Wednesday, August 27, 2008

More movie openings and views from our windows

You've seen our place INSIDE, now take a look at some pictures we have taken of our sunset views: The Citicorp Building on the left, and the N train going by in front of our windows on the right. Lovely, right?
More past movie projects are opening! It seems some modern films we rented vintage touches to a while back are already advertising and FINALLY coming out!
New York, I Love You, which we completed last April, 2008 is an homage to our home town with a big star-studded cast. The Brothers Bloom, which we finished back in March, 2007 (!!!) is also generating talk around town. We were recently told that Phoebe in Wonderland, also completed in 2007 and designed by the brilliant stylist team-turned-costume designers, Kurt & Bart, is soon to open. Insider information! Revolutionary Road, another DiCaprio/Winslet film we ALSO completed in 2007 is finally set to open the end of December for 11th hour Academy Award consideration. They are still doing some last-minute reshoots ( they were in today for costumes) and plan on shooting a completely new conversational scene between Kate and Leonardo, only he is not available so they are only shooting HER speaking…should be interesting how it is all spliced together! Alas, we were told they cut out all the beautiful 1930’s scenes for expediency, but you can still catch some of our choice 40’s and 50’s clothes! We know the movie “The Women” is coming out and we can’t wait to see this updated version, but we have done several theatrical versions and are pulling clothes for yet another one in San Diego. A yet unnamed ( by us - we like to be mysterious!) new film called us today that might start pre-production at the end of September, when the designer flies into New York. We will give you a clue - it takes place in the 1960’s! Together with some items pulled for 30 Rock and for Road Show, the new play at the Public Theater, we are picking up speed for the Fall season. Road Show is only renting items for copying but we are curious about the play….1870’s skirts? 1890’s women’s jackets? Men’s 1915 and 1930’s suits? It is a mystery. Good-byes: Nikoo went off to start at Brown and Amanda went back to Queens College. We are saying goodbye to Allison, who is off to multiple countries (Greece, China, France) with the Martha Graham Company, though when she is back on the mainland ( in her case, Williamsburg, Brooklyn) and she is available when we are in a crunch mode, she will come in and help out. We will be looking for new people to join us at Uffnervintage!

Friday, August 15, 2008

WHITTLING DOWN THE NAME CHOICES

Anabelle in Edwardian finery...Yasha proves the point that men can dress in women's garb too and look stunning!!!!
Yasha is excited about finally naming his friend so he
can take her out for a drink ( milk, of course, they are underage!)
Anabelle dons a leading-lady outfit for a future movie
release but is bound by the highest order of secrecy not to
disclose who it is to any of her friends!!! Not until the movie is released!
My (Helen's) adorable Belgian cousins came to visit and dress up ( if only we could fly them in regularly from brussels to model for us!)
We have whittled down the name-that-mannequin-head choices to our five favorites:
Betty
Olive
Mitzi
Hattie
Heidi
Thanks to all who sent in suggestions...now we have to vote for the winner!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

TURKISH DELIGHT!!

We always delight in Nora's look du jour when she arrives at work and transforms herself for the day - here she is, Mormon girl cum Annie Hall cum victorian bloomer lass...Helen puts on her reading glasses to fully appreciate each new day's creation!
Uffnervintage crew at goodbye lunch!! ( from left, clockwise) Amanda, Masha, Nora, Marietta, Helen,Nikoo and Allison.
Amanda waving good-bye, holding her newly acquired 1960 fur-trimmed glam jacket just finished her internship with us - we will miss her!
(**written by Allison**)
Helen treated us all to a vintage-family tasty Turkish treat today for lunch!! Amanda stopped by for lunch and said her goodbyes, since her internship with us has ended and she’ll be starting school again soon. We took a lovely 15 minute walk over the Long Island City bridge to get to the restaurant, and passed by stores and territory I had no idea existed over our way. We all shared a large plate of fresh salad, eggplant salad/sauce, and separate entrees including a hilariously large falafel sandwich, as well as exotically prepared dishes of lamb, and chicken. On the way back, we passed by one of those huge dollar store-like shops where they sell cheap “silk” lingerie, sparkle flip-flops, and dish towels. A mix of us stopped in and made some quick purchases. Marietta found a black mesh back-rest for the office chairs that I think everyone seems genuinely in love with, so we may be making a trek back to buy a couple more and update our “office scene.” Some new films have been flooding in the past few days, and we may be getting returns soon from “My One and Only,” so business is taking off!

Monday, August 11, 2008

homage to the Olympics

OUR OLYMPIC ENTRIES: Marietta in the tap dance event!!! Helen in the hiking event!!! Masha, Nikoo and Allison in the red hat tossing event!!!!
Helen was in Mohonk Mountain House ( more like an estate!) on vacation and discovered her “inner athlete”….she brought her usual 3 books with her but never even cracked open one! A typical day would be a 7:15 AM naturalist-led kayaking trip and then a huge hike to the top of a mountain and then back down again to canoe around the lake. There was no stopping her! ( except for meals! Helen can skip reading but NEVER meals!!!) Employee news: Our terrific summer intern Amanda has left to get ready for college this fall and we welcomed back our equally wonderful spring semester intern Nikoo back as an paid employee for the month of August, before she goes off to Brown University. Masha leaves Thursday for a month in Russia to see her Dad, brother and friends. Marietta is back to help repair damaged clothes from “Amelia” and Nora is back from California tomorrow only to leave yet again for a family wedding in two weeks! Helen hopes to take out the gang for a goodbye/welcome back meal at a local Turkish restaurant this week. This week we have actors coming in for fittings for the two 20’s and 30’s films we have started on. These seem to be the “decades de jour” these days…….even a well-known clothing designer was in to rent 30’s gowns to copy!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Staff photos & current projects!

Helen peeking out from the Amelia wardrobe above, Masha measuring a returned suit and Allison mending ( who says you have to be uncomfortable while you work?)





the end of summer is
approaching ( and none too soon! We hate the heat!!!) and we thought you might want to see how we are faring.

As you can see, we continue to mend and check in our large 20's and 30's film Amelia starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, directed by Mira Nair - just in time for a gangster flick of the same eras that we are starting next week! We also hope to work on a 60's movie coming up - helen can just pull the wardrobe from her own closet ( NOTHING gets thrown out! )

On TV, if you are a "Mad Men" fan and watched their promos on all the morning talk shows, you would have seen our clothes.

FILM NEWS on our projects:

"Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants " Part 2 should be opening soon. It seems like it will be a modern-day flick but they rented everything from 1950's through 1980's - so perhaps their characters like to dress in vintage!

WATCH OUT for "The Changling," a 1920's era film based on a true story starring Angelina Jolie
Other recently completed projects jump ahead to the 1950's !
Keep your ears out ( it's a musical!) for "Cadillac Records." and film based on the real Chess Records, in which Beyonce plays Etta James, Mos Def plays Chuck Berry and Jeffrey Wright plays Muddy Waters...should be FABULOUS!

"Revolutionary Road" directed by the great Sam Mendes starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet ( sounds like a familiar starring duo?) is also 50's and should be out soon.

The shooting for "My One and Only" ( no relation to the Broadway show, which we ALSO worked on!) with Renee Zellweger has just been completed but we can only say that it is 1950's and that Renee was here for fittings and she is just a lovely, sweet person! We won't give away the plot until there is more PR about it!
Remember, we are still soliciting names for our new friend below...so just click on the "comments" and tell us how you like the blog or if you have a brilliant name to suggest!