refashioner

Hi I'm Kate. We lovingly rehome top vintage & designer clothes from epic private closets (click the store link above). Telling their stories. Rebooting the industry. 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889 posts

[refashioner-blog]

Finally: the Home Page. Basically, I built a sophisticated engine for giving my best clothes away. 

[refashioner-blog]

...And that was our first press. Came out before launch in the end, which was not a good idea. Invitation only! People wrote in! Lots!

[refashioner-blog]

Nostalgia... It’s six years to the day since the first press for Refashioner v.1.0: THE first of the thousands of trade-your-old-clothes sites. It was all swapping. No money changed hands. Pure. Looks so innocent now! 

[refashioner-blog]

The $35,000 Tee Shirt (Refashioned)

It’s 1975 Let It Rock Westwood/McClaren, owned by the most iconic English punkess of all, but still... Jordan’s "Venus” tee shirt went for $34,600 (THIRTY FOUR THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS) at auction (Kerry Taylor, of course). Heavily embellished/ visibly mended/ refashioned. Just sayin. 

[refashioner-blog]

LIFE COME FULL CIRCLE

That’s it, I can retire. Max Mara (thanks for the image) went all boxing on the runway. All I can say is, I did it when SO not glamorous --and you can get my book on it for one cent! (Unattractive pic of me by Bruce Davidson belongs to Magnum.) Thank you and goodnight.

[refashioner-blog]

How not to shop

[refashioner-blog]

EVERY DAY is International Women's Day

[refashioner-blog]

CLOTHES RATIONING: Not a bad idea

As the Imperial War Museum in London opens its exhibition on Clothes Rationing and Fashion in WWII, this excellent retro-modern advice (at 2.14): “Ladies: you may be sure that every garment made with “Make Do And Mend” is entirely exclusive…”

But do listen to the Harrods lady with the startling diction to see what happens to 1940s man when we take our remaking seriously.

[refashioner-blog]

The Nobel Prizewinning Dress

As clothes stories go, this one takes the prize...  Matthew Hubble, a top London civil engineer (among his projects: the Olympic Park and the London Underground) was inspired by his wife Maria to get into fashion. "Get into" meaning: train at Central St Martins & London College of Fashion, and start a business constructing incredibly gorgeous garments inspired by science. Specific science: graphene, turbine blades, electrophoresis, and that old favorite, the DNA helix. Then he started wondering why Nobel Prizewinners don't get to wear couture like the Oscar crowd. And he identified the Nobel Laureate in Neuroscience, Professor May-Britt Moser as the ideal wearer of said couture, and he designed and made her a neuron-synapse-axon-cyton dress, constructed in navy silk and silver leather. The problem was, he had no idea how to contact her. So he... emailed. And, long story short (read the long version here): Professor Moser was beyond delighted to wear the dress in Stockholm. Which isn't surprising because --look at her! 

Matthew and Maria's work is exquisite. Especially the leather pieces: this skirt modeled on Pier Luigi Nervi's Rome Termini Station Roof beams! Inspiration. (And doncha love that their name is Hubble. No relation to the telescope. I think.)

[refashioner-blog]

CLOTHES STORIES: my training (w)heels

Just calculated how long I've been wearing heels when I unearthed these Prada shoeboots I wore nonstop 2001-2. I got them at Selfridges London as a wedding present (totally weird but it was a gift fund and there was nothing NOTHING I wanted more). At the time I thought these were high heels. At 1.5"! But I'd worn flats my whole life. Flats were cool. Heels were a bit tragic trying-too-hard conventional --you know, Basic.

Did a lot of us think that way? Did we only turn to heels en masse post-Millennium? I'm fairly sure that was the case. Sex and the City has a LOT to answer for. And now Sarah Jessica Parker admits heels have pretty much broken her feet (yet sells us ultra high heels in her SJP Nordstrom line. WTF Carrie).

So, since I cannot walk with ski slopes strapped to my feet I wore these until god invented the wedge. And now I'm six foot tall. Amen.

[refashioner-blog]

CLOTHES STORIES: Marie Tanner's Engagement Outfit

Don't you love this picture? = Pure happiness.

