Wearing Asiatica & February’s Linkup

Last week, my beloved photographer accompanied me into Asiatica, a most unique and high-end retail store in Kansas City. The brilliant folks at Asiatica offer one-of-a-kind garments created from vintage Japanese kimono pieces, contemporary artisanal fabrics, and other luxurious textiles. Each piece is designed and stitched in Kansas City with superb craftsmanship for a garment with style and verve that could last for decades.

I own two pieces of Asiatica and wore one last week for our visit and am featuring it today. I was able to get my piece from eBay. Honestly, Asiatica doesn’t show up very often on the second hand market–which suggests to me that when a woman gets an Asiatica garment, she doesn’t let it go and wears it for the rest of her life. And then she passes it on, maybe, to a great-granddaughter.

What attracted me to my vest? Here’s a few:

• It’s plaid and I love plaids
• I can make black and grey work with anything
• It just had one pocket for a bit of asymmetric
• It has a bias band and so is the pocket
• Long vests are just classic and can always be worn
• This could be a four season piece

And, well, it’s an Asiatica. I knew I was getting something that would not fall apart.

My end goal is to eventually get a special piece at one of Asiatica’s biannual sale (one is going on now) but for a while, I will also keep my eyes on the second hand market.

Just a few words about the necklace: this simple, modern, graphite triangular porcelain pendant was created by Sydney Ross. Sydney is a sculptor with a degree in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. She is the Gallery Coordinator for Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, Missouri, and designs jewelry and runs a business with her Mom. I really admire Sydney’s work and wanted this particular piece for a while. When I found my Asiatica vest, I just saw the two together!

Behind the showroom, Asiatica’s  racks and racks of neatly rolled vintage Japanese fabric are almost unbelievable. A team from Asiatica has been going to Japan yearly for forty years, so they have a depth of variety of patterns, textures, colors and fabric type. Of course, I had to touch!

Elizabeth Wilson, owner and founder of Asiatica, immediately recognized that I was wearing one of their pieces. She took a look at the label to try and date my piece. We know it was made circa 2002.

Links for Wearing Asiatica & Monthly Linkup

Asiatica

Cydney Ross

I’ve started compiling a list of online consignment shops. If you have a favorite online shops, even if it is in another country rather than USA, tell me and I will add it to my list.

Internet Thrift and Consignment Shops

EU

ASOS Marketplace-British and home to independent brands and vintage boutiques

Beyond Retro-UK

DePop–offices in London, Milan and NYC

eBay

Etsy

Trendsales  Danish

Vestiaire Collective-better and luxury brands

US

eBay anything and everything including fakes so you have to be careful

Etsy

Poshmark Shop you girlfriends’ closets. You can ask them questions and make offers.

Restitch Goodwill’s online resale site

The Real Real Luxury items and watch for reductions!

Thred Up-prices across the board with a little luxury sprinkled in.

Tradesy-better fashion and accessory brands (including luxury). The price tags are still a bit steep, but compared to retail, most items are a steal.

Union & Fifth-better brands and, of course, they have a selection of Chanel

Yoogi’s Closet-Luxury brands. specializes in bags.

That wraps it up for this week. Thank you for stopping by. I’ll have another blog bit next week. You are certainly welcome to leave a comment or two or three. I love to hear from you.

It Time for the Linkup!

Now to the 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup. For inspiration, I’m again kicking it off with a collage of the wonderful slow fashion stylists that linked up last month.

I appreciate all of you who link up but to be in the collage you must link up with something you scored at a consignment shop, eBay, or a charity shop. This can be either in the comment section below, in your linkup title or in your post. I do read each post and try to find an item that you have gotten from a second hand source (which can even be a friend).

This month eleven bloggers linked up at least once, sometimes more than once with gems that they searched for and thought deserved a second life. I now give you…

Last Months Slow Fashion Stylists from the 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup

Starting from the top left and going clockwise:

• Penny of Frugal Fashion Shopper -her IG is @frugalfashionshopper
• Jodie of http://www.jtouchofstyle.com – her IG is @jtouchofstyle/
• Charlotte of http://www.jtouchofstyle.com – her IG is @jtouchofstyle/
• Jess of Elegantly Dressed and Stylish-her IG is@ elegantlydressedandstylish
• Rena of It’s all Fine. Whatever Tickles the Fancy-Her IG is @fine.whatev
• Michelle and her IG is @seechele_styles
• Anna of Mutton Years Style and I and her IG is @mutton_style
• Patti of Not Dead Yet Style-her IG is @notdeadyetstyle
• Emma of Style Splash-her IG is @thestylesplash
• Maggie of Thriftshop Fashionistablog – her IG is @thriftshopfashionista/
• Michelle of Shebee on the Edge and her IG is @shelbeeontheedge
• Michelle and her IG is michelle_dvm99

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the linkup. Again, to be in the collage, the link title or in the blog, you have to mention what was pre-loved. I hope to see you at the link-up tomorrow!

The link up button is now on every post that I publish to make it easy for you to link up.

I link up with some great blogs every week. To see who they are go HERE.

Husband Michael gets credit for the photos of me and does a bit of editing from time to time.

Again, thanks for stopping by. Take care……..

Time for my usual link-up blurb!

It’s time for the February 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup which stays open until March 31st.

 

Any post on a blog, Instagram, Facebook or the like can linkup to this style celebration. If you can copy and paste the URL in the Linky box, you are good to go!

One item is quite OK—a hat, skirt, pants, shoes, purse, or a piece of jewelry.  That item (or items) can be from a thrift shop, eBay, consignment shop, vintage boutique, one of the online consignment shops such as The RealReal–or even something a friend gave you because they didn’t want it anymore.

When you do post, I would appreciate a description about your 2nd Loved item (or items), what type of shop you found it and what drew you to it. Tell as much or as little as you want. To be featured in my collage, which I will put on Instagram along with your links, you have to say what item is second loved. That is a “have to”.

If you have never participated in a linkup before, no fear. Go to Linkup 101 guide that is found on my 2 ^nd Loved 1^st Friday linkup page (also found at the top in the tab section).

Just click the frog below to link up and join the fun!

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