Outfits to fill the boring gap

It's gotten so boring on my blog it's sad!

I am back in the UK but my laptop is still down and no silver lining in these regards. That means hardly any online time and the little I get has to be divided between various course work, picture editing (a zillion pics I took in Austria), general chit chat and of course blogging. So first things first - a blog post! And as I have no time to research I'll delight you with two outfits! :-)

40s inspired playsuit by Jasmine Guinness

 I love this suit, it is the most expensive clothing item I ever bought or owned. But I bought it via Littlewoods which means no big amount of money all at once! Yay for deluding yourself! 

When it arrived in the mail order just before Christmas Mr. Bossy loved it so much on me he happily accepted the price. It is indeed quite short and daring (well at least for me it is) but despite the shortness it still has an elegance to it.

And please do not forget the true model in my house.
Le poser extraordinaire!

 Suit - Jasmine Guinness via Littlewoods (not available anymore)

Shoes - Peacocks (years ago)

Cardigan - Primark (dito)

Bag - Marks & Spencers (last year)

Sweater Guard - Ebay

Snood - homemade

I particularily like the Gerbera, my favourite flowers, print.
Very punchy colours!

And here a land girl inspired outfit.

I really like knitted tank tops - I've had a few sitting in my wardrobe for years but hardly ever wore them. They certainly get their wear now! I also do a similar version of this outfit in grey/pink.

Trousers - Marks & Spencers via Ebay
Shirt - Pimkie in Austria (about 10 years ago)
Tank - Primark (few years ago)
Snood - homemade

What a failure to try to photograph my hair and my black snood. Blame the toddler who made me laugh.

These little lovelies I bought in Austria (at Deichmann) a few weeks ago. I love them! They were cheap as chips, have exactly the look I wanted and the heel is so reasonably low that they are comfortable for the whole day!

You may have noticed my new brooch. This was actually a birthday present my great aunt gave to my mum many years ago. She doesn't know what era it exactly came from but it certainly matches my growing collection. I hope my great aunt doesn't mind - I love it and wear it a lot!

And talking about family heirloom - as you know my nan recently passed away and I brought a few treasures (treasured by my heart and by my vintage loving eye) with me. But this one is my true precious. I inherited her seal ring with my grandad's - her late husband's - family's coat of arms. My mother and aunts all have one as well and my nan would always say I'd get one for my 18th birthday. I suppose because suddenly so many grandchildren appeared in the family or maybe because my grandad got ill around my 18th birthday and died the following year we never talked about this again. So I was very touched when I inherited her very own ring. And it fits like a glove.

Which is a stupid saying by the way because I have such tiny hands - no glove ever fits me. Unless it's a child's glove.



My true precious



I have just discovered photoscape. Indeed I don't know what I am doing yet but you can see I already had some more fun with these pics than with boring old Picasa. It will take me a little while to get the hang of it but I'll get there!

Victory rolls like magic!

A few days ago the beautiful Fleur posted this video tutorial. 

I've been doing Victory rolls for a little while now and I do them quite often, so I thought - well what else can be new? I already tried a few techniques but nonetheless I watched it because it was Fleurs. 

And I am glad I did because even though I do them in a very similar way - roll them half way down around the fingers because neither rolling from the base nor rolling from the tips worked well for me (I could never achieve the desired stability) - I never tried this very simple alteration: Fleur rolls around only one finger whereas I always roll around two - I have teeny tiny fingers I never thought this would work with only one bony stick like mine - but it does and how it does! 

I rolled around one finger and like magic I had much more control over the placing and shaping of the roll - it even works with uncurled poker straight hair. And my hair is not only poker straight it's also very fine and silky - backcombing doesn't last and the ends just spring out, they just want to stretch and be free (they are such a pain while pincurling I tell ya!)

I am still in Vienna at my parents - I took these pics a minute before we all left the house in quite a hurry. So please excuse the blurriness etc. But just before we left I took out the very obvious pin and added an obligatory vintage brooch to my cardigan.

