Twin-Set-Match!

Many years ago I had a red and white beaded cardigan in my Etsy wishlist. My wishlist there has always been enormous, and I can’t possibly by all the items, especially with the exorbitant postage rates to Australia. Even when an item itself is quite cheap, the postage and handling on top makes it insanely expensive to purchase online from individual sellers. (This is less of an issue when buying from huge retailers, who through sheer volume can keep their postage rates low.)

I really liked that cardigan (I love red and white together), but it was priced around $90 or more so I was content to admire it from a distance. Eventually, it graduated to unavailable status, and I mourned my double inability to buy it.

Years later while browsing in a Salvation Army thrift store, I came upon a soft red wool cardigan, silk-lined, with white beading. I pounced on it, unable to believe my eyes. It was amazingly similar to that one I had sighed over so long ago! Admittedly, large patches of the beading were unravelled on the sleeve cuffs, but it was priced at $4.

The original cardigan came from Etsy store Vanity Fashion Boutique, since closed.I took it home with me and removed the remnants of beading that were beyond my skill and patience to repair. There are still a few dangling pieces as you can see that need a little fixing up, but for its price, this was a Real Find! And now that I look again at these old Fashion Holy Grails (FHGs), I see that the beading forms a different pattern, but for all that, I seem to have serendipitously happened upon fraternal twin-sets (I couldn’t resist that pun). These beaded cardigans of the 1950s were mostly made in Hong Kong, probably the products of enormous factories and sweat-shops (another pun), so such similar colours and designs are only to be expected.

In a side-note, that red fish-scale patterned sequinned tank (classic 1960s, also out of Hong Kong) was another item that I missed out on, and subsequently managed to duplicate years later, albeit with one featuring a diamond pattern.

All good things come to those that wait! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for those other FHGs.

Photo: July 2016