Reinventing frumpy clothes

I am - like every other vintage loving gal - very partial to charity shops. Apart from the odd gem here and there you find a lot of frumpy looking grandma stuff from the 80s - but said items have huge potential. Shortening hems and sleeves, nipping the waist in or just a different use than intended - all great ways to give granny chic a new lease of life.

When my Dad came to visit the other week he brought me an old blouse which once belonged to my late Nan. My family thought I would like it because it looked "vintagey" - and quite right they were!

This blouse is very typically 80s - crinkly rayon, baggy cut, no collar, long wide sleeves and no shape at all - but indeed a very 40s-esque print! At first I wanted to give it to charity because it was just wrong on me (or anyone else for that matter) but I couldn't do it because it was my Nan's.

And this morning I tried to tie it at waistlevel - a style I always thought I'd look absolutely hideous with. Well I don't think I did  - not with high waisted trousers anyway. Granted those are not ideal but I am on the hunt for white ones at the moment - black ones would be better than my grey ones aswell of course.

click to enlarge
Please excuse these badly lit pics - we tried to get a pic in without my son hopping into the frame and before we could take pics in the park my camera broke again... Blogging really isn't easy without a camera or your own computer...

And I finally found a garment that goes with my peach scarf my mum gave to me!

I have not quite decided if I like peach on me or not - I am not sure if it accentuates my paleness or if it simply drains me.

Anyhoo - I dress vintagey every day and I always get stares but this outfit today was quite the show stopper - though I also got a really nice compliment so it's definately coming out again!

By the way - these lovely little wedges I purchased from Littlewoods!

I know catalouge shopping is a bit tacky but I really love it. If you look carefully you always find something great and it's so gentle to the wallet - I like a quick fix retail therapy I can pay in small installments! These great white shoes I found in the teenage section of all places! I have tiny feet...

How long do you take?

Now look into my eyes!

Look into my eyes and tell me how long do YOU take to get ready?

But seriously - this is a question every vintage gal is propably asked a zillion times at least. I certainly get it very often and the questions vary of course! It ranges from unbelieving exclaims like "It must take you hours to get ready!" to ruder comments like "Bloody hell how much time have you got on your hands!". My favourite ever was - "You clearly don't spend only 5 minutes in front of the mirror!".

No I don't, I never did and I certainly hope I never look like it.

But that doesn't mean that I spend hours of my day getting ready.

For absolute donkeys years I have always given myself an hour to get ready. This hour includes breakfast, shower, getting dressed, daytime make-up and hair. And this "rule" is still applied ever since I went into vintage mode on a daily basis. Of course I have days where I faff around for ages and I also have days where I am much much quicker. I also have a stropping toddler to dress - that sometimes takes way longer!

I still haven't quite gotten used to people now seeing me as "elegant" (that's a word I would have never linked with me when I was younger, it makes me very proud now), "glam" and "perfectly groomed". I am not always but I try and a few tricks of the trade help tricking people in thinking so!

Faux bangs and a ponytail are propably my favourite hairdo and also one of the quickest of my repertoire. How I do them I told already HERE! A pretty bow tied around my ponytail and a matching flower near the bangs and my hair is done in 10 minutes good to go!

 Even quicker is this quiff-roll. I shall do a  how-to tutorial very soon! This do takes me under 10 minutes!

Victory rolls of course take a tad longer but with some practice they just need double the time of the do shown above - but with the back shoved into a snood I don't even need to pre-set my hair!

And that brings me to the most tedious and lengthy part of vintage hair. The set! I like to wet-set my hair the previous night when my child is already asleep - so again not much time is taken out of my precious daytime. I do admit I am not great at setting my hair but here again - practice will make me perfect and more important: quicker!

Brushing it out in the morning takes no time at all - so actually pre-setting hair on a sunday night is good for rushed monday mornings! But with all that wind going on currently I prefer my barnet in rock solid faux bangs or victory rolls. Ah what would I do sans my hair spray!

 And quite contrary to popular believe I don't wear a lot of make-up. I love make-up and I enjoy applying it but ever since I had my son I use it very sparingly!

Tinted moisturizer, concealer, a dab of powder, brow pencil (why that one so obviously you can read HERE), blusher and lot's of mascara. Lippy I don't wear every day, some days I also use eye shadow and at night an eye liner. But that's it!  I've been putting my face on for a good 16-17 years - I have so much practice it only takes me a few minutes!

The end result does look well groomed but that is because vintage styling is perceived as very ladylike and elegant.

And I say thank you!

Which brings me to this mental leap!

