Fleamarket Finds, Vol.6 - Basque Country edition

Oh my, LONG time no write! In my favour I can say a LOT has been going on and keeping me busy, but that also means I have so much to update that I better start writing! 

So back we go to last summer's holydays. As some of you might know, I am originally from an area called The Basque Country, which is currently divided between Spain and France, and since my family still leaves there I try to visit a few times every year. 

This summer, for the first time (!), we managed to visit an open air fleamarket/fair in the French side of The Basque Country, after having heard they are exceptionally good. We did a bit of online searching, and finally decided to visit one in a small town by the coast called Ziburu, and it happened to be exceptional indeed! Our main concern was that we had to fly back, so what we could buy was limited by that, but we still managed to make some very good finds. 

I came home with three pairs of vintage shoes and two vintage purses, and Lassi bought a set of copper pots. The purses were 1910's-1920's, of which one was crotchetted in silver with cut steel beads and the other one in dark brown with (mostly rusted, but still ok looking) cut steel beads. The brown purse specially caught my attention, since I had never seen any like it. It is built as a long tube with a hole in the middle and two rings on each end, and meant to hang from the belt. The rings can be moved passed the hole in order to access the areas in which items (probably small items such as coins etc) are stored, and replaced so that nothing comes out while that purse is worn. I love it! So ingenious. 

Upper picture: full hoard
Lower picture: 1910's-1920's purses

Of the three pairs of vintage shoes one was specially rare and beautiful, but only one of the pairs fit me and unfortunately enough it wasn't the rarepIr. The first one was a gorgeous pair of white and green leather 1930's shoes with cutout details, which (according to the seller) seem to have belonged to a French lady who was the first French woman to fly in an airplane. The other two pairs were both 1940's brown suede shoes, one of them with a really cute front drape detail (this is the pair that fits me) and the other one with cutout details (which has since found a new loving home). 

Looking forward to visiting the Basque fleamarkets again next summer!

Up: 1930's shoes
Middle and down: 1940's shoes

Fleamarket finds, Vol.4

I love ex-tempore visits to fleamarkets, some of the best finds happen that way! I decided to quickly visit a charity shop yesterday in between work and my dance lessons, and it was definitely worth it. I found a vintage purse and a vintage-style piano shawl for around 15€! :-)

The shawl is something I had been looking for for a while. I have two authentic turn-of-the-century silk piano shawls, but they have to be used with extreme care due to their age and fragility. I had been searching for a "new" shawl in the same kind of style in order to be able to use it, for example, for tribal fusion bellydance costuming, but all I had found so far were terribly shiny and clearly made out of synthetic materials. I'm not sure about what material this is really made of, but in practice it looks like rayon, and it's sturdy enough for me to be able to use it without worries! Plus it has an extra-long fringe, I'm in love!

The piano shawl and the vintage purse

The purse was a big surprise because it's the first real vintage accessory or piece of clothing I've found in that shop for months. It is beautifully hand-stitched, and the diminute size of the detailling is quite amazing. Not only are both sides of the purse fully stitched, the edge and even a trim on the handle are also decorated. The lining is silk, and it seems to be in such a crazy good condition that I suspect it may have been replaced later on. I'm not a big expert in this kind of purses, but I would guess it's from the 1940's. Quite a find!

Some details of the 1940's(?) vintage purse