The late-night rain (or was it a monsoon?) that surprised Fashion Week-goers at last night’s “Remix: The Stylist Closet” runway show at Hotel 140 did little to drown out the high-spirited morale of the high-fashion crowd (and it made my sky-high platforms seem ever-so-slightly practical — score). The looks, which were styled by Terry Mahn of The Stylist Closet using highly covetable vintage duds from Stock Keeper in Littleton, were the stuff of second-hand fantasy. I caught up with Stock Keeper owner Mia Boldsen as she sold some of her wares before the show, but she could hardly get out a few words without a crowd of hungry-eyed vintage shoppers with fistfuls of cash in hand barraging her booth with pricing questions. And I don’t blame them — Ms. Boldsen’s expertly collected vintage finds look like they were lifted straight off a runway, not dug up out of some moth-eaten closet. The Stock Keeper herself was eventually able to throw a few words at me between bouts of vintage sales. Her predictions for fall? “Everybody’s looking at furs,” she noted. And so did I…meeeow.
As the first models strutted their stuff down the runway, I could tell straight off that some of the looks were right on the pulse of what’s hot now — or, better yet, what’s going to be hot in about five minutes, when Boston weather takes its inevitable turn for the dreary. I had to keep myself from drooling over some of the rich winter coats — so cozy, so chic! Other looks were a little… dated for my tastes; some models looked like they were drowning in heaps of outmoded apparel. But, as any avid second-hander knows, it’s hard to pull a contemp look out of a totally vintage wardrobe, so what was Ms. Mahn to do? Well, maybe just tuck a shirt here, pin a dress there… but nobody’s asking me.
My favorite pieces? A knee-length Kate-Hudson-as-Penny-Lane-inspired suede and fur coat, which could easily transport me to a rollicking rock-and-roll bus while I brave another morning on the T (at least in my head). For the high-society types, a perfectly prim tweed suit in sunny canary yellow said office-appropriate without inducing any yawns. And for all you party hoppers, there’s really only one fitting vintage choice: sequins, sequins, sequins. Amid a recession, you say? All the more reason to lay on the glitz, I reply.
I left the show loving the fur, the sequins, the always-in animal prints, the straight-from-the-60s get-ups (hello-o, Betty Draper), the loose and angelic-looking hair, and especially the hot, hot pink lipstick (so Kelly Kapowski). I left hating some styling choices, some ill-fitting clothes, some what-the-bleep-is-she-wearing numbers, and the buckets of rain that greeted me as I made my not-so-grand exit.
But what did I learn? That good vintage threads are hard to beat, that a little tailoring goes a long way, and, perhaps most importantly, that one should always check the weather forecast before leaving the house in a teensy little mini-dress. Noted.
