On my visit to Ermine Vintage, I spotted a fabulous striped dress that had to come home with me. The dress was made sometime in the 1980s but has style references from the 1930s and 40s.
I have to say that I’m pretty bold with color combinations, but I don’t typically wear blue and purple together. However, something about this dress just works. I can’t wait to pair it with a nice belt (to break up the stripes) and some cute boots to make it come alive.
When I talked to Elizabeth (the storeowner) about the dress, she said it was one of her favorites from the store because it was made by Lanz of Austria. The Lanz brand was started by Josef Lanz and Fritz Mahler in -you guessed it- Austria in 1922. Josef moved to the U.S. and in 1936, started a new store in New York. The brand has spread round the country ever since.
What started as a business based mostly on the manufacture of traditional costumes for Austrians quickly turned into an American favorite. This brand is on the top of the list for those vintage shoppers who go label hunting.
Anderson said she replaced the elastic band in the dress as a part of typical refurbishing she does to items she puts in the store. There are a million things you could rave about, but I think that the best thing of all is that the dress was only $10. That is by any standard, pretty hard to beat.
Rags from the Past 
Accessibility is for sure an issue in good vintage clothing. I can never find vintage baseball caps, do you know where something like this might be sold?
I’m not very versed in the vintage sporting goods category, but If I do come across something I’ll be sure to let you know. For now, you could try checking out Uncommon Objects down on Congress….(I’ve heard that they might have that kind of thing).