How To: Go 1940s on a budget

As you know, I love absolutely all kinds of vintage, but I do not like to spend a lot of time getting ready in the morning or the night before, which is why I spend much of my time wearing the practical, straight-haired vintage of later eras. Lately though I have been feeling a certain nostalgia for older styles (probably brought on by my watching of the BBC series The Hour) and so today I decided to indulge myself - yet due to my budget I don't actually own any 40s vintage, but it is still possible to achieve the look.

Here is an example of how you can ( "make-do and mend" ) using your thrifting skills, to transform yourself into a 40s goddess for a day...

For the outfit you will need:

1) A short-sleeved button down blouse. It doesn't really matter too much what colour or pattern. You can often find a lot of white or creme coloured 'granny' blouses in op-shops - which is what mine is. And remember, the women of the 40s made their clothing out of all sorts of old scraps and materials like curtains and hessian sacks!

2) A high waisted, below the knee length, A-line skirt. Mine is a 1970s A-line skirt which I found in an op-shop - (70s skirts are still fairly easy and cheap to come by) or any kind of A-line skirt, even a rap around will do.

3) A neat fitting, thrifted cardigan.

 For the accessories you will need:

Jewellery: A thrifted necklace such as fake pearls or beads - or an old brooch to jazz up the outfit.

Shoes: Espadrilles or another kind of low wedge heel will do well. If you don't have these try using some basic lace-up sneakers worn with ankle socks instead.

Here is my version of the look

Finally

For the make-up & hair:

Make-up: (This is the fun part!) - sit yourself in front of a mirror and paint some black eye liner above your lashes with small cat-eye flicks at the ends. Then add some blush and a dash of red lipstick. If you have a compact mirror, gaze at yourself in the compact mirror while you apply for effect!

 

Hair: I'll be honest - I'm the worst hairdresser in the world. I have very straight, fine hair which never seems to do what I want it to do when it comes to curls. This, paired with the fact that I don't seem to possess any form of patience makes things difficult.

If you can do victory rolls by all means go for it because you're a star and they look amazing. If you're lacking the many hours sitting in front of a mirror that is needed in order to become a proper retro pin-up girl, there is an easy & quick style to start with:

Part your hair in the middle and pull the top front section of hair including the hair that sits above your ear, towards the front (one side at a time). Twist it in towards your parting leaving a looser section of hair up the top (like you would if you were making a pouff) so that it sits up high as you fold the long twist of hair backwards and behind. Pin this twist behind the pouff of hair sitting up  with two bobby pins & spray lightly. You can also curl the ends of your hair with a curling iron if you so wish.

*If you are confused by my lack of pictures, this style is sort of like the beginning of a victory roll, without the roll, so watching an online tutorial for these might help!!*

And voila!

A century (almost) in shoes

I've come to realise what my guilty pleasure in life is:

I really, really enjoy browsing through vintage shoes, whether it's in a market or online I don't really mind.

I think I've always been enchanted by shoes from a very young age, particularly high heels (somewhat ironically since I can't really walk in high heels due to a foot ailment I had as a child). I used to love trying on grown-ups high heels when I was a kid. Then there was the love affair with those little pink plastic princess shoes (you know the ones with the little feathers on the toes that click click around when you walk) that seem to be essential to every four year old girl's life.

I think it's obvious to most people who know me well...or read my blog!...that I love all vintage fashion, but there is something about the design qualities of shoes (their sleekness, shininess, glamour) that seems - when it's done well - to mimic perfection.

A couple of years ago I was browsing through a book shop and I came across a book called Vintage Shoes by Caroline Cox that was basically a pictorial history of shoes, and wow, I fell in love with it. Every decade of shoe history was covered with big colour photographs and biographies of the shoe designers. I suppose everyone who is interested in the elements of design must have one particular object that they favour like houses, or cars, or chairs? Mine I think, must be shoes.

The funny thing is though that despite this visual love for shoes, I don't own many pairs of shoes myself. I think this is because I am very very fussy when it comes to the shoes I wear, I like them to be sleek, easy to walk in and flattering on my feet, and because vintage shoes are often so pricey and hard to come by in large shoe sizes.

The good thing is, I still find pleasure in looking at shoes, even if I can't own them.

