Just popping in to apologise for things being quiet of late. My laptop died a few weeks back and it's going to be a while before I can afford a new one. I'm hoping I can do some limited blogging from my husband's laptop but we'll see how it goes. I have countless ideas for this blog and hopefully I'll be up and running and blogging frequently by the autumn. Hope to see you soon! xx

I'm pretty sure that most people who read my blog do not slavishly follow trends - heaven forbid! I imagine they don't even keep up with much in the way of modern fashion. I'm guessing, if you're reading this, you probably belong to some kind of alternative culture in one way or another and probably disdain mainstream style as lacking in individuality and creativity. And I totally agree with that. Wearing the 'must have' dress from Primark just because you've seen it on a celebrity doesn't make you stylish. You're not putting any thought into that. You're not expressing anything of yourself - except perhaps that you're lacking in creativity or, at the very least, afraid to share your creative side with the world.

But recently I've begun to question the very idea of 'style tribes' (which is a terrible and quite appropriative term by the by but moving on). There is one to suit pretty much everybody - whether you're an Essex girl, a raver, a hipster or a vintage girl - they're all there. But is any of this actually any better than copying an outfit because you saw it in Look magazine? Each little group has its own look - and yes, we could argue that within the vintage community there are many types of looks and there totally are but that isn't the point I'm making here - and follows the rules of that pretty closely. When I get too caught up in the vintage world, I find myself questioning whether my hair looks 1943 enough to go with my dress or whether this shade of blush would have been appropriate for day time wear. Whether or not I like it, whether it expresses what I want to express, it all seems to go out of the window.

Sometimes when I'm shopping, I'll see a really cute dress but I'll think to myself 'oh, it's not very vintage looking, I can't get that, it won't go with my style'. The thing is, if I like it, what does it matter whether it fits into a 1940s aesthetic? I love seeking inspiration from 1940s fashion magazines but I have decided that slavishly copying them isn't for me. Of course there are many wonderful guys and gals who do and it works for them and that is their hobby - recreating the fabulous looks of the past. But for me, clothes have to express something more than just 'I like the 1940s'. To be honest, my tastes are more wide and more varied than that. I love Pre-Raphaelites and sometimes I want to grow my hair really long and who cares whether it's too long to put in victory rolls? I love the 1960s and ye-ye girls and Francoise Hardy and I want to wear thick eyeliner and sing in French. I love medieval history and I want to pretend I'm Elizabeth of York or Anne Neville in velvet gowns. I don't want to be tied down to one style. I want to wear all of these things, all at once if I want. I'm not going to stop looking at vintage clothing for inspiration. I'm not going to stop wearing it. I'm going to keep pin-curling my hair and wearing red lipstick because I love it and it suits me. But I'm not going to let it define me.


Also, my apologies for the stylistic awkwardness going on over here at my blog, I'm messing around with the layout and my coding is shockingly poor!

It's Joanie's birthday today so I thought I'd honour her by celebrating that famous face of hers.

Joan was a master of image renewal. She was Madonna before Madonna was even born. She was never one to get into a style rut but was always ahead of the trends - perhaps even setting them. Although we tend to remember her later looks with the thick eyebrows and crazy lipstick as being typical Crawford, in her heyday she was constantly evolving her look. She pioneered, with the help of Max Factor, some of the most memorable beauty looks of her day. There's a reason the classic 40s lip shape is called the Crawford Smear - it was first worn by Crawford back in the mid 30s.

Some people have a sense of style that never changes. They can buy something one year knowing that they'll like it next. Their tastes don't change with the weather, the season or what book they're reading. They are easy to buy for and easy to plan around - they are always the same. I, on the other hand, am not. My tastes are constantly evolving. Things I found attractive six months ago I may now look at and think 'what was I thinking?'. Buying clothes is a constant struggle because I hate most of them by the time I've worn them twice. I try to resist impulse buys because usually they fit my moods but not my underlying personality.





Take now for instance. At the moment, my style is drawing heavily on a combination of the 20s and the glam rock of the 70s (as well as the typical 40s look which is the basis of my wardrobe). A bizarre clash of styles you might think! And just a month or so back I was hankering after medieval styles, rich colours and luxurious fabrics. Now I want neon and glitter! It makes life difficult. But lots of fun! I'm trying to integrate more colour into my wardrobe and I'm wearing huge amounts of glitter make-up as well as neon pink and orange lipstick. The silhouette is remaining pretty 40s - a-line skirts and pretty blouses - but with added colours that would never have been seen!




