Vintage Design Source and Gilding the Lily
Our Etsy shop is our online presence for our brick and mortar store, Gilding the Lily, located in southern California for nearly 20 years now. It started with a few vintage hats and bolts of ribbons, and has now grown to encompass paper arts, textiles and jewelry craft. Our focus has always been on vintage, and one of our favorite axioms is that vintage allows you to, "Start with a story." Indeed, even our store name was born of historical reference. People often ask about the name Gilding the Lily, and here is the origin:
"Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, to guard a title that was rich before, to gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess."
~William Shakespeare, ca. 1595
We hope that if you are ever in southern California, you will visit us in old town Fullerton, where our little store resides inside the walls of a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival hotel with a beautiful courtyard and fountain. In the meantime, we hope you are inspired to create with our items and 'gild the lily' yourself.
~Nancy