CLOTHES DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sabrina Zander models a vintage Georgi hat with feather ($30), from Catherine's Closet in Manoa.
|
|
Catherine's Closet
Search and rescue: Three boutiques try to make vintage and pre-owned fashions new again
EVER HAVE the feeling you were born the wrong time? If so, you have something in common with singer Catherine Fong.
Having come of age during the early Madonna era of big hair, lace, leggings and layers of crucifixes and bangles, plus undies as outerwear, "I think maybe I was deprived," she said. "The '80s were definitely not happening for me. The punk-rock thing was going on. I didn't feel like I had many choices. I wasn't that flamboyant. I love high heels and dresses, and that's what I wanted to wear."
» Catherine's Closet is at 2733 E. Manoa Road, Suite 204, at Keama Street (across East Manoa from Boston's North End Pizza). Parking is behind the building off Keama. Call 386-2746.
|
So instead of looking to the self-professed boy toy, Boy George or Johnny Rotten for inspiration, she looked to the glamour of the 1940s and the rise of the original Brat Pack in the 1950s.
"It was the scene, the parties; they were just so sophisticated."
Not that she would have been able to keep up with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and other luminaries such as Marilyn Monroe. Fong even carries martini sets and a minibar that is doubling as a dresser for now. As not much of a drinker, she admitted, "One sip and I'm gone. I would have been under the table."
As a singer, her performance style was influenced by Billie Holiday, down to her classic look with pearls, matched jewelry, white gloves and gardenias in her hair, and now, through her year-old boutique, "I can dress everyone like that!"
The appeal is in the fit of vintage styles, with tailoring rarely seen today outside of luxury brands. "A vintage dress always flatters a woman's figure," Fong contends.
HERS IS ONE of the classiest and best organized of Honolulu's vintage boutiques, with apparel and accessories dating about from the 1920s through 1980s, with a mix from sophisticated to bohemian. And Catherine's is developing a reputation as a source for hats, from simple feather hair ornaments to 1940s halo hats and helmet hats of the mod '60s.
"I'd been collecting slowly, my whole life," she said. "At first it filled an extra bedroom, and if a friend needed a gift or special dress, they'd come over and choose something.
"But it came to a point where my husband was either going to commit me or divorce me. It was getting out of hand, so I had to get professional about it and figure out how to make it a business."
Like anyone with the collecting bug, she was unable to resist anything of beauty.
"Most of the time they'd be a size 3 -- something in all my life I'd never be able to wear -- but it would be so beautiful I'd have to rescue it and give it a new life.
"Everything is handpicked by me because I don't want to have funny smells in my store. I just want to have everything nice.
"I enjoy it when women come in and bring in their friends to try things on. It's like a little fashion show, and I'm starting to do little private parties where groups of four can come in and have two hours all to themselves to shop to the music of Artie Shaw, Lena Horne and Martin Denny.
"I'm so glad that people are dressing up again," Fong said. "It's so fun to see beautiful girls in their 20s enjoying the vintage styles, though they like a little edge when they dress, so they like to mix it with contemporary designer pieces. Then it's not so literal, because they still have to be in touch with the time they're living in."