Here are some amazing women's shoes (perhaps I will do a post of men's shoes in another post one day) from different decades that I have fallen in love with via etsy.

Just click on the era to go to the source.

Victorian

I am a big fan of Victorian lace-ups. Always thought they looked comfy (but I doubt anyone could fit into them now because their feet were so small!)

1900s

Aren't these just beautiful?

1920s

1930s

1940s-50s

To me, 40s shoes are just the most glamorous...and the 70s tend to mimic the 40s when it comes to shoes so I love them both of course!

1960s

1970s

These are BIBA!! :O

1980s

Love these! Very Molly Ringwald in Pretty In Pink!

1990s...

Well most of us were there weren't we? And to be honest I'm not a huge fan of those chunky Spice Girl platforms....(I'm sure there were some decent shoes in the 90s?) but I'll leave it to your imagination.

What is your favourite shoe era?

1960s eye make-up

The other night I was feeling really bored so I decided to try doing some Penelope Tree style eye make-up to pass the time.

Pamela Des Barres, Penelope Tree, Shelly Duvall & Twiggy
via: sandy says

This is how it turned out (the images are bad quality phone photos sorry!) I have tried doing 60s make-up before and hadn't been entirely happy with the turn out, but this time I think I figured it out. You have to space the liquid eyeliner bottom lash strokes quite far apart for it to show up from a distance...and because my eyes are deep set I have to make the strokes quite long.

Maximum Summer

I have been admiring the idea of wearing a 70s maxi skirt this summer. Though unfortunately and strangely I find genuine 70s clothing to be hard to come by. Maxi skirts in particular are hard to find, and are often very pricey when you do find a nice one. The other thing about genuine 70s maxi's is they are often made from heavy synthetic materials and sometimes even quilting (like to find on an old bed spread!) so not so handy for the hot 30 + summer days.

But it is still possible to find amazing 70s dress patterns round and about...so I had the idea that maybe I could make my own - if I could just find a big enough reel of lightweight retro fabric. So this I've decided will be my summer project!

I always love looking at 70s dress patterns, it's like candy for my eyes. Everything is so colourful, flattering and modern in a nice way (ie. you could still wear a lot of these styles today and be considered fashionable but not minimalist like half the fashion designs you see modelled today).

~ I would like one with a frill at the base ~

Here is a short collection of maxi designs for your delight:

Mary Quant and models wearing her designs

1970s Mens Fashion - Rock Star Style

You know how I am about all thing 70s at the moment, well during my blog reading I came across this great post by Miss Peelpants at Get Some Vintage Appeal revealing some hot photographs from the book: The Faces 1969-75

The post features Rod Stewert, Ronnie Wood and others frolicking around in glam rock velvets, shiny suits and blouses. It is a great insight into 70s mens fashion which I have a soft spot for.

You should check out her full post with more photos here. Plus if you're a fan of the 70s in general I think you will enjoy reading her blog!

60s & 70s School Style Summer Inspiration

Today it was a wonderful 30 degrees in Melbourne. It feels as through Summer has hit early, and I'm excited. Bring on the t-shirts and summer dresses. This summer I will be channeling the sunny colours, patterns and shapes of the two decades of Groovy.

Vintage Barbie clothing - she's not exactly Miss Natural, but you have to admit Barbie did have style

I wouls love to get, or possibly make a legitimate 60s  jumpsuit to wear this summer!

Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst in 'Dick'

The Runaways

Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith

Images via: http://superseventies.tumblr.com/, http://areyoupassionate.tumblr.com/, http://retrogoddess.tumblr.com/, http://plasticbats.tumblr.com/, stylerookie and rookie mag

About blogging, and giant babies

Hi, sorry I haven't been around for a while...I've been busy and lacking inspiration. I'm having a blogger dilemma. Perhaps more appropriately, I am suffering from a bad case of blog boredom. I am one of those people who follows many a famous, big hit fashion blog, but I have just about stopped reading all of them. There are a select number of blogs that I look for on my dashboard which I find interesting, funny, inspiring (you know who you are - if I am following you and you are not a 'world famous' blogger then don't worry, I like your blog!) but none of these top blogs are any of these things. All they are is hundreds of photos of themselves in vintage or more often pseudo vintage (my arch enemy) clothing, or photos of themselves and their boyfriends/husbands frolicking around on holidays, while we are constantly reminded about how wonderful their life is.

