ATLRetro

By Jennifer Belgard
Contributing Writer

Shopping can be a wonderful experience, but for many, it’s the REAL nightmare before Christmas.  The traffic, humdrum selection of gifts, mobs of people shoving each other about. The mall.  Yikes!  It hurts my head just thinking about it.  There is another way.  We can have fun shopping, help out our independently owned shops, and give some really kick ass gifts without depleting our bank accounts or losing our minds!

Little 5 Points is often thought of for Halloween and… uh, people-watching.  It should be one of the first places you think of for your holiday list.  Wax N Facts, Coyote Trading, Stratosphere Skateboards, Stefan’s Vintage, Rene Rene, Cherry Bomb… there are so many reasons to shop here year-round.

Junkman’s Daughter is known far and wide as the Alternative Super Store.  Shoes, clothes, and accessories from Lip Service, Bettie Page Clothing, Too Fast and many others.  My friend, Kool Kat Barb Hays of Blast-Off Burlesque, gave me the highlights of the season.

Keep your head and face warm with this fun Beard Hat from Beardhead.  Available in several colors, $29.00.

Who wouldn’t want Frankenstein, Tiki or Shrunken Head Plush Dice by Sourpuss? Just $10.00.

Quirky Soap Spitters like Florapus and the chubby Sock Monkey by Allen Designs instantly perk up any sink.  Each dispenser is $24.99.

What’s on Barb’s Wishlist?  Yummy Tofu Soft Tacos from El Myr.

Next, Barb and I headed over to Criminal Records.  Criminal is home to more records, CDs, comics, toys, tees and art than you can imagine.  Right now they are host to the Indie Craft Experience’s Pop Up Shop through December 24.  Inside the Pop Up Shop you’ll find truly one of a kind gifts for everyone on your list.

Messenger Bags featuring Crypto Zoo, Zombie Woodland Creatures, Killer Unicorns, and Sugar Skulls by Third Half Studios.  They also make double-sided necklaces (I especially love Gamera) and Sugar Skull Aprons. Prices start at $25.00

Earrings and Hair Adornments by Hustle-N-Bustle.  These creations add a touch of vintage glamour and romance to any outfit.  I’m fond of the ranunculus flowers, $14.00-$44.00.

Crocheted toys like Cthulhu, Grim Reaper, Giant Squid, and Vikings by NeedleNoodles, $19.00.

I ended this trip at my very own little shop of curios, Libertine – a small, but fully stocked shop known for corsets, wigs, and makeup.  But, wait!  There’s more.  Indie designers like:  Wanderlust, SweetHeartSinner, Pop Art by Zteven, as well as brands like Special Effects, Tokyo Milk and Living Dead Souls.  My partner in crime, Tim Scott, showed me a few of his favorite things.

Happiness Head To Toe. A 10-piece kit including: clementine-scented shampoo, conditioner, shower creme and body lotion, sugar scrub, lip scrub and lip butter. A facial scrub, facial cleanser and facial moisturizer by Love & Toast, $24.00.

Wristlets, wallets, totes, messenger bags and backpacks featuring critters like deer, whales, hummingbirds, foxes and the oh-so-popular, Youtube favorite, otters holding hands.  All by Bungalow 360, $12.00-$48.00.

Ornate Flasks by Diamond*Star*Halo.  Great gifts for guys or gals with designs like Conjoined Twins, Dead Elvis, Unicorns, Owls, Anchors, and much more!  $28.00- $34.00.

What’s little Timmy asking Santa for this year?  The Dusty Springfield box set, Goin’ Back, from Wax N Facts.

Me?  I’m headed down to the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club for a cup of Boozy Hot Cocoa.  I managed to whittle my shopping list down quite a bit, but there’s more shopping to do.  Next week I’ll hit the shops in Avondale with Astrid Lyons and a few of other friends.  I hear talk of beer growlers and sausage.  Gotta love the holidays!!!

Jennifer Belgard is Co-Conspirator at Libertine, Curator of Curios at Diamond*Star*Halo,  Barkeep at Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, and Co-Coordinator of Chaos for the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade & Festival.  In her spare time she enjoys Turnin’ TriXXX.

VAMP founders Marji Ayati and Jacqueline Stringham of Pony Up! Vintage. Photo courtesy of Pony Up! Vintage.

