Ms Houston Vintage 2015
Alice Berry
We know and love her as Ms. Houston Vintage 2015, Alice Berry. Alice it turns out, has some experience with celebrity status. Dubbed as Texas Royalty by friends, Alice was a Duchess of Houston debutante and is the granddaughter of the 36th Governor of Texas, Beauford Halbert Jester (Texas Royalty, again).
Considering Alice’s love of vintage, it may be accurate to say she has a “checkered” past, checkered as in vintage. You see Alice is a prolific collector, as most vintage aficionados tend to be. Alice’s love of vintage started in her debutante days.
While studying Spanish and other languages at the University of Texas, Alice was thinking about pursuing opera, she abandoned the sorority scene for the punk rock scene, and a new passion was born; singing.
“I started collecting '50's "fluffy dresses,” with lots of petticoats, spike-heeled vintage shoes, and gloves. Worn with spiked wristbands in those days, though. I dressed in vintage for class every day and for singing in a rockabilly band by night. I've never stopped wearing red lipstick and a generous slash of black eyeliner.”
Alice booked bands too. “I hung out backstage with more rock stars than you can tease a pompadour at, but retained my rep as a 'nice girl' anyway!”
After a move to Georgia to study theology, Alice made her living singing with a band called Hillbilly Frankenstein (her stage name was Miss Formica Dinette"). She left the stage to teach Spanish in high school. She did some of her Spanish masters degree course work in Spain, for which she still has a deep love of this day and takes groups of her students to Spain for summer sessions when she can.
Alice also collects tiki especially items from Trader Vic's. She has a home tiki bar/lounge, with hundreds of tiki mugs and over a hundred vintage Hawaiian dresses. She loves B-movies (and posters), left-of-center Barbies (Tippie Hedron in "The Birds" is her prize), vinyl albums, vintage toys, barware...
Ms. Houston Vintage 2015 is also a long-time member of a national fraternal lodge: The Fraternal Order of Moai. "We have fezzes, yes. We raise money for scholarships for kids on Easter Island, the land of the Moai, who wish to maintain the culture and history of the island. We do so by putting on tiki festivals in spots across the country. Auctioning off my 'Mystery Girl Drink' dances are one of the money-raisers.” Alice said. Many opportunities for costuming occur, which is great fun for a self-proclaimed amateur costumer like Alice who is able to find or make the perfect costume for any occasion.
Back in Houston, Alice was an Urban Animal, sneaking into parking garages to skate down the ramps, and jousting in HoustonFest. (Now defunct iFest)
Houston Vintage isn’t Alice’s only rodeo, she’s also a Bathing Beauty - an annual participant in the Galveston Beach Revue, having placed in the Top Three in 3 of the 5 years she’s entered. She says it’s an excuse to keep hunting for great vintage suits!
Some fun tidbits about Alice; she’s sung at Carnegie Hall 3 times, she also appeared in the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" video as a thank-you for opening for the band that night, having replaced Stevie Ray Vaughn who was booed off the stage the night before. Meet Miss Houston Vintage at the 2016 Houston Vintage Festival!