}`HPLASErJ€}.mt 10 .hm 3 .h1Grayson Enterprises Ltd. First NA Serial Rights .h2Page #. Copyright 1990 .h38 Dec. 1990 1,124 words .LS2        AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION THE VINTAGE FASHIONS STYLE SHOW AT GENEVA, ILLINOIS  Written and Photographed by June Grayson   .lm12 .rm52  ΌΌ   When Geneva celebrates its annual    ΌΌ  Historic Preservation Days, one of the    ΌΌ  high points is a three day Vintage Fash   ΌΌ  ions Style Show combined with a leisurely    ΌΌ  Victorian High Tea in the city's leading    ΌΌ  restaurants.  .lm .rm    If you love something, you want to share it. Marbella Glass   and Marilyn Long have discovered the ideal way to share their   love of vintage clothing. Every year they produce a vintage  π03 Š fashions style show using garments from their own personal col  lections as part of their community's observation of its historic   past.  Residents of Geneva, Illinois, astride the picturesque and   peaceful Fox River only forty miles west of Chicago, are deter  mined to preserve the best attributes of small town living in   spite of surrounding suburban expansion. So each spring Geneva   celebrates its heritage with a three day community festival   called Historic Preservation Days. Everyone - the city govern  ment, the Chamber of Commerce, business people, local organiza  tions, and residents - cooperate to make the celebration a suc  cess. There is usually something for everyone: quilters, home   remodelers, health enthusiasts, shoppers, diners, and fashions   devotees.  Only about 350 people each year, however, are fortunate   enough to secure the tickets for the popular Victorian High Tea   and Vintage Fashions Style Show held each afternoon in one of the   three downtown restaurants. Tickets are limited because restau  rant seating capacity is limited.  These lucky ladies - and a few intrepid gentlemen - will   spend 90 minutes sipping on assorted teas and sampling dainty   sandwiches, scones, desserts, and house specialties. They have   come to see the dozen lissome models (with those 18 inch waists   you would die for, but not diet for) in their more than two dozen  π0- Š authentic costumes from a romantic past.  Five years ago Marbella Glass and Marilyn Long pulled the   first vintage fashions style show together in four weeks at the   urgent plea of the program committee of the Geneva Chamber. A   sellout from the first, the show has now grown into a year-around   project for these two Geneva friends who are also local antique   dealers.  Vintage clothing is an increasingly popular collectible in   Geneva, as well as throughout the United States. What used to be   considered simply old and out of date, has now achieved status   from an artistic and historic, as well as an investment, point of   view. Since "vintage" means "of a particular time," fashions lend   themselves to classification according to decade. For their   shows, therefore, Glass and Long usually start with an ensemble   from the 1880s and finish with the 1950s.  Long writes and prepares the printed program, different each   year, that weaves a tale and describes each costume in full. The   models are prepared to stop and answer questions from the audi  ence about any item they are wearing.   „„  How do they secure their costumes? "They just come to us   all year long, as if by design," Long says. "We always have   enough so that we never have to use a costume more than once."  The two friends do all of the acquisition, cleaning, and  π0- Š repairing themselves. They are mortal enemies of dirt. "Cloth  ing disintegrates because of dirt, not age," Glass asserts. "You   can wash almost anything, even a beaded dress. Soak a garment in   your bathtub in water, a gentle laundry soap such as Woolite, and   a tiny amount of bleach if necessary. The most important thing   is to rinse the garment thoroughly. Arrange it carefully to dry   on a white sheet laid over a piece of plastic on your rug."  Long does the research and assembles the accessories for the   outfits. "Accessories are so important in presenting an outfit   correctly," Long believes. "The hardest things to find are the   shoes. So few of them have survived. If we can't find any to   fit, we just ask our model to wear a plain black pump." Glass, the owner of the Geneva antique store, A Step In The   Past, has collected vintage clothing for 25 years. "Whenever I   had a booth at an antique show, I would insist that my helpers   dress up in romantic Victorian outfits. That was when most women   still wore slacks all of the time. People loved the beautiful   costumes. It brought romance back into their lives." Long, the owner of Geneva's Crary House, began collecting   vintage clothing when she lived in Europe. In addition to writ  ing the program, she is also responsible for securing the models,   all local volunteers. "It's such a pleasure to call them," Long   beams. "They always say - don't leave me out. I love doing it.   I look forward all year to doing your show."  π0- Š If you decide to collect vintage clothing, how do you start?   "Elderly relatives and friends may have clothes packed away in   their closets, too good to throw away, but no longer useful,"   Glass suggests. "They might be happy to give or sell them to   someone who could make good use of them. Record the stories they   tell you about the clothes. The history can be as interesting as   the clothes and will add to the value of your collection." "Look for accessories as well as clothes," Long adds.   "Hats, feathers, purses, gloves, and shoes are always needed to   make an outfit complete. Even a damaged garment may still be   worth buying just for a special trim." Because of the sheer volume of collectible clothing avail  able, you may find it helpful to specialize by a period such as   the Victorian or a category such as hats. "Collections that   feature one fashion designer are especially popular but are   difficult to find and expensive to assemble," Long thinks.  Glass and Long are free to concentrate on the style show   itself because the city's Chamber of Commerce handles the busi  ness side of the show, such as the publicity and the sale of the   tickets. The participating restaurants are happy to cooperate   because the shows are scheduled for the afternoon between two and   four so their usual luncheon and dinner guests are not inconven  ienced. The same program is given each of the three days but at   a different restaurant each day. "We would like to be able to  π0- Š accommodate more people, but we don't want to move the show to a   big hall," Glass says. "Then we would lose the warmth and small   town feeling, as well as the wonderful ambience, our three beau  tiful restaurants provide," Glass says.  Little wonder that tickets go so fast for these special   shows and that Glass and Long - and their models - keep coming   back for more. "We can tell when our shows are a hit," Long   says. "That makes it all worthwhile. We don't get paid. Our   models don't get paid. They do it out of love. I guess that is   why we do it, too."  #####