Retrospectives: Coach Handbags

(Madonna knows where it's at- on the baseball field!)

What in common has a baseball glove and the perfect handbag? As for baseball gloves: the soft leather, the way it molds perfectly to your hand and the distinctive fine smell...perhaps the same qualities sought in a handbag, yet, does the perfect one elude you? Perhaps that is because you've never owned a Coach handbag. Legend has it that the founder of the Coach company was a fan of the leather used in baseball gloves, and why not? It lasts in spite of rough handling, and only gets better with time. So began the tradition of making Coach handbags with only the finest baseball glove leather. First made in a loft in Manhattan, NY, then sold on the market in 1941, they were designed as refined leather handbags built to stand the rigors of use and time.

The metal accessories attached to Coach purses are usually made of brass, which gains an extraordinary patina as the purses age. The obtained vintage look is something Urban Outfitters only wish they could mimic! Those produced in the early seventies, like the ones we have for sale, are still in good condition. Renowned designer Bonnie Cashin is credited with the inclusion of the brass toggles like this one on Coach bags.

The stash of original Coach bags now on sale at the store are complete with the distinctive serial number and the stamp which reads:

In other words, when you buy Coach, you buy a bag for life. Just like a baseball glove, the more you use it the better it looks and feels. Considering that new bags retail for around $300 a bag(!), buying a vintage Coach is a real steal. The classic brown goes with everything. You can't go wrong! So there you have it. One of these beauties can be yours, but hurry in....word travels fast in these parts.

'Till next time, this is your vintage 'historista' signing off

-Meaghan

Coach bags at various prices in store now!

Vintage Sunglasses

We've been getting quite a few requests for sunglasses with the nice weather finally being here! We put out a whole batch of great sunglasses today with much more to come. Vintage Sunglasses $18 and up.

Spring Yeye

The latest post on the Yeye Style blog features a couple items from here at AV including this 90's peach lace top and picnic-worthy flowing skirt. We also really love the red leather "Bow-lo" by Norwegian Wood. Very sweet!

Chronicles of the "Mender": 50's Party Dress

We don't usually have the time to do many repairs in the store. Once in a while however, we find a piece that warrants special attention. And it's on these occassions that we call in "the mender".

Our in-house mender is Ingrid Gerberick. She has been working at store for about a year, and she came to us with special skills. She is an artist and very very good sewer. She's been involved for years in textile art and makes the most exquisite art-quilts. You can see some of her amazing handywork here.

This 50's party dress is one of her many salvage projects. We immediately fell in love with the unique floral fabric and special touches like the sewn in forest green sash. Sadly, the dress was in need of serious love and was saved on it's way to be made into rags!

There were many open seams and the sash had almost come off on one side.

Each time we thought we'd found all the problems, more turned up.

And so began the restoration process.

Some of the holes/ripped seams were really bad. And seemed like they would just open again as soon as anyone put on the dress. Where there really wasn't much fabric to work with, she did a kind of satin stich over the whole area, taking care to carefully blend what could have been a very visible repair, gracefully into the flower motif.

And finally, the finished dress! It's already found a new home with a very happy customer! Another dress saved from the rag pile. Until the next project! xgen

My Vintage Mom #2

Another "Vintage Mom" post in honour of Mother's Day. Today's profile (where we feature a mom in her best vintage era) is of Ann Williams, mother of Annex Vintage/Local 23 employee Kerry Byrne:

My Mom was born in Yorkshire England and immigrated to Canada with my Father in the mid 1970’s. They met in nursing school and after a briefly living in Montreal they settled in Calgary, Alberta.

Mom was a great lover of the arts and enjoyed making many kinds of crafts. Here she is pictured 3 days before my birth in 1976 wearing a loom beaded choker she created.

Pictured a few months after my birth Mom is wearing her hair in the classic Pageboy bob. To dress up for this photo session she wore a polyester button down shirt reminiscent of the 1960’s fluid psychedelic patterns but printed in a more subdued brown (a trendy colour in the 1970’s). She paired the shirt with a pair of high-waisted wide leg trousers.

This picture taken in the mid 1980’s displays my Mom’s affinity for plants and nature. Her dress demonstrates the trend toward looser fitted clothing and power dressing, defined by the use of shoulder pads. This silk dress also shows my mom’s continuing love of dramatic patterns through the oversized Flamingo Lily print.

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely moms out there! Hope you have a great day! You deserve it. xgen

Colours: 60's Silk Scarves

We just got in an amazing batch of silk and polyester scarves and I couldn't resist taking a couple photos to show off the beautiful colours. xgen

Pocket Finds: Valentine

A new, very sweet, pocket find! This little valentine (which says "You're Cute" in French) was found in one of the many pockets of this amazing leather backpack. We figure it's from the 70's or early 80's from the Holly Hobby/Strawberry Shortcake vibe.

Backpack in store now: 40$.

Retrospectives: Hang Ten, “It was bitchin’ before you were born”

If I were to write a 'letter to my pre-teen self' it would read,

"Dear Meaghan,

Don't fret it that you don't have name brand clothing. Yeah, all the 'cool girls' are wearing that stuff, but when you're an adult you'll appreciate so much more the vintage leather jacket you inherited from your mother and will pine for the contents of your grandmother's closet."

All this to say I was filled girlish joy when a stash of dead-stock surfer brand Hang Ten shoes came into the store. We've got different sizes and colours of these beauties, but they are still a unique piece of fashion history. Back in the days of training bras and The Wonder Years Hang Ten was one of those brands I just 'had to have' and I'm a sucker for it still.

Though I grew up far from the shores of California and the surf industry, "The Original Surf Brand" with the cute embroidered beach-feet logo (which, fyi, stands for the best move in surfing — to Hang Ten toes over the nose of a surfboard), was a summertime staple and the coveted label of my 13 year old self.

In the late 60's the invention of Hang Ten's summer-weight sweatshirts with a finish that didn't bleed or shrink defined them as 'the best' T-shirt fabric design ever. Surfer-wear aficionados will know that surfer Duke Boyd and seamstress Doris Boeck created the brand and the first-ever board-short to be capable of withstanding the rigors of surfing. An instant success with surfers along the California the brand is marketed to those of us with two feet on the sand as cool Californian garments (think Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210, baby).

A decade later, the summer weave shoes are back in style and are going to be just perfect on warm days. Never out of style, the black wedges are just amazing.

So make some waves to the store before they disappear!

Hang Ten shoes, 80's vintage, never worn! $32 in store

Vintage Window Painting 101: Our New Sign!

We've been wanting to have a sign painted for ages. But we'd heard that the painter who does all the Montreal shops takes months to book and is very hard to reach. So that's where we left it until this week, when we reached out to our friends at Les Etoffes. They'd had there sign done by Claude, the sign painter in question, and they were very generous in helping us track him down.

So - Saturday, at the crack of noon, Claude showed up to do our window. We gave him an idea of what we wanted and he drew some stuff out. He's done tons of these old-school type of signs, but says he says he's never done the same thing twice! Here's an example of his work just down the street from us at Comptoir 21:

He had much toxic paint with him (it's a special kind just for glass). And custom mixed a nice teal blue for us.

Then he put up a drawing of our sign on a huge piece of paper.

Then he started to paint the first colour.

This is how it looked with just the teal.

Then he started to add silver.

He attracted quite a bit of attention. People stopped all afternoon to watch.

Then a bit of red inspired by a belt design he had seen inside. And voila - our new sign! He's coming back this week to finish our window up with a version of our hot-air balloon logo! Can't wait!