Past Tents...

It's practically sweater weather now in Portland, and though I'll be super excited to access the 99.9% of my wardrobe that is made up of tweeds and heavy wool and sweater vests, I will be sad to see our weekly outdoor expeditions fall by the wayside until next year. I was kind of just getting the hang of this nature thing again! Last weekend we went on an epic stroll in the Columbia River Gorge that should have led to a super secret swimming hole which we never quite found. Along the way we were menaced by a tiny hissy silver snake, and, at one point, I could be found quite comically clinging to a mossy rock for dear life in knee deep rapids... But, the trail through old growth redwoods was insanely beautiful and dotted with a couple of cute little campsites tucked into the foliage that we swore to pay another visit to before the rains start for a couple of nights around a fire with toasted marshmallows and owl calls...

But first, the task of figuring out how and where to acquire the makings of a cute camp!

As someone who is both secretly mortified of modern day sporting gear and not so secretly a fan of historic re-enactments, I'm kind of hooked on the idea of strictly vintage camping gear, and actually have a folder full of reference photos and ebay searches but absolutely no idea where to start! Wandervogel lutes and a cute 60s campstove, anyone?

I do know exaaactly where I would acquire my very first tent if I could so afford it, however!

For as long as I've had the internet, I've been obsessed with Past Tents, home of ridiculously adorable historically accurate vintage reproduction stripey tents; medieval, napoleonic, civil war, tudor and yes, even teepees, if you so desire!

My imaginary shopping cart is forever full of the pavilion tent in all sizes, in every combination of every sherbet-y shade in the book:



This is basically the campsite of my dreams:

By Etrusia UK via Flickr.

Oh hello camping dreamland! It really doesn't get much more picturesque than candy colored tents set up inside crumbling castle walls, which is what I imagine it would have looked like if I had made it to Tapestry Goes West last year, which fell on both my birthday and the super cosmic date of 08/08/08, was going to be held in the deer park of a castle in Wales, with Circulus headlining, but was sadly semi-cancelled at the last minute! Not that I had cobbled together quite enough pocket change to get there anyway... maybe next time?

♥

Gal Costa circa 1969

Raggedy Ann Eyelashes...

After a few weeks of nonstop house hunting and catching up on long overdue projects, we were super excited to set aside a leisurely weekend last week to run around town taking in all of our friends newer, bigger, better gallery spaces, and ringing in the month long Robert Altman fest at the Portland Art Museum NW Film Center with a screening of one of my favorite movies of all time:



Brewster McCloud! I've been toting around a decaying video store copy of this film for decades, eventually upgraded to the laserdisk, but have never, never seen it on the big screen!

With an original screenplay written by Doran William Cannon, who was also responsible for another top ten favorite, Otto Preminger's "Skidoo," and starring the always perfect Mister Bud Cort and the magical, elvin and otherworldly Miss Shelley Duvall (Probably my number one vintage muse - as you can probably tell by the girls that I paint! Spider lashes, bunny teeth and ears poking out of stick straight hair? Check, check and check!) in her first ever movie role, personally discovered by Altman, who had this to say about his first impression:

"When I first saw her, she had painted long eyelashes on her face, and I thought "Here is a girl who is trying to make me think she is a Raggedy Ann doll." It was only years later that I realised that she WAS a Raggedy Ann doll."







Images and quotes via the Shelley Duvall and Brewster McCloud fan sites, both of which are amazing resources for interviews, articles, and ephemera about the film.

Check out the NW Film Center website for the rest of the festival calendar, maybe we'll see you there!

Boating Stripes and Bow Ties...

The first of the imminent deluge of David Hockney inspired Spring editorials is out!




From Another Man Magazine
Starring and Set Design by Gary Card
Photography by William Selden
Styling by Nicola Formichetti

There's also a childrens version!




From Milk Magazine

Via Style Bubble, Diane Pernet, Sarah Colette

Now it's going to be even more impossible than ever to find a pair of those glasses (My first and favorite prescription, they fell apart in the mid 90s and I've been searching for the perfect pair again ever since) again! Though I suppose I could also shell out for the surely forthcoming Paul Smith version? Sigh...

Jazz Baby...

Allow me to introduce my first absolute favorite find of 2008 so far:



The most adorable and ridiculously comfortable 20s/30s/70s oxfords ever made!

Cue the cobbling together of outfit ideas from the acres of piles and files of clippings scattered across my desktop:



Bows and spats via eBay, of course! Bloomers and argyle via the fashion blog of a cute Japanese shoe store with a Tyrolean fetish to match my own, but the link to which I seem to have misplaced, and the amazing, amazing silver sequined bowtie is somewhat of a mystery, but if it belongs to and/or is familiar to you, please let me know because I might NEED one!

P.S. Also, think Polly!



xoxoxo
Fawn