My wiggle dress

Once upon a time, in the late fifties, there used to be offices downtown with beautiful secretaries in wiggle dresses. They would type and type the whole day while their male bosses discussed very important matters on the phone. In the old days, secretaries were not as competitive as executive secretaries nowadays, but they had an asset: The wiggle dress.

Made to make the woman look curvy, the wiggle dress was born in the late fifties and worn during the early sixties, until the “A” shaped silhouette and the mini skirt turned up in the fashion history.

Of course we all have in mind the actress Christina Hendricks and her gorgeous wiggle dresses in “Mad Men”.

Well, early this year, I had a kind of obsession with this type of dress, and fortunately I found one in my size in the vintage store “AlmaZenArte”, in San Telmo neighborhood, in Buenos Aires. In San Telmo everything is vintage, I will post some photos some day for you to see. 

 

Made with beautiful pink broderie, this dress makes me feel as a real secretary from the fifties, not as curvy and cute as Christina, but it does not matter…I live my own dream…

I hope you have liked the post. See you soon!!!

xoxo, Mariana

Two lovely vintage bags

Hi! I will do my best to upload some posts during this week, so that  you can have something to read if you happen to find this blog in the net. It´s not nice to have an empty blog, but this is what happens at the very beginning. I hope I will feel encouraged enough to post more and more!

I´ve had another blog in Spanish for over a year (Sensación Vintage), and early this year a lovely reader contacted me to tell me that she had two beautiful vintage purses to sell. She sent some photos and I was delighted: one of the bags was clearly from the late '30s/ early '40´s, and the other one could be from the late '40s or '50s:

This is the first one.

The craftwork is just beautiful...

The gold hardware is really stunning...

The inside of the bag is in perfect condition, and it has a little purse to carry coins.

These bags belonged to an Argentine piano player who passed away last year (she was 90 something), and she was fond of attending concerts. I suppose she carried these bags with her in very few ocassions, as the bags have no damages at all.

"Made in Argentina".

I bought both bags, of course, it was a great opportunity. Up to now, I have worn the second bag to a wedding party. It looked terrific with my blue gown and silver heels.

When you want to start wearing vintage and you don't know what the clues are, you can begin by wearing a vintage bag: it´s not a huge risk and it´s something that will not make you feel or look weird. Take into account that vintage bags are generally too small to carry many things, except very iconic bags like the Speedy by Louis Vuitton or the wonderful Kelly and Birkin by Hermès.

I hope you have enjoyed the post, see you soon!

xoxo, Mariana 

Something to begin with: My own vintage experience

Hi and welcome! I have been wondering if it would be a good idea to begin with a vintage fashion blog in English (I have had another blog written in my mother tongue, "Sensación Vintage", for over a year), and I´m sure it is.

Firstly, I´m an avid reader of blogs from Europe and the US. Secondly, I know that vintage style has grown very fast and it´s now a real fashion trend in those places, but, I have to admit, it is still not so accepted in Latin America. Last but not least, I would love to get in touch with vintage fans from all over the world. That´s why I´m sure that I will enjoy the experience of posting in English. A bit hard at the very beginning, but with lots of surprises in the future, I hope. 

"Juan Pérez", a well-known vintage store in Buenos Aires.

When did I first get the idea of the vintage style? In the 1990's, when I was 20 something. But, in those days, the word "vintage" was not used. There used to be lots of thrift shops in my city, and there you could buy "worn" and "old" clothes, not in a very good condition. At that time, not many people thought real vintage clothes, in excellent conditions, could be a great investment. 

The shop window of "AlmaZenArte", another vintage store in BA.

But, what is vintage? Vintage are those clothes, accesories or whatever you can find which have lasted for over 20 years or more. Some versions say that these articles of clothing must be over 40 years of age, but I don´t agree. The point is that these fashion products have to be really iconic and symbolize an era. But the good vintage can be worn nowadays: you can show off with a vintage Halston gown and nobody will think that it is out of style! Good vintage pieces catch people´s attention not for looking old-fashioned, but for looking stunning and desirable!

This is me wearing a vintage dress from the late '70s/early '80s.

I hope you will feel like joining me in this trip to vintage experiences in my beloved city, Buenos Aires.

xoxo, Mariana.