Lists two thousand thrift and consignment shops and offers hundred of tips on how to get the most out of thrift store shopping, including what top labels to look for, the art of negotiation, and spotting quality jewelry. Original. 20,000 first printing.
Elizabeth M. Mason,
The Paper Bag Princess
Elizabeth Mason traveled the globe in the late 1980s as a young model, actress, writer, and theatrical producer. Originally from Toronto, Mason now calls Los Angeles her home. While spending many years traveling the world working as a model and actress, she devoted her leisure time pursuing her passion for collecting vintage clothing and in the spring of 1995 opened her first vintage couture boutique, The Paper Bag Princess in West Hollywood, California. This unique Mecca for vintage designer fashion celebrated a client list of Hollywood's who's who, international fashion designers, and fashionestas worldwide, from Julia Roberts to Donatella Versace.
Later that same summer Mason release her first book, The Rag Street Journal a comprehensive guide to the best non-profit thrift shops throughout North America, published by Henry Holt, New York. The Rag Street Journal received tremendous attention from the vintage and fashion worlds alike, and Mason was featured on the Ophra Winfrey Show, as well as numerous other national style network programs. She followed the success of her first book with Valuable Vintage, The Insiders Guide to Pricing and Collecting Important Vintage Fashions, Random House, New York 2002.
That same year in 2002, Mason opened her second boutique in her hometown of Toronto, and after ten tremendously successful years in West Hollywood, she moved her flagship boutique the spring of 2005 to a beautiful new location in Beverly Hills followed by a launch of her own woman's contemporary, eveningwear collection, Elizabeth Mason Couture.
Mason's decision to launch her own couture collection came to her heart after years of working with many of the world's top fashion designers who had come to rely on her discerning eye season after season, for unique design inspiration from her vast vintage collections. The collection was grounded in her client's demands as they requested she create something special for them in their size, but with the glamorous and sexy flair synonymous with her important vintage couture collection.
It is no secret that Mason finds her design inspirations in the gorgeous vintage gowns that she chooses for her numerous celebrity luminaries to wear for their red carpet appearances, as well as from her personal vast archives of significant vintage couture from the late 1930s through the early 1970s.
On October 14th, 2009 Mason launched her couture collection, as well as an exclusive Vintage Couture department in the prestigious designer salon at THE ROOM at The Hudson's Bay Company, Queen Street, Toronto, Canada.
Mason is also a certified appraiser, and is considered to be one the world most knowledgeable authorities in vintage and contemporary clothing, antique textiles and accoutrements and works extensively as an expert witness at trial. She lectures frequently on the subject of vintage fashion at NYU and UCLA, as well as various other fashion organizations and women's entrepreneurial group across North America, and has appeared on the Today's Show with Katie Curic to discuss vintage fashions at the 2006 Oscar Awards, as well as a special on vintage clothing collecting with Jane Pauly. She is presently hosts an exciting new podcast site, WWW.Amusebouches.com where she investigates and reviews all the latest trends and happening in the vintage couture industry worldwide.
