The last of the Anne Fogarty dresses (so far!)

In February I blogged about a wool Anne Fogarty dress and the original advert. I mentioned that there was another Anne Fogarty dress that I owned and this is it.

This was another good purchase from eBay and it fits very snugly!  I don't know if I will be lucky enough to find any more Anne Fogarty dresses at reasonable prices, many of the recent ones on Etsy have been over £100.  1950s wool dresses are great to have in winter to keep you warm and stylish.

What I particularly love about this dress is the detail on the back - look at those buttons!  I haven't seen many other dresses with this sort of detailing at the back.

And here are my Gloria by Miss L Fire boots, aren't they cute?  As I explained in a previous post, when the AW14 styles were released, I really wanted the Alpine boots but they sold out in my size in their pre-orders so I decided to buy these ones.  They are pretty comfy and keep my feet warm!

Dress: Vintage from eBay
Boots: Miss L Fire
Bag: Vintage from eBay
Stockings: What Katie Did
Brooch: Luxulite on Etsy
Earrings: Forbidden Charm on Etsy

Designed for the Young Elite

In this post, I present another dress from one of my favourite designers - Anne Fogarty.  I have blogged about Anne Fogarty dresses before here and here. 

 

I now have three wool Anne Fogarty dresses (with the last one to be presented in another post) and I have been incredibly lucky because they were all bargains from Etsy and eBay!  I won this one for $20 on eBay as no one else bid on it (why?!!!)  Living in the UK, I rely on buying most of my vintage online but I rarely find such bargains.

 

 

It has a wool jersey bodice with a thick mohair plaid circle skirt and it is very cosy!

 

 

The other reason this dress is special to me is that not long after I purchased it, I managed to find an original advert of this dress when searching online...

 

 

I have never found an advert for any of my other dresses so was really pleased to find this.  The advert dates from September 1962 and it reads "Our own Anne Fogarty makes news in black and white with this dramatic dress - headlining an exclusive collection designed for the Young Elite."  Have you ever found any original adverts for your vintage clothing?

 

I am also wearing my new Miss L Fire Alpine boots.  These are the second pair of boots I have bought from them this season but I just could not resist getting these.  The first pair I bought will be featured in another post but for now you can feast your eyes on this pair ...

 









I really wanted the Havana boots that they made a few years ago but never managed to get a pair so was so pleased to see that they had done a very similar design this season.  Unfortunately, they sold out of my size on the Miss L Fire website during the 'pre-release' last year so I bought the Gloria boots instead.  Then last week, I saw these Alpine boots on Zalando on sale and in stock with my size... So it had to be done.

Dress: Vintage from eBay
Shoes: Miss L Fire via Zalando
Bag: Vintage from eBay
Belt: House of Fraser
Earrings: Vintage from eBay
Brooch: Luxulite

The Christmas Dress

Happy New Year!  My first post of the year reflects on what I wore on Christmas Day...

 

This dress arrived a few weeks before Christmas and it just made sense to wear it on Christmas Day with some red and white accessories.  I love the ivy embroidery around the neckline and cuffs.  Unfortunately it was a bit too big for me so since wearing this dress, I have actually sold it to someone else.  I have been quite ruthless in the last few months with some of my vintage items, ones that I know I am unlikely to wear again for whatever reason, I will try to sell on.

 



I am also wearing two petticoats with this dress!  A very full reproduction one with my less full vintage one on top.  I normally only wear the vintage one so it was very strange wearing such a full petticoat, I felt like I was going to knock things over wherever I went.

I am also wearing my new poinsettia hair clip from Rosie Alia Designs on Etsy, she has some great hair accessories in her shop.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year :)

Dress: Vintage from Etsy
Shoes: Vintage (purchased so long ago)
Belt: Vintage from eBay
Hair clip: Rosie Alia Designs on Etsy
Bracelet: Vintage from Clobber Vintage, Bournemouth
Earrings: Vintage from Etsy

One year of blogging!

Yesterday marked one year of blogging! Woo!  I had been reading vintage lifestyle blogs for a while and had always wanted to set up my own but my guy had to persuade me to do it and I'm glad he did because I have enjoyed doing outfit and event posts over the past twelve months (and I hope you have too!)

Although I started out doing weekly outfit posts, recently it has become more of a fortnightly occurrence.  I still have many more outfits to post about (and I will be continuing to buy more dresses I am sure) but as I am looking for apartments to rent with my guy, my time has been spent looking for places and also spending money on homewares.  Inevitably this means less money spent on vintage clothing and accessories!  I hope in the future, when we have found a place, I will be able to do some Mid Century home posts.  I have already bought a few key Atomic and Mid Century items for our home but they now just need a home to go into...

Also, in the midst of looking for an apartment and buying home stuff, I am booking a holiday to America for Spring next year!  This is obviously quite costly and time consuming but I hope going forward that fortnightly outfit posts will be attainable.  I really admire those bloggers out there who do frequent posting and maybe once things settle down in my life, I will get back to weekly posts!

