Her Vintage Is Hardly Old Hat

“It’s so Mildred Pierce,” a blond woman says, admiring herself in a 1940s hat at the Frugal Brit, a Santa Monica vintage consignment shop. “But I don’t know what I would wear it with.”

“The hat is the statement,” says Mo Potok, a.k.a. the Frugal Brit, in a matronly tone. “Just throw it on with a black cloak and you are ready to go.”

Visiting Potok’s Lincoln Boulevard store is like stepping inside a British sitcom.

“Is this one of your shoes?” asks a leggy mom, prying a red crocodile pump from her son’s gummy hand.

“Oh yes,” she says, “it’s certainly not one of his.”

The 63-year-old British expat with curly locks and apricot lipstick is unfazed by the chaos. Children weave in and out of clothing racks, disturb stilettos and tug on scarves, and she jokes, “This is a good day.”

Potok’s been in the vintage clothing business for nearly 10 years. Her specialty is old hats, which she rescues from musty attics, outdated wardrobes and garage sales. She shapes them up (mostly at night when she suffers from insomnia), putting love into every flower, feather and ribbon.

“Hats are art,” she says. “They are the one article of clothing that doesn’t have to be a size. Women can just come into the shop and frolic.”

Many leave without purchasing a thing, which is fine by Potok.

“I’m not in this for the money,” she says. “It’s a labor of love.”

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Hip-hoppers, Hollywood ingenues, novelists and fashion designers are as much a part of the elite as old-guard New York socialites Brooke Astor and Nan Kempner, according to “America’s Elite 1000,” a new coffee table book from Ireland’s Cadogan Publications.

The hefty tome (an offshoot of “Europe’s Elite 1000”) is billed as a reference book about the good life, with listings of the world’s best private clubs, real estate agents, art dealers and more. But its most intriguing section is “Those Amazing Americans,” 100 of the most stylish, creative and influential people, as chosen by the publication’s top-secret editorial board.

Some who made the cut: San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, computer king Michael Dell, Gucci designer Tom Ford, architect Frank Gehry, singer Lauryn Hill, actors John Leguizamo and Jack Nicholson, novelist Toni Morrison, talk show host Charlie Rose and Hillary Rodham Clinton (hubby Bill was snubbed).

“It’s an eccentric list,” the book’s 27-year-old editor, Trevor White, told us over a drink at West Hollywood’s the Standard hotel. (A rather economical choice, considering our topic.) “But all of the people have similar qualities: style, energy, creativity and a sense of possibility.”

The book should arrive in gilded mailboxes next week. It is being distributed free to 10,000 of the wealthiest people in Europe and America before going on sale.

“And if there is anyone who can prove they are seriously wealthy who didn’t get a book,” White says, “they should ring us.”

It hardly seems fair that the proles have to shell out $90 for the book when the wealthy get it for free.

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Store parties are all the rage this season. From Angeleno magazine’s kickoff bash at Barneys New York to City Hearts’ fund-raiser at David Orgell, retailers are opening their doors (and their cash registers) to revelers. Car dealerships have even gotten in on the act: Last week, Beverly Hills Porsche and Audi hosted a few hundred guests for a private showing of the new 2000 models. Mixing alcohol and retail? Talk about your potential for impulse buying!

Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.