Stepping out in vintage gear causes a lot of attention. No denying that and it would be a lie to deny that I enjoy the attention. I get a comment a day and nearly all of them are kind and nice. People at check-out tills or market tenders comment the most. But the other day I got stopped in the street by a random woman who actually made me blush because she was so sincere and nice in what she said. And all I was wearing was this measly unexciting outfit:

When I went to Austria a few months ago I was astounded by the hostility of people. I was so show stopping that I even caused a little accident on the road. But it was really striking how openly rude people stared, one woman even gaped with a kind of disgusted look in her eyes. Given that she herself was sporting a 80s short hair permed head and an upper-lip moustache it wasn't that offending but it still showed me how much different the polite English are. Here in sleepy little Bedford Vintage seems to be quite widely spread and as mentioned I get a nice comment a day.

I didn't take many pictures back home in Austria but above were all taken at my parents flat.

So tell me fellow bloggers - how long do you take and how does your envoirement perceive you?

The very beautiful Lindsay of Vintage Rose has asked a similar question HERE!

What are you wearing to the Royal Wedding today?

Mr. Bossy, who is 100% British, has been looking at me for the last couple of days as if I'd hit my head a bit too hard. But I don't care - I love revelling completely shamelessly in the guilty pleasure of the Royal Wedding.

Here I am all decked out in union jack colours ready to celebrate with the in-laws!

I also made some crazy patriotic cakes - yummy!

Have a fun weddingy day today!

Mastering the art of faux bangs

Well I haven't really but I am getting there. 

Alone the expression "faux bangs" is just great. A French and American fusion of words. In the world of hair on your forehead there are many different expressions - the Brits call it "fringe" (fairly obvious why) and the Americans "bangs" - which I like better but I wanted to know why. I am always keen on etymology so of course I had to look it up - this is what I found:

    The term bangs, always used in the plural, is, as you know the fringe of hair usually cut squarely across the forehead.  According to etymology scholar Robert Barnhart, the term is strictly American in origin first surfacing in 1878.  It was  believed influenced by the adverbial use of bang in the meaning of abruptly, as in hair cut bang off;  some sources offer a relation to earlier bangtailed (1861) of a horse's tail that has been cut horizontally across.

The Germans call it a "pony" - the German word for pony (the neighing kind) is the same word as in English so because of the resemblance of a Pony's fringe it's called simply a pony! And I guess it's not called horse (which would be a much less glamouros word anyway both in German and English) beacuse a pony tail is called a horse taul. Confused yet? Well the Austrians on the other hand call it a "forehead fringe" though I do know Austrians who also call it a pony. I thought you might be interested in this terribly important trivia....

Now on to the actual faux bangs! The photos (click to enlarge) are based on a mix of these two great video tutorials by the swanky FLEUR and the equally elegant CASEY.

Fleur's 40s tut - click

Casey's 50s tut - click

(for some unknown reason blogger does not like me inserting a video link, that's why the videos are posted like that I'm afraid)



I shyed away from faux bangs for quite a while - thinking it would look plain weird having a roll on the forehead. I guess because I do think it does look weird if it's not well done and I have seen some pics that must have put me off. But I take it all back, it looks fantastic if I may say so myself.



The back is based on the first part of Casey's video but I used a rat like in Fleurs video. I crochteted myself a small and short rat as I have currently a growing out fringe/bangs so I can't roll a big section of my hair.



Different day and this time the back is based on the latter part of Caseys video but again I used my now much beloved little rat.



And of course soon I have to try this iconic Dita look with a victory roll on either side!

And while I am at it - can someone tell Nicole Scherzinger that she's doing this exceptionally badly - she looks like a superhero gone wrong. Dreadful!

This is a superhero doing it well!
Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter in Watchmen.

Pimp my coat

For months I'd been trying to hunt down a nice vintage coat for a reasonable price. Always unlucky - lost the auctions, wrong sizes or wrong cuts. I do love the look of swing coats but in reality they just don't suit me, I need something more tailored. If my waist is not cinched in I look like I'm wearing a tent. Tough luck.

So here's my solution. Take my old but well fitting dreary Primark coat with only half of the original black plastic buttons (I kind of lost one a day in the last few weeks) and exchange them for some vintage buttons!

Actually already not so dreary anymore with my beautiful vintage brooch pinned on.

Successfully I found these beautiful original 50s buttons on Ebay.

The buttons I used for the coat in detail

Et voilà - a perfectly fitting coat with a vintage twist!

The other day someone asked me if I found my "vintage" coat on Ebay. So I guess - result!

Photoshop up but camera down!

Seriously. Is this sod's law or what? I have now photoshop on Mr. Bossys PC and will upload a good handful of outfit and hair posts of recent weeks over the next few days starting tonight - but now my camera is down! My toddler - again! - broke off the capture button. Seriously. I need to get a new camera. But first I hope Mr. Bossy can fix the old one again and Bossy junior needs his own camera!

And my phone takes dreadful pics, look at this!

But I rather love my "new" vintage scarf which I think is genuinely 50s. Also in the background you can spot a little teaser for the upcoming give away!