Anyway, back to my blogging anniversary, here are my top four favourite outfits from the past twelve months!

This is easily a favourite dress, it has a linen or linen-like material and I originally blogged about it here

As I mentioned in this post, although I love this dress, I don't wear it very often for fear of ruining it!

 

 

Good times in Narbonne (France) in this dress and I simply cannot wait for the first HOT day of the year, so I can wear this again!  Original post is here.

 

 



I am not a fan of Winter but this dress made me enjoy the colder days!  Original post is here.

I'll be back soon with some new outfits!

The last of the wool dresses...

As mentioned in a previous post, this transition from Winter to Spring has been interesting for my vintage wardrobe.  I bought a few vintage wool dresses over the last few months and this post features the last of them to go on this blog.  I am also showing you my new coat, which is a 1950s 'Kerrybrooke' Teen coat.  As a petite lady, I do buy a lot of 'Junior' items as they fit me better and this coat is no exception.  I find it quite difficult to buy vintage coats so when I saw this on eBay and it was my size, I knew I had to get it (especially as it was from a UK seller so no customs charges!)

It has a lovely fleck in the material and I just love the buttons.

 

 

 

I purchased this dress from Croatia Vintage on Etsy and scored a good discount as it was during the Black Friday sales.  You might not be able to see in the photos but the neckline has rhinestones around it - so cute!

 

 

Dress: Vintage from Croatia Vintage on Etsy

Coat: Vintage from eBay

Shoes: Marks and Spencer

Bag: Vintage from Etsy

Earrings: Forbidden Charm on Etsy

 

Autumnal hues in Spring

After my last outfit post where I welcomed Spring with open arms, it was rather hasty to say that I wouldn't be able to wear my winter coats again... It is safe to say that it is still cold in England and although we had a brief bout of warm Spring weather, I think it will be a little while longer until I can go out without a winter coat!

These photos were taken on a day trip to Brighton a few weekends ago (when it was still cold but very sunny!)

 

The colours in this outfit are perhaps more suited to a day in Autumn rather than the start of Spring.  I do love all those Spring pastel shades but I like to buy vintage that is practical and I find these colours to be more practical (at least in England!) than pastel shades (this doesn't stop me coveting all the pastel shade dresses popping up all over Etsy right now!)

 

 

 

This outfit also presented the opportunity to wear this hat.  I bought this hat in 2012 and have only worn it a couple of times (it has been featured in this post.)  Although I do really like the style, the colour doesn't seem to go with many of my outfits but I think it suits this dress.

 

 

Dress: Vintage from Luxie Vintage on Etsy

Hat: Vintage from Concetta's Closet on Etsy

Coat: Vintage from Lou Lou's Vintage Fair

Shoes: Topshop

Bag: Vintage gift from my guy

Earrings: Vintage from Clerkenwell Fair

It's Spring!

So Spring is finally here in the UK!  I am very pleased about that because I am a fan of the 'warmer' months, however, having said that, we didn't have a particularly cold winter (I never saw any snow!)  It did rain a lot though so I hope we don't see rain like that for a while. 

As a vintage lover, warmer weather is certainly easier to dress for.  It took me a while to get into "vintage winter wardrobe" mode, which essentially meant that I didn't allow myself to buy any more summery cotton dresses and instead only bought wool/ wool blend dresses.  I did find some really nice wool dresses as well so although I am happy it is getting warmer, I'm going to miss wearing these dresses and my winter coats! 

My favourite winter dress purchase in the last few months is easily this one...

 

I bought this dress from Lucky Dry Goods on Etsy.  I almost always message sellers when I buy online, usually to double check the condition of the item.  When I messaged the seller this time, it happened to be the lovely Sara from Lilies and Remains who replied as she works for this store!  I love her blog as she has the most sensational 1940s style and she was so kind as to answer my queries and even gave me a 10% discount for a tiny flaw that was overlooked in the listing (even though it is so small I can't even see it on the dress!)

 

 

It's pretty easy to see why I love this dress... cute velvet collar, great fit, and the fabric has little yellow 'x' details woven into the fabric... perfect! 

 

 

I was in London for the weekend of Valentine's Day and I wore this outfit to the Clerkenwell Fair.  I managed to only buy two items at the fair - a pair of red flower screw back earrings and a beautiful Rhona Roy dress in the most exquisite celadon colour!  I can't wait to wear that dress but just need to find the right occasion for it. 

 

 

Dress: Vintage from Lucky Dry Goods on Etsy

Coat: Vintage from Lou Lou's Vintage Fair

Hat: Vintage from The Little Vintage Shop, Lymington

Bag: Vintage, gift from my guy

Earrings: Vintage Lucite confetti, Etsy

Gloves: Vintage from Lou Lou's Vintage Fair

Shoes: Marks and Spencer