Venus and Mars

I can't remember when I first heard that Karen Elson was opening up a vintage shop in Nashville--it was a while ago though and I've been anxious to go,  especially since Nashville isn't all that far from where my family lives. Karen Elson was one of my favorite models from the time I first got into fashion back in 2000 or so; her marriage to Jack White and her appearances with the Citizen's Band and as a Lula girl have only made me like her more. So I was extra excited when I did a random search on her and her shop today and came across this Pipeline post and discovered that her store Venus and Mars (run with local vintage seller Amy Patterson) has been open for a month now. My sisters Ashley and Lauren, my brother-in-law Danny the Antagonizer, and Kumar and I all jumped in the car and headed to Nashville for the day.

To tell you the truth we were half just going so that we might be able to sneak a peak of Karen or Jack. The words "rare high-end vintage duds" in the Pipeline article made my expectations for the store and hopes of being able to afford anything sort of low. We never did see Jack or Karen, but Lauren and I did end up buying a few things.  The prices of most of the pieces there were surprisingly low for such a prettily put-together and organized store.  The colors were dark and a bit '20s cabaret-like, complete with little chandeliers, a hazily lit dressing room, and big glass cases filled with old rhinestone jewelry and an old feather headdress or two.  (on top of that glass case was a book of old movie fan magazine articles that I've checked out and have been tempted to steal many a time from the library. I don't think it was for sale, but it was pretty fitting)

I ended up buying a leaf-print dress and the perfect little 1950s white blouse--I'll show you them later!  For now here are a few pictures of my sisters and my brother-in-law in the store . . .  (Danny made me get a photo of him brushing his beard with an old bakelite brush, but it didn't turn out, sadly)