Ebay Purchases

PS If you're looking for Coty powder in the old cardboard packaging, like those above, there are quite a few on Ebay that are reasonably priced and some even have free shipping. Why Coty decided to get rid of the old packaging only to replace it with a plastic (YUCK!) container, I'll never know. That was 2/3 the point of even buying Coty powder, for the vintage packaging!!

My plan is that if I can no longer find Coty powder in the old packaging, that I'll just keep the boxes and fill them with another loose powder. I wonder if by decoupaging, you could make the boxes last longer?

Etsy Purchases

PS The pearl person brooch from designer Hairy Sock is not vintage and you can purchase one of your very own if you like it! Click the picture to go to the listing.

Vintage/Fashion Christmas Gifties

I know, I know, it's February. But to be technical, because of some snafus with some DVDs I asked for, I didn't get what I exchanged them for until a couple of weeks ago. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Sorry to my readers for the sporadic posting!! I'm sorry to admit that I'm in fact an everyday average person which means exciting things don't happen too often, but when they do, I post!!

Also, there haven't been as many vintage topic newspaper articles but you can bet your fanny that when I come across one, you'll see it here!

If interested in a product, just click the photo and you'll be taken to it! Here we go!

This Old Thing? Actually, It’s New ~ NY Times Article

By KATE MURPHY

Published: February 2, 2011

WHEN Erin Ogg, 45, of New Orleans and her girlfriends sip cocktails at the Sazerac Bar in the city’s historic Roosevelt Hotel, they dress as if it’s the 1940s or ’50s; wearing dresses with cinched waists, or pencil skirts and blouses, accessorized with hats and gloves. “We get a lot of compliments,” said Ms. Ogg, a waitress and personal trainer. “It’s a feminine look with a lot more grace and style than a hoodie sweatshirt and Ugg boots.”

Some of what Ms. Ogg and her friends wear is vintage clothing. But more often these days, their outfits are reproductions of vintage fashions, created by a growing number of designers specializing in the retro look.

“I sell to women who say they go to the mall and can’t find anything that isn’t either flimsy and trendy or dowdy and frumpy,” said Theresa Campbell McKee, 55, owner of Blue Velvet Vintage, an online store that sells reproductions. “They want something classic and distinctive that makes them feel pretty.”



Unlike many contemporary fashions that are layered, slouched and unisex, styles of the mid-20th century were typically tailored to flatter, even accentuate, the female form. Reproductions of vintage dresses have the same simple, clean lines as the originals, with full circle or straight-to-the-knee skirts. Pants are swishy or pegged; tops might feature Mandarin or flared collars, or double-breasted fronts (but not the yellowed armpits that sometimes bedevil old clothes).

“I love vintage clothes, but they don’t hold up well and they’re hard to fit into if you are a curvier gal,” said Michelle Larae Koons, 31, a secretary at a utility company and a part-time model in Las Vegas. Her favorite reproduction vintage outfit is a double-breasted dress with a pencil skirt and three-quarter sleeves by Bettie Page Clothing, accessorized with Steve Madden peep-toe high heels. (Bettie Page Clothing bought the license to use the 1950s pinup girl’s identity for its brand in 2006.)

Retailers and manufacturers of vintage-inspired clothes, including Blue Velvet Vintage, Bettie Page Clothing, Trashy Diva, ReVamp, ModCloth, Stop Staring! and Queen of Heartz report that their sales have increased 25 to 30 percent annually over the last four years, while many purveyors of current fashions have seen sales decline.

Along with the now-dozens of new retro brands, an increasing number of individuals sell hand-sewn vintage reproductions on Web sites like Etsy.com. Like true vintage, prices of reproductions vary depending on the quality of the fabrics and tailoring, but the majority are moderately priced with dresses in the $150 to $300 range.


“People used to laugh at me when I tried to sell these kinds of clothes when I started 13 years ago,” said Alicia Estrada, 39, founder and chief executive of Stop Staring! in Paramount, Calif., widely considered the pioneer in reproduction vintage clothing. “Now my clothes are sold in 40 countries and more than 1,000 boutiques.”

Some purists sniff, if not sneer, at the trend. Madeline Meyerowitz, owner of the vintage clothing Web site enokiworld.com, which sells labels like Courrèges and Claire McCardell, likened designers of reproduction clothing to singers at a karaoke bar. “I don’t want to hear you sing it, I want to hear the original artist sing it,” she said.

