For Your Fashion Library: 100 Unforgettable Dresses

SJP as Carrie Bradshaw in a billowing gown spread across the bed in her Paris hotel room. J. Lo's chiffon palm-print Grammy's dress with a V-neckline that plunged well below her belly button. The tight red number Julie Roberts as the-hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold wore to the opera with borrowed jewels. (If you're keeping score: Versace, Donatella Versace, Marilyn Vance-Straker.)

You know all these dresses--as well as the 97 others profiled in Hal Rubenstein's new book 100 UNFORGETTABLE DRESSES. And if you are a lover of fashion it's a must-have for your library--or coffee table. The book itself is beautiful to behold with with its embossed cover featuring a close-up of the bodice of a Jackie Kennedy dinner gown by Givenchy. (I was all set to buy this as an ebook and read it on my iPad, but it's only available in hardcover. Thanks the sartorial gods!)

The beautiful photos of the exquisite frocks in 100 UNFORGETTABLE DRESSES make my heart beat speed up a little. Each photo gets a page or so of accompanying text talking about when the dress was worn, the designer who created it, and why it made such an impact. The dresses featured span decades--Coco Chanel's LBD to Kate Middleton's McQueen wedding gown. (Princess Diana's is featured as well.) Plus there are special sections discussing the most memorable dresses of Grace Kelly, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cate Blanchett, Cher, and other fashion icons.

Black Friday is almost upon us, fellow shoppers. Material Girl recommends you add 100 UNFORGETTABLE DRESSES to your holiday I Want It list. (And look for more book recommendations on Material Girl in the near future.)

My eBay Search for Vintage Dresses

Long-time readers may have gathered that I get into buying phases. There was the sequins phase. The clutch phase. The sweater chain phase. The enamel flower pin phase. eBay makes quick work of collecting anything. Lately I've been focusing on vintage dresses. I love my plaid one (that I got hemmed seven inches) and my flowery one (the jacket is great).




Last night I won an auction for a darling pink dress that also comes with a matching jacket.



I've found that for vintage dresses, I do better saving favorite searches of entire stores. The pink dress is from Nova Vintage, the plaid from Violettville Vintage, and the floral from Timeless Vixen. (To save full-store searches, you need to click on the seller's name in an item listing to get to their profile, then click on Items for Sale. Once there, you can save the search. I can't find another way to do this.)

I like these stores because they have small inventories and all the items are well chosen, well photographed, and well measured. Note about buying vintage clothing online: You gotta have measurements. Vintage sizing is way different than current sizing. But it's really easy to know if something will fit when you've got bust, waist, hips, length and shoulder-to-shoulder measurements (and sometimes more). That really takes the risk out of buying items that are often non-returnable. (Nova Vintage will accept returns for clothes that don't fit if you send them back in seven days--always check for return policies in item listings. I've found most sellers to be very reasonable when it comes to returns.)

In addition to store searches, I also do category searches. I put in "dress" then filter to "vintage" then pick an era. Once that list is up, I'll add and "M" to "dress" in the search field to narrow down the list. The smallest vintage offering I can fit into is what most sellers consider "M." Those ladies in the '50s and '60s had tiny little waists. Or girdles. Or I'm just too thick in the middle. It's probably a combination of all three, but it seems that the busts are usually a good ten inches larger than the waists in these dresses. That's not so in Material Girl's figure. If I had a 26-inch waist I could have a dynamite vintage dress wardrobe in my closet.

Plaid to Be Alive, eBay Style

I wore my eBay safari shirt dress to work today with a pair of cowboy boots I got on eBay for $26 and a studded Calvin Klein belt I got on clearance at Macy's for less than $4. The outfit seemed to go over well and made me very excited by the eBay auctions I won yesterday: two more dresses--both vintage plaid--and a chunky vintage necklace.

The first dress is from a great eBay stored called Violetville Vintage. All the items from Violetville start bidding at $24.95 and are modeled by the same tall size-two blond woman--who, of course, looks good in all of it. Below she's wearing the dress that's soon to be in my closet. (It will likely need a good hemming.) Check out the great '50s cut, the wonderful little buttons (have I mentioned I have button collection?) and the rickrack detail at the neck. (I sort of can't resist rickrack. If I had a sewing machine and knew how to use it, one day I might go crazy and rickrack-ify all sorts of things. Luckily, buttons and torn seams are all the sewing this Material Girl can handle.)


The other plaid dress is a '60s dropwaist pleated little number in the shade of yellow I decided I can wear. (It seems to lean more toward green, but things often look different online than in person, especially with eBay). This dress is from the same eBay store where I got the safari shirt dress, Designer and Vintage Deals for All (where bidding for all items start at 99 cents).


I topped off my Sunday eBaying with a chunky, asymmetrical Trifari necklace in white beads, Lucite and silvertone. Very mod and statement making. It's from another eBay store that specializes in various vintage costume jewelry pieces, Violetsoup: Vintage Jewelry . The bidding here starts out low ($5.99-$7.99), and they currently have a bunch of stuff Buy It Now at %15 off.


The damage for all three eBay items (including shipping costs): $110.86, paid in on easy PayPal transaction.

Shirt Dress Throw Down: Vintage Safari vs. Old Navy Safari

Today I got a recent eBay purchase in the mail--an olive green safari shirt dress. The auction listing said it's a vintage item from the '70s. This was a good purchase. The dress fits me perfectly. It's in wonderful shape and has a wonderful shape (what's not to love about a shirt dress with a little flare at the hem and a little nip at the waist), and it's on trend with all the safari-ish items hanging around the stores for spring. I tried it on with my studded leather Calvin Klein belt and it looked fab. The eBay price: $20.50 including shipping cost.




Below is Old Navy's olive green safari shirt dress from their Urban Explorer line. Unlike my vintage dress above which buttons all the way down, this shirt dress only has three or four buttons at the top. I found it to be too short (even for 5'2'' Material Girl). It also doesn't do much for the figure, what with it being so straight. It's cute, but not cute enough for me to buy when I tried it on in the store a while ago. It's currently on sale for $22.99 (down from $34.50).





So, in the Shirt Dress Throw Down--vintage safari shirt dress from eBay vs. Old Navy safari shrit dress--vintage wins handily and for two bucks cheaper.

The vintage dress came from an eBay store called Designer and Vintage Deals for All. Check it out. They've got some fun stuff (sequined tube tops! '50s garden party dresses!) and the bidding starts out at $0.99 so you can come away with some real bargains.

Anthropologie: Some Choice Goods

I've been paging through the Anthropologie catalogs ones again, and despite the fact that I still think they're offering many sweaters this season that look like ass, there are several items that I think are really beautiful, so I thought they deserved a little Material Girl love. (For even more Anthropologie blog love, visit fellow shopper Sophie's new blog Breakfast at Anthropologie.)

Again, I offer visuals.

So if Cheapy asks any of you what I want for Christmas this year, send him to this blog post. He'll have to wing it on the sizes. And take me out to dinner a few times so I can dress up. (Wouldn't the orange corduroy dress look cool with my fav boots?)

I fear Cheapy's head might explode a little when he sees the prices of these little numbers. But, believe it or not, while Cheapy does not spend much on himself when it comes to the wardrobe, he is actually quite often a generous and thoughtful gift giver.


P.S. Does it drive anyone else crazy that you can't right-click on items on the Anthropolgie site and open them in a new window. It really slows down the shopping. At least they show the price on the main page now.