Weekend Finds: School Blazer City! (Plus Bonus Finds!)

Good morning!

I told you yesterday I made out pretty well at a Hillwood sale on Friday last, and I am as good as my word on photographing the spoils of war this morning for your viewing pleasure. When I saw a triad of private school blazers in the preview photos for the sales, I was positive none would be left after 9:01 Friday morning. However, when I got to the sale, all three were hanging in the hallway, unclaimed-- I guess they were waiting for the right gal! Check out the two I chose, respectively from two of the crème de la crème institutions of all-girls education in Nashville, Harpeth Hall and St. Cecilia's:

Both private schools boast almost 150 years of history in Davidson County, and I was more than a little impressed I was able to snag these little pieces of memorabilia. I think they probably date to the fifties', as a lot of the clothes in the house were also for tweens and teens of that era. What a lot of clothes there were in the photos, too! I mentioned to Eartha earlier last week that if I went to this sale, I was probably going to have to go toe-to-toe with vintage retailers, as the house was stuffed to the gills with vieux vêtements. When I got there, one admittedly resourceful woman had completely filled four human-sized trash bags (yes, this is how I measure trash bag size) with 95% of the clothing in the house. She then repaired to the den on the west side of the house and began sorting through her bags, scrutinizing each piece for a keep versus discard pile. Matthew: "Oh look, did you see that green dress over there?" Me: ((covertly)) "That's that woman's stuff, we're acting like we're not interested, and waiting to see what she leaves behind." It's basic estate sale strategy that anything anyone else wants becomes 1,000,000 x more attractive to the person who was on the fence about buying it in the first place. Twenty minutes of sidelong glances later, I got tired of playing scavenger bird and just bought the things I found elsewhere in the house that she'd overlooked? Passed up? At any rate, I thought they were pretty grand. School blazers, for goodness sake!

This is the graduating Harpeth Hall class of 1957. How about those debutante dresses!
You can see this and several other of their yearbooks at the Internet Archive.

What might have turned the turbo-estate saler off from adding these to her cache of treasures? Each of the 100% wool garments have Freddy-Kruger like moth holes in one of the forearm parts of the sleeve. Mothballs are important, kids! I'm thinking of ways I could add material at the sleeved to cover them up, because in spite of the imperfection they are EXACTLY RIGHT in terms of under-sized fits. I like ultra tailored, zero extra fabric, actually might be too small dimensions in my tops, so these were exactly what I wanted. See a close up of the schools' ensignias here:

Another crumb that fell off the table--this circle skirt was hanging in the middle bedroom with a lot of other impossibly tiny clothes. I would peg its size as sporty junior's XXS in the fifties', as all the other clothes left on the rack boasted similarly waifish proportions. Most of the shoulders of the garments, which I almost never have trouble getting into (another story altogether with things that zip, haha), were far too teeny for me to squeeze my adult frame into. Booo. In spite of the fact that I doubt this would fit at the waist, I had to get the skirt based on its amazing colors and pattern.

A closeup of the design....Polynesian natives! Doing what you do in Polynesia! As if the enormous floral embellishments weren't enough to seal the deal, these tiny native people dot the lush landscape, engaged in their every day chores. Which are all the more glamorous for having taken place in the South Seas. I hardly ever see patterned, novelty skirts out and about in a real-life retail environment....with the bold exception of a cityscape themed, Mad Men era skirt I left at the Hendersonville Goodwill in a fit of self-righteousness that I was not going to buy any more clothes that didn't fit me. You see I've gotten over than and then some at this late stage in my career-- too many bitter tears shed over four dollars NOT spent on some dumb textile. So this one went home with me.

Last but not least, and in a similar vein, this also so-small-as-to-be-mannequin-fodder-alone vintage homecoming dress fairly leapt from its hanger and into my arms. I wish I had taken a better photo, but it consists of a tulle type net over a satin under-skirt, and a violently ruched bodice of the same material. I cannot get ENOUGH of these twenty-two inch waist dream dresses, even if I might have to have some bones removed to shimmy into them!

The show stopper part of the dress is, as said, the same ruffly fifties' bodice embellishment that Chacha wore to the senior prom in Grease. And that big satin bow in the center is a literal and figural cincher, in that its cheery detail made me want the dress even more. I think it used to be sky blue but age has turned the color of it a very pearlescent greyish perwinkle. I am on board with this. Maybe I will have a petite daughter someday who will wear this gorgeous dress to her own prom. For $8, I was like, yep, yep, and YEP.

How about you! Have any luck at the sales this weekend? Bought anything crazy just because you were worried you'd suffer remorse later on not taking the plunge? Do you only buy things you already know you can use or are you an aesthetics hoarder who will buy things that suit your magpie eye better than necessarily your lifestyle? Let's talk!

That's all for today, but I'll see you back here tomorrow. Take care! Til then.