Outfits of the Week: August 29/08

One of the things I've enjoyed since moving to Montreal from Winnipeg is that there is an actual fall season here. It seems that the weather is nice and warm right up to September in Winnipeg, then it gets cold really fast, and you're wading in snow drifts by the end of October. My fall fashion experimentation has thus greatly suffered.

Now that fall is on it's way and it's time to think about layering things up I've been totally into plaid fabrics, especially when they've been reinterpreted into more feminine pieces. Call it nouveau grunge if you like, but I think these plaid based outfits are some of my fave outfits I've ever done for the outfits of the week! I also want my friend Jill to wear the first one, and my friend Amanda to wear the second one (she's the one who suggested wearing the tunic top tucked in as a regular shirt, so versatile!). Throw on some tights, and you'd be ready for even colder weather. (as usual, click on the images for a bigger version...)

T-shirt by PinPals (Montreal), plaid dress by Hastings + Main (Vancouver), shell feather necklace by A Heart Apart (Toronto), vintage brocade belt with elastic, vintage leather colourblocked purse, vintage gold heart earrings, vintage basketweave oxfords (size 10 ladies!)

Cotton neck scarves by Kick It Fashions/Safe by Rebecca Turbow (New Orleans/Brooklyn), Necklace by Tilly D'Oro (Montreal), plaid tunic (worn as top) by Hastings + Main (Vancouver), satin weave nylon jacket by Valerie Dumaine (Montreal), denim bag with leather scales by Roadkill (Montreal), tweed shorts by Soi Disant (Montreal), handpainted vintage shoes by Tyson Bodnarchuk (Montreal), vintage white leather bracelet.

xo
Angie

Super Sellers!

So for those of you familiar with the goings on of Etsy this will not be news to you, so bear with me. But for all the rest of you who have not yet become addicted to this site, I just wanted to draw your attention to the fact that TWO of our lovely Montreal artisans/designers that we love and adore down at HQ have recently been featured on Etsy!


Yana of Supayana was recently a Featured Seller (front page baby!) on Etsy. Getting to be a Featured Seller is like the highest honour you can get, and I've read many a thread in the Forums entitled "What the heck to I have to do to be a featured seller? Give up my first born child?!" Um, be awesome, that's it! Yana has worked her butt off for many years now, and deserves the accolades, check out the full interview HERE


Next up, Janick of Neawear was recently featured/interviewed as part of the "Quit Your Day job" series, an ongoing interview segment of The Storque (Etsys blog/news section). Yanick has already been self-employed for awhile doing graphic design, but has now decided to focus more on her jewelry making, and we're super duper happy for her! Check out the entire article/Interview HERE

Way to go ladies, keep up the good work, you're an inspiration to many, many others!

In the Shadow of Metropolis: Last Chance!

Chinatown playing at the vernissage, sorry for the blurry pic...

Although I know many of you have been chained to the TV watching the Olympics over the past week or so, maybe it's time to stop by HQ and check out the photo exhibit by Toby Androuis Cayouette and see a slightly different side of China. Tobys pics were all taken while on tour in China with his band Chinatown and they show many different facets of life in China. A beautiful show, definitely not one to miss!

Next Saturday (Sept. 6th) is our next vernissage, "The Dentist and the Toothfairy Exposed" featuring work by Jerome Prieur & Dorota Skrzpek & guest artist Aline Plante.

New Hats from Brixton!

That's right guys, we've just received new stock from your favorite hat company, Brixton. We received a bunch of new hats, and four are gone already, sorry for not posting earlier! We ordered some of the classic standbys in new winter tweeds as well as a few new styles to try out.



In addition to the hats, we also thought it would be nice to bulk up the mens section of the store with some jackets and flannel jacket shirts. The jackets are those perfect, simple, yet impossible to find ones that Tyson is always on the lookout for, but could never seem to find until now.


The flannel is classic fall skate gear, and it totally reminds me of cute boys and the beginning of the school year. Well, I don't have to head off to school anytime soon, but I'm still a sucker for cute skate guys (obviously...other than the beard Tyson is basically a 16yr old skater kid)


Not to leave the girls out, we also ordered this super cute hood/scarf thingie. I think it's a great piece to add to your winter layering if you like coats that don't have hoods, but sometimes want a little head coverage. The nice thing is that the hood part buttons off of the scarf, so you can wear it on its own if you want.