At the moment, my Pinterest is mostly featuring glitter make-up, Ulyana Sergeenko and art deco lines. Make of that what you will!

And who knows what I'll be obsessing over next!

Whilst I do keep an eye on modern fashion trends (because I love knowing for instance when the shops are going to be full of pencil skirts or sweet back-button blouses!), I don't usually keep up with the fashion shows. However, when my tumblr dashboard was last night swamped with pictures of the Fall/Winter collection by Dolce and Gabbana, I sat up and took note. I'm an art history geek and one of the things I adore in particular are the Byzantine mosaics that fill the medieval churches of the Mediterranean nations. When on my honeymoon in Rome, I spent a lot of time swooning over the beautiful artwork that covered the walls of the earlier churches (many of the ones in Rome are Renaissance or Baroque but for instance the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere has incredible mosaics which, whilst later than the height of the Byzantine empire, are very much in the style). So when I saw D&G's collection inspired by Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale, I fell in love. Hard. The detailing is exquisite - the dresses themselves are covered in beaded mosaics that mimic those of the cathedral. The shapes are both modern and utterly timeless. And the shoes! I am hoping that this style trickles down to the High Street next autumn because I am LOVING it.

images from Style.com


If you like this, I seriously recommend checking out some Byzantine art (the Wikipedia post is a good place to start!). It's beautiful, mysterious and wonderfully ethereal. And whilst you're at it, check out the rest of D&G's collection - it's truly awe-inspiring. THIS is why I love fashion.

I'm in need of help! I bought these utterly delightful yellow sandals by Shellys from Asos (link to the shoes!) and I adore them. They're going to be an absolute staple this spring/summer. Only question is - I don't know what to wear them with! I really don't know what to wear with yellow and every time I think of something, I can come up with a reason that says 'nope. No chance. Not going to wear that'. Green is out or I'll look like a daffodil. Black is out because I don't want to look like a bee. White is out because I can't wear white, at least not on my bottom half (which is the half that matters, really!). I'm a warm skin toned pale lady with red hair (currently dyed brown but going back to ginger soon) and blue eyes which makes my palette limited as it is.

What would YOU wear with these shoes?

With Valentine's day right around the corner, I thought I'd write up a post featuring the colour red. Red - specifically bright, vibrant, pillar box red, was traditionally a little bit daring as a colour, especially if you wore it head to toe - it's not until the late 19th century that red evening dresses are ever really seen. Red really came into its own in the mid twentieth century - perhaps helped along by Technicolor cinema and the need for movie costumes to be as vivid as possible to stand out on the screen. Red is a colour that screams 'look at me!' perhaps in a way that no other colour does.

Here are a few glamorous examples of red making a statement.

For months I've been trying to blog, desperately hoping to find something to blog about, but the fact is that I can't be the kind of vintage blogger I want to be, that I admire and follow and get inspired by. My illness holds me back at all turns and in so many ways and I just thought I'd explain why - and how I can make this blog something different - not what I imagined for it but something unique that fits me and my lifestyle.


Cost

Wearing vintage on a daily basis, even reproduction vintage, is a cost business. It's something you need to spend a lot of money on to get right. And, being ill all the time and consequently not being able to work, money just isn't something I have a lot of. The vast vast majority of my wardrobe comes from the high street. Half of the time I buy things from necessity - I need something to wear because my old things are falling to pieces - not from choice. Last year I bought four garments beyond basic t-shirts, one of which doesn't fit at all and one of which I've never worn because it's an evening gown and why oh why did I buy an evening gown? The only others are a black jersey dress which looks rubbish within minutes because it's cheap fabrics and picks up every speck of dust and the other is a sweater I bought in the Dorothy Perkins sale because it looked a bit 50s.

Because of being ill, I spend a lot of time (the vast majority of it in fact) in the house which means that any spare money I have goes towards things that will keep me occupied without causing me to expend much energy. That means things like books, the odd DVD, art equipment. I bought myself a graphics tablet recently as well so I could draw in bed without getting paint everywhere! Clothing just isn't a priority when you're lucky to leave the house once a week and, even then, it's only to go see a doctor or to buy groceries.


