Mixing it up
Fashionistas take note: Vintage clothing will get an airing at the Bayside Expo Center this weekend. As part of Boston Antiques Weekend, Melody Fortier, the owner of Tangerine Boutique in Gardner and an expert on vintage clothing, will lead an hour-long two-part seminar called "Twentieth Century Vintage, the revolution and evolution of style." Fortier will focus on fashion from the Edwardian era to the 1980s and talk about how to blend vintage and contemporary clothing.
"I could write a book on any era," she says softly, in not so much a boast as an admission. Fortier confesses with a shrug of helplessness that for her, vintage fashion is not just a business, it's an obsession that began in the early '70s, when she was in high school and would raid her grandmother's closet. "I was quirky. I've been wearing vintage for over 30 years," she says.
Vintage pieces, Fortier asserts, add individuality to modern, homogenous bought clothing. Conversely, a modern item brings vintage into the here and now. But mixing the two successfully takes care. At the antiques show, "I'm going to do office, weekend casual, cocktail , and club looks," she says, adding that her focus will be on 1960s pieces, because mod is "the vintage du jour."
A few weeks ago, Fortier had selected three key looks.
Taking a dress from its carrying bag and hanging it up, she looks it over like a concerned parent. It's a white, semi-fitted cocktail dress dating to around 1962. It has a bold black starburst print and black chiffon overlay, a touch that harks back to 1950s net petticoat skirts. "It's called an 'illusion' overlay," says Fortier, a former dressmaker whose Boston-based Ramsey Couture business outfitted Boston socialites until it closed in the late 1990s.
To contemporize, Fortier says she'd add a pair of pointy Jimmy Choo sandals and a bolero jacket. "In New York," she says, "people would probably add a jean jacket to dress it down."
Next she pulls out a butterscotch-colored wool suit with a slim-fit miniskirt that had been lengthened. The telltale mark of the original hemline scars the skirt. "I'm going to take that back up again," Fortier says. Still, the focus is the stunning jacket. It has double topstitching detail and a thick belt with an oversized buckle that fastens across the ribs, de-accentuating the bustline. It's English, made by Simon Howard for Fenwick , the department store on London's New Bond Street. Fortier says it's tough to date this timeless-looking piece, but estimates it at 1965. "This will be an office look, but the jacket would look great with jeans too," she says.
Then she uncovers the wildest fuchsia pink and purple patterned dress, made of textured cotton "bark cloth." "This is Hawaiian," Fortier says, "mass produced, but shorter than most you see like this." The psychedelic dress -- another vintage trend -- has a mock halter and an empire waist. With a pair of strappy sandals and big hoop earrings it's a bold look for summer barbecues and parties.
With vintage, Fortier says, "a little goes a long way."
Boston Antiques Weekend, Bayside Exposition Center, 200 Mount Vernon St . 781-862-4039. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 a day or $15 for the weekend, bostonantiquesweekend.com.
Tangerine Boutique, 110 Parker St., Gardner, 978-630-3488, tangerineboutique.com.