And since this is a vintage blog - Vienna in general is quite the vintage mecca - not neccessarily for the 40s or 50s but for the periods Biedermeier (obviously) and Art Nouveau (my very favourite). It is such a pleasure to look around for vintage loving eyes and ever since my parents moved into the inner city (which is the very oldest part of Vienna) I see daily many different antiques traders - you can find little shops all over the city, also in the neighbouring building. But as it is very much appreciated in this country it is also very, very expensive. 

Note the floor in the background of the pics in my parents flat - this is a truly vintage floor, it dates back to medieval times. My mum is not 100% - it's an original floor from anytime between 1200-1600. The building they now live in (which has about 10-20 appartments) is the second oldest building in the district and a very historical one. Beautiful!

Finally the review of the vintage event in Letchworth

Finally!

THIS event was indeed very interesting!

The beautifully restored Mrs. Howard Memorial Hall in Letchworth was the perfect setting for a very pleasant but a tad quiet evening organised by the FIRST GARDEN CITY HERITAGE MUSEUM. Mellow 1940s music in the background, homemade cakes to die for and endless servings of tea - served on the most beautiful vintage crockery.



Beautiful ladies of Buns and Buntings



 Please do have a look at http://bunsandbunting.blogspot.com/ - what a wonderful local vintage catering service! Just to look at their wardrobe, swoon over the crockery and not least of all indulge in their cakes was worth going for!

Weird pic of myself but the only one we took of the crockery! And one of my victory rolls was drooping!



 The other very interesting part was the vintage stylist DANI RICHARDSON. She gave an informative presentation of 2 40s hairstyles and daytime make-up and did not leave interesting historic facts regarding rationing out. I also took away a very helpful tip (of course she spotted my dropped roll straight away) - to roll at the hair base around 2 fingers instead rolling the hair from the tips down. I still have not fully worked it out but I am getting there!

Dani and her model

There was also a stall run by JOLLY BROWN, a vintage shop in Hitchin!

Apart from maybe too quiet music there was one major hiccup - even though I love love love the idea of "SWISHING". It was advertised as a vintage swap shop. So one could expect that you actually swap vintage, couldn't you? Well there was not much vintage (no obvious vintage enthusiasts as guests either) and I even spotted a Tescos t-shirt with it's tags on. I would have been gutted, really gutted, if I would have brought anything to swap. So my advise for next time is to actually police more what people put into the swishing pot - or not proclaim it as a vintage swap.

My own outfit I wore

Pretty sure it is a 70s dress but I love it anyway. Found it via ebay (it's one of my fist purchases I got with the money I got from selling bits of my old wardrobe - so it's part of my very own swishing!). Cardigan is my trusted Primark one and the Mary Janes are from Peacocks - but years ago.

And my hair in more detail - no roll dropped yet on these piccies!



 2 more reviews of the event:  http://www.gardencitymuseum.org/blog/swap_shop_fun_and_upcoming_events and http://bunsandbunting.blogspot.com/2011/02/vintage-swap-shop-success.html



A few outfits, snooded and casual hair...

With our current financial issues I cannot just go out and buy a whole lot of "new" vintage dresses or some of the most gorgeous repro stuff out there. I have to make do with what I have and just combine it with more effort and vintage inspired hair.

It's a new challenge every day and the fancy hair is indeed very glam for play groups but what the heck - I am loving it.

I did not manage to capture every day of the last week as I have a tendency to rush to places and be late everywhere I go :-)



Dressed up in a little black cardigan and 2 different skirts and dressed down in a polkadotted number



I think the lovely shoulder detail makes the blue dress very vintage reminiscent but that huge zip down the front obviously destroys the look. But it makes it IDEAL for discreet breastfeeding and that's why I still got it in the first place. It's from LoveLabel, the fake leather belt I have added, it's 2nd hand via Ebay.
The black cardigan is from South, it's a bit short in the body and also short sleeved (I am wearing a H&M breastfeeding top underneath) but I love love love the frilly ruffles and the bow attached to it!

I don't know if my outtakes amuse you but they sure amuse me :-)
My darling son always wanting the spotlight and in the middle I had bashed my elbow walking backwards and really hit the famous funny bone.

