Hooti Couture

Great Gowns, Great Cause

Are you in the market for a great vintage wedding dress at a good price? Would you like to buy one and support the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation? Or do you simply have a gown that deserves to be worn more than once?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, click right on over to the website makingmemories.org, where you will find much more information about Brides Against Breast Cancer, which organizes wedding gown sales around the country.

Brenda Chovanak, who's director of the antique gown division of  Making Memories, will be bringing more than 500 gowns, sizes 0-12, representing every decade from the 1930s to the 1980s, to the  San Francisco Vintage Expo (Sept. 16 & 17; see more info at vintageexpo.com). The gowns include an "amazing group" of dresses from the '60s and '70s, and prices range from $99 to $599. (Melissa will be at this show, too; check out our upcoming Alligators events list.)

If you can't make it to San Francisco, the Making Memories website has a full schedule of upcoming shows. And f you live in Seattle or Tacoma, WA., or Greensboro, NC,  September is your month to shop.

Here's The Menu: Dumplings or Rice

Wherever vacations take us, we're always on the lookout for great vintage stores, and once we find those stores, anything's possible. That's how we came to learn about designer Cynthia Caldwell's "rice" and "dumpling" bags and lots of other whimsical creations.

Caldwell's pure-fun purses frequently incorporate vintage or recycled fabrics and/or vintage patterns, and we found a few pieces of her Crow 7 Bags line at Encore vintage in downtown Portland, Maine. Owner Rita Prout-Farley has incredible stock (521 Congress St.; 207-775-4275) and excellent prices, and this has to be one of the best vintage stores in New England. It's a must stop if you are anywhere near Portland.

Rita's stock includes Caldwell's larger bags, done in assorted vintage faux leopard prints, and that's how we learned that the artist was sewing the summer away on Peaks Island, before she heads back to home base in Arizona this fall. You can also see her latest work at Archipelago (386 Main St., Rockland, Maine), and at Art by the Bay,  South Maine Community College, on Sept. 16.

Now, about the rice and dumplings: Caldwell's "Rice-Cycled" purses use Bombay rice bags, and the one above also incorporates vintage velvet in a python print. Her "dumplings" are small, soft, round purses with loop handles, and they are based on a 1940s design. For fall Caldwell is doing dumplings in all kinds of vintage furs with velvet trims.

If you are nowhere near Maine this summer or fall, you can see a few of her pieces at www.etsy.com. Under "advanced search" plug in the name Crow 7 to see her page. You can also reach Caldwell at crow7bags@hotmail.com for more information about those furry dumplings, rice bags and many other designs.

Tunics, Tantalizing Reds & Zadie Smith's Dresses

We stopped counting the number of times we spotted the word "vintage" in the August issue of Vogue magazine, but we don't want you to miss the high points.... For starters, check out View editor Sally Singer's report on "a new shape" (page 142). Singer loves YSL's charcoal gray tunic and pants for fall, and celebrates the tunic's fashion past, from Balenciaga to Diana Vreeland.</p>

Also not to be missed is Christy Turlington (page 208) wearing every shade of red in velvet, satin, even Mabelline's New York Express Finish nail polish in Racing Rubies (great color, great name). And, yes, there's a sequined tunic, too.

Vogue saved the best for last, with a short but rich profile of British writer Zadie Smith, in words and photos (page 246). She posed in her dressing room, looking feminine and sassy in what looks to be Forties-era vintage, her pug and a pink phone nearby.

Of course, Alison will be hunting for tunics, not to mention all things red, for Hooti's fall collection; stay tuned for opening-day details....and we'll be keeping a close eye on eBay, too.