1956: Marie Margaret Tanner from St Louis was 19 years old that Christmas, and just engaged to Mr John Owen Rottler. She must have spent a fortune on this celebratory Claudia Young ensemble: an ecru wool dress with ruching on the sides, with a raspberry cotton velvet evening coat. It had good juju: the marriage lasted 54 years, until Marie Rottler's death in March 2012, and they had seven children, nine grandchildren, and (so far), one great-granddaughter.  

Thank you granddaughter number one, Erin Truax, for sending us the fantastic fashion collection of your Grammy, complete with the notes she wrote to commemmorate their notable occasions. Here's the engagement ensemble today, the dress sadly having fallen victim to the evil tineola bisselliella (clothes moth--sounds eviller in Latin), and preparing for its second life after a spot of judicious and creative visible mending. The coat, however, is as good as new...

[refashioner-blog]

Loved this look we put on the plastic girl yesterday at #vintage show. Early #margiela greatcoat iconic #DonnaKaran pinstripe body, #deadstock #1960s black lace chemisette & 60s Stewart tartan maxi skirt

[refashioner-blog]

EVERYONE WANTS THIS COAT

Mad 1970s Mongolian Lamb, via Maine. Coming with us to the intense VINTAGE SHOWCASE this weekend, November 8th & 9th, 201 Mulberry St in Nolita, NYC, 11am-8pm. 

We're bringing hundreds of exceptional pieces, hardly any of them on the Refashioner site. See you there! xo

[refashioner-blog]

CLOTHES STORIES: Helen's Leathers

Meet the amazing Helen Byrkett. She's grandmother of new pal Matt, who supplied the pix, along with about a dozen 1950s-1970s dancing dresses, because Helen was also a competitive square dancer --not to mention dressmaker; about half are home made. Maybe that delicious domestic vignette is her in mid-sewing session? Or maybe brushing her teeth.

Anyway, on the bike, she qualified for BMW's 100,000 mile club, much of it I'm sure, wearing this perfect, perfectly worn-in set of leathers, custom made for her by Bate's of California. Bate's is the best of the best, and very sought after--especially a hard-to-find small ladies' size, with zip-out sheepskin gilet and gold lining from the 1960s. It's all sorts of perfect. 

We'll post the leathers for sale soon--it's going to make someone extremely happy. Now if only I had the leathers my own aunt wore to ride her classic Norton, and if only I could find the pic of her in her top-to-toe leathers when she rode solo around the USSR in the 1950s.  But that's another story. 

[refashioner-blog]

SPICED MOTH ARTILLERY

Did you unpack your sweaters for winter only to find those little bastards had been pigging out all summer? Take action now! I do it with spice. Cedar is weak and mothballs are poisonous, but this: fragrant, easy, cheap and works. 

Get cinnamon sticks, cloves, lavender buds and bay leaves, heavy on the lavender. Take old tights, no matter the state of them, and stuff some of the spices and flowers in the toes and knot the leg: done. Hang these in closets, stuff in between sweaters. I also like pretty dishes of ground cinnamon and cloves, with some lavender and bay, sitting around, pot pourri-like. Oh and, if it's too late, try the visible mends below.

And may all our winters be moth-free. 

[refashioner-blog]

Saw the divine Ambrosia Parsley play with (equally divina) Holly Miranda at the Rockwood last night, and was reminded how Shivaree's Goodnight Moon is the alltime top Halloween Song of all time ever. Closely followed by John 2/14 

They're playing the next three Wednesdays 9.30pm if you want it live.

And ooh you can have Ambrosia's mirror leather Pradas she wore but once to a wedding...

[refashioner-blog]

WE RECYCLED A WEDDING DRESS

...into a wedding dress. For a CORPSE BRIDE. A child bride, which is disturbing, as my 6th grader pointed out, hashtag badmommy. Anyway, we had our first Remakeathon last week, and the brilliant Ricky Becker of the aptly named Spooky Boutique brought a spare gown then attacked it with a spray bottle of brown dye, scissors and thread and acrylic paint. If I fit into it and hadn't got married 13 years ago, I'd totally wear this on the big day. But instead, daughter gets to wear it on her big day: Friday. (And the school dance last weekend). Happy Halloween.