Pony Up! Vintageis hosting what it bills as Atlanta’s first Vintage Apparel Market Place, or V.A.M.P. for short, at Scott Lowden Photography Studio (634 North Highland Ave. in Poncey-Highland) this Sat. Aug. 27 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entry is just $5 to browse some of the Southeast’s finest vendors of vintage clothes and accessories dating from the Roaring Twenties to the Nineties, snack on tasty vittles from the Good Food Truck, sip a relaxing, listen to music spun by DJ Zano and pose in a vintage photo booth courtesy of Sweet Darlin’ Photography.

Pony Up! Co-proprietresses Jacqueline Stringham and Marji Ayati dreamed up VAMP as a one-stop vintage market, where both casual and serious Retro couture enthusiasts can expect to find everything from floral frocks to cocktail couture to everything in between. While teaching English in Japan in 2009, Jacqueline fell in love with Japanese fabrics and collecting vintage Japanese clothes. Back in the US, she and Marji teamed up to sell vintage clothes and host vintage pop-up sales, culminating in VAMP. She was kind enough to give us a sneak peek, clue us in on why she loves Japanese and Sweden wares and share a few tips on starting up a vintage sales business.

How many vintage vendors have signed up and what range of items can shoppers expect to find?

We are happy to announce there will be 14 vendors at VAMP (for a complete list, click here) VAMP concentrates on quality vintage clothing and accessories (bags, jewelry, footwear). We deem vintage to be anything 20 years or older and will have items from 1920-1990s. We do have two vendors that deal vintage jewelry.  Nothing is vintage-inspired and made today; everything is vintage.

I understand there’s a special bonus for the first 100 people through the door?

Yes, there is a Catlanta-designed tote bag [and a Rooster 14 cookie] for the first 100 people with their $5 admission.  Meow!

Bunny Day Vintage is one of 14 vendors at VAMP this Sat. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Stringham.

What other fun stuff is in store?

Sounds will be provided by DJ Zano, there’ll be a vintage photo booth by Sweet Darlin’, food by The Good Food Truck….and BEER!

What kinds of places did you shop in Japan and what did you collect?

I shopped at vintage stores in Tokyo and Osaka. It was hard for me to find vintage anywhere else as they don’t have thrift stores like we have in USA. I bought dresses! They have a lot of USA vintage in their vintage shops, so it was a struggle to find items actually made in Japan as they really don’t value old things.

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HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical; Fox Theatre; May 17-22; Ticketmaster; presented by Broadway Across America.

When actress Allison Guinn showed up for a 700-person cattle call audition for Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR, she had 16 bars to show she had what it takes to join what most people think of as a celebration of peace, love and understanding. She picked Janis Joplin’s “Turtle Blues” and screamed “I’m a mean, mean woman, and I don’t mean one man no good.” She was certain that she wouldn’t get cast.

Then three weeks later, Allison found out that seemingly risky choice was exactly the right one to make, scoring her the part of a disgruntled hippie in the Tribe ensemble. “Director Diane Paulus took my hand and led me down a hall of pictures, then she pointed at one of Grace Slick looking really heavy and giving me the finger,” Allison recalls. “She said, ‘That’s you.’” Later Allison would also get two more roles as the conservative Mother of draft-resistor protagonist Claude and a Buddhist monk called Buddhadalirama.

HAIR has a reputation for being the hippie-dippie musical. After all, what’s more New Agey sounding than “Let the Sunshine In” and “Age of Aquarius.” But Guinn, who’s more into the less cheerful early ‘60s beat generation than the late ‘60s Summer of Love counter-culture says, not so fast. “It’s easy to paint with broad strokes and say this show has such wonderful bright colors and we say ‘love’ every fifth word,” she adds. “But it’s not just all laidback and groovy. It’s about this quest for a new life because the old way of life obviously isn’t working. Society is at a boiling point. All these people have been killed [in Vietnam], all these riots happened, it’s a period of great change, and these people are at the pinnacle of it.

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In upcoming weeks, ATLRetro will Shop Around on Fridays, giving you tips on the best vintage & reproduction shopping. For now, though, read a great New York Times article from Wed. Feb. 2 on my favorite growing fashion trend of new clothes with a vintage look here.