Book Club: Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic

A few years ago a client of mine introduced me to Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic. It's a vintage shopping /personal style how-to book from the eighties in he same vein as Cheap Chic, which I blogged about last year. Like Cheap Chic, this book has a ton of photos of cool girls in incredibly inventive outfits. I am especially impressed with the girl who successfully paired a peasant blouse with jodhpurs and flats. In what universe does this look actually work? I guess if you look like a quirky downtown version of Hana Schygulla in Love is Colder Than Death then anything is possible. Other highlights of the book include a glossary of fashion terms and early pictures of Madonna and Geena Davis, who actually looked pretty great before she discovered collagen. I was also pleased/shocked to discover that one of the girls in the book is wearing a belt that I have! I really hope it's the same one.

I love the pairing of her polka dot cardigan and a rhinestone-studded bow tie. Where can I get a rhinestone-studded bow tie???

This is totally the perfect hybrid of Sissy Spacek in Badlands and Sissy Spacek in The Coal Miner's Daughter. With a dash of Cybill Shepherd.

Doesn't it suck that Madonna turned out to be such an annoying, uninteresting person? I would totally want to be friends with this girl.

This girl is so adorable that I can't even deal with it. She makes that monkey fur chubby look as chill and casual as a hoodie.

Seriously, how is this outfit working? WTF.


This is one of my favorite belts ever, it reminds me of YSL's gypsy stuff. I wish that I could wear it over a fur coat like the girl in the book but that sounds like a fashion victim moment waiting to happen. Kind of like this whole sheer t-shirt thing....