Oh, Maybelle! We like your style!

We recently traveled to Maine to attend an all day auction featuring the entire collection of the Webb Museum of Vintage Fashion in Island Falls, Maine. Frances Stratton, the owner and curator of the museum was a vintage clothing collector for 45 years and filled her 14 room home with displays of vintage fashion. She recently passed, and the entire collection was auctioned off to support several Maine charities. 800 lots of clothing and accessories were auctioned off in a day long affair. We were lucky enough to bring home a huge assortment of garments including some of the finest hats we've found in quite a while.

Many of the hats were tagged "Maybelle Farrell Collection" and were donated by her son Bill. I've seen women express their sense of style through jewelry, color, and specific key wardrobe items. Maybelle expressed hers through her extraordinary hats.

I love hats, and some of Maybelle's will stay in my closet. The rest will be offered for sale in our store at Couture Allure Vintage Fashion . We've got enough hats to last for months, so check back often!

An Exciting Estate Buy

I recently got a call from a lovely woman who was selling her home and downsizing to an apartment in a senior community. She told me she had some of her mother's things she needed to get rid of and would I be interested? I agreed to go and visit her the next day to see what she had. Mrs. S. had a lovely home with many treasures lovingly collected over the years. I could tell that she was having a difficult time letting go of some of the things she had lived with for a lifetime, but I could also see that she was excited about her move and ready to begin anew.

Mrs. S. had set aside three small boxes of clothing for me to go through. I opened the first box, and the lilac silk velvet devore fabric and peeks of ostrich plumes and rhinestones took my breath away. As I continued to explore, Mrs. S. told me that her mother had lovingly stored her trousseau after returning from her honeymoon, and that she couldn't bear to part with it when her mother passed in the 80's. Now it was time to find a new home for these fabulous garments.

We are now beginning to offer these items for sale on EBay. Over the next several weeks we will be offering a selection of 20's and 30's dresses and lingerie that are some of the finest we've ever seen. Don't miss them!

And Mrs. S.? As I carried the boxes of treasures to my car, I promised her that her mother's garments would go to new homes where the new owners would love the clothing just as much as her mother had. She shed a tear, gave me a hug, and returned to her packing. I sure hope she is happy in her new home!

See this dress and more at Couture Allure Vintage Fashion .