain You”.

If you’re reading this via email, click here to see the video.

The costumes were designed by Orry-Kelly, the Australian who had previously won three Academy Awards including one for Marilyn Monroe’s beaded dresses in “Some Like it Hot”.

Any excuse for a MM pic.

I wish I’d known about Orry-Kelly when I was a costume student: he would have been my idol. Plus he lived with Cary Grant for a decade! He received a fourth Academy Award nomination for “Gypsy” and according to Wikipedia, when he died two years later “His pallbearers included Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Billy Wilder and George Cukor and his eulogy was read by Jack Warner.” That’s one heck of a supporting cast to see you into the next world.

Back to Miss Wood – I can tell you that there are four pieces to the Gypsy costume: essential for a strip tease… to undress in stages – and here is the order that Miss Wood removed them – the skirt, the jacket, the high waisted knicker and the strapless bra. The set was split – the undergarments were sold last year.

An example of what they would have looked like on, if you weren’t as petite as Miss Wood: the bra and knicker should meet, so that it looks like a one piece garment. It’s a pity the set was split up but so it goes. The best pieces are still the jacket and skirt.

The jacket is tiny: it has a hook and eye at the dazzling rhinestone encrusted collar and a pair of big press studs to secure at the base – Natalie wore it crossed over about three inches, but the modern size 8 mannequin is too enormous for her costume. There are half-sleeves, and a big train that hangs down almost to the floor, with a beaded tassle and more rhinestones.

Then the skirt – it wraps around, secured with a large hook and eye, producing a draped effect over her hips. There are more hooks that perhaps attached to her undergarments – she must have been quite curvy for her tiny frame, because the skirt fell down when I put it on my vintage mannequins.

The skirt also has a tail, capped with a beaded tassle and rhinestones – plus several weights to keep it down, and a loop so she could pick it up and play with it. She must have done this a bit, because the skirt “tail” had the most damage.

Are you wondering why the mannequin is standing on a yellow sheet? This was so I could pick up all the beads and rhinestones as they fell off. It was my task to secure the beadwork, mend the holes and generally restore the costume so it could be displayed without endangering the condition. Everything I did was on the sheet, to capture all of the beads.

Tell me more?
The ensemble is made of silver bugle beads machine sewn onto silk jersey in feathered lines and partially lined in fine nylon. Then additional bugle beads were hand sewn in areas that needed to be more heavily ornamented (like the bust), or perhaps they were repairs? Then thousands of rhinestones of various sizes were glued onto the fabric. Additional glass crystals set in prongs were hand stitched on too.

I was thrilled to see pencil marks under the bugle beads indicating that they had a beading machine to apply a specific design but then realised – this is Hollywood! Of course they had a beading machine, they wouldn’t just pop down to Clegs and buy it by the metre like us plebs.

Working with two sizes of needles (a sharps and a thin beading needle) I moved my hands gently over a section at a time, searching for loose beads, loose threads and loose rhinestones – the latter fell off and were collected. The first two were secured with the required needle on the underside. I used pure cotton thread, like the one that was used on the original costume (even though polyester thread is stronger, I prefer authenticity if I can get it).

It was a painstaking process and I limited myself to 45 minutes at a time, because my eyes would start to go funny after a while. I’m surprised I wasn’t dreaming of rhinestones!

Here’s a close up of the fabulousness – you can see the different types of beads and rhinestones, the prong set ones sit up higher than the glued ones, which sit flat. The dark misshapen bits are the remnants of silvered backing from absent rhinestones.

I tried gluing the dropped rhinestones back on but it didn’t work of course, they needed their intact backing and it had crumbled away. This is why sewing will always last better than glue, but back when Orry-Kelly inspected the finished costume, I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of the people who would still be admiring his work more than fifty years later.

The costume will be going on display in a couple of weeks in Brisbane – you can see it (if you’re over 18) at Club X, 160 Brisbane Road, Booval, Queensland.

Written by Eric McCusker, the production deals with the events of 1959 when “Hollywood Came to Town” for the filming of Nevile Shute’s book “On the Beach” – the dream cast included Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire and Ava Gardner, who was soon followed by her ex-husband (and still besotted) Frank Sinatra.

At the cast reading, you’ll get Hetty Kate singing with a Big Band and a chance to see a musical in its formative stages – all in the wonderful surrounds of my favourite venue, the Famous Spiegeltent.

Tickets available now – and here’s a nice write up in the Age.

Eric McCusker and Hetty Kate in ’50s Horrockses dress, petticoats, pearls and parasol by Circa Vintage – I really do get to meet the most interesting people.