We can't talk about Hooti Couture and our book without sharing one of our favorite photos of our Mom, Jacqueline Houtte, from around 1949-1950, before she had six children. This image is one of several old Houtte family photos used to decorate Hooti Couture shopping bags over the years. The photos aren't just a sentimental touch, though. Both our Mom and Dad, who are now in their eighties, have long appreciated the value of a great thrift-store find.
We don't know how you found us, but if you've heard about a Brooklyn store named Hooti Couture or a new book named Alligators, Old Mink & New Money, this is the place to learn more.
The subject of both the store and the book can be reduced to one word: VINTAGE. Or, if you want more words, think clothes and jewelry and purses and the adventures that come with buying, wearing and selling old stuff. The subtitle of the book is "One woman's adventures in vintage clothing," and it's the story of Alison Houtte, who has been wearing old clothes for most of her 45 years, when she wasn't wearing new for her job as a professional model in Paris and Manhattan.
To help tell her story, Alison, the youngest of six children, teamed up with her oldest sister, Melissa Houtte, who has spent her career in journalism. Together, they have opened the door on Hooti Couture, offering a peek at the vintage scene, through both the clothes and the people who buy them. Brooklyn-based illustrator Mary Coleman did the cover image as well as thirty illustrations that capture the charm of all things vintage, from a leopard coat to a '30s evening gown.
Alligators, Old Mink & New Money is published by William Morrow and it's available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart.com and lots of independent booksellers. And a British/Australian edition, from Orion Publishing, is available at amazon.co.uk and play.com. Wherever you live, if you don't see it, please ask for it!
WE ARE ON HOLIDAY/WINTER BREAK! HOOTI IS CLOSED UNTIL FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012.
Late Winter/Spring 2012 Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11-8.
How the heck do you get to Brooklyn? It's easy. You'll find Hooti at:
321 Flatbush Avenue (at Seventh Avenue)
Closest neighborhoods: Park Slope, Prospect Heights
Best subway lines: B & Q trains (exit at Seventh Avenue and you'll find Hooti across the street)
Phone: 718-857-1977
Alligators, Old Mink & New Money, One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing was written by sisters Alison and Melissa Houtte and is available in the U.S. and Canada in both hardback (top; William Morrow/Harper Collins) and paperback (Avon Trade).
You can also buy the UK edition (Orion Publishing) in hardback in England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Orion's paperback edition (below) is also now on sale.
“Nothing is thought rare which is not new, and follow’d; yet we know that what was worn some 20 years ago comes into grace again.”—Francis Beumont
"The purse is the mirror of the soul.”—Anna Quindlen, 1987
“When in doubt, wear red.”—Bill Blass, 1982
“These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.”—George Eliot
“And she always took the clothes created for her one step further by adding something of her own, some small personal detail which enhanced the whole.”—Givenchy on Audrey Hepburn
“Large handbags to carry all the family’s ration books were also practical rather than fashionable accessories.”—Carol Harris in Women Under Fire in World War II
“Skirts couldn’t get any shorter and remain legal.”—Amy Greene, 1970
If you adore her, you must adorn her. There lies the secret of a happy marriage.”—Anne Fogarty, 1959
Just make sure no one has exactly the same dress I do. I want all mine to be original and no fat little women hopping around in the same dress.”—Jacqueline Kennedy
“When a man says he likes a woman in a skirt, I tell him to try one.”—Katharine Hepburn
"A woman’s dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”—Sophia Loren
“Each day Beryl would appear in the yard, looking as if she had stepped off the pages of Vogue. Silk shirt, perfectly cut jodhpurs, shining leather boots, little kid leather gloves. A broadbrimmed hat and leather whip tucked under her arm completed the ensemble. It was first class all the way with Beryl. That was all she knew. ‘ Tell them to bring the horses around, will you sweetie?’ she would say when she was ready.”—Mary S. Lovell in the biography of Beryl Markham (first woman to fly the Atlantic east to west), Straight on’ Til Morning
“Just to flirt again---in a skirt again/ There’s no romance when you dance/ Cheek to cheek and pants to pants /Oh for an old fashioned dress!”—Irving Berlin.
