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FASHION : Show Is Fine Repast to the Appetites of Vintage-Clothing Aficionados

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Los Angeles may be the City of the Future, but the bulging shopping bags people toted away from the Vintage Clothing Exposition at the Pasadena Civic Center suggest that some Angelenos are carrying on a romance with the past.

The event, produced by Vintage Expositions and sponsored by the Federation of Vintage Fashion, had been set in the San Francisco area for three years. But organizer John Maxwell said he and his partners decided to bring it to Los Angeles after local antique clothing dealers convinced them there is a market here as well.

Sunday afternoon would not have made a totally convincing argument. Shortly after the doors opened at 10 a.m., the crowd seemed enthusiastic, but sparse. Maxwell was philosophical: “We’ll get maybe 1,200 folks for both days, but this is our first time, and it may take a while for the word to get out.”

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Numbers Increased

The numbers increased considerably later in the day, in time for a retrospective fashion show of American and European designs staged by the Auxiliary of Goodwill Industries of Southern California. The clothes are from the auxiliary’s permanent collection.

There were a number of striking outfits in the show, none of them for sale. Among them, a Gatsby-esque evening sheath decorated with a hand-painted hibiscus, and a man’s boating outfit, from the late 1800s, with a striped jacket in cream; malachite, cream-color slacks, and matching linen shoes.

From Mme. Paquin, a French couturier of the early 1900s, an ornately embroidered coat of eggshell lace, trimmed in black silk with a black silk underskirt, evoked images of “Gigi” and La Belle Epoque in Paris.

Even one of Jean Harlow’s gowns, in satin charmeuse with a dramatically plunging back, made an appearance.

Some of the clothes had interesting sociological significance. The show’s classic Edwardian hobble skirts came by their names honestly. They actually included a strut, similar to the hoop placed around a wooden barrel, that forced the wearer into mincing, ladylike steps.

Several women in the audience commented on the tiny waistlines of dress ensembles from the mid-1800s, when the wasp waist, the bane of Scarlett O’Hara’s existence, was the rage.

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Expo visitors and dealers had various reasons for shopping the vintage clothes stalls, where prices ranged from $5 to more than $3,000. Gwen Segona, a dealer from Sherman Oaks, freely confessed: “I’m a junkie. I have a craving for antique clothes.” Re-selling them subsidizes her habit.

Martina Dinale, who was trying on several of the hats Segona was selling, sympathized. “This is a banquet of frustration, because I’m between jobs and can’t afford to buy anything right now.” Putting aside a black straw hat, she sighed: “You know, to buy the equivalent of these clothes today would cost approximately what you’d pay for a medium-size car.”

Dealer Lauretta Wasserstein agreed. Although she seldom wears them herself, she admires their craftsmanship. She called the clothes works of art and turned to a gown by Cristobal Balenciaga, the late Paris couturier, to demonstrate. Inside the dress was a built-in silk brassiere to compensate for the original owner’s modest bust. Shoulder loops held the underslip in place. And the edges of the gossamer, cafe-au-lait over-jacket were impeccably finished.

“It’s a cliche,” Wasserstein admits. “People say it all the time, but it’s true: They just don’t make clothes like this anymore.”

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