We have a furniture store that specializes in vintage, modern pieces, and there is also two Vintage flea markets every year, one in summer and one for Christmas. Don't know if there is anything like that near you. Of course, the store might want to just buy some of that stuff from you outright.

How about giving some to quilters?

The difficult thing for me is finding and hooking up with these kinds of folks. I live in the boonies in the rust belt, hours from any large metropolitan area. Kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. Mom lived in SF before she got married, I'll bet some of the stuff dates back to those heady days.

As a side note, although she was old, mom was relatively healthy and had all her faculties. She died very suddenly from a fall one day. I had just moved 600 miles back to my home state to be near her and try to help her more. I was so looking forward to going through this stuff with her, but now have to do it on my own. A thousand stories in those threads. Fortunately mom and I were close back in my younger days so I kind of know the gist of the tale.

Maybe advertise on the craigslist of the closest large metro area. Its not unusual for a dealer to travel to do a buyout. I would include as many pics as you can in the ad.

Try doing an online search for county or nearby small cities, or maybe there's a college town near you, for MCM tag sales or clubs. My city has a couple of MCM Facebook groups, some for sharing information, and some for trading and selling items. There's even a monthly MCM and vintage garage sale in a parking garage. If you can find something like that in a city even a couple of hours away, one visit could put you in touch with interested people.

And surely there is a quilting group around who would want scraps.

Is there a college anywhere close with a theater department? Or a community or local professional theater? They may have a need for costuming materials.

There are artsy towns within 2 hours and I do visit them occasionally. Great suggestions for how to connect with regional folks, thanks! Our area used to be known for antiques, but just is not as popular anymore. Places going out of business right and left.

I'll have to think about that "buyout" idea too. I have kept some of the more iconic stuff for sentimental reasons but might part with it if I knew it could be used by someone who would appreciate it. If I had the money and time I'd buy another big old house like I grew up in, and do a bunch of theme rooms. Maybe I should consider running a B&B when I "retire." As it is, I have a couple of rooms in mom's old house I'm working on but between mom's love of antiques and mine, I am tapped out on space.

And we have a vibrant local theater with a big costume shop. I forgot about that, and I volunteer there so that's a great tip.

I've got a 16 year old DD who would go crazy for clothes like that (except she's relatively tall and flat chested :). They have pop up shops here that sell that sort of thing here that my daughter frequents and I know the people that run them would love to have that sort of thing. But like you say, if you're not in a major city, it's hard to hook up with that sort of dealer.

Here's a picture of one of them that I am sick that I cannot wear, a little crepe number. And another photo of my gorgeous mom (on the left) with a friend in SF. Betty Draper eat your heart out! And I'll bet she made that outfit too. I'm hoping she saved it. I have just gone through one scrap closet, I haven't been able yet to go through the clothing bags hanging in the back of her closet. More gorgeous things in there, mostly party outfits.

I have been meaning to do this, but have not gotten around to it. I would keep some of your favorites and have them made in to something for you. I have a bunch of sweater vests my mom used to wear. I want to make them in to a blanket.

Your mom was gorgeous. I am so sorry for your loss.

Wow. Look at how she did the stripes in that dress. What a talent.

ETA: sorry asleep at the wheel. Just wish I lived close to you. I'd love to look through them. I remember looking at house for sale years ago and the woman had an eye for fashion like your mom. I was so impressed with her wardrobes full of classic clothes from various eras that I could hardly focus on the house.

I don't know about the dress. My mom was on the left in the capris. The dress I took a picture of was store bought. The ones mom made I am mostly keeping for myself. We are having a quilt made of some pants, dresses and tops, mostly from the 70's-present days, but I can't bring myself to cut up a gorgeous, in-tact mid-century silk outfit to make a pillow, etc.