Energy

As touched on before, I have ridiculously low energy levels. I probably sleep for sixteen hours a day and most of the rest of them are spent in bed because I am just so tired. I'm also in pain a lot of the time. It's not really conducive to getting dressed up! Things as simple as doing my hair or buttoning a blouse up are really tricky when I do get dressed. I buy my clothes for comfort as opposed to style. Hand washing clothes or worse, taking them to the dry cleaners, is not an option so I need things I can throw in the wash quickly and then stick in the tumble dryer.

I don't have the energy to trawl around charity shops and boot sales so I can't find bargains. Likewise, although I love to sew, I just cannot do it - or at least if I do, it takes me a long long time. Last year I made a grand total of three items - all skirts. In other words, acquiring clothes, however I do it, has to be as simple and straightforward as possible for me.


Solutions

I have become something of an eagle eyed spotter of anything vintage looking. Because of having so much time at home, I do a lot of research on vintage fashions etc. My book collection on the subject is pretty impressive! So whilst the places I do shop - places like ASOS - may not be known for their vintage stylings, when they do have one item which is vintage inspired (even if it's not intentional), I can pick it out instantly. I mostly buy separates because then I have a great deal more variety in my wardrobe. Because vintage costume jewellery is relatively cheap (I steer clear of real bakelite, of course!), I buy a few items of it and make a plain outfit more cheerful and more, for want of a better word, vintage. For me, vintage has become about knowing how to style items that aren't necessarily vintage. I'm sure the purists would have a heart attack but it's the only way I can do it!


What does this mean for blogging? 

I can't do OOTDs because, quite simply, I don't get dressed every day. I can't show off my vintage finds because they are so very rare. I'm not going to be able to post my latest sewing creations because they are so few and far between that I'd be posting three times a year only! However, there are things I can do. I can post about my favourite designers, favourite trends, my inspiration etc. I have become ace at spotting modern items with a vintage feel so I'm sure I can gather those together as well. And I can post a little about my life with my illness and show off my outfits when I DO have the energy to put together a great look!

So now I can type away to my heart's content, even if I AM feeling tired ;)

I'm really excited! I'm taking part in a contest to appear in a calendar by the wonderful Vintage Beauty Parlour and I would love it if you wonderful people could possibly click on the photograph which will lead you to Facebook where you can click 'like' to vote for me. I definitely encourage you to check out the other lovely ladies as well - you can vote for as many as you like! Thanks to you all!

Dresses are fantasy clothes. Dresses can be anything, they can be sophisticated, sweet or sexy and sometimes all three at once. Being into vintage fashion means that I am surrounded by pictures of beautiful dresses.

But the thing that confuses me is that I never wear any. I can tell you that the last time I wore a dress was on Christmas day. I am a determinedly separates kind of a girl. I live in blouses and skirts. Sometimes I will change that up a little bit by wearing my Heyday! trousers but that's so absurdly rare that I might as well state than I live entirely in skirts. But whilst I love doing that, I do feel like I miss out a little. Dresses are easier to wear, I think, simpler and, generally speaking, more flattering. But my problem is that I feel a little like they're not worth the amount of money they are. For an outfit to be good value for money, it has to be versatile. And, to be honest, dresses aren't very often. I love the feeling of being able to mix and match my clothing. And that doesn't really work with dresses. Which is why I only own one day dress, two cocktail dresses and an evening gown. Two of those I've never worn. Ever.

A couple of days ago, I watched Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, a British film made in 1960 and starring the wonderful Albert Finney. I won't talk too much about the film (which I recommend highly to anyone who loves realist or New Wave cinema) but I will talk about the clothes because that's what I'm here for. I'm only really going to be looking in detail at one character, Doreen, as she's the only female character who really gets a change of clothes. The film is set in working class Nottingham and the clothing reflects that. Doreen is slightly more well off than other characters, however, and her clothes are a bit better than most of the characters and she also wears quite a number of different outfits. One thing I noticed about her wardrobe is how much closer it is to European fashion of the time than American, that Godard-Fellini casual feminine chic look that we see on Anna Karina and Claudia Cardinale throughout the 60s. Then again, with its simpler lines, it's more fitting to a girl of her class than the designs shown on the Hollywood silver screen or in the pages of American fashion magazines. But I am definitely more of a fan of the former look than the latter so I was completely in love with how the actress Shirley Anne Field looked.