Dresscue Me

[thyme4change]

On the Green Network, or whatever it is called, there is a show called Dresscue Me. I won't advocate that anyone should watch it, because it really wasn't a great show.

The premise is that this lady goes out to all the thrift stores and picks up designer vintage dresses, and then when customers come in, she makes (sometimes drastic) alterations to make the gown workable. So, she might take the top of one dress and the bottom of another, and stitch it together. Or remove the sleeves, and turn the bodice into a corsette.

I loved the dress part - but the woman was so terribly annoying and was a classic "reality" formula stereotype. The show was just dumb. I could just watch her fit people and alter dresses for 23 minutes, but instead we had to watch go out to dinner and cry about some little whiney thing.

This was an LA shop - do you vintage shoppers know of places like this that are outside of California?

[Tiny]

If she is using vintage dresses/clothes she'd need to be somewhere with plenty of normal weight people... I've been reading that nearly 65% of the population is overweight or greater....
Also you can't go by garment size - thanks to Vanity Sizing. Yeah, you might be a modern day Size 8 which may make you olden day Plus Size! Olden day Regular Sizes 4/6/8/10/12 are now Regular Sizes 00/0/2/4/6. I suspect the majority of women back in the Olden days were NOT overweight or greater, and so there's probably a limited supply of vintage clothing for those with hips greater than 40 inches...
I think it's very much a niche kinda store - and a very small niche at that.

Meant to say I know of several 'vintage' clothing stores in the Chicago Area. They sell the clothes as is and don't change them or re-make them in any way.

[Cookies Galore]

There are a lot of great high-end consignment/vintage shops around here (I haven't seen the show so I don't know exactly what she's working with). Have you ever been to Buffalo Exchange? There are a few AZ locations.

[thyme4change]

There were a lot of designer dresses from the 80's. Sizing has changed since the 50's - but only drifted a little from the 80's.

She did have one larger lady on. She refered to her as "dangerously curvy."

I use to shop at Buffalo Exchange when I was in college. But now I'm wondering more about something that can be altered to look more modern - not just going through a bunch of racks of crap that I would have to either wear as is, or have some vision and a tailor to make it work. I'm not a clothing designer. She was the one that could look at the dress and say "If we pull this down, and cut this off and add this, it will look great." Meanwhile all I see is a dress that looks dated.

[Deleted]

This is a fun blog:

www.newdressaday.com/

[Cookies Galore]

Oh my god! What a great blog!

[thyme4change]

Anne - exactly! That is a fun blog.

[oreo]

Are you sure you weren't watching the '80s movie "Pretty in Pink"?