before and after

Wowee! This is one hot little number. Then again, “Before” shots in The Anthology’s Before and After column always are.

This bright, colourful blouse has big, bold shoulder pads, leading me to believe it’s from the ’80s. But the shoulder pads really aren’t what’s making this blouse so ridiculous. It’s the shapelessness. It’s meant to fit a size small and yet there’s so much extra fabric I could fit another person in there.

It might even be worse from the back — a giant square so big it looks like an oversized jacket.

I’m making some tweaks to this piece so it will be wearable, perhaps even stylish. Stay tuned for the “After” shot! (Imagine if I presented these as “After” photos. Would you guys be polite and say you liked it? Or would you tell me how you really feel?)

P.S. Add The Anthology on Facebook and you’ll be the first to see the transformation!

Sometimes it’s not so much about how you alter an outdated vintage piece, but how you style it. This jacket used to look like this. And truth be told, it still kind of does.

I had it altered ever so slightly. Actually, this is the first time in the Anthology’s Before and Afters that we’ve modified a piece this way — we didn’t remove the shoulder pads (the jacket is structured so it would sag awkwardly without them), we simply cut the shoulderpads so they don’t protrude as much.

Now the sleeves still have volume, they’re just  a little less in yo face.

Speaking of sleeves, I’m going to let you in on a little secret — half the time I just cinch the sleeves on a weird vintage jacket and that does the trick. Makes it more laid back and undone, ya know?

So just like belting a billowy vintage dress will modernize it more often than not, pushing up the sleeves on a strong-shouldered vintage jacket will work insta-magic too.

See? Sometimes change is easy.

[Vintage jacket, scarf and belt, Talula pants, Matisse boots.]

P.S. Like The Anthology on Facebook because, as the chalkboard in the first photo says, I totally like you too.

The Anthology’s before and afters are back, my friends! And because these vintage specimens are oh-so-special, I thought we’d take a look at them through the eyes of my pup.

“Oh hey! Those shorts are pretty fancy.”

“But there’s so much of them, they hurt my eyes.”

“Call me when you fix ’em. I’m out.”

Let’s face it — we’re all thinking the same thing. So I took these pleated, pocketed, printed wonders to my tailor to have them reworked. And what do you know, we turned them into something wearable. Stay tuned for the “after” reveal!

P.S. Join the twitterati — follow @TheAnthology.

Oh boy. This ain’t pretty.

But that’s okay. It isn’t supposed to be. Many of you told me you love The Anthology before/after shots because you get a kick out of watching the transformation of these monstrosities. So I’m getting this mint jacket tailored in the hopes that I can wear it for something other than dressing up as your mom in 1986.

Will it be minty-fresh to death afterward? Stay tuned and find out.

P.S. You’ll find all The Anthology’s glorious (and hideous) before and after shots riiiiiiiiiiight here.

Like a kindergartner, I’ve got a “Hey ma! Look what I made!” feeling about this project. Unlike The Anthology’s signature before and afters where I take a vintage piece and have it reinvented by my tailor, I did this one on my own.

And it wasn’t hard at all. I wove this striped silk scarf into a plastic chain, skipping a few links at a time, and turned it into one big necklace/scarf combo. (Neckarf? Scarflace? Hmm… I’m going to have to keep thinking about this.)

And because the chain had broken (how? I have no idea), I used a big floppy bow as the clasp. Fancy, huh?

P.S. You could do a lot of vintage shopping on us! We’ve got a Shoppalu x The Anthology giveaway going on right now.

Normally “before and afters” on The Anthology involve hideous vintage pieces that I have my tailor rework (see Exhibit A, B, and especially C).

But this, my friends, is a whole new ballgame.

I’m taking two once-loved pieces of my own — a black-and-white silk scarf I bought in Paris and a plastic chain necklace I bought somewhere far less glamourous — and I’m going to make my own “after”. All by myself. I’ll share it with you soon (as long as it doesn’t look like a 6-year-old made it).

P.S. I whipped up my own “After” once before and I kind of love how it turned out. Let’s see if lightening strikes twice.

Oh, vintage secretary dresses. How I love finding you buried on a vintage store rack and reworking you into something I’d actually wear!

Remember what this one looked like before I reworked it? This:

You guys called it frumpy. And you were bang-on with that observation.

My fixes were relatively easy. I belted it with a vintage YSL belt (I don’t even remember where I found it, but I am so very glad I did). I pushed up the sleeves to make it look more laid back and I unbuttoned the high neck so it didn’t look so, well… buttoned up. See? These are things a non-seamstress can do.

And I removed the shoulder pads, which is the easiest fix ever, as long as the piece isn’t so structured that it requires them. Oh, and I had it shortened just a bit. But my tailor handled that part because that is something that a non-seamstress cannot do.

[Thakoon shoes.]