cyber Monday / last day of sale!

It's the last day of our thank you sale--20% off the whole shop, now through midnight EST tonight, November 26.

xo

K

summer wrap up

This article from the June 13, 1955 issue of Life magazine (you can see the article online here) is about wraps, shawls and bolero jackets that ward off the chill of summer air conditioning.  When I worked in an air conditioned office, I always had a cardigan with me; otherwise I would freeze to death at my desk.  I suppose the modern day equivalent of these might be the pashmina, but I really prefer the cover-ups shown here.  And they work just as great at helping transition your summer dresses into autumn wear!  The two modeled on the left side are made to fold up small enough to fit in your purse when not being worn.  And the best of all of them, I think, is the striped shawl on the right, which was made by Claire McCardell "to inspire do-it-yourselfers."

Here are a few lovely cropped jackets, sweaters, and boleros I discovered for sale on Etsy.

1940s reversible lace-trimmed bolero (the other side is solid black, but wouldn't you have a hard time not always wearing it on the cute folklore print side?) / DeseoVintage

PDF pattern for a 1950s knitted shrug / KinsieWoolShop

1960s Jonathan Logan shrug with rhinestone embellished flower appliques / LittleHavanaVintage

1950s cropped jacket with a big collar / Planetclairevintage

I really love this.  1960s Vera Neumann lemon print linen jacket / CustardHeartVintage

1930s white eyelet bolero / wildfellhallvintage

And a pair from my own shop:

1960s cropped, fitted tapestry jacket or blouse

1950s cropped gingham jacket

xo

k

shoes. glorious shoes.

Fellow vintage seller Holly of Ginger Root Vintage on Etsy consistently has the most amazing shoes in her shop.  Just take a look below--it's only a partial selection of the 1920s-1940s beauties (she has some gorgeous pairs from later decades, too) in her shop.  And they're nearly all deadstock!  Links to each pair are beneath the collages, and you should check out the great selection of clothing and other goods in Holly's shop, too.

1930s chocolate brown deco oxfords

deadstock 1920s black double strap flapper heels

deadstock 1930s deco oxford heels

deadstock 1940s green slingbacks with bows

deadstock 1940s red bombshell heels

deadstock 1930s deco mary janes

deadstock 1940s navy mesh pumps with bows

deadstock 1940s black pumps with studded bars at the toes

xo

K

behind the scenes

Andy and I have been selling vintage together for 14 years now, a little over three of those years on Etsy.  Time for a behind the scenes post!

I was prompted to write this post by a couple things.  First, awhile back (a long while back--last August) Maria of Adelaide Homesewn wrote a post about a dress she saved--how she found it in a dank warehouse and brought it back to life with cleaning, mending, and new buttons.  It was such a great post, and I've been wanting to do something similar since I read it.  Second, I started getting lots of messages--more than ever before--from folk on Etsy asking me to give them deals on items.  My prices haven't gone up, and I realize these requests are at least partly due to the economy.  Selling vintage is our sole source of income, and things like the high cost of gas definitely affect me and the business, too. 

On the left is a lovely dress from Anthropologie called the Ephraim, that retails for $194.00.  On the right is a 1950s dress from my shop that is priced at $68.00.  I sometimes wonder if the person who is asking me to mark something down for her is willing to pay double or more for a new, factory-made (likely not as well made, quite possibly in sweatshop conditions) dress from a retailer like Anthropologie.  I wonder whether the person asking for the discount realizes just what goes into the work I--and so many other fantastic vintage sellers on Etsy--do.  (I realize lots of sellers do give discounts on request, and I have no issue with that!  Everyone does business differently, and you need to be aware of that to successfully be in business.  Most people on Etsy ask politely, and that's entirely fine and doesn't offend me.)  

At any rate, I decided I was long overdue to show you a behind-the-scenes look at Small Earth Vintage...how the items in my shop get there, from start to finish.  

The first thing a vintage seller has to do is source product.  That's a full-time job in itself.  And I'm not giving away any secrets, so you'll just have to trust me--it's a constant expenditure of time, work, and money.

Pretty much every piece is hand-washed in a basin of lukewarm water with Woolite, then hung and air-dried.  A majority of items also require stain removal--single or multiple spot treatments, and/or soaks in Biz or Oxyclean.

Next--mending.  It is rare that I have a dress or blouse in perfection condition with no seam separations that need to be fixed.  I can't pass up a great item just because it has flaws, so I frequently have dresses with  missing buttons or an unfinished hem.  Those are easy repairs that even a non-seamstress like me can handle.  

