The funkiest swish the Green Mountains or the Alps will have seen in a long time. 

Or forget both and hit the High Tatras. Don't forget your teal-fuchsia photochromic goggles before you hop on the gondola. 

Order a neon-Chartreuse cocktail when you get to the first stop and take the gondola the rest of the way down. You can buy this very jacket here.

This is The Thing from Canada

You were in the Great Tundrous North, zipped up in a baffled down coat. No, not that flimsy unique jacket thing from SoHo c. 2015, but stuffed tight in a COAT like hot blueberries in a blintz on Delancey c. 1982. Sat around helping a friend boil down birch sap on a stove in a cabin, a cabane à sucre... catching up on some The Walrus back issues sitting dense on a shelf. In a blink, the fog out the window darkened left to right and you ran outside to see, What the?!? 
Stillness.
Then IT puddle-jumped over your foot, but you scooped it up with the mug you had in hand before it dashed again...Your friend saw you flail wildly about from the porch and yelled, WHAT are you doing NOW? (Reminding you that you weren't so great at keeping watch of the steaming vat of sap.) Yet upon seeing your mug's catch said, whoa, let's get more! and ran inside to get the other two mugs from the open shelf to scoop up the rest of IT...and here is what THEY are...

Pochoir, pochoir, in my boudoir...

This lovely French pochoir is a vision of Venetian exoticism, printed and hand colored by a French artist named E. Borne. Maybe once owned by a flapper who learned to knock three times at whisper low. Like at 86 Bedford Street, which was the coziest Bohemian dream.
If you are a bobo lost in Manhattan,this might be the missing piece for your pied-à-terre...

Fifth Avenue on safari

This pattern is elegant which belies the fabric choice on the main picture of this Givenchy pattern from 1970. (Is that couch material?) The drawn illustration reminds me of my other Star Trek themed post called, "Are you the New Empath?" Although, this pattern is little more Dr. Beverly Crusher. Rare designer patterns like this can be found here.

Game of Pewter Horns

A manly, horny beer stein.
Bring it with you next time you watch the show with friends.
Or carry it to an Oktoberfest, like Zum Schneider in the East Village,
or better yet, maybe the Bohemian Hall in Queens.
(However, I'm not sure you should actually drink out of it.)
It was sold here.

The Black Belles or Loretta Lynn back in the day wore

dresses like this                                  and this.

If Peter Beard had been a needlecrafter

Or if only Duran Duran somehow could have worked this onto the cover of Seven and the Ragged Tiger. If only they were more crafty and into psychedelic colors.
This needle point kit is called "JUNGLE FLORAL", designed by Alexandra Hill. Was sold here.

Luke, can you hear me now?

Darth Vader speakerphone with full duplex sound! Have a conversation without missing a beat, not like that white fruit phone or its clones. Half-duplex phones are like one lane roads: sound can only go one way at a time.  When you and your caller are laughing, he who laughs first is heard. Makes it hard to tell if your friend finds your own Boba Fett joke as funny as you do. AWKWARRRRD. But I digress...


With this old school land line speaker phone, that stands about 15 inches tall AND works in a power outage if your phone line is working, you'll know in a shake of a Tauntaun's tail if your friend is laughing too. You can buy it, box 'n all, here.

Lady Mary, Lady Edith, and Lady Sybil wore these

 

Downton Abbey styles you can sew and wear yourself: Poiret style gown here, 

Model T dusters here, and dropped waist dresses here.

Jumpsuits, flightsuits, moonsuits, spacesuits...

The way out of the boring-off-the-rack clothing of today, where threads just start peeling the moment you clip the price tags from the knitwear you bought at the bullseye or max stores, is threading your mom's sewing machine to make a spectacular outfit from the past.  Here's a slew.

Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag

Family favorites to think about starting sooner than later. Why not give yourself a head start this year so you don't kick yourself later? These were found here.

Hungarian ornithology

Rothschild Herend hand-painted mocha tea cup set. Claim them here.

Versace, folded in an envelope

More designer patterns.

The envelope needs some surgery, but look at that side hip ruffle. I say make it in a mid-weight crêpe de Chine.  There are very few Versace designs that Vogue made patterns of, this was no. 2375. I wish this draping style or even just sarouel trousers, would make a comeback in the US. (Update July 2016: Oh, I guess they have...)

Boots of Cover

It was a long, rainy walk from the Ebina station when I asked myself why I always did this to myself: suffer wet feet when abroad. The next afternoon I scoured the Shibuya shops for a pair of travel rain boots, light wellies, or as these seem to go by, "Shoes Cover of Boots Type", which in my mind I still call "Shoes Type Boots of Cover". I also scored a set of retractable earbuds with 3 different pads sizes to custom fit your ear's outer canal. It seems that if you think of it, they're already selling it in Japan.
These "Shoes Cover of Boots Type" pack flat, taking no room in your bag. I didn't have my phrase book on hand to ask if I could try them on, so I bought two sizes. If I had the phrase book, surely I would have been asking, "Size rain buy, for try, me the to boots, please?" and ended up buying three pairs. This is where I offered the too-big-for-me pair.

Child-friendly weaving

This table loom would be great for small projects or, as seemingly intended, for children to learn about weaving.
There is no app for that. It was sold from  here.

World War II Christmas

This came from an estate sale, a Lord and Taylor Christmas catalog from 1946. Lord and Taylor is on Fifth Ave in NYC, working hard to make a come back. For those in their 70s, it still has a certain allure. The pop-up tree in the front steals Christmas but the whole illustration of products and copy is great fun to peruse. What kind of gifts the well-to-do gave at the end of the war. See more unusual gifts here.

3 Chains of Gold

Set of 3 Prince, the greatest rocker of my soul, comics. Two are from Piranha and the third is from Revolutionary Comics. For real, right here.

Gargoyle on vellum

Where did this come from? I got it at a yard sale with a bunch of other books. When I really looked at it, I realized it was hand-painted on real vellum. Depicts a certain gargoyle in Siena on a street off a plaza, the building now houses a clothing shop. It seems like a Grand Tour souvenir circa 19th to early 20th Century. With a little care, this could be turned into a fantasy prop for a secret Harry Potter society, or a log book for an occultist frat house. See more photos here.

'Cause you are a woman

This pattern's cover shows two kinds of 70s males a woman could sew for. One is the guy who wants to get you into the hot tub to share a beer, and the other two are the kind of man you actually marry and prefer to stay away from you in the study. Bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, you only need this pattern to dress either man.

Tartan, ripe for a Westwoodian bustle

Does anyone remember that V. Westwood ad from the 90s showing a bustled miniskirt and topped off with a tiny top hat? Or so that's the memory I'm left with. Here are a few yards of this lovely, unusual Pendleton, vintage, woven in the USA. Nearly 5 yards, it is a punky plaid. It was sold here.