My Top 7 Vintage Statement Pieces

I consider myself to be somewhat of a pro when it comes to vintage scavenging.   I have hoarded some major pieces throughout the years.  So here are my top 7 faves in no particular order...  I wanted to do 5 or 6 but I really couldn't decide which to eliminate!  I think these pieces might reflect someone who doesn't want to hide, take anything seriously, and who isn't afraid of being outrageously girly even at the risk of not being taken seriously herself.  Refined chaos glam?   See for yourself.

I would also like to note the practicality of shopping vintage.  Recycling, preserving, and snaggin shit nobody else has (at a killer price).  None of these items cost more that 65 dollars.
1)

 

Meet mon chat Oliver.  I had to include him as he is in my title image.  One of the best examples of HIGH QUALITY costume jewelry, people think he's real all the time.  I bought his sweet ass for 60 bucks at an antiques warehouse in Stratford CT.  Probz from the 80's.  His tail clips into his mouth so he can chill on ma wrist all day.  Brand is unknown.

2)

My amazing mod leather and suede tunic.  uhGODDAMN it looks fantastic on.  It really is one of a kind. Definitely 60's-70's.  I bought it at Le Grand Strip in Brooklyn on sale for 60.  Also, no brand, that's the thing about vintage, it doesn't have to be high end designer to be good quality, higher standards sighhh

3)

This was a great find in a dusty vintage shop near Amherst MA for 45.  There really wasn't anything else I remotely liked in the store til I sniffed out this baby.  It's held up almost perfectly since the 80's.  God I have a soft spot for these 80's pastels, I'd like to think someone blew drugs while wearing this in Miami.  You might not think this is overtly sexy but with a tight mini skirt oooo girllllllllllllll By Frank Usher.

4)

BAM!  This might blow your eyeballs into the back of your head but it sure as hell completes me.  I snagged this GEM on etsy for $4.95 from a rad store called Flabbergastbanana (check it outt).  Vintage boxy silk T's have been my thing for a while, they're effortlessly awesome and comfy.  By Anthony Sicari.

5)

I feel like life's a party in this silk Versace inspired jacket.  I got it for 40 at Andy's Cheepees, a store near NYU that caters to costume depts in theaters across the city.  Andy's also an outrageous dude with sweet stories from the 70's. No brand.

6) 

 

I know it's cheesy but I feel like a Rockstar in these fucking shoes.  They are fantastically made, each triangle was sewn one by one onto the black mesh.  It's funny how this ankle boot is in fashion right now and these were made in the 80's, that's one of my favorite things about vintage, how well it can work in a contemporary closet.  I bought them at a store called Fashionista in New Haven, CT for 65.  By Gianrico Mori

7)

Last but certainly not least these fabulous huge crystal clip-ons.  These are the heaviest earrings I own, maybe you can tell from the image but the small crystals are embedded in a half sphere of good ole fashion plastic.  They're mesmerizing, and I feel like a princess wearing them.  I thought they might be from the 60s-70s due to their stylized daisy shape but because of the manufacture quality they're probably from the 80's.  I bought these for 60 again from Fashionista in New Haven, (I got the shopowner to lower the price after I noticed a small chip-ALWAYS look for blemishes tears or chips to lower that price girl).

Photography by Corey Ulrich

"Wild Parties" from High Times October '76

God isn't this amazing? By REX WEINER!  This man has to be found in the Porn archives of the 70's.  I've also upload the front and back covers of the High Times issue from whence this came... I may have to upload some more of the advertisements/articles etc because they literally blow my brains all over the walls(ie How to Prevent Cocaine Frostbite).  "the latter portion of the Seventies has not inspired or been inspired by the sort of wildness that seemed so rampant during the Sixties" seems really hard to believe!
Check the back cover(HA):

I'll be uploading a lot more from books/mags (I have 2 other High Times from the 70's heehee) to give y'all a little somethin different than stuff that can just be found on the interwebz. PLEASE STAND BY.

Nicki Minaj on W

 

Nicki Minaj looks refreshing on the cover of the up and coming W issue.  Maybe they're running out of fashionable-edgy-hip-hop-LadyGaga-esque ideas.  I know people will say she's been lightened, but I don't think the viewer is intended to perceive her as a white woman.

Francesco Vezzoli's historic portrayal is also an anachronistic hodgepodge.  The exposure has been raised(you can see the shadows and background are the hue of a dusty brown instead of the original black) mimicking a daguerreotype portrait, while Miss Minaj is dressed(Empire Waist) and posed as if in a Neoclassical portrait.  She is also equipped with granny hair? A modern interpretation of Rococo French aristocracy?

I've noticed this is the Art & Fashion Issue... we have a Bourgeois depiction of Art+Fashion?  How positively VOGUE of them.  Couldn't they choose something other than these tired references?  I'd like to see Lichtenstein pop art or Kirchner maybe.  Here's a great example from Vogue Italia shot by Michael Thompson in 2006 that references Henri Matisse.  An amazing example of ART+ FASHION.

The Last image is specifically referencing Matisse's Purple Robe and Anemones, 1937(seen above).
Gimme thoughts.  I also just realized that  weird blue thing on her chest might be a Frida Kahlo reference....