Wardrobes, Giveaways & Bags



courtesy of peagreengirl

I just received an email from CSN Stores which I strongly advice you to visit because CSN Stores has amazing online stores where you can find everything from beautiful wardrobes to cookware to chic lighting pieces!
The email arrived just in the nick of time since it's that time of year when we're all going through the change of seasons, and trying to make heads or tails of our wardrobes. I am constantly going through a tug of war with SPACE. I hoard. That is my problem. I love beautiful things, buy them, hoard them and sometimes don't ever wear them. My wardrobe contents have been accumulated in piecemeal fashion and this means sometimes I have the odd item which is just plain lovely to look at but which I cannot match with anything else in my wardrobe.
Sooo, come Autumn, I am yearning for a whole day of wardrobe surveying. I do this at every change of season. Take out everything and I mean everything, from my summer wardrobe, empty all the closets & drawers and take stock.
What I have worn endlessly is scrutinised carefully for flaws. If there are none, it stays. What I have not worn at least twice this past summer is scrutinsed for wearability, fit, practicality. If it has none and even lacks good old sentimental value, then it goes. There are things that I haven't even worn all summer and taking stock of the reason for this, I soon find it's because they are boring, lack great fit, have nothing to match with, and probably will have to go to.
What goes, usually goes to charity unless it's completely unretrievably unwearable. Then it gets thrown out. I have very few of the latter category.
The benefit of buying clothes from charity shops, thrift stores, vintage sellers and the like is that sometimes they have been bought for literally a few pennies. Meaning that letting them go back to charity is not breaking my bank, is not making me feel guilty and is allowing me to have a liquid wardrobe that can be changed, moved around and shaped up each and every season.
This year, my favourite charity is going to get a largish bag of summer clothes because some of my favourites I've now possessed for some 4 or 5 years and that's way too long to cling on to a garment unless it's incomparable vintage.
So ladies, it's time to change.... have you made any changes?

Giveaway News
Going back to CSN Stores, this online catalogue company has kindly offered a giveaway to FairyFiligree followers residing in the US, Canada, the UK or Germany.This is a one-time-use gift voucher for you to use as they wish on their websites.  If the winner happens to be from the US/Canada she/he will get a $45 gift certificate, if they are from the UK it will be £30, and if they are from Germany it will be €35.

To be eligible to enter this giveaway you have to:

1.  Be a FairyFiligree follower from the US, Canada, the UK or Germany. 
2. Leave a comment on this post sometime between now and October 18. And you must comment on the topic of wardrobes, possibly leaving some feedback of value to the rest of all FairyFiligree followers.
3. Include your contact email address or a link leading to it.

Now... for some questions in the bag.....


I need advice - where on earth do you store all your bags, handbags, clutches, purses, holdalls etc? I have mine stowed away in a large drawer and some more in a trunk. But they are not easily displayed that way and so some get overlooked easily. Short of having to buy a new piece of furniture to keept my bags, I need innovative ideas on how to store them easily and practically without squashing them, without letting them gather dust and without taking over all our bedroom space..... What comments on this?
By the way... cute little vintage bag above can be better viewed here.

Who needs Handbags?

Handbags – have you got any? If you’re a normal female, chances are you’ve got loads. I mean it’s just like shoes – who needs just one pair and what would you do with it? Same goes for bags. Life would be too miserable with just one bag to live with.

- Gianfranco Ferre Pelletteria advert dating back to 1991-

Handbags are about our life. They accompany us through the thick and thin of it. Some bags bring happy memories, others bring sad ones and if you’re a collector, they are all prized possessions.

It’s always been a mystery to men, just what we carry around with us in those bags and just why we bother. As one deejay once said over the airwaves, he had asked his girlfriend for a chewing gum and out came the bag, and out of it emerged all sorts of things – much like a magician’s hat. After what seemed like eternity and the emergence of such myriad objects that he was half-expecting a washing machine to be pulled out of the thing next, the chewing gum saw the light and he resolved never to ask for anything of his girlfriend as long as she had a handbag around.