But sales of reproduction clothing are brisk in the United States as well as England, France, Italy and Sweden. Anna Olsen, 29, a homemaker in Stockholm, said she wears only retro fashions, and while she loves vintage clothing, she’s not keen on the musty odor, stains, bad fit and fragility that can accompany it.

“With the reproduction clothing, I don’t have to worry about any of that,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I know that there will be no problems with the clothing, and if there is, I can just return it.” Her favorite outfit is a black 1940s-inspired dress with cap sleeves and an empire waist from Trashy Diva that she wears with platform shoes by the Finnish designer Minna Parikka.

Reproduction vintage clothing was first embraced by the tattooed, fishnet-clad rockabilly set, which celebrates 1950s music and cars as well as fashion. But the style has entered the mainstream, appealing to everyone from teenagers who want glamorous prom dresses, to professional women seeking conservative yet sexy business attire, to senior citizens nostalgic for the clothes of their youth.

“Since ‘Mad Men,’ it’s been crazy busy,” said Letty Tennant, 30, owner and chief designer of Queen of Heartz in Anaheim, Calif. “And you can’t say it’s just a fad because these clothes are timeless classics, not ‘in’ one year and ‘you wouldn’t be caught dead in it’ next year.”

Many devotees of reproduction vintage clothing said “Mad Men,” the AMC television show set in the 1960s, as well as movie classics like “Casablanca” and “Rear Window,” had kindled their interest in fashions of the past. “I adore the Marilyn Monroe style of a halter-top dress,” said Becky Biesiada, 34, a day care provider and student in Muskegon, Mich., who said she wears reproduction vintage fashions most of the time and occasionally even wears her hair in a 1940s-style victory roll. “To be a woman in today’s world and stand out, I feel it requires some of the charm from the past.”

While Ms. Biesiada learned how to achieve her hairstyle by watching a video on YouTube, ReVamp, a retro clothier in Los Angeles, offers classes that teach women how to do their hair and makeup true to the period of their vintage-inspired attire.

“We’ve been seeing a huge increase in demand for the hair and makeup classes lately,” said Annamarie von Firley, 40, the owner and chief designer at ReVamp, which makes limited-edition vintage reproductions. “People want to complete the look.”

Ms. von Firley’s hair is cut in a 1920s style Dutch bob, and she is rarely seen in an outfit that isn’t vintage or reproduction vintage. “Men treat me differently when I wear vintage or something that looks vintage,” she said. “I’ve noticed that they open doors and even apologize when they swear, which is so not the case when I’m wearing regular clothes like pants and a sweater.”

Others who wear reproduction fashions said they had similarly enjoyed increased chivalry. “It’s a very movie-star, glamorous look that turns heads,” said Rebecca Watson, 42, a retired vice president at AutoTrader who lives in Leesburg, Ala. “And you won’t see five other people in the room wearing it.” Her favorite everyday outfit is 1940s-style free-flowing pants and a silk blouse by ReVamp, with Kate Spade leopard print flats or Stuart Weitzman wedge sandals.

Jasmin Rodriguez, 24, a personal shopper and fashion consultant living in Astoria, Queens, who describes herself as a “curvy size 2” wears vintage clothing and reproductions of vintage clothing, and said the reproductions have distinct advantages: “You look beautiful even if you aren’t a size 0, the clothes cost less, and you can get them in synthetic stretchy fabrics” that are easier to care for. And unlike with true vintage clothing, she said, “you don’t have to put reproductions in the freezer to kill the bedbugs.”

Hi, I've started to read your blog today (saw the link on your Purse Forum siggy). Congrats, it's very interesting. Can I ask you where did you find the banner picture here on the right (the model on the sofa)? The dress is stunning and I would like to fi

Recently got a book with a large version of the photo you are talking about: The Golden Age of Couture by Claire Wilcox. The dress is by Jean Desses and the model is Jeanie Patchett. The photographer is Norman Parkinson and the photo was taken in 1950. Hope that answers your question!

Ask me anything

When a Trusted Brand Disappears ~ NYT Article

By RICKI MORELL

Published: November 30, 2010

MY mother discovered Camay soap 64 years ago, when she immigrated to New York from London at the end of World War II after marrying my father, an American soldier. She has seen much change in her 86 years, but her devotion to Camay has remained constant.

When she recently realized that her local ShopRite, in Plainview, N.Y., no longer stocks Camay, and that she has only eight bars left in her linen closet, she called me in, well, a bit of a lather. “What am I going to do?” she asked me. “What am I going to do?”

