Vintage Shopping – East Tennessee

I took a day last week to revisit an old shopping haunt, Kingsport,Tennessee.  Kingsport is like a lot of small towns across America, with businesses moving out of the downtown areas and onto the side of highways leading in and out of town.  Many of the downtown buildings now house antique malls, so that it is easy to spend an entire day wandering through lots of great old stuff.

Unfortunately, the one store that has a large inventory of vintage clothing was closed the day I visited, darn it!  Still, there was more than enough to keep me amused.  And on the way home I made a stop in Jonesborough, Tennessee, which is the oldest town  in TN.  They have a nice antique mall there as well, with a good selection of vintage clothing.

This is in the Jonesborough store, looking down on a booth of vintage clothing.  Sometimes it is worth going into these old places just to see the great old architectural features.

When I spotted this hat rack I got excited, but then noticed that it was dated 1991!

They had this super Pendleton mannequin, , dress and odd tie belt included.

I tried really hard, but just could not get a photo that did these lovely wedge sandals justice.

It is impossible to get a good photo of a halter dress with a full skirt that is just hanging, but check out the beautiful detailing on it:

You can tell that the ribbon is woven though the fabric, right?

I see this print all the time, and it always makes me smile.  I had this, and a few others in the same series, on my walls as a little girl.  My great-aunt had ordered them from an ad in a magazine.  I believe it was from Scott bathroom tissue.

Debbie Reynolds Dress Designer Kit Colorforms.  I loved Colorforms.

Before there was Project Runway, there was the Betsy McCall Fashion Designer set.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of Mattie’s cheerleading dress.  It’s made of wool flannel and lined in heavy satin and weighs a ton.  I can’t imagine jumping around wearing it.  At some point someone thought it would be fun to add a ripped fringe.  Just weird.

And what about this little early-mid 1960s cutie?  It has a function.  Can you guess what it is?

More and more, I’m seeing antique malls with booths that are selling new things that are “antiquey”.  The hard part is that sometimes these booths have a smattering of old stuff, and so one is forced to browse it anyway.  I know it is hard to make a living selling antiques and vintage items  these days, but I really hate when booths are allowed to sell any new thing.  Just my opinion.