The next step is photographing.  This has been one of the most continually challenging (and thus, for me, rewarding) aspects of selling vintage.  I started out taking pictures on our deck.  There was lots of lovely natural light, but also...lots of wind and snow.  (Yes, I did attempt photographing in the snow in the depths of winter.)  Eventually, Andy and I set up a photo studio in the only available space, our basement.  Unfortunately, it's not filled with natural light, but we painted a wall white, set up some lights and screens, and with the help of photo editing, I'm pretty happy with most of my photos.  However, I always feel like there's more work to be done on them and I'm always trying to make them better.

Writing listings--possibly the dullest, but definitely the most important, part of the process.  This means doing any necessary research, and then describing every aspect of the garment, measuring it, and writing an engaging title and tags that will make it easy to find on Etsy and internet searches.  I used to write cover copy for the books I edited, and never enjoyed that particularly, either!

Marketing.  When I first started on Etsy, I'd just list vintage and it would sell.  Bing bang boom.  Now there is a ton of competition and it gets more and more difficult and time-consuming to stand out.  Part of this is keeping the blog, Facebook page, and Twitter well updated without being annoyingly spammy.  For me, it also means being on an excellent Etsy treasury team (TeamT International rules!).  Not only do we promote each other through our treasuries, but the team has been an excellent resource for me on all aspects of business.  And now and then when the company coffers have some extra funds--which, unfortunately, is not very often--I'll pay for advertising on a blog.

And then, finally, at the end of this rainbow of hard work, the pot of gold--a sale!  Sold items are carefully packaged and weighed, shipping is printed out on my computer, and packages mailed from our cute little local post office.  Yes, that's a ping pong table you see in the photo.  I package shipments there, and when poor Andy wants to play some ping pong, it usually involves the removal and relocation of tons of Small Earth Vintage stuff.  Just one of the many sacrifices we make!  Seriously, Andy and I love this work.  I know we both feel very lucky to be able to do what we love for a living.  I hope you enjoyed this post, and hope I'm not just preaching the choir (I feel like a lot of fellow vintage sellers will likely be nodding their heads to much of this!).

xo

K

i shopped for you

Did you get any Christmas money this year?  I did, and though I'll probably use it toward a little trip somewhere, it didn't stop me from doing some fantasy shopping on Etsy.  And because I'm such a nice person and couldn't afford to buy all these things (even if they were all my size, which they aren't), I thought I'd share them with you.  

Keeping track of these finds was made a little easier than usual due to my signing up with Pinterest.  Pinterest is, basically, an internet-based inspiration board.  You can follow me there at this link.

  

Gorgeous 1950s brown party dress / SwaneeGRACE

Buffalo check wool coat / stonecoldvintage

1960s dress with satin collar / DearGoldenVintage

Pringle 1950s wool plaid sweater / PomegranateVintage

1970s stack heel oxfords / IveGoneModVintage

Charmingly macabre mouse requiem locket / shopfeverfew

Danish modern teak ice bucket / thecircamodern

Framed Scottie painting / jbyjosephine

Danish modern teak duck / luola

Victorian steamer trunk wall art / Canal-Side Studio

xo

K 

synesthesia part 2: the summer edition

I am not a synesthete.  I am just pretending to be one for the purpose of this blog post.  Synesthesia is, according to Wikipedia, "a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."  An example of a synesthete is a person who automatically and involuntarily associates colors with certain numbers or letters.

In my previous synesthesia post, I matched some of my favorite fall and winter perfumes with items of vintage clothing I found on Etsy.  I'm doing the same again, only this time with some of my favorite summer scents, and including vintage and reconstructed fashions from Etsy, as well as jewelry.  This was fun for me--hope you enjoy!

Here's my current top summer scent rotation:

1. Etro Anice.  A sweet, yet clean, black licorice scent.  Like Good & Plenty candy, or better yet, a cool cocktail made with absinthe.  Maybe I'm being too obvious, but this 1940s corde bag from BessGeorgette naturally makes me think black licorice.

2. Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca.  A refreshing blend of mint, citrus, and grass.  Sparkling mint green celluloid buckle from jeanjeanvintage.

3. Miller Harris En Sens de Bois is a woodsy vetiver scent.  Vetiver is a tall, fragrant grass native to India that is often used to control soil erosion.  It has an earthy, rather smoky scent that I love; many of my favorite perfumes include vetiver as a primary note. And I have to share this beautiful quote from vetiver.org:  "Indian poets referred to vetiver scent as 'the smell of the first monsoon shower on parched soil', and 'the perfume of a rejuvenated earth.'"  Moss green lace and satin dress from DearGoldenVintage.

