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

Back when it was warm...

We have been blessed with some unseasonably warm weather as of late in England but this past week there has been a sudden drop in temperature!

These photos were taken a few weeks back when it was still warm enough to wear summer dresses and sandals.

 

 

I have had this early 1960s L'Aiglon dress for some time even though this is its first outing on the blog.  It's colours are perhaps more suited to Spring rather than Autumn.



 

I don't own many of these 1950s beaded cardigans but this one matches the dress pretty well. 

 

 

When I purchased this wicker bag, I never thought about pairing it with this dress but it matches the colours perfectly.  So much so that I think it was destined to be worn with this dress!  I now can't wait until next Summer when I can wear this dress (and bag) again.

 

 

Dress: Vintage from eBay

Bag: Vintage from eBay

Sunglasses: Vintage from Vera Mode on Etsy

Shoes: Next

Cardigan: Vintage from eBay

Bracelet: Vintage from eBay

Earrings: Vintage from Etsy

 

 

 

 





Big Cat

I just wanted to start off this post by saying THANK YOU to all the kind comments on my last post.  I really do enjoy blogging and reading the comments to my posts and your words of encouragement certainly made me feel better as I go through a bit of a stressful time with moving to a new property.

So on to today's post... these outfit photos were taken back in March when it was somewhat colder!  I think I was trying to channel a bit of Audrey Hepburn in Charade with the red coat and the hat.

I tried on this hat at the Bows and Braces Vintage Fair in March and I immediately fell in love with it.  I never thought the pill box style would really suit me but this seemed to really work.  However, I did not want to spend too much at the fair so I decided not to purchase it.  But this just meant that I spent the following week thinking about it!  It is funny how the 'love of vintage' will drive you to lusting after such items.  By the end of the week (and having thought of various outfit combinations which necessitated the hat) I phoned up Gloria from The Little Vintage Shop in Lymington to tell her that I wanted needed it... only to find out that it had been reserved for someone else until the next day!  Gloria said she would phone me if the lady who had reserved it does not come back and to my luck, she did not return for it so the hat was mine!!  I was quite surprised because when I 'reserve' items in vintage shops, I always go back for them...

 

 

Despite all the desperate lusting after this hat, this is the only time I have worn it thus far but I hope when Autumn returns, it will be worn many more times! 

Dress: Vintage from This is Vintage in Bournemouth (also on Etsy here)
Hat: Vintage from The Little Vintage Shop in Lymington
Shoes: Marks and Spencer
Bag: Vintage from Vintage to Vogue, Bath
Coat: Vintage from a trader at Lou Lou's Vintage Fair
Gloves: Vintage from Etsy (surprisingly for me, the only internet purchase in this whole outfit!)

My Mad Men dress

Tonight, UK viewers will get the chance to see the first episode of the last season of Mad Men (if you have Sky Atlantic that is!)  I've loved the show for so long and thought today would be a rather apt time to show you a dress of mine which was featured in a previous season!

 

Please excuse the rather poor image quality!  This dress was worn in the Season 2 episode "Maidenform" which you may remember as the episode where the team get creative over ideas for a new Playtex campaign and suggest that every woman is either a "Jackie or a Marilyn." 

 

 

 

This dress was actually the first item I ever purchased on Etsy back in 2010.  It is a "Doris Fein Original" and at the time I purchased it, I didn't know it had been on the TV show so you can imagine my surprise when re-watching Season 2 on DVD and I see one of the secretaries wearing my dress!  Cue lots of 'rewind and pause' moments.  As this is obviously not the only dress ever made, I am not suggesting that this exact same dress made its way from the show's extensive wardrobe into my wardrobe but it is still pretty exciting to own a dress that has been seen on Mad Men. 

 

And I am not the only one that this has happened to!  A while back I saw this post on the Couture Allure blog and how the blogger had her very own "Mad Men Moment."  Have any of you ever had one of your vintage items featured on Mad Men or another period TV show?  If you have, I would love to see!

 

Dress: Vintage from Etsy

Shoes: Marks and Spencer

Belt: Vintage from Etsy

Bracelet: Vintage from Rhythm Riot

Earrings: Vintage but cannot remember where I bought these as it was so long ago!