Thanks. I find this most interesting.

It is starting to drive me insane. I find that the blogging world suffers from a serious case of copy-cat syndrome. It is odd that 99% of these top bloggers some of whom have many hundreds or thousands of followers, most of the time dress in the same way and blog about things in the same manner, which is why it becomes boring if you are someone like me who looks for a unique voice/sense of style. I am not saying that just because your blog is highly popular that it is automatically bad, obviously people must start somewhere and perhaps some of the smaller blogs that I like will become famous in the future, but it does seem as though the blogging world, like the real world, highlights people who conform, not people who have the guts to be different.

So should we feel sad that only 5% of bloggers appreciate our blog? No, absolutely not.

Last year I was forced to take a compulsory class as part of my major, (which I despised at the time, but have since come to realise was more helpful than I ever thought it could be) where we looked at the philosophy of writing. Only one concept has stuck with me from this class, and that is Bourdieu's concept of 'art for art's sake'. In a nutshell, Bourdieu discusses the fact that 'high art' ie. modernist literature like Joyce's Ulysses is often unpopular or rejected by bourgeois society while it is bench marked by the elite as a seminal work of art and made as 'art for art's sake,' without economic gain. In contrast, things that are often popular amongst the status quo and hence economically successful are often seen to be crude or labelled as 'bad' art by the elite - the best example of this I think is Blockbuster Hollywood movies of today.

I think the analogy I am trying to make here is fairly obvious so I will leave it at that. But basically the purpose of this post is to say, I want to make my blogging more interesting, so I have decided to start a writing blog (I will probably keep posting on this one too) so I can write opinion articles about issues I find interesting, and begin my quest to improve my writing skills and enter the world of writing/publishing. This hasn't happened yet, but I hope to start it up soon. I've also posted the essay I wrote about Bourdieu's theory in relation to the 70s Punk movement as part of that class on a new page labelled Articles and Essays if you care to have a look.

In other news, Melbourne is currently full of giant reptile babies. I know, weird. It's for the annual Melbourne Festival. This is a picture of me in front of one baby. My friend S who took the photo says it looks like it is trying to do yoga.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Carnaby Street 1968

A time warp, back to the fashions of Carnaby Street in 1968.

Thinking Out Loud

Todays post is really just my mind in pictures, kind of inspiration and what not.

Firstly, I haven't posted about how much I love George in a while, but I still heart George and love this photo. He has a beautiful smile. Men (and women!) who have beautiful smiles are beautiful.

 

I also bought The Beatles Number 1's last week and am loving it. Love these boys. I love seeing pictures of people when they look genuinely happy, which is why I like this picture below. I like the Beatles because they're a happy band (well in the early years) and when I listen to them they make me happy too.

 I just came across this picture on tumblr, and have decided that I need this room to be my bathroom haha I love how kitschy 60s home decor is!

 It's also been a while since I had my hair cut, and it's slowly starting to grow out...contemplating whether or not to cut it again. On Monday my friend suggested over coffee that I should cut my hair in a little 20s bob and gel two little curls around my cheeks. My first response was, this dosen't really work with my 70s tomboy styling, but now it is churning around the back of my head like a growing possibility. Still pondering...

 I also watched Ghost World for the first time this week and really liked it. I like the fact that Enid has this thing for nerdy guys and how cynical she is. I can really relate to that. Feeling like an outsider sometimes. I also just think it's hilarious, and love movies that can make you laugh out loud in a non artificial/trying-too-hard way.

 Finally I've been doing alot of cooking the past week, and need to listen to music while I cook otherwise it's too boring! I've been listening to Led Zepplin a lot and really love Babe I'm Gonna Leave You. It has great riffs.

Anyway thanks for your comments on my previous posts. I always love reading them.

Happy Wednesday!

 

Living in 70s High-Rise

The most flattering kind of hip wear.

via

Charlotte Gainsbourg

stylepantry

Stevie Nicks via

hypeed

via

Jodie Foster as Iris in Taxi Driver 1976

 

chictopia

via

hypeed

Mmmhmm. That's right.

Happy Saturday!