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!

Style Icon on screen - Sophie-Anne Leclerq

No post in April yet? Jeez Louise - how the heck did I manage that?

Never mind. Let us indulge in another style icon!

This one is inspired by my most favourite readable trash. I say trash very lovingly because I adore these books but to be honest - of course it's trashy. I am talking about the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris also known as the Southern Vampire Mysteries. I simply love them. Love with a capital L.

Currently I am reading the series again - for the nth time. The books - 10 so far - are fairly thin so I can easily finish one book a day or at least within 2 days - even read again and again I just can't put them down. I'm indulging in these guilty pleasures AGAIN because I'm eagerly awaiting book #11 which will be released on 3rd of May! 

The books were made into the highly successful HBO series True Blood - but to be honest I cannot stand the series. Yes it does have it's perks, it's very very funny moments, it's clever twists and certainly some eye candy but that's about it. I think I would have loved the series if I'd never laid eyes on the books. But I simply hate how they altered the characters. I am not talking about the plot, I understand some things do and some things don't work on the screen. But Alan Ball has altered the very heart of the charm of the books - the souls of the protagonists. I hate screaming Sookie in True Blood with a passion. A witty and funny heroine on paper but a stupid damsel in distress on screen. Awful.

But that's besides the point - let's focus on the perks. Sophie-Anne's wardrobe! Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the vampire queen of Louisiana, is well cast with Evan Rachel Wood and clearly sports a fantastic dress sense favouring the 40s and 50s. Though portrayed a bit bratty and less elegant than in the books she certainly looks elegant. She is not seen in many scenes but the ones she does star in make it definitely worthwile to watch!

 

 

The other perk in True Blood is the casting of Eric - vampire head honcho. Alexander Skarsgard certainly is cast more than perfect and very easy on the eye. To say the least. Though he's clearly my favourite character in the series he still lacks the charm of the same but oh so different character of the books.

Series 3 ended with a fight between the queen and Bill the vampire - when he opened the door to Sophie-Anne in THIS outfit I applauded. I absolutely love this ensemble - for a very short moment - just a glimpse - she reveals the inside - the tealength coat worn over a few petticoats is lined blood red - stunning!

Series 4 will also start soon - and even though I don't like it very much I do have to watch it. And drool over Sophie-Anne's outfits! And Eric.

And on this note I cannot leave unmentioned my old friend Petra, who is an Austrian Fashion designer.  Her label Pebelle will be worn by Tara in Episode 5 (she thinks). Here a little trailer with Tara in a Pebelle shirt (under her coat). I am very proud of my friend!

Check out her blog!

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!

Pop pop popppppp art

I am certainly no true aficionado of the fine arts but I am also no unaware rookie. I have grown up surrounded by art as my dad is a fine arts photographer and an amateur fine art historian (knowledge comes with the job). Art nouveau was the most appreciated art form and era in our house. I completely disregarded it as a child or a teen, my love for art nouveau awoke much later.

When I was a teenie I discovered pop art for myself and fell in love with it. The vibrant colours, the bold statements, the cheekyness - I admired everything about it and always considered it very me. These days I am much calmer and I like to spread my tastes in my house. It's not only a colourful explosion of pop art with some 50s pin-ups in between, I like to dabble in a lot of eras. I adore art nouveau, I like art deco, I adore pop art and I also really worship vintage kitsch and modern Kawaii. So a mix of all these is me or my interior!

And when I realised that there's currently a Mel Ramos and Roy Lichtenstein exhibition in Vienna I just had to go. No I ran. 

Both artists mean a lot to me and my personal history. Earlier today I stood in front of one of the nearly life size big candy coloured naked pin-ups of Mel Ramos and I just smiled at her. She really made me happy, I wanted to touch her, stroke her. I know that sounds a bit iffy but you know what I mean, don't cha?

Unfortunately two of my favourite Ramos images were missing in the exhibition. Amongst lots others, but those I personally missed as I had them up my wall in my very first flat donkeys years ago.

Roy Lichtenstein inspired art you can find everywhere all over the world. And I always loved him. I cannot tell you why but he is certainly amongst my top 5 artists.

Again my favourite work by him was not shown.

I had planned to elaborate much more on the two artists but quite honestly I am really beat. And I don't want to miss blogging all the time. So there you go. I had a lovely time today as my dad looked after my son and my middle sister accompanied me in enjoying the exhibition. Just the two of us. Great feeling!

I've been very lucky in recent years with exhibitions in Vienna. There are always tons all around the year but I seem to catch my favs. Last year I went to see Alphonse Mucha, another one of my top 5. How I loved it!

