I am very pleased to introduce our 3rd featured seller for the VFG Ruby Lane blog and here she is Christine Moore from Alley Cats Vintage.

1. What was your first vintage acquisition and where is it now?

As a kid I always had a stash of dress-up clothes tucked away under my bed. I would walk around the streets wearing old dresses and hats. My Mother gave me her formal evening gowns she wore in high school and I played in those….it makes me sick to think about it now. But I was always on the prowl for more old clothing to add to my stash/collection. In my teenage years my sister started buying vintage lingerie and underwear for me as a joke. Luckily I carefully stored these items and when ebay came to life I started selling.

2. What was your favorite or best buy ever?

I can’t name any particular buy as my favorite but I have been to some beautiful homes for estate sales. One in particular was on a beautiful spring morning at a nearby farmhouse which was on a small rise overlooking my town. These were nice friendly kind people who were selling off the remains of their Mother’s possessions in order to sell her house. I asked if they had any of their Mother’s clothing to sell. I got the usual blank stare and a “no , none of Mom’s clothing is left but Grandmother’s clothing is downstairs”……in the background I could hear a voice saying “here’s Aunt Bessie’s shoes in these shoe boxes”. Yes it was a beautiful farmhouse filled with treasures. I suppose it was my favorite buy since all was so clean and vermin free.

3. What was your most unusual buying experience?

I can’t say that I’ve had any very unusual buying experiences. I mostly buy from estate sales, auctions and antique stores. I find that sellers on the whole are nice and friendly. I do find it sad sometimes that the original owner of the items I am buying have passed on. I like to think they would be pleased to know the clothing they have so carefully preserved and saved is being admired and passed to new owners.

4. If you had a time machine which decade or year would you choose to go back to and bring back some clothing or jewelry?

It would definitely be the 1950’s. That’s when the ‘cocktail hour’ came into fashion and along with it some of the most beautiful cocktail dresses and of course that cocktail hat!

5. What are your favorite, most helpful reference materials/sources?

Another passion of mine is old magazines. I have stacks of Ladies’ Home Journals, catalogs such as Sears, Aldens, reference books and another of my favorite mags is Hats. I also love the old movies.

6. What item were you most tempted to keep that is available in your shop right now?

It would be my hats…all of them. I have about 200 at this time and the number keeps growing. Somewhere along the line I have just fallen in love with hats, almost any age or style.

I did recently have the pleasure of seeing a few of my items used on the new television show "Vegas".

Here are some of the lovely hats from Christine's shop: