PART THREE
THE AUTHENTIC DEFINITION OF VINTAGE
This vintage dress with sort of a big unknown name to me was about to get her debutThis girl is finally getting hitched. Yet another big move for this gown, packed up again in her nest..the babushka comes to play her role.
Wait a minute, this dress is decades old; a vintage wedding gown it is. But does it really fit me? It wasn’t then but with the healthy lifestyle I’d previously embarked on should help, right?
The reality is that most vintage dresses are svelte. The sleeves always seem narrower for svelter
silhouettes more sinched at the waist line.
I decided to put my skills to work by pretty much chopping off…(excuse me) cut the sleeves. I really needed this gown to fit so bad for my Church wedding. I had a vision of how I'd restyle the sleeves and how I wanted the gown to look on me. I found a perfect trim for the now short sleeves, then handsaw it perfectly. So then next step was to get the gown to fit perfect. I had to work on the fitting which wasn’t cutting at all...at this moment the gown itself was not fitting. I wasn’t getting there yet with the waist line. It was then time to pay a professional Seamstress a visit. I had to get alterations done on it. I plucked out all the tiny buttons off the dress and took the dress together with the cut out sleeves to restyle it all over for a proper fit and just to make it my own.
All those tiny buttons that I'd removed from the gown were for one purpose..., to make room for a corset like fitting with ties on the back. The sleeves would be cut into thin ribbons and used for making the ties and loops that matched the dress. 
As usual, I had to put more personal touch to it yet again. I paid a friend that owned a consignment warehouse in San Jose…Move It Elsewhere was the name of the place. I came across a beautiful vintage lace trim that matched the dress perfectly. I sew it onto the bottom closer to the hem of the dress an an appliqué. And finally the dress was Stella. Just perfect of how I wanted it to be.
I’d wanted to channel the 1930s. I knew I’d nailed it when our priest, Father John Hoggan said this to me, “Stella, you look exactly like my mom on my wedding day”.
I replied to him, "my dream has actually come true. I nailed it".
It’s a JAY THORPE dress.
First forward as my love for vintage pieces grew vast, I wanted to know who made the dress.
So I used the search engine Google. And there were pieces by the designer at The Met (Metropolitan Museum). Right and there and then I knew that I had a good eye for vintage. Truly can't complain.
"Clothes are great fun, an exercise in creativity".
----------IRIS APFEL