I went online to do some research and found that my mother wasn’t the only woman desperately seeking Camay. On Amazon.com this week, Camay was selling by the case, like a particularly sought-after wine: 48 bars for more than $50. “I have been looking all over for Camay soap,” one customer wrote. “I was afraid I would never wash again.” “Memory bars is what I call them,” wrote another.

Procter & Gamble introduced Camay in the United States in 1926 as “the soap of beautiful women.” The original wrapper featured a cameo of an elegant lady, her silhouette in profile. Advertising campaigns focused on young brides marveling at their soft complexions. Camay evoked feminine luxury, even sensuality, at a time when other soaps like Ivory were utilitarian.

Camay was still popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Tish Stoker Signet, 58, a psychotherapist in Davidson, N.C., remembers that, as a child, she and her mother would paint the soaps’ cameo imprints gold, then give them as sachets to older women at Christmas.

But by the turn of the 21st century, Camay, pink and lightly perfumed, had lost its mass appeal in the United States. Procter & Gamble now sells Camay to online distributors and abroad, mostly in Eastern Europe, though it may also still be available in some mainstream stores in the United States, said Kate DiCarlo, a spokeswoman.

These days, the company is more focused on its Olay bars, which compete directly with the Dove Beauty Bar, made by Unilever. These products contain synthetic detergents that are less irritating than soap, said Dr. Amy Derick, a dermatologist in Barrington, Ill. But Camay, which is a traditional soap like Ivory, may feel less irritating because it contains glycerin, Dr. Derick added.

Still, for a certain vintage of American woman, Camay soap remains a cultural touchstone. “I love the perfume smell,” said Billie Brown of Cove, Tex., who declined to give her age. “It’s lightly fragrant. It’s totally feminine.” Ms. Brown remembered her mother setting out the Camay on the bathtub of her childhood home near Lake Charles, La.. Because the soap disappeared from her Kroger supermarket, she now buys it online.

At CleaningProductsWorld.com, based in Norwich, Conn., Camay accounts for more than half of bar-soap sales, said Jessica Fischburg, the company’s e-commerce manager. She said no other beauty product sold on the site inspired such loyalty. “If you’ve used just one soap for 50 years, you identify that one soap with cleanliness,” said Ms. Fischburg, 24.

Linda Eshleman, 62, of Jersey Shore, Pa., buys Camay online and goes through about a bar a week. “No matter where I go, it always goes with me,” Ms. Eshleman said.

Nancy Durbin, 69, who lives in Houston, recently bought a case of Camay as a Christmas present for her older sister in Cincinnati. “When you get to be my age, and her age, products start disappearing,” Ms. Durbin said.

Chris T. Allen, a marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati, predicted that Camay could have a second act if it follows the lead of another Procter & Gamble brand, Old Spice. That went from being an old man’s after-shave to a hip young man’s deodorant and body wash, thanks largely to this year’s advertising and viral-video campaign, “Smell Like a Man, Man,” featuring Isaiah Mustafa.

Prell shampoo, a former Procter & Gamble brand now owned by Ultimark Products, is also trying to remake its image. Ultimark recently signed Alexa Ray Joel, the daughter of Christie Brinkley, the model, and Billy Joel, the singer, to be the new face of Prell. (Ms. Brinkley was a “Prell Girl” in the 1980s.)

“There’s a strong theme of nostalgia,” Mr. Allen said, talking about consumers: “If these are brands they used when they were younger, you never lose interest.”

My mother, a brand loyalist, has used the same kind of Rimmel mascara for over seven decades, and visited the same hairstylist for more than 40 years. She says she chose Camay 64 years ago not for its status as a beauty totem, but because it was the only soap that didn’t irritate her skin.

Only a few weeks ago, a man half her age admired her youthful looks and kissed her on the cheek. Although she doesn’t own a computer and is wary of new technology (she calls the Internet the “Yenta-net”), she will go there if she has to. “O.K.,” she said. “Buy me a case of Camay online.” When she heard how many bars she’d receive, she thought back to 1946, when she’d buy Camay at a drugstore on Amsterdam Avenue, one precious bar at a time.

Another sweater to add to the collection........

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem right?