The hair is the really exciting part for me at the moment. I am always on the lookout for dressed down casual vintage styles. Any tips? This updo is so quick it counts for me as casual but it does look rather glam I think. Just a little pompadour, twisted back and pushed forward side parts and the back is rolled up - which would look neater if I'd had a rat. And it was such a rainy grey day I just needed a flower in my hair.

And I adoooooooore snoods. So elegant! This one I made myself and I will make more. I guess if I make one in black or brown it would be more casual. I'm in love with victory rolls at the moment but they are rather dressy. So beautiful!

Recently I was asking myself if people are really interested in my musings or if I am taking my vanity a step to far in waffling endlessly about my hair and clothes. But yesterday a friend told me that she went out and bought stuff I had shown on my blog and wouldn't have thought of going there before and that gave me new confidence. I have purpose :-)

Also thank you so much to all the people who are following me - it's a crazy addition of about 65 people in the last 1 1/2 months.

When I reach the 100 I'll do a give away which will include a snood!

Vintage hair journey

Vintage styled hair is the first thing a passerby notices - I think only the fashion trained eye can pinpoint eras of clothing or even recognise vintage or vintage inspired outfits. But the hair and make-up is so obvious. It's also a great way to achieve a full time vintage look if the wardrobe is very limited. As I am only starting my vintage journey I don't have a lot of outfits to offer - I try to put together what can pass as vintage inspired. With the right hair I do look vintage even if I'm not really.

(click to enlarge pictures)




My 31st birthday back in October - an absolutely atrocious very 1st try on vintage hair. 10 minutes and not enough research is most certainly not giving you the right look. But never mind it was only a start.

 


A few days later and another try - I think it was not that bad considering I have dead straight hair and I did not curl it beforehand.



In preparation for Christmas I did a hell of a lot of research, I made a lovely snood (pattern to be found HERE), I got myself a nice little book (THIS one), I followed the advice of trusted vintage blogs and got a setting lotion (LOTTABODY as recommended by many) and did some pin curls the night before Christmas. Indeed this was very fiddly but I felt sort of glamorous sleeping on pin curls with a silk scarf around my head :-)

And et voilà:



Christmas Day: when I took out the pins I had an incredible full head of tight curls, after I brushed them out it was literally an afro. Incredible. My hair was so unruly it was quite tricky to smooth it down for the victory rolls. But I was still quite pleased with the outcome.




Boxing Day: the next day my hair had the most perfect beautiful soft curls, the victory rolls put themselves into place and looked lovely and smooth. I indeed loved my hair that day.




Day 3: there was still quite a curl to the hair though I did the updo in a rush - and that's how it looks. I should have taken more time. The back rolled up nice and easy and at first I thought - who needs a rat! Well until I saw the picture :-) It is quite droopy - I suppose a rat would make it nice and even. I shall whip one up for myself in the very near future!



Alright. I love vintage hair, I think I have quite established that. But do I want to pin curl my hair from now on every few days? Because let's face it - with my dead straight hair a vintage look is not done in a jiffy. It needs curls.

The easiest way is a Rosie Riveter style. I've been wearing a scarf in my hair since October 1-2x per week. A nice pompadour at the front and straight hair has a vintage make-over. But today I wanted to try this:



Most of my hair is pinned to my head, just washed and straight as it is. I left out a few sections at the front which I curled quite tightly with a curling iron. I then divided it in 2 sections and rolled them into victory rolls - the rest of my head is covered by a small scarf/bandana. I had to pin it down quite strongly as it was so far at the back. But I was really pleased with the outcome!
Still quite time consuming though....


I always enjoyed playing around with my hair. From age 20-25 I had fire engine red (and I mean fire engine red) hair that reached down to my waist - I loved all kinds of elaborate hairstyles. At 26 I chopped my hair off and ever since then I had midlength cuts, Liza cuts and even an Edie Sedgwick cut - I really enjoy having longer hair again - for now I'm actually letting grow out my trusted fringe (bangs)! Let's see how long it takes me until I go back to my Bettie bangs. Haven't had u-shaped ones in years, just plain old straight!