A New Vintage Obsession

Dress & Belt: Bettie Page Clothing

Cardigan: Crossroads

Shoes: Chie Mihara

I’ve had sweater clips and shoe clips, and now I have a new obsession… dress clips.

A few weeks ago The Sophisticate and I were trawling the antique shops in Melbourne for wedding bands and I spotted these little beauties in a shop in Armadale. At first glance it appeared to be a pretty marcasite brooch, but on closer inspection they revealed themselves to be like the dress clips I’d admired on one of my booksellers earlier in the month.

They’re actually a bit of both.

Cunningly, the little clips can be attached to a frame that turns them into a brooch, or you can wear them separately like I did today.

I was wearing them when dropped in to one of my favourite antique jewelers and he was telling me that most dress clips were designed to multi-task this way, although over time the clips themselves tend to become orphaned.

There are so many different ways I’ve found to wear dress clips:Β You can use them to accent a dress, to adjust a neckline, to secure your cardigan or decorate your collar. You can use them as hair clips, as shoe clips or even as a pendant by clipping one over a necklace or a bit of ribbon.

These came from one of the swankier (i.e. expensive) antique shops in Melbourne, and they still cost me less than $50 – A quick look on EtsyΒ reveals hundreds… and unlike sweater guards they don’t seem to have hit a resurgence in popularity (yet) meaning that they’re all pretty affordable and easy to find.

I don’t know about you, but I’m buying up now!

28 thoughts on “A New Vintage Obsession

  1. Very interesting on the dress clips. This is a new concept to me. They are really pretty (checked out the Etsy ones too, nice!)

    I just know that somehow I’d forget & wash mine. Happens to me with pins & brooches too. LOL

    Love today’s outfit. Red is a great color against your dark hair πŸ™‚

  2. I was looking at sweater guards today as an idea for my respective mother & mil Xmas’ gifts but I might try dress clips instead! Your outfit is fab by the way! Hope the wedding plans are coming along well.

  3. Too funny! I just bought a sweater/scarf clip at Value Village/Savers last week! I thought it was keener then a traditional brooch as it doesn’t leave those pesky holes!

  4. I’d never heard of them before and now I want one! Didn’t know what sweater guards were either, but I could have done with one of them the other night. Maybe I can find a pair of dress clips and make a little chain to go with them so then they can be dress clips AND a sweater guard!

  5. Yowza! What a find! Art Deco design at it’s finest!

    Hi Lilli! I’m a fairly regular visitor to your blog, however, I don’t believe I’ve ever had the good manners to comment. You have immaculate taste and your blog is always a pleasure to visit πŸ˜‰

  6. Ooooooh, me like, me want!
    Having finally made my foray into etsy (for an iPad stylus of all things!) will definitely be buying a couple of these! Sparkly art deco! Doesn’t get much better! πŸ™‚

  7. I have never heard of dress clips before, but they are so pretty! Will definitely have to investigate further… Love this outfit too. I don’t really think you can go wrong with red, black and white with polka dots. You look gorgeous, as always πŸ™‚

  8. You are as cute as a button in this lovely frock!
    I don’t know about you, but I’m always throwing my dresses, sweaters, etc to be washed with my clips and broaches still attached. I always end up rushing to the washer when I hear that click-clank sound. Yikes!

  9. I’ve been looking out for Crossroads in Sydney based upon some of the cute things you’ve been sporting from them on your blog. I finally found one that had opened nearby and purchased a gorgeous red spotty tshirt from them. Unfortunately for me the elastic perished in the sleeve on the first day I wore it. So I asked for an exchange. They don’t send stock between shops so the assistant suggested I buy it online and get a refund for the shop bought one. Except that there is a $10 shipping fee online so it ends up costing $10 more to buy online than it does in the shop. I rang customer service and suggested the problem with this and was completely stonewalled. Needless to say I will not be buying anything from Crossroads again and if I had a blog I would be announcing it to the world what shoddy merchandise they sell and what appalling customer service they have!!!

      1. Well as it turns out – since I made my displeasure known the very lovely shop assistant went against company policy, drove out to woop woop and got the top herself – so I have the cute top again. I would still say that the company itself knows nothing about customer service but the staff in the boutique at Broadway are completely lovely!!

  10. I have this very vague memory of something in either my mother’s or grandmother’s jewelry box that I couldn’t figure out — I was guessing clip-on earrings but they seemed too painful. They might have been made of bakelite. Now I realize they must have been dress clips! Never even heard of them before. Thanks for solving the decades-old mystery. πŸ˜‰

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