Mary McFadden Fall 1985 Fashion Show

That ‘Mad Men’ Look? It’s Vintage Janie Bryant

|

By STEPHEN HEYMAN

| November 8, 2010, 5:39 pm

Janie Bryant was having trouble focusing. As the costume director of “Mad Men,” she’s been in the spotlight before, but last month, when she was in town to promote her first book and receive a giant award for her work from Fashion Group International, she was really spinning.

“I just met Pierre Cardin!” she gushed. Like Bryant, Cardin was also in town that week to promote a book, and he, too, was honored at the Fashion Group International ceremony. So it was an extra coincidence that the first item Bryant seized upon when she met up with The Moment for a shopping trip at the Manhattan vintage emporium Family Jewels happened to be a red plaid sport coat with a lapel as wide as a Buick made by Pierre Cardin. “Isn’t it amazing?” she said, slipping it on her bespectacled boyfriend. Moments later, Bryant was deep into the shop’s collection of antique lingerie. “Look at those peignoirs,” she said. “The detail on them. And the terrible nylon! They were so tough to sleep in, but then, that wasn’t the point.”

It has been said before, but “Mad Men,” more than most other shows, relies on the storytelling power of clothes, particularly the ability of fashion to reflect — if not induce — changing attitudes in society. The appearance of modish short skirts in the premiere of the show’s fourth season immediately telegraphs a jump in time: the 1960s have begun to swing. Bryant’s work not only evokes these periods, it also has helped spur a craze of midcentury appropriation, at the high end (bespoke suits, say, or Michael Kors’s fall 2008 runway show) and the low, or low-ish, end (Banana Republic licensing). “People were sort of at a loss for how to dress up,” said Bryant, explaining the wide appeal of the show’s style.

Dressing up was a childhood obsession for Bryant, as she recounts at length in her new book, “The Fashion File” (Grand Central, $26.99). “Shortly after learning to walk, I marched my way into my mother’s childhood bedroom closet — at my grandmother’s house — and became a gleeful two-foot-tall mannequin for her 1950’s dresses, hats, and shoes,” she writes. “In my small town of Cleveland, Tennessee, my obsession with vintage blossomed into an eccentric public spectacle. My tastes ran to full circle skirts from the 1950s, 1940s peplum jackets and hand-sewn collars and bows from antique textiles.” She still taps into her grandmother’s vintage trove, as in Season 3, when John Slattery’s character, Roger Sterling, gave away his daughter in Bryant’s grandmother’s wedding gown.

Bryant’s voice retains a twinge of Tennessee, but she split after graduating from Cleveland High School — where, she writes, her older sister “called me Miss Vogue as I sashayed down the hallways” — and studied fashion design in Atlanta before heading to Paris. “I wanted to learn French and become a designer,” she said. “But I ended up going to the Les Bains Douches and drinking wine.” It wasn’t until she met a costume designer at a party that she found her calling. Before the “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner hired her, she made her mark on “Deadwood,” winning an Emmy Award for her costume designs in 2005. Between the show’s hiatuses, she’s managed to write the book and create her first fashion line, Janie Bryant Mod, which retails on QVC. There’s more to come. As she puts it, “You have no idea how ambitious I am.”

Vain Glorious | Revlon’s Fire & Ice

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By HOLLY SIEGEL

| November 10, 2010, 1:48 pm

In Revlon’s 1952 ad for the Fire & Ice Collection, Richard Avedon shot model-of-the-moment Dorian Leigh in a sparkling silver gown framed by an amorphous tuft of red fabric (a copy of a Balenciaga cape), her hands drawing attention to her blood-colored manicure and lipstick. One of the most indelible ads in fashion history, the image was part of a niche campaign that included a Peggy Olsen-worthy tagline — “Are you made for Fire and Ice?” — and a bizarre questionnaire that asked, ‘Have you ever wanted to wear an ankle bracelet?’ and ‘Does gypsy music make you sad?’ While a lot has changed since 1952, Fire & Ice has a new shelf life now that Revlon has re-released three “lip-and-tip” pairings ($4.79 – $ 8.99). The ad restages the original, with a few notable exceptions — the actress Jessica Biel stands in for Leigh, ankle bracelets are so last century, and that dress is no knockoff.

Now then. I have my own little tidbit to add to this story.

