My cousin is a size four.

My cousin Chrissie is tall and slender and lovely. That is why it is so much fun to go vintage shopping with her. She is visiting this weekend with my sister Claire and today we went down to Jive Refried, a vintage shop on South Alamo that features the funky and quirky, with the occasional gem hidden among the hoards of second hand goods. Chrissie scored three beautiful dress. Two need a bit of tweaking to bring them into her current style, but here are the "before" photos for you to admire. We will certainly post the afters if all goes well.

My sister Claire also has a lovely figure, different than Chrissie's and a little bit larger, but very attractive in vintage clothing. Sadly, she is not very interested in vintage shopping. She loves Anthropologie, and she likes to look nice, but she does not have the patience or the creativity to sort through the vintage racks looking for Anthropologie-esque originals. She was a champ and tried on a few outfits for me, but in the end she only left with a pretty bracelet, and no clothing.

I also ended up with a piece of clothing that I hope to convert into a smokin' top this weekend. I will certainly post if all works out. I hope it does, because how great is it to wear a one-of-a-kind piece of clothing? People stop you on the street and say "Oh I just LOVE your dress, where did you find it?" and you get to say "Oh this old thing, its vintage." And then they stair longingly for a moment and you get to relish the joy of having something totally original in this homogenized world. You just don't get that feeling with off-the-rack.


I love the floral pattern on this dress. I swear it looks like it could have come off the rack at Anthropologie (hear that Claire...?), except it only cost $15, and it is authentic, not a shameless reproduction. We are going to take these bat-wing, dolman-style sleeves up a bit so that they fall more like a cap sleeve. Isn't the print on this dress pretty? She wants to wear it with cowboy boots or leather sandals and a vintage belt (maybe with a vintage belt buckle) for that Austin-hip look. It is 100% cotton and lined, so I think it is a real steal. Man, I love living out my vintage fantasies through thin people.


This dress is damn near perfect. It needs a steam to get out some of the wrinkles, but otherwise it fits just as it should. In fact, it is a big snug. Poor Chrissie can't lift her arms over her shoulders (we asked her to fix her hair, but she couldn't reach it so Claire did if for her), but we figure you don't need to move your arms much if you look this good. The back scoops down into a low scoop that shows some shoulder blade. Very sexy. It was marked a size medium in the vintage store, but it only has a 26 inch waist, which measure a size 2 or 4 in modern clothing. I would call that a small, bordering on the extra small. It is a bit tight on Chrissie, but like I said, she looks so good that we all agree pain is beauty.

We are going to lop off the skirt of this 80s number and turn it into a 1950-ish pinup top. It has a boat neck in the front, and just wait until you see the back. It has a low, square-shaped scoop that shows off her shoulder blades. Again, very sexy. Plus, there is a giant bow back there that we are going to try and mend,to give it that little embellishment that says "sexy with a innocent twist." With some dark trouser or wide legged jeans and heels she will look stunning.