12.30.2008

New Store Arrivals


Danish Lounge Chair with Reversible Cushions, $160.


Service for 4 atomic plates, bowls, and saucers (and one bread plate) by Star Glow. $45.


The classiest malt liquor wall hanging on the planet. $20.

New Favortie Video, Locust "Your Selfish Ways" Live 1998

12.28.2008

Gents, Men, and Dudes with Style

Admittedly, men's fashion is something at which I'm woefully inept. I've never had a significant that was beyond the tee and jeans type, and in general have never spent any relevant amount of time thinking about it.

When shopping for the store, I always have the hardest time with men's. Sticking to basic Lacoste sweaters, pearlized buttonups, and the occasional slacks and fedoras, men's clothing is somewhat of the final fronteer for me.

Today though, I found this completely inspring street fashion blog featuring all kinds of menswear, Mister Mort. It covers everything from the dapperist of elegant gentleman, to down-to-earth men's men, to cutting edge hipster dudes who make standard issue hipster dudes so blase. There is a clear love affair with shoes, as well as L.L. Bean. There's also something to the styles here that go beyond what is generally called "fashion" and really pushes to explore dressing and self-expression through self adornment, which is really powerful stuff to contemplate, it more probing of compositions than Face Hunter, and more gritt than Garance Dore (both of which, don't get me wrong, I adore). The oldest post is only from November, and I'm looking forward to seeing much more in the future!

Enough blathering. To the masculine fashion!





Gloves

I'm finding at the store that one item that always sells are vintage ladies gloves. Never much of a glove wearer myself, during this winter with a lovely selection at my disposal, I've fallen in love with a pair of short black leather gloves, and long kidskin cream gloves. They're so girly and sexy at the same time--and they keep your hands warm to boot!

Here's some Deluxa glove goodness:


Gloves and wallet, Deluxa.

Also ladies, here's a secret...if you're like me and a little clumsy and walk around carrying too much stuff and have to dig for your Metrocard, its really adorable when a gentleman chases you down with a, "Oh, Miss! You've dropped your glove!" which is very nice.

But if one day your glove saving gentleman is absent, you get on the train and say aloud, probably too loud, "Dammit, where's my glove!" This was the demise of my short black pair.

Luckily if you live in Pittsburgh you may have heard about onecoldhand.com, a project by artist Jennifer Gooch. She did a blog and an art exhibit on lost gloves, even reuniting a few lost pairs! Here's a few orphans from the One Cold Hand blog:


In other glove news, I found these rules about glove etiquette via Miss Abigail, which I'm completely in love with, via:

Definite Don'ts
Don't ever appear in public without gloves.
Don't eat, drink, or smoke with gloves on.
Don't play cards with gloves on.
Don't apply makeup with gloves on.
Don't wear jewelry over gloves, with the exception of bracelets.
Don't make a habit of carrying your gloves ~ they should be considered an integral part of your costume.
Don't wear short gloves to a very gala ball, court presentation or 'White Tie' affair at the White House or in honor of a celebrity.

Definite Do's
Do wear gloves when you go shopping, visiting, driving; and for outdoor festivities such as garden parties, receptions.
Do wear gloves as a mark of respect in a place of worship.
Do wear gloves for formal indoor occasions: receptions, balls, and on arrival at a luncheon or dinner party.
Do keep gloves on in a receiving line.
Do keep gloves on while dancing at a formal party.
Do keep gloves on at a cocktail party until the drinks and hors d'oeuvres are passed. Then turn gloves back at the wrist or remove one glove.
Do remove gloves entirely at the dining table.
Do remove gloves after your arrival at an informal party or luncheon, leaving them with your coat.

Did you catch the part about gloves being "an integral part of your costume". Haha.

One other glove tidbit: lots of 50's and 60's women's coats were designed to be "bracelet lenth", that is more than 3/4 sleeve, but not quite full sleve. A pretty silly length for a winter coat these days, but when gloves were de rigeur, your arms still got to stay warm!

