The little town of May’s Landing alongside The Chamber Society is a beautiful 1920s social club, one on the risqué side of town. 

Collabor88 is celebrating its second anniversary with a huge showcase – two stories featuring all the regulars and all the guests from the past year. It is the biggest Collabor88 showcase yet and best of all, it features the clothing from one of my favorite fashion eras, the 1920s. I first fell in love with the 1920s during my summer visits to my great aunt who was kindly called “a character.” She had been good friends with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and she and her husband partied with them at their apartment on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. However, time moved on and they and she did not.

This lovely dress from The Secret Store is materials ready – and so lustrous in the moonlight.

How could a child not adore her, this 70-something woman dressed in rich, beaded and embroidered flapper gowns and gold and silver encrusted pumps with her hennaed hair in a bob with a flower on the side. She told wonderful stories of that era. Stories of speakeasies, parties and jazz. She taught me songs, dances and filled my head with stories of their parties, of meeting Charles Lindbergh before he disgraced himself, of Louis Tiffany and of course, Scott and Zelda. She loved that era and never left it. Yes, she was a few bubbles off plumb and probably looked ridiculous dressing in fashions sixty years out of time, but for a child – she was incomparable. Besides, she was family and families love their odd ducks.  Continue reading →