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: 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 Etsy 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!
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 🙂
Oh yeah, my too! I’ve lost number of how many brooches I’ve ruined by putting them through the wash.
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.
Thanks Claire! Wedding plans going really well – it’s so soon now, I can hardly believe it!
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!
Definitely! There’s some lovely ones available.
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!
I think that sounds like a GREAT idea!
The belt adds so much to the outfit. I love it!
LOL, not really, but it doesn’t look quite right without it!
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 😉
Yay! I’m glad you’ve been enjoying reading – Thanks for the comment 🙂
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! 🙂
An iPad stylus!? I didn’t even realise they sold them!
Love the dress clips! They are really very pretty! Very vintage indeed!
Kxx
Thankyou, Kitty 🙂
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 🙂
Thankyou! I do like the combination of red, white and black!
It’s really nice and fresh 😉
Thankyou 🙂
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!
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!!!
Oh dear! I’m sorry to hear that!
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!!
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. 😉
LOL, either that, or shoe clips, I’d say!
Absolutely gorgeous!!