For the Love of Pucci!

Hi Everyone,
This week I am featuring an amazing Pucci scarf provided by Merle Bryant of The Clothes Horse located at:
1530 Queen St, Halifax, NS

Her wonderful store features pre-loved designer clothing, accessories and jewelry.
 She's been in the biz for many years and has a wealth of experience and great taste!
Her store is a must visit if you are interested in shopping for vintage and/or designer used clothing.

Anyway, back to the scarf of the week! This is an authentic Emilio Pucci vintage piece in sweet and soft pastel colors with a bit of hot pink thrown in. The design is a curvy retro style which is so typical of this designer. I'm a hippie at heart and Pucci is definitely one of my all time favorites.

You can see his signature all over the scarf and the tag is in tact. There is no care tag though but that shouldn't affect the value of this piece. The silk is gorgeous Twill and the hem is hand rolled. The scarf has been worn and shows some minor signs of wear but still in excellent condition and totally wearable.

If you are lucky enough to find a Pucci scarf in your shopping excursions don't let it pass you by!

This scarf is on auction right now in my Ebay store: Dakinistore.com

Amazing Op Artist Scarf!

This must be the most significant Vintage silk scarf/Art piece I've seen so far in my scarf hunting career! It is a piece of "Op" art from the 1970's or 1960's. Richard Anuszkiewicz is one of the founders of the Op art movement. OP is short for optical illusion and the artists who painted in this style had  a love for geometric designs. He must have decided to print some high end silk twill scarves depicting his designs at some point or maybe a silk scarf producer asked him to design some scarves. I can't find much information on the internet about his scarves although there is tons of info about him. Here are a few links:
Wikipedia
Rog Gallery bio

Here are some photos of the scarf which is up for auction right now on Ebay. This scarf was given to me (to list) by Merle Bryant of the Clothes Horse. She's another amazing treasure hunter who has beautiful pieces in her store. Check her out here:
The Clothes Horse

You can really see the Optical illusion he was getting at in this pic of the scarf laid down flat!
Comments welcome especially if you know anything about Richard Anuszkiewicz and his silk scarves!

Treasures I Found in Coldbrook!

Okay, so I took the whole day on Saturday to do the Frenchy's tour through the Valley. We went to Berwick, Coldbrook, Kentville and Wilmot. There are several Frenchy's stores, some Guy Frenchy's and a  Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Guy Frenchy's are rumored to be the best but I'm not sure why. Please leave comments below to explain why this is so!

I must say I did not have much luck in the silk scarf realm. I only found a couple of fairly plain Anne Klein scarves which I won't even post because they are nothing special. They are fine scarves but nothing to write home...or on the blog about! Ha!

I did find some amazing silk dresses and one very Vintage Retro dress that isn't silk but has a very cool Pucci style print on it. It is very colorful and just amazing! The style of this dress isn't the best but anyone who knows how to sew could use it as a base to create something really spectacular!

 

I'll be posting this dress for sale on Etsy or Ebay soon.  Sign up for email updates to stay tuned!

Here is a photo of the really awesome silk dress I found. It is a designer dress with again, a Pucci - esque print. the silk is very good quality; a silk twill just like the Pucci scarves! The designer is Shelly Segal and her brand name is "Laundry".

 

Thanks to my lovely model Sara Gorman! It's great having a model as a daughter.

On our way home we stopped at good old Value Village and I found this little treasure; a sweet silk chiffon hoodie by Bianca Nygard. I love her designs and she's Canadian!

That's all for now folks! Stay tuned - these lovelies will be available for purchase online soon!

Going Treasure Hunting!

Nova Scotia has a lot of great thrift stores where you can find Vintage scarves and clothing. I am going to Colbrook today where I heard there are quite a few Frenchy's and Salvation Army stores.
Normally, I don't find that much in the way of scarves at Frenchy outlets and I think this is because Frenchy's imports their clothing from the US in bales and I guess they don't include scarves very often. Salvation Army on the other hand receive donations from locals and quite often I'll find nice pieces there. I've never been to Colbrook so we'll see what we can find! I'll post photos of some of the best things on here when I get back.
Stay tuned!
Here's a link to a list of their locations:
http://www.scotiawipers.com/locations/

Tips on how to Find a Great Scarf

I thought I would also start this blog off with some scarf buying tips. First of all, how can you tell if it's real silk if there is no tag?

1. Real Silk has a slight resistance to it when rubbed between the fingers. If you feel polyester by rubbing it is always plastic-like and super smooth, even oily. Even though silk is soft and smooth in some cases, if you carefully rub it then you will feel a slight rope-like quality. It feels more natural and also drapes differently than polyester or rayon. Rayon is also a natural fiber; it is made from wood and also has that kind of natural woody feel to it. Anyway, it's hard to explain in words but if you take two scarves; one poly and one silk and compare you'll see what I mean.
2. Real silk will turn into ash when burnt whereas polyester will melt like plastic. 
3. Real silk wears easier than polyester. If you find a vintage scarf that is very old but shows little wear then it's likely to be polyester because it lasts longer and doesn't degrade as easily. 

So, that's a few tips. More to come. Subscribe to my feed so you can stay tuned!
Happy shopping!
K

Welcome to My New Blog!

This blog will be showcasing some of my favorite finds in the vintage scarf world. After having to quit silk painting as a full time job I've decided to move into collecting silk scarves made by others. I have found some amazing pieces and I'd like to share them with you!
Some of these are designer brand name scarves and some are very old and true works of art on silk. I tend to look for intricate detailed designs that have a story behind them. I particularly like hand painted or screen printed fun and funky colors.
One of my favorite designers is Emilio Pucci. I love his sense of color and form and his style is so retro but chique at the same time. I bought my first Pucci scarf last week and I can't wait until it arrives. I will post it for you to see.
Right now I have a gorgeous Christian Dior square silk scarf up for sale on my Ebay site. It already has one bid on it at $48.00. This scarf is worth over $100.00 or so.
Collecting Vintage and Designer silk scarves is a very exciting and rewarding hobby. Join me on the treasure hunt as I post my discoveries here in future posts!