Vintage Flair: Queen Mary Art Deco Weekend

Don your 1930s togs and join the retro party, in Long Beach.

SPECIALTY SHOPS... brim with beautiful, decades-old items, from beaded sateen gloves, the kind that go up to the elbows, to waistcoats embroidered with all sorts of shimmery threads. We can of course, wear all of the vintage treasures we discover whenever we please, and should, for saving the good hat, or the good gloves, or the good anything for a special day is generally not advised. (Every day is a special day, is the upbeat takeaway there.) But while many people who regularly rock the gorgeous '40s-era togs, complete with seamed stockings and perky fascinators, are a-okay with being the only gussied-up individual in the room, it is kind of a gas to mingle among other gussy-uppers also sporting some sort of bygone style. One place to do just that? On the Queen Mary, in Long Beach, during the forever-moored ship's annual...

ART DECO WEEKEND: This is the summer affair that's very much about architecture, and history, yes, but also socializing, and the sartorial pleasures, too. The 2017 festival, which is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 19 and Sunday, Aug. 20, will once include elements of both architecture (of the ship) and architecture (of clothing) in goodly proportion. A lecture spotlighting MGM costume designer Adrian is on the roster, as a look at absinthe. If you're into the styles of bathrooms from 80 or so years ago? That, too, will be discussed. A Swingin' Sunday Tea Dance, a Vintage Bazaar, and other time-travel-y, zap-to-the-past events will all roll out, too, as grandly as a carpet across a glittery ballroom. Have been aboard the time machine that is the Queen Mary? It's a slice of early-'30s-dom, with Scottish roots, ghostly tales, and grandeur to spare.

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