Friday, July 3, 2009

Vintage Holy Grail

Vintage Blonde Fur from Goodwill
What do the New York Times, Goodwill, my grandmother, my birthday and Tippi Hedren have in common?

Let's start with Tippi Hedren, who I watched as a child (and often now on TCM) in the movie, The Birds, and in it she wears this gorgeous 3/4 length champagne-blonde mink coat, along with her one green outfit throughout the entire movie, and never looks... ahem, ruffled. For years ever since, I've been on the lookout for an affordable vintage champagne mink swing jacket, since I prefer that to the longer coat.

(Quick note on fur wearing - only vintage (over 40 years old) for me, there's so much of it out there, just collecting dust doing no good at all AND only mink, no rabbit/fox/chinchilla/snakeskin/alligator/eel etc. I don't expect everyone to agree/understand or like it, but c'est la vie. Seriously do you want those poor little minks to have died in vain?)
then

Grandma sent me $100 for my birthday, which she does every year, since I'm her only grandchild.

then

On 6-11-09, I read an online NYT article called, Look Who's Shopping Goodwill, that discusses how Goodwill is thriving in this economy by paying attention to fashion, quality, labels and targeting Recessionistas, AND that they had an online auction site, Shopgoodwill.org worth checking out.

then

I checked it out.
then

There it was, THE coat, my furry holy grail... my size, lined in silk, with the former owner's name embroidered on the inner pocket (Anne Boyd from Portland area) and velvet lined pockets... and still at a price I could afford.

then

I watched for days and waited... then 15 minutes before the auction ended, I bid... and bid... and bid, and on my last bid, over $60 from my original bid, I got it! I got the coat, paid for shipping and had three dollars left over from Grandma's birthday $$. Not bad.

then

It came in the mail a few days ago and all I can say is...
  • Merci Tippi Hedren/Edith Head/Alfred Hitchcock!
  • Merci NYT online
  • Merci Goodwill
  • Merci Grandma!!!
Wait a second! Did you hear something?

No

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

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