So of course as soon as I heard about this collection I rush over the Revlon website, hoping to come across some additional info that might help me track this collection down. I see that they have a live chat option, so I proceed to ask one of their reps which stores in my area would be carrying this. She says she can't give me specific stores to go to but says that Walmart in my area is carrying the collection. How she knew what "my area" was since I didn't give her a zip code I know not, but whatevs. I proceed to throw some clothes on and zip on down to hell aka Walmart. It's nowhere to be seen. I talk to 3 employees who know NOTHING about the collection. And these are employees who are regularly in the cosmetic section. I go home empty handed and disappointed. I get back on the Revlon website to chat with a rep again to tell them what happened and the same rep says, "You should look at Target and Walgreens too." WHY DIDN'T SHE TELL ME THAT BEFORE?! She made it sound like Walmart was the only retailer carrying it. Why did she mention Walmart before the others? So I asked her if those were the only retailers in the US carrying the collection. She said,"almost all drugstores carry Revlon products." I KNOW THAT YOU STUPID *****! I don't live under a freaking rock! UGH! I'm asking about THIS specific collection. Not Revlon in general.

Long story short, if you can't find this in your area, don't turn to the Revlon people for help. They'll only give you the runaround.

Recent Book Purchases

Recent Perfume Additions

Balmain Miss Balmain

Balmain Jolie Madame

Lancome Cuir de Lancome

Recent Vintage Haul

Bark colored suede coat with cream fox fur cuffs.

Cream wool cardigan with dark brown mink collar and cuffs and embroidered lining.

Sterling bracelet with aqua guilloche made in Germany.

HBO Documentary Films -- Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags

“Schmatta: From Rags to Riches to Rags” - Trailer - The best bloopers are here

'Boardwalk Empire' costumes bring 1920s roaring back

By Andrea Simakis for Cleveland.com

John Dunn is worried. Not overly, but still. People have told him they're so taken with the looks he and his design team created for the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" that they are tempted to turn down the sound and simply watch the silk, wool and chiffon of the mouthwatering costumes move with the actors' bodies.

"I'm getting nervous! It's starting to feel like it's distracting," he says, laughing, during a telephone chat from his New York digs recently.

He'll have to get used to it. Now that the sumptuous period drama has been picked up for a second season, Dunn's made-in-the-USA wool suits and hand-beaded gowns are going to be distracting viewers for some time to come. How glorious.

Like another HBO show set in New Jersey chronicling the exploits of a powerful, charismatic crime boss with an eye for the dames, "Boardwalk Empire" takes place in Atlantic City in 1920 at the dawn of Prohibition and follows the adventures of corrupt county treasurer Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi). And that's where the similarities are beaten to death by dirty cops and dumped into the drink.

Unlike the fictional Tony Soprano, Nucky really lived and breathed, lording over the bustling, burgeoning boardwalk like a spats-wearing Caesar. And best of all for Dunn -- a veteran of films such as "Casino," "The Notorious Bettie Page" and "Factory Girl" -- Nucky doesn't wear XXL track suits, but favors impeccably tailored clothing and vibrant colors: sherbets and Easter pastels and Atlantic Ocean blues.

The show also shares DNA with AMC's "Mad Men" in its fanatical attention to period detail, and that fanaticism -- and we mean that in a good way -- extends to Dunn and his "Boardwalk" costume department.

Is there a character that you love dressing most?

Obviously, Nucky is just beyond exciting to dress.

I saw Nucky in peach and lavender and thought, "No way."

They did really interesting color combinations, which I've been able to research with remnants of clothing that still exist. Tailoring companies would send out these gigantic coffee-table books which would contain swatches of the fabrics that they were manufacturing, and to me, it was a complete shock, the vibrancy of the colors that they were wearing. I think it was sort of a reaction coming out of the morass of World War I -- there was a real desire to leave that behind. And Atlantic City was offering a place where it could be light and bright.

In "Boardwalk," the guys are layering, they're doing all kinds of different textures and fabrics. Do you think men in the '20s were doing riskier, or at least more interesting, things with their clothes?

I do. The silhouette for men's clothing changed dramatically after the war. Suits got very, very slim -- very, very skinny. And it's my theory that young men wanted to wear something that really set them apart from the generation before them that had caused this war, that had created this war. They really wanted to have their own look that the old guys couldn't wear.

I know that you've worked in film extensively, but is this your first TV show?

No, in fact I did the original pilot of "Mad Men," but they took it to California. And I wasn't going down there.

I don't blame you. New York is fabulous.

It's very hard doing period shows in New York because we don't have the resources here that they have in California. I would say 90 percent of the clothing that we use is imported from California, from the rental houses. And then the rest of it we build in-house. All my suits are built in Brooklyn.