I say "not to leave the girls out" but we're finding that a LOT of girls are going for the guys hats, and I say if you can kill it, kill it. I'm POSITIVE there are a few HQ customers who could take this look and throw it all over the streets of our fair city. Check out www.vintagesociety.com for some great looks with hats. Blogger Beth Jones definitely has a penchant for hat wearing, and it's a great fashion site to boot! OR check out the photostream for this amazing Wardrobe Remixer boboniaa, her style is amazing and the girl knows how to work a hat! Check it out HERE.

boboniaa on the left and Beth on the right

above images from www.facehunter.blogspot.com

I thought it would be nice to find some hat inspiration pics again like I did in my post this past spring, so courtesy of my friend "the internet" some style inspiration pics to get everyone in the mood for hats.

all 4 images from www.facehunter.blogspot.com

xo
Angie

AGAIN with the taking over...

I typed in "surprised" in google images, and this is what came up...

Tyson is heading out of the city tomorrow with Marc from Broundoor, Elaine from Roadkill and Yana from Supayana to do a craft sale/music festival thingie. Soooooo, I'll be at the store again all day Saturday, feel free to pop in and say hi, check out our sale rack (now with Samantha Stoncius stock added) or check out some of our new fall 08 stock from Soi Disant.

We also have a little surprise that we just got in stock, which I'll be posting more about later today...hing: it's exciting for all the man shoppers...

Roadkill wrist clutches... genius!

Roadkill is one of the lines we've been carrying at HQ since we opened, and is actually one of the lines I knew we wanted to carry before we even opened at all! Designer Elaine Ho is always coming up with kick ass new designs, and is one of the few people I know whos thrifting stamina is on par with my own. Check out these gorgeous floral wrist clutches she dropped off, gorgeous!



xo
Angie

How to Search on Etsy

As I've mentioned before on the blog, Tyson and I run three Etsy shops between the two of us (Norwegian Wood, Tysons shop, and our Vintage Headquarters shop). Many people I've spoken to, however, find Etsy sort of overwhelming and have problems finding what they want on the site. Makes sense, there are over 170 000 shops on Etsy. I would say that is slightly overwhelming.

So how do you weed out the pipe cleaner dogs from gorgeous clothes or stunning jewelry? I just found a video on the Etsy site (see video below) that gives a rundown of all their search options and how they work. There are soooo many ways to search/shop for items on Etsy, there's really a different method to suit everyones shopping style.



My favorite way to shop on Etsy is by going through other peoples favorites. Sneaky, I know, but I always find great stuff that way. To do this, you first need to find a shop that you find interesting. Once you've done that, click on the favorites of THAT person and start browsing. Once you find something you like within their favorites, you can click on it, and continue the chain. It makes sense that if you like the stuff that one person makes, you will probably also like the other stuff that they like too!

One thing that the video does fail to mention however is the revised method of using the basic "search" bar. In the beginning, using this search bar would allow you to find handmade items, vintage items and supplies, but this has recently been changed to default to handmade items, so if you want to search for supplies or vintage, or do a search by store name you need to use the drop down search menu (click the arrow) to get a more specific search.

Happy shopping!

xo
Angie

Curse of the Multiples

The pencil massacre t-shirt for men

It's not often that we feature mens stuff on the blog, let's just blame Tyson for that and call it a day... seriously though, we have lots of great mens stuff in the store, and I need to start showing it on the blog more!

The pencil massacre t-shirt for women in a nice deep V-neck

"Crazy to work here" t-shirt for men

To kick things off, I wanted to show you all the new shirts we got from our friend Evan Melnyk. Evan is a wicked graphic designer, who is moving to London (yes, England) in September with his super smart girlfriend Caroline who will be going to school there. So what will Evan be doing while in jolly ol' England? Well, hopefully lots of graphic design and other fun british stuff (in reality, he will probably just spend time playing vids and drooling over awesome clothing... KIDDING!)

"Crazy to work here" t-shirt for women

Evan has had his artwork in a few of our group shows in the past, joined forces with the YPF for the Osheaga art installation this year, is part of the Parnell Collective, and has designed a few tees sold in HQ as well. This time he's picked some awesome heather and solid tees to print on, and has come up with two designs, printed on both mens and womens fits. I'm thinking that the "Crazy to Work Here" one will be wedging it's way into my closet very soon...because really, no matter where you're working, isn't it kind of always true some of the time?

Check out more of Evans work at: www.curseofthemultiples.com

Outfits of the Week: Aug. 14/08

This week is all about the bows, how many different ways can one wear a bow? Infinite. That's the actual answer, an infinite number of ways... (as usual, click on the images for a bigger version if you're hankering after some details...)

Cotton dress by Haiku (Vancouver), white blouse by MX Jeans, fabric necklace by Vanessa Moore (Montreal), feather earrings by Asterlea (Winnipeg), vintage shoes. Hey, the dress and the blouse are on sale, awesome!

