A Closet Visit With Ginger, A Real Style Inspiration

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, our latest Vintage Loves lookbook was shot at the home of a lovely couple, Ginger and David Teague.  David is the owner of an antique shop in Lambertville, NJ (just across the bridge from New Hope), called America, and the two of them have exquisite taste.  When we met Ginger, we couldn’t believe how much she reminds us of our Free People girl, Ginger! She showed us around her boudoir, a room in their home full of her most sentimental treasures. It was so inspiring to listen to her talk about the pieces she loves most and the stories behind them.  Step inside Ginger’s boudoir below and read about her amazing personal vintage loves.

Ginger is wearing a Victorian dress from our Vintage Loves collection.

“I don’t know what I would do without this box! I love the little drawers and it holds all my favorite jewelry.  The Edwardian diamond ring is one of my favorites…Edwardian is one of my favorite periods of jewelry because everything looked like lace cutouts.”

“The vintage Rolex was a gift from David one Christmas.”

“My grandmother was wearing this pin when she met my grandfather and she said that it was what made him cross the room to come and talk to her at the dance.”

“After my grandmother passed away we were going through her house and we found this picture that she drew… no one knew that she could draw or that she would draw something like this. It was a really cool thing to find.”

“I’m wearing one of my favorite things…this is a Victorian garnet. I bought it at an antique store, and I don’t know if this is true, but they told me that back then the thinking was that these garnets had sobering properties so the bigger the garnet the more alcohol it would absorb.”

“My old turn of the century beaver top hat, on the right, is great for flea marketing!”

“This bracelet is actually turned backwards…there’s a secret message that was carved on the inside, maybe in the 30’s, that says ‘all my love all my life.’ So it makes you wonder…it could have been secret lovers, who knows.  I had it turned inside out so I could wear it like that all the time.”

“I had an opportunity to work with Nina Garcia a couple of years ago, and I asked her for her advice on shoes because I love high heels. She recommended this brand and man was she right…Pour La Victoire…they make these big platform shoes but they feel like slippers. You can walk in them for hours and they don’t hurt. Most of my shoes are platforms…I wear heels pretty much every single day.”

“I don’t have a lot of vintage shoes because they’re not always in the best shape but I have two pairs that I love. My spectators…in the summer, this is the shoe for everything.”

“My other favorites are the shoes I have on…these boots were men’s military boots. I can’t even estimate how old they are. I found them at a flea market and thankfully I fit in to them. Whenever I’m not wearing platform heels I’m wearing these, so it’s one extreme or the other. And they’re falling apart and I take them to the cobbler to keep them alive so hopefully they will have many years left in them.”

“I have so many of these white Victorian dresses…they’re like PJ’s , they’re the most comfortable dresses! Maybe I was Victorian in a past life or something.”

“But I also have a hippie side… I love these flowy 60’s shirts…this one has some fun lurex metallic thread in it and it’s so soft and comfortable.”

“My wedding dress… it’s vintage and I loved how the fabric in the back moved like wings when I walked.”

“I think this mirror is from the 1930’s…it’s from the Waldorf Astoria hotel. So it’s got a cool history to it and it’s great for hanging necklaces! I am a super sentimental person and there’s not a day that I’m not wearing one of these necklaces.”

“The one on the right is like a talisman necklace, it’s a collection of jewelry that belonged to my great great grandparents on different sides. The cross is the only piece of jewelry that my great grandmother owned and I have a picture of her wearing it in Austria in her last photo before she came to America. On the left is a watch chain that belonged to my great grandfather and then he passed it down to my grandmother and she past it down to me. I put this antique cameo on it and the locket that has their picture in it is on the back, so when I wear it it falls behind my neck. Second from the left is an old French locket from the 20’s that I found and I fell in love with the front only to find that it had my grandmother’s name engraved on the back!”

“This is a giant Victorian locket and I put 4 leaf clover in it that I found here at our house when we were renovating.”

“I feel so lucky to have this little vanity area. This mirror is from David’s gallery America, it’s one of my most favorite things ever. And these are two 18^th century clock dial hands from a big clock that would have been outside. I feel like I’m in a Marie Antoinette setting it’s very enchanting and it’s a good way to start the day.”

“It’s interesting when you have a shop and everything’s for sale all the time…you have to detach from things that you love. These really represent the things that I don’t think I would ever part with for any amount of money because they’re so sentimental to me.”

Thank you so much to David and Ginger for welcoming us into their home! If you are ever in Lambertville or New Hope be sure to stop by America Designs!

Check out the Vintage Loves lookbook.

Photos by Julia.