On a side note, I happen to have tons of gloves in stock right now...

12.27.2008

Make Music Festival

So, its six months away, and of course, nothing is anywhere near official yet, but Andy Durutti (of Loveless Music Group and Self Storage Recordings) and I are getting really psyched about putting together an amazing event for the Make Music New York festival.

The Make Music Festival takes place in NYC every year on the first day of summer, June 21st, which this year is a Saturday (hooray!). Inspired by similar festivals in Europe, on June 21st, the festival obtains and pays for permits for musicians to perform live for free on the street virtually anywhere that the permitting will allows.

Deluxa friends The Soundscapes have been participating for the past two years (and also have a great new album Freestyle Family--available at Deluxa!), and even did this smashing video which you have to see:



Looks really fun right? We're thinking of something like this, but bigger and with tons of our favoritest bands and all day long and involving the whole block...

Stay tuned!

Ilampe

John and Kirsten of ilampe have been sweet neighborhood customers of mine for a while now and are such amazing people. They recreate fantastic lamps out of discarded ephemera and floatsom and jetsom and are some serious sidewalk junk junies. From their website:

"Please accept this short Catholic response: it's a sin to waste. Also we recognize the need for imaginative, well-crafted pieces that function as charismatic, unique lighting. We achieve our end result with chair bases, rolls of wire, dress forms (well, parts of), discarded lamps, fire engine plates, and other reusable scraps. Why let a perfectly good piece of garbage end up in a landfill when it can be repurposed?"

If you were lucky enough to get to Brooklyn Flea's Holiday Annex they've sold there and are considering more Flea-y events in the future. They also take comissions for lamps which is nothing less than (obviously, har har) brilliant!

Here's a few gems from their site:





I love the juxtapositions of elements, everything so elegantly industrial. Heartbreakingly lovely, made by people who truly love the vintage and repurposed lifestyle. Guess my secret crush on them is secret no more...

12.26.2008

We're on Twitter!


Follow our tweets!

Half Off All Holiday Merch!


Hurry in to check out our tree and ornaments and holiday fun stuff before it gets put away sometime in very early January! Half off all holiday merch!

Everything from ornaments to aprons to egg nog sets all HALF OFF!

12.25.2008

Sunprints





I used to love these so much as a kid, buying them from the Natural History Museum in LA. Even once as an adult I made a print using keys and wrote a love letter on the back. There's something inherently romantic about the monochromatic gradations, and that the paper has to be immersed in water and dried. I love that they are also called cyanotypes.

I pulled these from a shockingly small flickr pool, Sunprints.

Buy Sunprints here. They even have Super Sunprints.

12.24.2008

Sugar Plum Fairy

One Christmas, someone in our family gave my brother and me a copy of Fantasia. Its still one of my favorite movies of all time. And I still try and watch it every Christmas. This kind of beauty is so rare in the modern world.



Merry Christmas

12.23.2008

Charles Harper

There is a new $126 book on Charles Harper out, or you can get the $400 special limited edition version in your choice of 4 colors with a silkscreen print. And while the both look devastatingly lovely, I really deeply and achingly want a copy of his original 1961 Giant Golden Book of Biology, buy it now on Ebay for $350. Someday...



Cyclone


The Cyclone in Coney Island by Kurackt via Gowanus Lounge.

12.22.2008

More Photo Shoot Pics


Irene glowing. Gloves, dress, belt, Deluxa.


Andrea glamor vixen. Full slip, necklace, coinpurse, bud vase, perfume, earrings, hand towel, clock, framed photo, Deluxa.


Fire king mugs, flour sifter, set of 3 Pyrex, recipie album, Deluxa.

NYT Buzzwords of 2008






Full article. Some Phelpsian graphics too.

Howard's Big Dig



I love this video.

New Favorite Flower

Called Billy Buttons or Woolyheads, these yellow flowers that can be fresh or dried have such sweet pop. I think they would look so cute fashioned into a flower headpiece with some delicate pink English roses and magnolia leaves. Photo from The Happy Living Blog.

