My life has changed in the 15 years since I started this blog, but one thing hasn’t. That said, I’m as obsessed with vintage and thrifty as I’ve ever been. Another thing that hasn’t changed is that I assign meanings and memories to the complete strangers in front of me.
Shopping at real estate sales may be my favorite pastime, but too much thinking can overwhelm me with grief. But it’s not just sadness. It’s nostalgia that doesn’t belong to me. It’s entirely made, or pieced together, from what I see in an hour or so as I walk around someone’s house or organize their belongings. Even when you get excited about fine clothing, fragile objects, and antique furniture, you have to remind yourself that it costs someone’s life, and the grief of their loved ones.
Worse, if there is no one left to mourn them and no one wants to keep their family albums and heirlooms. That story is for another day. But today, we celebrate the most colorful woman we’ve seen in a while.
Vintage shirts, jumpsuits and hats. Shop my vintage jumpsuit picks below.
When I visit a property sale, I am very conscious that I am always at someone’s home and inspecting their personal belongings. Even if they pass away, which may be especially true, it needs to be treated with caution. Nothing irritates me more than seeing people recklessly digging things up, throwing things indiscriminately, or making insensitive comments about other people’s homes during a property sale. You may or may not have a family member. Either way, it is very important to remember that you are in someone else’s home, and it is a delicate situation. Treat everything and everyone with the utmost respect.
At this special real estate sale (not pictured, this is in my room) I walked away with a few items. The house belonged to a prolific artist whose paintings adorned the walls. I made costumes and practiced shooting. She had her own enlarger and her art and sewing room was filled with vintage fabrics, concepts and art supplies. Two of the items I picked up from him (along with a few yards of incredible fabric from his 60’s and his 70’s) are this yellow fabric he used for the Disney 100 Years Project. ‘s bolt (you’ll find out soon!) and this. Vintage orange hat. Inside the hat was stuffed with her psychedelic 60s floral smock covered in years of paint. There are also some brushstrokes on the top, inside of the hat. I’m not an artist, so I gave the smock to someone else. But I brought my hat.
You can imagine her wearing the same hat and smock every day for years. I don’t know her name and I’ve never seen a picture of her, but looking at her life’s work and her personal belongings, she’s the kind of person that makes you want to know her. I know you are a good woman. She spruced up her outfit with pins and feathers and funky hats. Either she traveled around the world, or she had loved ones who brought her souvenirs, but since many of her paintings depict landscapes from around the world, I I can’t help but think it’s the former. She had rose faucets and knobs, and a pink bathroom with rose portraits. [what I assumed was] Her dog hangs on the gallery wall. I don’t know her, but I hope her life was as colorful as the sight she left behind.
Having put this fabric to good use, I would like to share the project with you this week. Hat is starting a new life in a new home. To go along, replace her “Think Kids” and “Nobody Does It Better” pins with my own vintage flowers. But before that, I wanted to honor the memory of this stranger by posting some photos of the hat I found. It felt right.
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