My Fashion Passion

Although I mostly live in skinny jeans, ballet flats and t-shirts these days (with a hefty dose of spandex and hoodies at the start of my day), my dearest love of fashion comes in the vintage form. I adore the shapes, colors, textures and styles of the garments from the past century. The 20th century had an incredible array of styles. The evolution of fashion from corsets to miniskirts was remarkable. The 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s 60s, 70s, 80s – who am I kidding? I love them all.

I guess I’ve always wanted to live during another era. My ever-practical Vaishnava husband reminds me that I DID live in another era, many in fact, I just don’t remember them. But that isn’t enough for me and so I lovingly collect remnants from long ago. I adore antiques in all forms, but the wearable and useable are my favorites.

Moving across country (and moving all my childhood possessions out of my family home – what an ordeal!) made me realize I had some serious de-accessioning to do! Books, pictures, crafts, clothes, toys – so much had to go.

I couldn’t just Goodwill my glorious vintage fashion collection though, so thank heavens for Etsy! I’ve been slowly cataloging my vintage clothes and picking out the perfect ones to sell. Just last week I officially opened my shop, Stardust Melodies, named after one of my most beloved old jazz tunes.

I’ve been collecting vintage clothing since I was in middle school. I had a superb costume box growing up and a mother who kept a lot of her old clothes (big score for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have that amazing silk zebra number below!)

When I was younger I was very adventurous with my clothes. I dressed for school like I was putting on a costume for a play. These days, I only keep a few of my favorite vintage pieces for special occasions. I wore two different vintage dresses for my wedding in fact and I loved wearing unique dresses for my big day.