Oh yeah, and the technical name is Craspedia, but I much prefer Billy Buttons.

Two Pictures of Hope Sandoval and David Roback

12.21.2008

I Love The Time



Photo by Lorie Reilly. Mucca wall hanging, syrocco clock, lamp, vintage post cards, tray, bunny, glasses, runner, bowl, gloves, books, vase, phone, silhouette wall hangings, sideboard, Deluxa.

Since I can't take new pics of stuff in the store, I'm going to keep posting Lorie's for a while!

The Internet Is An Excellent Source of Information

Vintage.

I Think I Know This Feeling


By photographer Camilla Akrans, via Girl Meets NYC and arvidabystrom.blogspot.com.

12.20.2008

George Vihos


I wish I could afford original art. Monumental Abstract Pastel Drawing in Acrylic, George Vihos. At Lobel Modern.

Elika's "Let Down"

One of my all time favorite bands Elika's new video by Will Joines:



Devastating. Elika is amazing. Will Joines is amazing.

On a side note, Deluxa does have one of the few remaining copies of "Trying Got Us Nowhere" on white vinyl. (But I might keep it as an extra for myself.)

Deluxa's on Facebook!

Deluxa Vintage's Facebook profile

Add us to your friends!

Coco Chanel's Apartment


Black lacquer life-size deer in the living room? Love. It.

From VenusNaturalis' flickr set on Vintage Inspiration.

The Postmarks By the Numbers


By the Numbers is one of my new favorite albums an almost every time I play it in the store, someone asks who it is--which is always a good sign.

After meeting some friends maybe a year ago to see the Postmarks play Union Hall, I've been a fan. Their first album, self titled, for sure was great, and they sounded even better live, but what had most caught me from the show was one of the last (or the last?) song they did that was a cover. And it was amazing, Dreamer by Astrud Gilberto, which you can listen to on their site.

So when I'd heard that the Postmarks second album would be a covers album, By the Numbers, I got really excited, and they did not disappoint. They aren't shy about virtually rewriting some of the songs, or making them bloom in a different way than intended, which I think is why people in the store are always drawn to their music.

Some of my favorite tracks are You Only Live Twice, Nine Million Rainy Days, and Pinball Number Count. Something about the vocal style, while generally unvarying, is completely hypnotic. Its also perfect--OMG it just happened again, someone asked who is playing--music for a mellow vintage store.

Here's a video of their version of Blondie's 11:59:



Here's two videos from their first album:






Add them on MySpace!

12.18.2008

More Pics from Deluxa Photo Shoot

Okay, okay. I just HAVE to share more of these pictures by Lorie Reilly. Be sure to click on the pics to see them enlarged.

Great shot of our store window.


Wall hangings, Deluxa. I love how the little girl has such a look of disdain. And as anyone who's been to my apartment can tell you, I'm a total sucker for crewelwork.

Wall hanging, lamp, chair, table, purse, pyrex, Eva Zeisel dishes, butter dish, drinking glasses salt and pepper, flatware, linens, vase, potholders, ALL Delxua.


Near and dear friend LG of Dead Leaf Echo (they're on our player on the blog! check them out!). Chair, typewriter, hat, shirt, corduroy jacket, Deluxa.

Agapantha jewelry and vintage jewelry, from Deluxa.

More Pics from 3rd Ward's Handmade Holiday Craft Fair


Shirt, glasses, Deluxa.

I couldn't resist posting a few more of these. They are so great, and were so much fun to do. Someone there had a great idea to do an event like this in the store too sometime...stay posted! See the whole set on flickr here.


Shirt, phone, Deluxa


Hat, scarf, glasses, shirt, and vest, Deluxa. This is the Chanel 12 newscaster! What a sport!


Pillbox hat, phone, blazer and scarf, Deluxa.


Boy's vests, dress, Deluxa. I swear, we were all laughing so hard at this pic.