The trees wear red well

Some of the local finery:

Hats and more hats

I'm showing hats all October, and there is no chance of running out here at denisebrain!

This week I'm showing a late 40s number:



a variation on a turban:



a 50s pink sequined party hat:



a little brown felt pillbox:



a slouchy faux leopard beret:



and a chic sort of pre-pillbox hat (late 40s or early 50s):



AND, there's still tomorrow!!

Style

I'm always thinking about what Style is, and am actually enjoying never really getting close!

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. -Coco Chanel

Fashion is born by small facts, trends, or even politics, never by trying to make little pleats and furbelows, by trinkets, by clothes easy to copy, or by the shortening or lengthening of a skirt. -Elsa Schiaparelli

(Chanel and Schiaparelli are to be excused for confusing fashion with style!)

"Style" is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. -John Fairchild

Even better:

Style is the mind skating circles around itself as it moves forward -Robert Frost

What vintage I can’t bring myself to sell

I am asked now and then something like "how can you sell that when it looks like it fits and suits you?" As everyone knows who sells something they love, there is a lot of passing up in order to keep up the business.

Today I prepared to sell a dress and couldn't do it, and here's why.

1. You never forget your first time. Whenever you started caring about clothes is likely to be stuck in your heart. For me this is about 1974. This was a time in which many were deeply involved with bringing back vintage styles. Particularly absorbing was clothing of the 30s and 40s. Elements of style from those decades made their way into 70s fashion.

2. I am queer about green. Every time I try to sell a green hat I end up not being able to, with a huge lump in my throat at even the thought. My favorite color is pink, but green tugs at my ankle like a favorite dog.

3. Polka dots. Clowns, happiness, love, silliness, order, sunshine.

Here's the dress, now hanging in my closet:

Never too many hats!

I'm hugely into hats and was thrilled to see so many being paraded down the runways for autumn. Naturally, the best are vintage, and I've got so many that it would take many months to list them all, but I'm going to do my best all October at denisebrain!