Item of the week: A study in inflation from a NOS dress

As a vintage dealer, finding a NOS (New Old Stock) item is usually rare. I bought this pretty dress several years ago and never got around to selling it, then came a move and the inevitable packing away of stock. I recently pulled it out of its cozy rest in a storage box (I know..I know..) but was pleased (after rolling my eyes at myself for the delay) to find it with its store tags in place. I remember the auction I found it at; the sale of a "depression baby", a lady who grew up in the depression and, when she had means, stocked up on items just in case it happened again. There were hundreds of items with the tags still on them, something I'm sure I won't see again.


Click the image to see the listing

This pretty little number reminds me of the dresses seen around the office of Sterling Cooper on AMC's Mad Men. But how much would the average gal really have paid for it? The original store tags from Natelson's of Omaha says she would have paid $19.98. Not bad at all, eh?
I wondered what that would equate to today, though, so I found a price comparison gadget on the US Dept of Labor site: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. It turns out that the gal about town today would have pay $139.58 for the same item. Anyone who has gone to the mall lately would see prices pretty close to that in most "name brand" stores.
Hatfeathers Vintage will happily let you buy this pretty for just under half of that. If the boys in the office pat you on the tush for wearing it, though, you're on your own!

Item of the week

Bob's Mom's Pheasant Hat

Our featured item is a lovely hat that has been consigned with Hatfeathers by a family friend. The original owner has recently had to reduce her estate, so we are selling this hat, one of the few pieces of vintage she kept through the years. This gives us a rare opportunity to pass on some of the background history of it. I love knowing the background of things; where they've been, who loved it, when they wore it, and all that fun stuff.

The wonderful cloche style hat is covered entirely with pheasant feathers. The feathers are from the prize bird of a hunting trip taken by the owner’s husband the year before he died. He took the feathers from this handsome bird to one of the best milliners in town, and had this hat created for his wife from them.

Ahhh, love...some gals get flowers, I'd prefer the hat, too! I'll grow my own flowers.

Will Adrien Brody impress us twice?

I've liked Adrien Brody in a few movies, he was good in King Kong, and of course in the Pianist, but really, he's not done a whole lot. I was surprised to see, though, that he has two movies coming out soon that look really interesting. Both look like they cater to the vintage lover, of course with the film Cadillac Records, set in the 50s, about the beginning of Rock and Roll, but also with The Brothers Bloom, which looks like it trends towards the unique wardrobes, with men in great fedoras. I'm looking forward to a few good movie dates with Adrien (oh, and my hubby) this December!