Vintage Atelier 2013 | A Year in Review

In the month of May of this year I made a big move for Adored Vintage and that was to get myself a little vintage atelier! A vintage work studio all of my own with lots of natural light! You know, that was my FIRST and most IMPORTANT prerequisite for a work space? Lots and lots of natural light! I am crazy for spaces that are white, bright, and clean. And all the light is also most needed for all the vintage clothing I photograph for the online vintage shop! 

I've moved around the studio, not even joking, a dozen times. I'm never fully satisfied with the layout and feel I must constantly change it. Shift it. Move it around. I can't stand when spaces becomes stale and stagnant. I'm never inspired in spaces that just don't evolve and change. 

Although I've only been in this space for 8 months I am already outgrowing it. So who knows what 2014 will bring! 

So some common questions I get asked about my work studio are the following...

1.] Where did you get your vintage dress forms?

2.] How many clothing racks do you have?

3.] How do you shoot your pictures for your online store?

4.] Where did you get your racks? 

5.] Where did you buy your wooden hangers?

So answer those...

1.] My collection of vintage dress forms have been sourced from antique shops, flea markets, and a sewing supply company in downtown Los Angeles. Yes, they are expensive! I'm still on the hunt for a size 0 vintage dress form and 0/2 lingerie form. So if you know of any...let me know! Expect to pay $200-$800 for a vintage dress form.

2.] Last I counted I had 20. I constantly feel like I need more, but there's no room to put them!

3.] I shoot all my vintage clothes against an off white wall near the large windows in the studio and use only the sun as my light source. Check my blog post about How to Photograph Vintage Clothing.

4.] I got the rolling collapsible racks at store supply stores in Los Angeles called ACME Display. The white racks are from IKEA (and only $10!) While they're not racks I'd permanently have, they work well and I like how minimal they look. The industrial pipe racks my fella built for me using pipes and wood from Home Depot.

5.] I bought some of the wooden hangers from Store Supply Warehouse. Most of them I got from IKEA. I did the math on the amount I needed and IKEA hangers were a bit cheaper (I think by like 6 cents hanger) If you want hangers with notches for lingerie or pants hangers, then definitely Store Supply Warehouse!

For more photos (and a list of where I got a lot of my furniture in the studio), Apartment Therapy did a Vintage Workspace Tour of Adored Vintage this past summer!

First Look Inside the Adored Vintage Studio |Behind the Scenes

Well you're probably wondering whatever happened to the brick and mortar since we moved in 5 months ago! Well, we never even finished it before we needed to move into a bigger space! Luckily the space RIGHT next door was available, so the move wasn't bad! Now that we have a lot more wiggle room, we've been moving in things and setting up the studio/showroom just so.

I never had plans to have an actual retail brick + mortar with regular shop hours, I have several friends that own shops in LA and their biggest complaint is being tied to the shop every day, and well that doesn't sound like my cup of tea. The studio shop is more of an atelier where you can make an appointment to peruse our vintage wares. I'm there basically every day anyway, so if you're in the neighborhood, 95% of the time I'll be there Monday-Friday :)

The space is basically a big rectangular box with big shop windows in the front, a back door to a corridor lined with bamboo, and a back room with a kitchen, walk in closet, and bathroom.





I wanted the space to be light and airy and filled with plenty of plants. The macrame plant hanger is from Chiron Creations on Etsy. I love it so much!








There's still a lot more to do, but I just wanted to share some progress snaps. You can always follow Adoredvintage on Instagram to see the progress!

Atelier: Jewelry Designer Jessica Barensfeld At Home Studio

I'm not familiar with Jessica Barenfeld's jewelry designs, but I am quite smitten with their apartment tour featured on Freunde Von Freunden and just loved her work station in their light and plant filled loft that I had to share this portion of it for the Atelier feature.





I love all the natural light in their loft! And all of those plants! Someday I would love to be in a live/work loft filled with lots of light, lots of plants and flowers, and lots of pretty vintage all around. Their home looks cozy, lived in, and filled with random little knick knacks that I'm sure each have a story to tell.

And isn't her at home jewelry studio so well organized? Little bins and boxes for everything! How I admire a well organized woman!



source: Jessica Barensfeld & Simon Howell

Atelier | Tiffany Tuttle Los Angeles Workshop

I am always so inspired by other people's workspaces and ateliers that I decided I'm going to start posting some of the ones I find on here to share with all of you. And retail shops too. I love combining interior design, vintage, and fashion all together which is probably one of the reasons I move around my vintage work studio all the time.

Today I'm featuring shoe designer Tiffany Tuttle's workspace in downtown Los Angeles. I have to wonder how big her workspace is as most of the photos are of her mood boards (albeit they are really super cool). My own work studio for Adored Vintage is pretty small at perhaps 250sq ft. Maybe it's a bit bigger than that...but it's pretty cramped feeling sometimes.


I love the fencing mask in her atelier. It's such an odd and beautiful thing to have in a work studio. Sometimes I wonder what certain objects in workspaces mean to someone. Like, what about it inspires them to create and be productive?

Photos by: Jesse Fiorino and you can see the original post over at RACKED LA