The Manhattan Vintage Show: Can't Get Enough of That Vintage Stuff

As if the Pier Show wasn't enough, we also went to the Manhattan Vintage Show. Remember? Because of a scheduling snafu, both this show AND the Pier Show were held on the SAME weekend. Since Manhattan Vintage is only on Friday and Saturday (key Melina Mercouri and the theme music from that fab 1950's Greek-American collaborative screen gem "Never on Sunday"!), and we're working girls, it was a no-brainer what we'd do on Saturday. Our friend X joined us at the Manhattan Vintage Show last Saturday at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Since she wears lots of vintage jewelry, clothes and handbags, it was a very fun outing for all three of us. (Valerie says she could not have done two days in a row prior to her twin foot surgeries. Well worth the time spent in the dreary post surgical booties.)

No sooner had we arrived than we ran into Lisa Caravalho and Rob Stuart. We loved Lisa's '80s silver raincoat, not to mention her silver hair. If she's not smiling, she bears an uncanny resemblance to Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

Oops!  Valerie thought this woman was wearing a fabulous '60s coat, but it turned out it's a very current Kate Spade.  Folks, it takes a lot of coordinating to get that pattern to sit just right when it's on the left and the right, AND over both shoulders.  Kudos to the people who planned this design, and to the people who sewed the pieces together!

This camera-shy woman let us photograph her marvelous coat, but not her face.

We had some celebrity sightings.  Here's designer Anna Sui.  She always shops the vintage shows and was extremely accommodating when Jean asked to take her picture.

Valerie spotted Vogue's Hamish Bowles, but Jean was strategically better situated to take a photo, so Valerie got her attention (ever so discreetly, no doubt) and motioned to her.  Mr. Bowles is somewhat less photo-friendly than Anna Sui.  As soon as Jean snapped this photo, he was off in a flash, only circling back after we'd left. (For those aghast at Valerie's hatlessness, she had just been trying on a Junya Watanabe shirt the putting on of which challenged not only her, but the booth employees, who were more familiar with its intricacies. So the hat had to come off. Momentarily.

And Jean found Market Warrior and interior designer Bob Richter.

Vendors are definitely among the most fun and enjoyable things about vintage shows in New York. Case in point, in addition to his expert knowledge about vintage design, Theo Banzon of Paradox Designs has great humor, high energy and enthusiasm.  He's wearing a skirt of his own design which incorporates roomy pockets on the side seams.  Thank goodness there's ONE designer who understands that pockets are essential.

Alana (far left) and Amira (center) were their own best advertisement at the Style Vault.

Elaine Klausman from Vintage with a Twist combines current and vintage and always looks crisp, classic and modern all rolled into one.  Check out the patches sewn to her Anne Fontaine shirt.  (Anne Fontaine regularly turns the humble and simple white shirt into a work of art.)

During NY Fashion Week last September, we participated in a 6-city fashion shoot and event for Phillip Lim 3.1 for Target. We appeared in a street scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. Ken Weber from Vintage Martini in Carrollton, Texas appeared in the Dallas segment. He traveled to the Big Apple for the party, so we got to meet him there and then had the chance to reconnect at this show.  He had the most amazing white straw hat!  Sooooo soft!!!

And speaking of hats (as we so often are), Bruce Mihalski of Hollywood & Vine (from Massachusetts), was so excited about the headwear in his booth that he began to try some of it on to prove how fab the hats were.

Valerie tried on another of Bruce's hats.  You can just barely see it here, but it's made of two separate materials, with larger raffia in the back.  The visor is shaped more like a huge comma than anything else.

And X tried on this black and purple number.  We all loved this hat!

X also ran into her be-hatted friend Diane.

We found this wonderful huge Issey Miyake bag  with 'bubbles' at Susan Bergin's Pocketbook.  Next to it (not shown) was a small black bustier bag that Valerie wound up buying.  Not big enough to hold a wallet, a cell phone, a camera, and postcard sized business cards, so not terribly practical, but absolutely hilarious!

Jean did NOT buy Style Vault's leather brassiere (which is lipstick red, although it shows up here as pink), but we HAD to show it to you. Whatever else we outgrow, we never outgrow our need for fun.

X bought this cloak clasp to wear at the lapel of her jacket or coat or sweater.

We were in awe of this dress, which has a very '70s look about it. Those are shreds of porcupine quills sprouting from the bust and the apron.

Noriko Miyamoto was the only dealer able to overcome the scheduling snafu. She had her assistant Taeko Miyamoto (same name but no relation) work at the Manhattan Vintage Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion while she herself worked at the Pier show.  Here's a find: a Japanese workman's jacket from Esso (later Exxon) while it was still called Standard Oil (thus the SOCONY - Standard Oil Company of New York logo). This jacket has tigers stenciled onto it, but some SOCONY jackets of the period featured the iconic Pegasus.

Meika Franz was running Another Man's Treasure without her usual sidekicks, husband Warren and daughter Biba because the baby was under the weather.

The women at Tracy Chambers Vintage were having as much fun as we were.

This woman's ombre'd hair and multicolored outfit really hit our radar screens.

We loved this woman's look too.  And she's also wearing lace-up boots.  Was it the weather, or is it a trend?

A show stopper!  A suit that looks like a Roy Lichtenstein painting, and open-heeled Clergerie shoes.

Charlotte and her mom travel to NYC for the vintage shows from Massachusetts.  Time sure flies.  After reminding us that we first met her when she was 14, she merrily announced that she had just turned the grand old age of 16. She is already working on her Associate's degree at Harvard Extension and is quite well known by the vintage vendors at the local flea markets there.  The black net dress is a Comme des Garcons dress that she treated herself to at a Massachusetts second hand shop for her birthday.

Our timing was impeccable!  We stopped by Amarcord's booth at the end of the day, just before the chilled Prosecco and cupcakes arrived to celebrate owner Patti Bordoni's 50th birthday! (Patti is the one on the left.  We have to tell you because you'd never guess.)

Here's a better look at the goodies in the pink boxes.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATTI, and many more!

After spending the entire day at the show, we had to sit and chat about whom we'd seen or just met and what we saw. The fact that it rained all day did not deter us in the least.

We had another engagement at The Standard High Line Hotel in the Meatpacking District later that evening, so we stopped by one of our favorite haunts, Cafeteria, for a nosh. Because the main dining room was in full swing and the music was blasting, we were agog when the FABULOUS staff escorted us to a downstairs lounge that we'd had no idea existed. There we could actually hear ourselves talk. We went through our photographs and compared notes. Jean had the truffle fries which she pronounced to be divine while Valerie tried one of the cheese biscuits. The cocktails, needless to say, were scrumptious.

What we're wearing:

Jean is wearing an Amy Downs knit turban; Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons coat for Puma; Theory shirt under an Alice and Olivia knit dress; Donna Karan opaque tights; Trippen boots; Alexander Wang purse; Danil Khutorianskii faux ostrich neck collar; resin and bakelite cuffs, bangles and rings.

Valerie is wearing a vintage unlabeled so-called funnel hat, wood and leather pin by Tereza Symon's mom, vintage earrings marked "Western Germany", unlabeled cropped jacket, Charivari sweater, vintage Issey Miyake hip wrap, Talbot's skirt, Frye boots.