Wearing retro clothes (Farmer's market?)

Wearing retro clothes (Farmer's market?)

• 6.09.2010

Whether or not you sew, if you admire vintage and retro style, you may wonder where you'll actually wear the darling clothes you make or see on Mod Cloth and around.  Wanted to share a story about where/when I wore this dress that I made in April...

So, I am so happy it's summer!  Granted, the weather has been completely nuts here (sunny one day, rain floods the complex's basketball court the next, back and forth...) but I am happy we had nice weather for the first Tuesday Marketplace of the year!

Tuesday Marketplace is the Tuesday evening version of a farmer's market we have in Hillsboro, 20 miles west of Portland, where my parents live.  They have a great Saturday farmer's market, and a Sunday one in a newer part of town, but they also have this great market Tuesday evenings where everyone comes out, eats vendor food, buys fresh produce and locally made goodies and treats, and runs into neighbors.  They also have a vintage car contest (every week, I think?) and lots of dogs on parade, and babies dancing to the live music on the stage in front of the courthouse.  It's a really fun, kind of old-fashioned (but still popular!) event that actually started maybe 10 or so years ago, although the Saturday morning market has been going on for a while.

If you have anything similar in your community (you probably do!), I highly encourage you to go every week!  My parents always, always, always see several people they know, there is always great local produce, and the kids seem to have so much fun walking around.

Anyway my mom is the president of the local historical society, and they have an off-shoot called Vintage Hillsboro, where they celebrate the history of the town with special events (a "cemetery drama," a vintage Christmas party...), and to promote an upcoming event they have and to fit in with the theme (a retro band called the Twangshifters was playing)...

Anyway, my mom invited me to come dress up with her to promote their event for Vintage Hillsboro and say hi to the band, so I had an excuse to dress up in retro 50's clothes!  I wore the dress I made and blogged about here (it's a halter, but I pinned the straps straight down to work with the necklace) and she wore a sort of retro dress she made.  Of course we wore pearls!

As you can see the weather's a little cloudy but warm enough to just wear a light sweater, and take it off to show off your dress ;).

We walked around the market and bought fresh strawberries and locally made Italian ices, with my cousin and her darling 17 month-old, also in retro clothes!

How cute are the little ruffled socks and Mary Janes?  She is a great sport about dressing up and always looks cute.

People walked up to us throughout the evening and told us we all looked so nice, or how cute our dresses were, or where-did-you-get-your-dresses.  I dunno if they could tell we were dressed up for something, or if they thought we were just classy, dressed-up people.  Haha!  I would wear this kind of dress any old time, for pretty much the same occasions as I would wear a clearly modern dress to; that's part of the fun; mixing up retro styles with a few modern touches.  I probably wouldn't do the French twist thing any time, but the dress, I'm up to wear whenever!

There was also a booth of lots of retro-clad girls, the Pin Up Dollies, who dress up for cute retro pin-up girl pictures and go to classic car shows to raise money for the USO and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.  Such a fun idea and for a good cause!  They were all so cute lined up by their booth, but most of them were over dancing to the band when I came up for a pic.  It's a great cause, and the girls all love dressing up in peep toe heels and red lipstick.

So there you have it... two excuses to wear cute retro or vintage clothes right in your neighborhood.
Of course, if you're Zooey Deschanel you don't need an excuse...

How gorgeous is that white dress??

Scarlett Johansson also pulls off the vintage look for everyday...

As does Katy Perry, of course, in shorter versions than the originals.

What about you?  Do you ever rock the vintage/retro dress look, or do you just admire from afar?  It is fun to look cute in a dress no matter when you wear it, but some times are better than others!!