Evening - by Mucha. I bought a print in Muchas hometown Prague years ago and still haven't had it framed!

So next year I expect de Lempicka, Vargas or Elvgren. Got it? 

Tamara de Lempicka's self portrait

Pin-up girl by Alberto Vargas  

The Fence - by Gil Elvgren

             

And talking about Gil Elvgren - in the museum gift shop I snatched up the Gil Elvgren Taschen Anniversary book. It contains all his illustrations and frankly it left me speechless. I did not know all his work and it's beyond beauty. I love it. I was surprised by the size of the book, judging from the Amazon pic and prize I assumed it was pocket-ish in size!

I am already half in my pjs and I look quite  tired. But I really liked my hair today. And the book :-)

                                          

So people in Vienna - if you have not done so yet go and see Mel Ramos and Roy Lichtenstein at the Albertina. The're on until May!                              

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!

Proof of life - and death

First of all thank you so much to the many new followers! Despite my lack of attendance the number keeps rising - I am in awe! I promise there will be a time where I can show my gratitude and I will browse, follow other blogs and comment.

At the moment I am at home in Vienna in Austria. Sadly my beloved nan passed away 2 days ago but I got here in time, I was able to say good bye and she died at home surrounded by her 3 daughters and me, I am her eldest grandchild. We basically held her and watched her dying and as horrible as this sounds - it was a beautiful moment, she was able to let go after a number of years of suffering, she managed to just fall asleep peacefully without a fight and I perceived it as a very bonding moment between my mother, my aunts and me.

My nan, or Omi as I called her, partly raised me, for at least 10 years of my life I lived with her - for parts of my childhood full time and later on in my very late teens/early 20s I lived across the hall from her in the flat opposite of hers. To me she was more than just a nan, she was my second mother. A woman who always took care of me - my whole life, even as a severely handicapped old lady in the last years she supported me financially. My parents are great people and I love them dearly but the one rock who was reliable was my nan. Her flat is is the only steady home I ever had as my parents always moved around. The street, the district, the appartment she lived in - to me this is where I come from, my roots.

3 1/2 years ago she suffered a very bad stroke which she - amazingly - against all odds survived. Her whole life she had a very, very strong spirit, a true fighter and this amazing stamina and spirit also showed after the stroke - she even gained some speech again, she managed to walk a little but she had to have full time care. Once a very elegant and proud woman she still kept her pride and died very much loved. I hope she can rest in peace now with my equally beloved grandad who died nearly 13 years ago.

I want to scan some old pics of me and my nan and some of her as a young woman but for now a pic of me and my boy yesterday, the day after she died. 

The church is just opposite of my parents flat, tomorrow I will say a little prayer for my nan and light a candle in the church. 

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.

Outfits'n'hair

I am showing these outfits not because I think they are so great - by golly I really don't - but because it amazes me what I can find in my wardrobe with a bit of rethinking. It's the wardrobe of Narnia! I find old forgotten pieces in there and pieces I wanted to throw out but deserve new love - all kinds of things. I really consider my hesitation to go full time vintage (inspired) so silly. For years I would always don a full skirted dress with a petticoat and 50s hair for occassions but never dreamt of the possibility to do it every day. All it took was some rethinking, some "new" vintage jewllery and of course the hair. I still think that is what makes or breaks the outfit.

(click to enlarge all pics)

I really liked the pink number, not so keen in hindsight on the navy-red combo (in the mirror the 2 navy tones didn't look that different) and I have never been fully convinced of the teal cardigan. I think I just need to find an ideal item to wear it with.

As mentioned before I started selling bits of my wardrobe to fund new vintage or vintage inspired items. One of my first treasures is this pair of grey M&S high waisted trousers. Blimey do I love them. I live in them at the moment. Currently I am trying to hunt down a navy pair on Ebay. These grey ones were in mint condition and cheap as chips.  

The floral cardigan from Primark is also a newer aquisition via ebay and the leopard print one I had for a while - also Ebay but originally Next.

2 brooches from my vintage jewllery treasure chest

I thought my hair is also blogworthy

These were taken the day after the vintage event in Letchworth after the hairdresser told me to roll at the base around 2 fingers. I managed to get the victory rolls more standing up but I still have not got the hang of it.



I crocheted myself a rat - what a difference! I love it how neat and tidy the back looks now - and when I am in not such a rush in the morning I could also try hiding the pins...



I absolutely love this pic of my lil' man and me.

The little scallywag always tries to hog the limelight - here's the proof!

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