Vintage Fashion

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Brillapalooza

You'd think that the good citizens of West Palm Beach were a spending people. I imagined them carting and cruising around the clock, in between daily tanning sessions and catered garden parties, splurging on luxury goods and indulging in blissful nothings, just for the heck of it. Turns out, the Palm Beach community actually takes a break from shopping on Sundays. When I asked the concierge at the Breakers Hotel to map out all the local vintage stores and make them aware of our arrival, she broke the news to me, gently: "Everything is closed today".

To make matters worse I had enlisted cool kid Jen Brill to be my muse. Even though she had just undergone serious tooth surgery and was still on antibiotics, I had enticed her enough to forget the pain and induce "the fever" as she likes to call her pre-shopping adrenaline rush. "I can feel it!" she assured me with big, hungry eyes. "This is going to be amazing." I couldn't stand letting her down. The fever was too high. I had to take matters in my own hands - a habit proven quite useful for dealing with crisis situations. I called around and miraculously found ONE store that was open. And what an awesome little turn of events it was.

Rodrigues dress and wicker bag

Palm Beach Vintage is located in the antiques district and run by a lovely woman called Louise. Louise was not having such a great day - "the planets were out of alignment for me" - until we arrived at her store. While we were turning the place upside down and running in and out the door with her clothes to take pictures in the sun, she started reading my blog and her mood changed. All she needed was some vintage inspiration and two crazy New Yorkers to cheer her up. "The two of you revived me with good, positive energy!" she wrote me the next day. "I stayed up all night and read the WHOLE thing!" In turn we bought pretty much all the pieces we shot that day, so let's just say we had our own share of Palm Beach pampering.