Where?

There's a 100-year-old tailoring shop called Martin Greenfield. They build specialty lines for Brooks Brothers and Neiman's, but also for all the young designers like Rag & Bone and Band of Outsiders. I knew because of the hugeness of the show, I needed a big tailoring concern here in New York. They built, literally, all the suits that you see on the principal characters.

I've heard you use no modern fabrics. Is that true?

I really feel that the way that the clothing falls and fits on the body is part of what makes it look of the period. And so we restrict ourselves to the fabrics that were being used to construct clothing at the time. All the men's suits are made out of 100 percent wool from Scotland. The women's clothing is all silk, woolen and linen. I made a dress for Margaret [an Irish widow, played by Kelly Macdonald, Nucky adds to his harem] and I picked a swatch of chiffon for a dress for her, and it wasn't marked. I said, "Oh, it's a perfect color, we need this dress in three days, let's make it out of this." And it turned out that it had some polyester in it and it just wouldn't make up right. I couldn't reproduce the feel of a 1920s dress.

I'm a vintage shopper, and have bought things that looked fabulous on the hanger, then when I wore them, they literally fell apart. Do you have this problem?

We spend a lot of time restoring clothing that we have found just in order to be able to get it through a shooting sequence. And there have been incidents where we dress someone in the morning and by the end of the day, the costume is completely, literally disintegrated.

Are you dreaming about 1920s fashion?

I thought I would really be tired of it after a season, but I can't wait to go back. It was such an interesting period because for women's fashion in particular, it's the first time we're seeing what we know as the modern silhouette. Chanel had begun designing. The corset had not disappeared but it was being minimized. It was basically being used as a slimmer. Women had just recently started wearing bras and [panties] as underwear. Prior to that, it was bloomers and little chemises with the corset.

So you're making bras, too?

Oh, yeah. We make everything -- we do! The bras at that point had almost no shaping to them whatsoever. They really were pretty, much like a cotton bandeau, which was new and freeing but on the other hand, it wasn't necessarily the most flattering shape for all figures.

Not enough lift?

Exactly. They let go of everything and they said, "We're free!" And they went, "Oops!"


It's lucky you have nubile young actresses in the cast.

It's true! When the women went out, they were still wearing corsets, but when they went to, say, a jazz club or somewhere they were going to dance, everyone would retire to the ladies room and they would take their corsets off, go out and dance -- shimmy, shake -- and then at the end of the night, everybody would collect their corsets.

It's like picking up the wrong umbrella -- who has my corset? I love it.

This was a shocking thing to learn, too: In Atlantic City, they used to rent bathing suits. Ewww. A wool bathing suit? Thank you -- no.

In one of the episodes, Nucky talks about sponsoring a beauty contest -- is it Miss America?

As a draw to Atlantic City in 1921, Nucky started the Miss America pageant.

Will we see tears and tiaras in Season 2? Because that would be AMAZING.

There might be talk of a beauty pageant. That's definitely exciting, because I've got some great research for beauty pageants from that period.

Can't wait. How many people are in your crew?

It's probably about 35 to 40 people. I think we clocked in as one of the largest . . . departments for the show.

Do you have a budget, or did they just say to go crazy?

Oh, no, please. (He laughs). I know it looks like we have all the money in the world, but we have to hand in budgets once an episode and we hassle over, "Do we need this, do we need that?"

Let's talk Lucy [Nucky's No. 1 floozy, played by Paz de la Huerta]. In one scene, she's in bed with Nucky as she so often is, wearing one of the sexiest robes I've ever seen, with fringe on the arms.

It's a silk-and-satin dressing gown that we found. It's funny, because often we come up against the contemporary eye's idea of underwear and what's sexy. Sometimes, I know [audiences] expect it to be cut down to here, and everything would be a thong. The underwear from the 1920s is actually pretty discreet underwear -- but it's so gorgeous.

Lucy is one of my favorite characters.

She's fantastic, and she's fantastic to dress. Like Lucy, Paz is totally game, and she knows how to wear the clothing. It's the kind of clothing that doesn't telegraph the body exactly. It's discreet. You see bits of the body. You see the back -- low backs were popular -- but you're not getting short, short skirts and you don't get a lot of leg. It's more implied and seductively revealed. If you have a true love of clothing, you need a certain amount of it to see the play of the fabrics, to see the craftsmanship and such.

I smell a new fashion trend!

I hope so!