By Lisa Hix — In the late 19th century, from the moment that American women were granted the freedom to leave their houses unescorted, they encountered a pest known as “the masher.” Generally, a smarmy mustachioed fop, this unfamiliar man winked at or brushed up against a shop girl on the streetcar, loomed over and stalked a working woman walking down the street, called out “hey turtle-dove” to teenage girls. The most galling mashers groped, hugged, and kissed any girl or woman they declared...

Leading the Charge Against Casual Style, Armed With Antique Clothes and a Bike

By Lisa Hix — Tziporah Salamon is used to being photographed—by everyone from New York City tourists to famous "New York Times" street-fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. She's impossible for shutterbugs to resist, when they catch her riding around the city on her turquoise Bianchi, often a symphony of lush colors, decked head-to-toe in exquisite, embroidered, antique fabrics. Salamon also caught the eye of 30-year-old photographer Ari Seth Cohen, who made waves in the fashion world when he launched his...

Everything You Know About Corsets Is False

By Lisa Hix — The corset has a bad reputation. And unfairly so, according to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who says this undergarment of centuries past is not nearly as evil or confining as modern folks have come to believe. With the Edwardian Balls just around the corner, we started ogling gorgeous antique corsets on the Internet, including this 1895 pink-and-black Y&N corset (right). Then, we asked Steele, the author of , to set the...

A Party for Edward Gorey and the Edwardians

By Lisa Hix — One thing I've learned after living in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly 13 years, people here love an excuse to dress up—particularly in vintage clothes, hats, and costume jewelry—and create another world. The Edwardian Ball originally started in 1999 as a small nightclub event to honor macabre storybook illustrator Edward Gorey. He's perhaps most famous for his "Gashlycrumb Tinies," an ABC book reciting the ghastly ways 26 children died. While Gorey was actually publishing his work...

Good Girls and Bad Boys: How to Achieve That Cool '50s Rockabilly Look

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — Jayne Mansfield is buried in my hometown. You could drive past the cemetery and see her heart-shaped headstone from the road. We had our own historical society, a tiny little museum, if you can even call it that. I remember going on a class trip there once. Some of her things were displayed, like long sequined cocktail dresses and some of her little personal effects. That stayed with me into my adult years: “Wow, as cheesy as my little hick town is, Jayne Mansfield is buried...

Dress Hound Cherie Federau Explains How She Makes Vintage Work for Her

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I’ve pretty much always been a little bit fashion-nutty, ever since I was about 16 years old and I discovered Vogue. I started like a lot of other people, buying vintage to recreate the looks that I saw but couldn’t afford as a teenager. Then slowly over the years, as my hobby turned into more of an obsession, I became interested in the designers behind the labels and it just snowballed from there. Everyone I knew was constantly coming to me to dress them and lend them vintage clothes....