Victorian Elegance is held twice a year in Richardson Texas, just outside of Dallas. Shall I just say that it is a "must" for lovers of Victorian, Edwardian, Roaring Twenties era items?

This show began with a lecture on "The Jazz Age". My favorite tidbit was seeing the garters with a little compact/powder puff attached, used for applying rouge to the newly revealed knees! There was even a song about this, something along the lines of "roll my stockings, hem my skirt, rouge my knees".
Two days of wandering through the show was only a beginning. I acquired two hats, a peach silk bed jacket (perfect for wearing over a tank top against Houston pervasive air conditioning), a stereo optican slide, a darling book from 1903, Wanted: A Chaperone, teas, five small velvet millinery roses, and longing for a lot more money and time!
These three pictures will give you the idea of what it is like to be there. EVERYTHING on display is available for trying on (should you happen to have a 19 inch waist in some cases...), and for purchase. EVERYTHING is authentic...no crafty fix ups, reproductions, or cutsie junque allowed.
Buyers for top designers like Ralph Lauren etc. haunt the place for inspiration pieces, as well as private collectors. One woman flew in, swooped in at 3, and in one hour purchased several thousand dollars worth of jazz era clothing.

The lecturer had just published a book, and showed a picture of a Worth gown that had been purchased at Victorian elegance a couple of years ago for $1,500, and resold shortly after for $25,000.

Nice profit, eh?

Now wouldn't that be more fun than watching number rise and fall on the stock market?