4. CB I Hate Perfume Memory of Kindness.  Probably my favorite summer scent.  Very simple--smells like tomato leaves.  Not tomatoes, but the plant.  Heavenly.  1950s tomato red Lilli Diamond dress with a leafy print, from clostetcaseVNTG.

5. Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Foglie di Basilico.  Straight up basil leaf.  1950s kelly green cocktail dress by missfarfalla.

6. Hermes Hermessence Rose Ikebana.  I am not a big fan of floral scents, but I do like the scent of rose, especially when it's blended with something zingy like--in this case--rhubarb.  Rhubarb rose chalcedony pearl necklace from fiveforty.

7. L'Occitane Verbena.  A sparkling lemony verbena scent, hugely refreshing and energizing, and probably my most-worn summer scent.  The matching scented Soothing Body Ice Gel is one of my summer must-haves.  Shimmery 1960s pale yellow silk shantung beaded cocktail dress from  HinterlandVintage.

8. Rosine Un Zest de Rose.  A lemony rose scent (see my comments about Rose Ikebana).  Pretty reconstructed rose pink dress from AdelaideHomesewn.

xo

K

stripes forever

My dad--second from left in plaid shirt--and friends in cool striped shirts, circa late 1940s.

The first items of clothing I ever bought for myself were two striped shirts, identical except for their color (one was red and white, the other blue and white).  I was 12, it was 1981, and I bought these with allowance money earned mowing the lawn.  I think I bought them at the mall.  I was a few years away from being a cool thrift store shopper.

I'm feeling the stripe love again lately.  (Well, honestly, it never left me.  I've posted here previously about my chevron stripe love.)  It started up again in earnest when I saw the Coco avant Chanel biopic, specifically when Audrey Tatou wore a version of the wonderful outfit below.

This got me searching for Breton stripe shirts and sweaters.  (You can read a really interesting history of the Breton sailor shirt in fashion in this old article from The Independent.)  Which also led me to a sometimes-frustrating trip through Etsy on a search for Breton striped items.  So I expanded my search to just striped items, and did find some neat stuff.  Check it out!

Adorable felt Claude brooch, from poosac.

Obviously, it's not just the stripes that make this sundress amazing.  From MsZinski.

Stripes and a bateau neck on this fab sweater from pineapplemint.

Gorgeous 1940s olive and black striped skirt.  From HeyViv.

This striped knit cap with anchor applique from dollsandrobots is so cute--I'm quite disappointed it only comes in children's sizes!

I really wish this amazing green dress from TopSpecialVintage was my size!

xo
K

holiday wishlist--the scottish edition

It's that most wonderful time of year again! And I'm still obsessed with all things Scottish. So, in (temporary) lieu of a trip to Scotland, I'll take any or all of the following for Christmas, thank you. (Start shopping now if you want them to arrive in time for the holidays--all items with the exception of the last one come from Etsy sellers based in Scotland.)

Since I do my packing and shipping in our freezing cold basement all winter, I'm pretty sure I need a pair of these gloves, from seller clovaknits. They might be the only thing standing between me and a horrible Numb Hands Tape Gun Incident.

I love everything in 13threads' shop, but particularly this tailored yet romantic herringbone tweed jacket.

Tuwhittuwhoo has the best shop name on Etsy. And the shop is full of cute things, like this adorable appliqued tablecloth.

The quirky and very funny work in paulofnavarone's shop makes me smile. Even though his name reminds me of the Guns of Navarone toy that I never got for Christmas (see last year's wishlist post).

This Harris tweed houndstooth satchel from breagha is just the bee's knees!

I would have to keep it on a high shelf away from Lucy (of course, that's how she's used to seeing most squirrels), but I do love these wild-eyed herringbone baby squirrels from dragonhouseofyuen.

Aaaaand here it is, from thedoghouse, pretty much the perfect thing for a childless couple obsessed with their dog (erm, not that I know anyone remotely fitting that description): the doggy advent calendar! Brilliant.

Have I mentioned lately we're removing all the disgusting carpet in our house? Thus, I am obsessed with rugs of all sorts, but particularly with cute crocheted ones, like this from emmalamb.

And, finally, this is more of a need than a wish--I have got to get some Pastels cds.

xo

K