Miss Elliette

So this is the outfit I wore to a wedding reception a few days before Christmas... an early 1960s Miss Elliette dress.  A search of this brand on Etsy brings up mostly late 1960s-1970s party dresses which aren't my style but I have seen a few 1950s-early 1960s dresses of the brand which are lovely.

I bought this dress about 4 years ago from the Beyond Retro in Brighton and it was very well priced for an evening dress.  When I've been to that shop in the past year, they haven't had much of a mid-century selection which was a bit disappointing. 

 

I used to have quite a collection of early 1960s party dresses and although I still love that style, I have sold most of them because I rarely got the chance to wear them.  I couldn't part with this dress (or a few others that I have kept) as it is such a great LBD.

 

Dress: Vintage from Beyond Retro, Brighton

Bag: Vintage from an Antiques Fair

Shoes: Dune

Earrings: Vintage from a trader at The Vintage Parade, Winchester

Steak snob

As you are probably aware from my outfit posts, I don't go out a lot in the evenings, mostly because there is not a lot to do in Southampton (or the surrounding area!)  Most of my clothes are therefore day wear.  However, I do enjoy going out in the evening (especially when good food is involved) so I thought I would share with you some photos taken back in September when I went out for a colleague's birthday at a local Steakhouse.

You might remember that I blogged about this dress back here when I purchased it from Sweet Bee Finds on Etsy.  The colour, the dreamy chiffon and the cute peter pan collar made me buy it immediately!  I also decided to team it with my not-totally-comfortable Ferragamos.

I also 'apologise' for the odd poses in these photos and the fact that I appear to be at an angle, I asked my Grandma to take them before I left for the Steakhouse and she is not used to using a smartphone camera!

And now onto the steak in question.... Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE my food.  And steak is one of my favourite meals but I will only eat it from proper steakhouses and wouldn't dare try to cook it at home... best to leave it to the professionals!  Vegetarians might want to look away now...

I always have the fillet and I always have the 11oz size but each time I always feel that I could have gone bigger!  I am starting to get hungry just looking at the photo...

Dress: Vintage from Sweet Bee Finds on Etsy

Bag: Vintage from Etsy

Shoes: Vintage Ferragamos from Etsy

That was the summer we went to Kellerman's...

Last Saturday, I went to London with my Mum for Future Cinema presents 'Dirty Dancing.'

Future cinema specialise in bringing film to life and immersing the audience into the world of the film that they are watching.  They had previously showcased Casablanca, The Shawshank Redemption and Saturday Night Fever but this was my first event and I was excited, albeit a little apprehensive, not knowing what to expect.

All I knew was that I was going to be transported to Kellerman's Resort circa Summer of '63.  Initially the location was kept secret but nearer to the event, they started releasing little details here and there - the location, what we needed to bring, what will be going on.  It was only on for three nights, starting on Friday, and I admit I had looked on the Facebook site to see what people had been saying about the Friday event and a lot of the comments were very negative, which had worried me a little. 

We got to Hackney Downs Park early (as advised) and from my point of view, it was very well organised and we were let in to the park slightly before the entry time, which meant we had a lot of time to check out what was going on and to take photos.  There were lots of activities and we did a bit of dancing and some hula hooping (with my Mum putting me to total shame!)  They had set up Kellerman's Lodge and guest cabins around the edge of the park, with Johnny's cabin on one side.  There were watermelons for sale (of course) and people sneaking into the Staff Quarters.  There were lots of people in vintage too and lots of people emulating Baby and Johnny's style from the movie (there was even a small area selling vintage!)

This was actually not my first choice of outfit but I wanted to wear something a bit brighter.  And there were lots of white plimsolls being worn by the girls!





Someone even brought their Chevy Bel-Air, which is the car Johnny has in the movie (although he has a black one!)



I even met the Houseman family!



I apologise for the poor quality of the next few photos but they were taken by my iPhone...

 



The atmosphere of the crowd really made the event and everyone got up to dance at certain points during the movie.  There were also actors who re-created key scenes in time with the movie and I thought that this was a great touch and really made me feel that I was at Kellerman's! 

I thoroughly enjoyed this event and would definitely go to another Future Cinema event, if it was a movie I liked!  I would love to hear from anyone who went to this event and find out what they thought of it.

Top: Vintage from Etsy

Skirt: Vintage from my Grandma

Bag: Vintage from Retro & Jukebox Fair

Plimsolls: Primark