Rebecca Long, her dog, Sophie Rose, her mother, Martha Harp, and her daughter, Cora Isabella, at Fanny's Antiques and Fancies near the Brainerd Tunnels. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by Christina Siebold
They say it reminds their patrons of Grandma’s attic. Sure it does. If your grandmother lived over several centuries, collected dozens of wedding dresses and saved every memorable fashion ensemble she ever wore, maybe.
Opened in 1984 by Rebecca and Eugene Long and Rebecca’s mother Martha Harp, Fanny’s Antiques and Fancies began as a vintage clothing store. “We came in with the vintage clothing in mind, then we got so many calls for bridal wear that we moved in that direction and started putting up a lot of the antiques,” Rebecca says.
Today, you can find Fanny’s in two adjoining shops outside the Brainerd tunnels. One side is devoted to vintage clothes, jewelry, linens and antiques, the other to bridal wear. “We sell new wedding dresses that are made to look old, and we sell old wedding dresses that have been remade,” says Martha, who manages the store for her daughter and son-in-law who now live near Atlanta.
With a background in history and fashion, Rebecca approaches her business with an eye for how the two have related through the centuries. “Our lifestyles, even our postures have changed, therefore our clothes have changed through time.”
Rebecca credits the dramatic changes in the size of the human body to changes in diets and transportation.
“The average size of a Civil War soldier was 5 feet 6 inches, 130 pounds. But you have to realize that these men were not always well fed and they walked everywhere they went with everything they needed on their backs.” Most of the women’s vintage clothing from the late 19th and early 20th century would not fit even small women today. A size 16 from as late as 1950 would be a size eight today.
A walk through Fanny’s reflects other changes. The bridal salon is lined with rows and rows of old hatboxes, most with 3 or 4 hats in each. Rebecca and Martha look for items with a Chattanooga connection, so you can find Kate Rice hatboxes from the Kate Rice Hat Store that was downtown on Market Street. They also carry hatboxes from Miller and Lovemans department stores.
“When we first went into business, everything was on display, but people liked to come in and try all the hats on and it caused a lot of wear and tear on them,” Rebecca said. As a result, the hats are now safely tucked into their hatboxes. But Rebecca hopes to put them on display again someday.
“We’ve talked about opening a small museum in Chattanooga. I would hate to see everything sold off and scattered to the wind. I’m from Chattanooga and I’d like to see these things stay in Chattanooga.”
Rebecca has many pieces of history in her collection, including jewelry from Jackie Kennedy and a dress from Princess Diana‘s collection. She also carries less valuable, but equally historical items such as an original “peace sign” shirt from the sixties, poodle skirts from the fifties, even a dress bought at the 1939 World’s Fair.
“I’ve tried to keep things from all different decades,” Rebecca said. “And now we have a goldmine of fashion.”
Rebecca finds items to stock the shelves of her shop on her world travels. Her most recent trip to Europe produced a collection of antique Hungarian clothing at least seventy-five years old. She says so much of the rich historical culture of Hungary was destroyed during the last revolution that it was rare to find such a collection of ethnic costumes.
Rebecca says she is not always looking for best sellers, but for items with historical significance.
“This store is really an extension of my private collection. If I see something I like, I’ll buy it; it doesn’t have to be a big seller. I think in terms of buying these things for conservation, to preserve the history.”
One piece of history found among those hatboxes is a tin hat box from the Edwardian Period in England. “At the turn of the last century soldiers going to India and Australia would travel all over the world with these tin hat boxes to protect their dress hats - usually with a large plume on them. Of course these hats weren’t for protection, they were just for looks. There was a lot more pomp and circumstance in 19th century armies than there is today.”
Martha and Rebecca would like to see more of that pomp and circumstance carried into today’s fashion scene. Their keen sense of quality and originality is sometimes offended by modern fashion campaigns. “We’re getting so generic today - girls and boys both,” Rebecca said. “When you look at high-end fashion magazines, everybody looks the same. It’s not politically correct to be different today, nobody is supposed to be an individual. Well, there’s nothing wrong with being different.”
And so this mother-daughter duo opens their store for those brave souls seeking their own individuality, from brides looking for an antique gown, to college kids whose fashion sense runs more towards Amanda Bloomer, less towards the Gap.
And Rebecca continues her travels, discovering costume treasures across the globe while Martha keeps the home fires burning. The two are grooming a third generation for Fanny’s. Little Cora Isabella was adopted from China six months ago, and Grandma says, “We’re training her already.”