National Trust Vintage Clothing Sale at Como House

March 22, 2018

Louisa Amelia Jane Vintage Fashion Store

The National Trust

The National Trust of Australia is a non-profit organisation committed to preserving Australia's indigenous, cultural and historic heritage. Many people have antiques and vintage clothing that they donate and bequeath to the National Trust in the hope that they will be preserved and appreciated. However, in reality, the National Trust does not have the resources to store and preserve much of what is donated.

Como House

In Victoria, the National Trust holds an annual vintage clothing sale at the beautiful Como House in South Yarra, near Melbourne, to sell off a lot of these donations. Money recouped is spent on refurbishments to Como House.

Como House

This is the second year that I have attended the sale, awaited with much excitement by vintage lovers in Melbourne. Indeed, I know of several vintage dealers who flew in from interstate. In my limited experience, I find myself thinking of the sale like this.

Vintage Clothing Sale

Day A - Saturday

Attending a family wedding in the country kept me away on this day. All items are full price. However, from all reports I believe that the full prices asked were extremely reasonable and there were some real treasures found.

I also heard several accounts from those who attended who reported an argy bargy (as our British friends would put it) or as we would say in Australia, a bun fight. (I would be interested to hear what our friends in the States would call it). The volunteer ladies who served me on the Sunday (B day) rolled their eyes in terror when recalling the previous day's horrors and appeared to be grateful to have escaped with their lives. Vintage shoppers reported having other shoppers run and push in front of them to grab treasures. Don't go on Saturday if you're claustrophobic. Shoppers report being wedged in place and unable to move at all. Luckily, there was not a fire, or there would have been trouble.

The ballroom on the relatively sedate B day (Sunday).

The ballroom at Como House was packed with clothing, and other adjacent rooms held patterns, linens, hats, shoes and other accessories. The ballroom had so many clothing racks that single file only was possible between them and overtaking (especially when laden with goodies) was very difficult. I don't know what treasures were found on Saturday, I know there were at least two 1920s coats scored and the Edwardian wedding dress and 1920s shoes I had spotted in a sneak preview on a colleague's blog had certainly been snapped up before Sunday. If you found a treasure, please add a comment, as I would love to hear about it.

The Hat Room

Day B - Sunday

I went to Como on the B day, Sunday. I cut short a long weekend at Daylesford as I was determined to be there on Sunday afternoon when everything is sold at half price. I got there about 11.00 and I had a sizeable pile put aside out back after about 45 minutes, when we were told that everybody had to go outside so that the volunteers could rearrange all the items. It turns out that this was code for putting back all the items selected before 12.00 in case one got a head start on shopping at 50% off. This was really silly. About 100 people had to go and stand outside for 20 minutes or so while the volunteers did their thing.

Queuing for re-entry.

I raced inside and proceeded to locate the treasures from my stash that had been put back into circulation. I managed to find them all very quickly, all except for one late 1920s/early 1930s black silk dress, which I sadly spied over the shoulder of another woman. A treasure found and lost!

After sorting out three piles of fabulous vintage, I was exhausted, and so were the ladies packing and tallying it up. In the end, I was very happy with my finds, but I couldn't help thinking regretfully of the black silk dress.

Day C - Monday

Monday is what I call C day. Various vintage dealers are invited in to mop up the remains at bargain clearance prices. And I know for a fact that some ridiculous bargains were had.

When I went down to visit my stall at The Vintage Emporium at Tyabb, I was discussing the sale with the proprietor, Vanessa Mangan. Vanessa had gone up with the other dealers on C day Monday to mop up the leftovers. She told me how surprised she was to see what was left, including a beautiful black silk late '20s/early 30s dress! Yes, it was the same dress I had missed out on! The customer who grabbed it before me after the reshuffle must have tried it on then rejected it. If only I'd thought to go back and double check that rack before I left on Sunday! So now it's for sale at The Vintage Emporium instead of at Louisa Amelia Jane. Que sera sera.