My mom was an aficionado of many types of fine things. I have so much to go through, but I can only do it in stages and a little bit at a time. There are books, art, clothing, dishes, etc. The detritus and kitsch I can easily discard, but I am not comfortable with just throwing out things that are very nice and still usable. With the clothing and fabric, I would just like to find someone to give them to and let them sort out the wheat from the chaff. I may just save all this stuff and hire a company I know of that comes in and takes away household items when someone is cleaning out a parents home or moving. They have all kinds of contacts and will sell them for you--books, art, dishes, clothes, etc. However, I'm just not ready for that because I am still sorting. But I am running out of storage space for the "to go" items! I don't care to make any money on this stuff, unless it was something very valuable, which I seriously seriously doubt any of it is. I just want them to be re-cycled. I am well aware that antiques and fancy dishes and old art are not worth anything anymore because millennials are transient, casual minimalists. Or at least a large cohort of them are.

Have you tried @ Etsy.com yet? There are a number of sellers who deal in vintage fabrics & clothing...

carolb_w_fl, I'm one of them (an Etsy vintage clothing and fabric seller,) and I can tell you first hand that it is a lot of work. If the OP isn't interested in getting into the business she is better off selling the lot locally or having someone come to her. Shipping the lot would make it cost prohibitive and very few people will buy sight unseen unless it's for pennies per piece.

You might check out www.retrorenovation.com

They often feature someone on eBay selling vintage stuff. Reading the past articles would help you decide the best way to deal with this stuff. Shipping puts a big cramp in anything I want to do with old stuff. I'm in the middle of nowhere, too, and have to buy and pay shipping for anything I can't buy at the dollar store or hardware store. It's a 35 mile trip to a chain store but who wants that stuff?

I hear ya Happy in Iowa! :) Luckily I have friends in the artsy towns in my state, but even then, visiting them is a "couple times a year" experience. I am starting to live my life through mail order. Oh well, what goes around comes around, I can hear the chorus of "The Wells Fargo Wagon" beginning to play in the background . . .

As another side note, I can't imagine dressing like mom did back then today--so much of it is dry clean, crepe, silk, linen, wool. No wonder the polyester revolution seemed so appealing at the start. Oh, speaking of that, here's a little button down poly number from mom's collection. I can't imagine why she saved this one!
These are not the really nice things, BTW. Oh, and a badly lit little yellow dress that I see a retro knock off popping up in ads lately. Is the Internet psychic? Mom looked like the bomb in that dress. Found the yellow nylon hose to match, mom could pull that off due to her pale skin. But that dress has some kind of stain on it and I don't know if or how it could be removed. Considering it was a summer dress, my guess would be chocolate ice cream. It looks like a tunic because mom was so short! And last but not leas, linen "culottes" with some kind of elaborate embroidery.

Oh, I meant contacting a seller(or several) who might be interested in buying for their shop, rather than setting up one's own. I've sold collectibles to local antique/vintage shop owners myself - they're always looking for new (old) stuff, IME - but l pinkmountain says she's not close to places like that..

We've got antiques coming out the wazoo here, but MCM clothing I'm not so sure, don't think so. You can probably find bits of it if you peruse the Goodwill and Salvation Army, but I don't really want to put mom's antique clothes in with all that stuff. I've given a lot of her current things to them, and will probably give more of that. The nicer things I haven't photographed yet and I'm not sure if I can part with them, at least part with them to Goodwill. I'm going to set the whole collection aside, and gradually add to it over the months as I seek out a place somewhere around my state or region to take them. Will be kind of a cool adventure. Although I have to promise myself not to come back with anything!!

And I'm also looking for a seamstress to alter some of the things I think might be possible for me to use. Mom gained a lot of weight in midlife so a lot of it is large and extra large from that era. Then in later life she lost a lot of the weight and was swimming in some of her clothes towards the end! Interesting journey, because I am also going to try and make some "window treatments" with some of the vintage fabric that I think might have been curtains mom had in her Sausalito bayside apt. I think they will have to be adhered to sunblocking fabric or made into cut outs though, as the fabric has deteriorated on those. Will not stand up to a long spell in the light of a window.