Herald photos by Garret Leiva Lynn Philo models an 1800s dress with tight-fitting sleeves, narrow shoulders and no less than 33 cord-covered tassels dangling from the hem during the Vintage Fashion Show and Lilac Tea Sunday at the Presbyterian Church in Traverse City. The event was a fund-raiser for both the City Opera House Heritage Association and the Friends of the Con Foster Museum.
Lilac Tea and Vintage Fashion Show fund-raiser for Con Foster and City Opera House
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The Lilac Tea and Vintage Fashion Show was a winning combo Sunday afternoon.
The event was a swirl of color, style and sophistication, a rendezvous of straw, linen and silk. Attendees' hats, which ranged from classic to outrageous to floral profusion, rivaled the vintage fashions showcased on the runway.
More than 220 attendees filled the membership hall of the Presbyterian Church to drink tea, nibble dainties and check out the costumes - both on and off stage. This year's fashion show featured 44 outfits, most from the collection of Nancy Bordine, a vintage clothing collector who has organized the fashion show for the past seven years.
Enthusiasm ran high as a living history lesson paraded down the runway, sporting outfits ranging from an Odawa dance apron and leggings to early 1900s beach wear to a 1940s wedding dress and suit. Other costumes included the original Cherry Festival Queen's dress from 1926, a classic 1950s outfit (think June Cleaver) and a polyester knit disco dress, complete with platform sandals.
"This is a really good idea to combine the events," said Joan Lefferts of Traverse City. "The best part to me is it is nice to see little girls with glove and hats learning how to be ladies. It's about as anti-MTV as it gets."
Lindsay Jacobs, 14, attended the tea in a classic flapper outfit from the 1920s, taking home a prize for her stylish ensemble.
"I thought this was lots of fun and interesting," said Jacobs, a Kalkaska resident who attended the tea with her mother and grandmother. "I liked the swimming suits and the tasseled black Victorian dress."
The merging of two Traverse City classic events was the brainchild of Ann Hoopfer, director of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center. The Friends of the Con Foster Museum have sponsored the Vintage Fashion show for the past six years, but this year on-site renovations at the Heritage Center threatened to cancel it. When Hoopfer learned that the annual Lilac Tea also might also be canceled, due to extensive remodeling at the City Opera House, she wondered whether the two events could combine forces.
"I just called them and said, 'What do you think?'" Hoopfer recalled.
So the race was on between the two sponsoring organizations - the Wequetong Chapter of the Questors, who hosted the tea, and the Friends of the Con Foster Museum, who hosted the fashion show - to see who could sell more tickets and table sponsorships. Proceeds from the event will benefit both the Con Foster Museum and the City Opera House.
As for Bordine, she is a one-woman whirlwind when it comes to the annual fashion show. She spends hundreds of hours preparing for the show, writing the script every year and choosing the outfits and accessories as well. With help from her husband and in-laws, she had the backstage dressing room organized down to each accessory that accompanied the outfits, a great help as models rushed in for the next costume change.
Bordine enlisted a dozen models to showcase the vintage clothes, a few pieces of which came from Vintagey of Traverse City. Peg Jonkhoff, a veteran model in the vintage fashion shows, modeled a late 1800s lawn dress she owns.
Judith Murray was modeling for the first time at the show. The former professional model loved the chance to wear vintage clothes - her favorite outfit of the day was a toss-up between the June Cleaver dress and the gorilla fur coat.
"It just gives you a different outlook, kind of makes it come alive," she said. "You become that person or character when you put on the clothes."
"We all have little girls inside us and it is fun to let that little girl blossom out of you," she noted. Kathleen Williams models “the two-week wedding dress,” named for the way brides rushed out to buy a dress and get married two weeks before their intended shipped out to war during the 1940s.
Nancy Ferrar of Traverse City sips tea while wearing a velvet hat she made herself and a vintage dress. The Wequetong Chapter of the Questers presented the tea and savories.
Above: Jana Lindberg of Traverse City wears her hat adorned with two teddy bears holding their own tea party.
Below: Models from the Vintage Fashion Show gather on stage for a grand finale of fashion spanning from the first European settlers to the National Cherry Festival.
Peg Jonkhoff, chair of the Grand Traverse Heritage Center’s capital campaign, models a lawn croquet summer dress which was a gift given to her from Gretchen Vortruba.
Sylvia Norris performs one of several old time harp tunes she presented during the Vintage Fashion Show and Lilac Tea.