Black dress by Complex Geometries (Montreal), giant vintage bow necklace, vintage faux snakesking belt, 2-totes set by Vanessa Moore (Montreal). Yup, the tote with the bow comes with a matching plain tote to stash inside until you need it, so smart! Handpainted shoes by Tyson Bodnarchuk (Montreal).



xo
Angie

Please...make it stop...

I keep seeing girls wearing these around the city. No.

NO!

This is too much, I just ate way too much rainbow striped ribbon sour candy, and I just can't handle denim details printed on tights. I'm sure it could be rocked in some way or another by a super stylish hot lady, but man....that is so not what I've been seeing.

And the worst part is that they're this weird nylony thick pantyhose type fabric, not even a cotton jersey. Come on people, you're wearing pantyhose as pants.


ugh.

Sale-o-rama!

I think I've spoken before about how we're not huge fans of having big blowout sales at HQ... After all, the artists/designers don't work within the huge manufacturing system, and therefore are working within smaller profit margins to begin with, and don't really have room to make huge markdowns. So when we decide to do a sale, it's once a season only!

Anastasia Lomonova dresses, skirts and tops!

That being said, we understand that most people are not rolling in cash, so sometimes a sale is the only time you can afford to support a local designer. Whether you are able to buy indie designer items at full price throughout the year, or save your pennies for a sale day splurge, it's always satisfying to pick up something unique and independently made.

The highly coveted dress from Valerie Dumaine, we have 3 in stock,
1 small grey combo, 1 med. pink combo, and 1 med. yellow combo!

A few of our designers have decided to put some of their items on sale at around 20% off (give or take, depending on item and designer) so pop on in, try some stuff on, gaze at my handcrafted "solde" sign and get your hands on some good deals!

Cotton gauze dress by Haiku, on sale for $140, available in blue or purple,
so fresh and cool, but also great for layering...
ut a black and white striped 3/4 length t-shirt under this baby and call it a day!



A little tissue paper and pink card stock = poofy sale sign!

Secretary Blouses, the one and only!

Yana in a lace applique version, and Judy, modeling under the
beautiful light created by Michelle Storey for "The Lamp Show II"

Many of you who've been shopping at HQ from the beginning have probably seen the reworked blouses I do, which we've taken to calling "Secretary Blouses", seeing as they're made out of 80's, well, secretary blouses. I've had a hard time keeping them in stock at HQ, which is a good thing for me, but not so great for you shoppers!

Yana and Jill!

I've been posting them in my Etsy store and selling them to stylish girls from Australia to Texas, but what about the stylish Montreal girls?! Well, this post is here to tell you that I am working my tush off trying to get a whole slew of them made to fill up HQ, as well as a few other stores around the city. In the meantime Montrealers can check out the stock in my Etsy store and arrange for pickup at the store or for those in Ottawa pop in to Victoire boutique, I just gave them 5 brand new pieces in some lovely colours! Speaking of Victoire, the girls were just in town last week, and I gave them a few pieces of the black version of my fringe necklace, which we also have down at HQ.

xo
Angie

I'm taking over!

If you happen to pop by the store sometime this week, you will find a rather obvious change...no Tyson! He's on a well deserved canoe/camping vacation all week, so I will be holding down the fort with a little help from our dog Mary.

Store hours will be the same, as will pretty much everything else, except I will not be growing a beard, and the music may be a bit more mellow. So pop in and say hi...and bring me a snack!

xo
Angie

Vintage Shades at HQ

Hey, did I mention that we have a whole bunch of vintage sunglasses down here at HQ?

Vintage shades, 10 bucks a pop! We've got about 10 pairs down at the store just waiting to replace the ones you lost/broke at Osheaga...

And no, Ksenia and Daves dog Jackson is not included!

The Osheaga that never ends...

Neils geodesic dome and James B.s little drummer cat

There's been a steady slew of photos of Osheaga on Facebook every since we all returned to the real world, why not post a few more... (click on images for a bigger version)

Setting up, another kitty by James B.

The sun finally came out, Evans umbrella man

Freddys dumpling guys, Iggy and the Stooges!

Gogol Bordello, Dessas racoon

Amanda, Spencer, Tyson and Marc in the Broundoor/Roadkill booth, James K.s crew

Neils pyramid, Tysons hippie couple

Freddy, Amanada and Tyson, Aarons totem pole

Tysons snake man, Freddy and Amanda and beer

Krissys boy, Neils structure

Emilys cat, Tyson and a guy that looks a lot like Spencer, but not quite