Needless to say, you all know the scenario full well. You’re driving home, chatting with your hubby, partner, boyfriend, or whichever male might be sitting along with you….. and you get carried away chatting and gossiping and being generally pleasant company; and you arrive at destination, emerge from the car, traipse up to the front door and then remember….. the key. Rightly so, whether it’s day or night, the depths of that handbag know no confines. And even if you had a torchlight to use, there’s nothing better than prying, poking fingers to delve deep in the entrails of that bag and feel your way around for those keys…… no that’s the tampon…… oh that’s the wet tissues pack….. ah there’s the lipstick…… is that the pen you thought you’d lost?....... dear me, where are they? Your fingers meet something which chimes like a bunch of keys, and with a self-satisfied smirk you bring the lot out… only to discover those are the other car keys. By now, your hubby, partner, boyfriend, or whoever is glaring down or up at you with sparks in his eyes, bright enough to x-ray through that bag if they only could, is getting nervous. Lucky for him, you’ve got a small bag on today… and you resume your search….. so that’s where the phone bill went……..yuuck, that liquorice sweet has seen one day too many in that bag……mascara….. lip pencil….. coins….. You finally resort to shaking the whole thing in the hope of hearing something chime the way that Donald Duck and Greek souvenir keychains do when they meet… and hey presto…. You dig out the proper bunch from the front pocket. Now that’s where you should have looked in the first place.

And men will always comment on our bags – ‘Is that a boat you’re carrying around?’ or ‘What is that for – to keep the change in?’ Whatever nasty jibe they hit at us and our poor little bags, they typically ask for elbow space in that receptacle you’re carrying, or at least just enough for you to carry their own of keys, fags, mobile phone (and do remember to keep your ears open in case it rings whilst it’s in your safekeeping) etc, etc.

- An 'a.testoni' handbag being used on a Volvo ad dating back to 1991-

I have always loved huge bags and when I had my boys, huge bags were always good things to own ‘cause they kept virtually everything I or they needed – from nappies to sweets to snacks to water bottles to books to toys. I kept lugging those big things around when all the rest of the female contingent was sporting bags which would have preferred being called purses and which could only carry, at most, a mini tampon. And I suddenly realised that the boys weren’t wearing nappies anymore, nor did they get hunger pangs quite so often. And with a huge sense of liberation, I placed my sack of a bag aside and proceeded to choose a tiny clutch of a bag, not much larger than five square inches.

- The original Gucci handbag re-worked for a '90s style -

I felt all excited on the first day I used this – my first real ‘handbag’ for what seemed like eternity. Before I walked out of the house, I felt like a 16-eyar-old again, ready to face to world as long as my own little world was well packed inside that bag. But once I was out on the streets……I felt completely and utterly stark naked and I spent a considerable number of days suffering of withdrawal symptoms, constantly feeling like I’d left an important part of me behind. But slowly I was converted and learnt the art of squeezing into that five square inch most nearly anything, to the extent that I felt ready to face the Guinness Book of Records on that score.

Now handbags have always been women’s allies. They are there to be cosseted, used or abused but generally loved and admired. But today’s bags are a far cry from 16th Century cloth bags which were practical affairs used to keep the odd coin and hanky. By the 17th Century small purses became fashionable and these were bolstered up by unique embroidery designs. 18th Century reticules were fashionable with space enough to carry rouge (yesteryear’s version of a blusher), face powder, a tiny scent bottle, a case holding the fashionable and dainty visiting cards, a fan to hide blushing cheeks and some smelling salts which ladies needed since they seemed to swoon all over the place courtesy of tight blood-restricting corsets.

The handbag only materialised in its modern essence in the 20th Century but incidentally it was not a lady’s accessory but referred to as hand luggage carried by gentlemen. But obviously women fell for these affairs, and producers fancied out new designs which included the kind of complications women fall for, including the odd jewel to embellish them as well as separate compartments to hold all those feminine knick knacks. Today we have mobile phones and snazzy shades. Yesteryear they had opera glasses and English Lavender.

With the Charleston, low hemlines and flimsy clothing, bags came into their own as Art Deco and bakelite doubled up with tassles, flair and fashion came together but only until pre-war and war years when nothing faintly flirty was to be found in the shops and bags of cloth, plastic and wood replaced anything that included metal which was being stacked away for the war effort.

The Fifties boosted the ‘New Look’ with bags that have just recently been revived by vintage lovers, making the selection available today quite extraordinary. If you fancy a leap into the ‘50s, before the Mary Quant bags and or the glitter bags came into fashion, then there are some of old materials to look out for - mesh, lucite, wooden box bags, plastic, raffia…. There were even bags that came with matching brollies or battery operated torch lights inside some models to help the ladies find those darned keys. I guess women always had the same old problem…

I got my inspiration for including this post on handbags after having featured the little brown clutch in my last posting. I draw a lot of 'handbag' lessons from this little book by Anna Johnson, published by Workman in 2002.

And these pictures featured today are gleaned from a vintage edition of MODA ITALIA magazine issue No.90 dated October 1991.

- Gucci handbag in black calf leather and bamboo handle - this is the first Gucci handbag dating back to 1957-