May 7, 2010

My vintage treasure


Nestled in the San Diego hills of California, sits a sweet little shop full of vintage treasures.  My mom discovered this hidden gem a couple of weeks ago and purchased a dress and capelet for me (I'll share some pics soon).  My mom told me that the shop was full of vintage clothes, fabric, buttons, sewing patterns, jewelry... in fact, she said that there was so much stuff you have to walk on stuff to get to more stuff.  

The story is that the owner is an elderly lady in her 80's and she used to work as a seamstress and costume designer.   Currently, she spends time frequenting estate sales on a regular basis.  

After hearing about and seeing first hand some of the thrifty finds, I had to find the time to take a trip to the shop for myself.  It took a couple of weeks, but finally, last Tuesday, I made the drive down to San Diego to visit the vintage shop.

When we arrived, we were greeted by an employee of the shop named Beth.  I asked Beth if I could take pictures for my blog. Hesitantly, she said yes but asked me not to mention where the location was.  I'm not kidding.  She said she didn't want a ton of people to come there.  "OK?" I said and I put my camera away.  The strange thing is there was a huge SALE sign in front of the store.  A little twilight zone-ish.  I did get a little spooked, but then again it doesn't take much to spook me.

The shop was overwhelming, but in a good way.  It wasn't like the swap meet (I don't do good shopping there).  It was charming and every room of the house/shop seemed to have a story.  There where 3 separate shops and one of the shops was a house.  The kitchen had vintage dishes in the sink.  The living room had an old record player with records stacked around it.  There was tattered luggage on the floor. The place seemed frozen in time.  I felt like a detective snooping and exploring through a
 private life.

I found quite a lot of goodies to purchase. When it was time to leave Beth showed me one more room. It was there that I found my treasure.  In the corner of the room there was an end table with a weathered book lying on it.  It looked like a scrap book.  Casually I opened it and found pages and pages of vintage magazine cut outs.  "This is what I came here for," I thought to myself.  I asked how much the scrapbook was and Beth gave a fair price, so I bought it.  I bought it without looking at everything inside, so as soon as we left the shop I opened my book and was shocked to see what I had.  The book not only had cut outs of fashion designs, but it also had magazine articles and full magazine issues dating from 1902 to 1978.  And when I write 1902 to 1978 that includes practically all of the years in between- 1903, 1905, 1906, 1910, etc.  Crazy awesome!
Here are some pictures from the book...

   

I circled the date 1913!





This one has the words written My hat.  I wonder if she designed it???



This is a magazine about crochet and knitted handbags.






I'll stop here, but there really is so much more to share.  Every page has the year the images were collected written at the top. This book is not only inspiring for the design element, but it also inspires me to keep a book of all the design trends in my lifetime.
I'm so happy I finally picked a good vintage find, because in most all of my previous attempts at vintage hunting I've come up fruitless.

I also picked up some sewing patterns...


And a dress...


 I'll show you how it fits just as soon as I get some pics with the dress on.  

The dress has some stains on it.  Beth said they're water stains.  I'm not sure how to go about removing them.  I don't want to ruin the dress.  Anyone???


I can't leave you with a picture of the stains, so here's some shoes...


Cheers,

Jamie

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I sure wish I lived in San Diego. As to the water stains... what is the fabric they are on?
If they still make it... there is a product made in Switzerland,that you could look for, I think the name is " Swiss Care" but not sure.
It gets stains out of fine linens and things. Good luck with that amazing dress.

Jeanette said...

that's awesome! What a fun treasure!
2 weeks ago I was in New Mexico having a "girls week" in the mts. of Ruidoso and happened into a shop that sounds just like this one. I kept saying that this shop was decorated the way my "dream" home would be decorated. It was shabby paired with vintage and was actually converted out of an old 3 story home. It was full of old drug store signs and one of them had been converted into a dining room table. So cool.

Lindsey said...

Ok, so, spill! What's the name of the store and where is it? Or is that a secret?

megan said...

That's an awesome find! I bet it's neat to see how fashion changed over the years.

Pretty Ditty said...

Lindsey - I really want to, because I'm awful at keeping secrets, but Beth was serious when she asked me not to blog about it. Plus, I really want to be able to go back. Not that Beth reads my blog, but if word got out that I spilled the beans I may be banished forever from this magical place. However, I think you know my sister and maybe...
You know what I'm sayin =)

Megan - The crazy think is fashion really does recycle.
There were big fat belts from the 30's and I remember seeing similar ones in Anthro recently.

Mindy said...

I heard peroxide takes out stains well, but I don't know what KIND of stain. What a fun find!

Margret said...

you could start on the stain by leaving a paste of bi-carb and water on it for a while and then rinsing. Good luck.

Amy said...

What an amazing treasure trove! Good finds.

jacqueline said...

These are really lovely treasures!! Thanks so much for sharing. Hope you are having a lovely mother's day weekend so far! Happy mother's day sweet jamie! Love to you!

Anonymous said...

great treasures!

GoyaDesigns said...

I can see why this is a wonderful treasure for you. It is right up your alley. Keep enjoying it. You have an interesting little History book.

SewLindaAnn said...

I just found your blog, from clicking on your apron from the FabTalk blog. Whew, what a ride!! I love your blog and can't wait to read thru. Your vintage find is amazing, wish you could sit with all of us over coffee and show us the whole book. Thanks for sharing the pics and I love the dress!

April said...

Awesome find. I love the dress. I don't know what the material is or how delicate but I have used clorox 2 on just about everything I own and never had a problem including on an eyelet apron my great grandmother made. I would do a test spot on an inside seam first but I have used it on every fabric and stain (and I have three little ones...the oldest is three! so I have definately tested it out! lol) and I have had great success...it even removes mildew when my dh puts a wet washcloth with my good clothes or when something has been thru the dryer with a stain on it..sometimes i have to do it more than once but the best way i have found is to wet the item then pour clorox 2 directly on it and let it sit for awhile-just don't let the item dry (wetting the item first allows it to sit longer without drying). Then wash it as you normally would and add clorox 2 to the wash. This has never failed me, so i hope it works for you.

amy said...

is this magical place in hillcrest? or will that give too much away...

Pretty Ditty said...

It's not in Hillcrest. It's in Fallbrook. I feel really bad not being able to share the shop, but I promised. Hopefully, I haven't broken my promise by mentioning the town. That's all I can share =(

amy said...

thanks for the tip! if i make it that far south on my vacation, and happen to find it, i swear i won't tell on you!!

Elizabeth said...

My very best friend is a lover a vintage like myself and it would mean so much to me to get her something special from this shop for her upcoming wedding..... i assume they do not have a website but would you know if they are even listed in the yellow pages???

i live in San Diego but it would break my heart to drive all the way up there and never find it :(

ps. LOVE the dress you got :)

Anonymous said...

Oxyclean will take care of any natural fabric stains. I cleaned up a little girl's yellow dress (old)and now it's a beautiful white.

Soak, soak, soak in hot water.

Jan