<h1>Vintage Wardrobes</h1>

Kimono

One of the most fascinating experiences I had was an interview with a Japanese girl who was preparing for a very special event. She invited to her house and when I asked what she was wearing, she said it would be a kimono of course. And she invited me to her bedroom where, with ceremony and pomp, she opened her wardrobe and retrieved this huge cardboard box, opened that and from amongst sheaves of tissue paper, this marvellous silk kimono emerged. She treated it and touched it and folded it as if it were the most precious thing on earth and explained that the packing is not just because the kimono is a special one.... all kimonos are treated likewise.
Which set me thinking of the way we store our clothing here in the West. The way we cram and crumple and squash and stash things, just so long as they're stuffed in a drawer or in a wardrobe.

I remember watching Jennifer Lopez as The Wedding Planner with a very slight obsessive compulsive disorder, actually finding time in her busy life to fold sweaters and tees with the help of a sweater folder so the folds would be just so.... Do you use that gadget?
And then I look at all those pretty hat boxes, and wonder if there are people who actually use them.

Hats on book shelves

And what about scarves? Mine, I roll up neatly and store in a drawer box.

I mean, how do you store your shoes? Do you still keep them in their boxes and perhaps stick a polaroid picture of what's in the box so you find what you want easily?
Do you have a walk-in wardrobe with everything sorted out around you for easy finding?
Are you a careful storer or do you just slap-dash your storage and clothes?
Which brings about another question - how do you store delicate vintage clothes? We're not supposed to hang them on the kind of hangers which will mess up the fabric and tear into it. We're not supposed to fold things to save the fabric from ruining itself. Do you cover vintage dresses in plastic? Do you have a special place where you keep your vintage bags?
I keep my old stockings in a hat box.
I keep my shoes in their boxes but always forget which box is which.
I keep my small handbags in a large drawer beneath my wardrobe and the big ones in a trunk.
I have a drawer for panties & bras; another for socks & tights; another for undervests, slips and petticoats.
I could go on.....