Southsea Common

It was good to read your comments from my previous post about having too many floral print dresses and just to show you that I haven't completely gone off 1950s floral prints, here is an outfit I wore a few weeks ago...

 

 

These photos were taken on a lovely sunny day spent in Southsea (and you can see Southsea Common in the background.)

 

 

Following on from my last post, I know that I will still buy 1950s floral print dresses in the future but I like to find ones that are a little different.  I like the print of this one in particular because I don't own any other dresses that look similar.

 

 

For those of you who have been reading my blog posts for a little may remember this post which I did last year.  When I went to London last August, I went to Judy's Fair at Spitalfields where I met a girl promoting the fair.  I absolutely loved her dress and took a photo of her in it (which I included in the post.)  Then a couple months ago, I saw that the same girl was selling some of her clothes on OLL.  I did think if she was to ever sell this dress then I would need to buy it... and luckily for me, she was selling it and I bought it from her!  As she is a similar size to me, I knew it would fit (and it does) and I have since bought other things from her (I love finding someone in my size who is selling off their vintage wardrobe!)

 

  

Dress: Vintage from Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop (Facebook group)

Shoes: Rocket Originals

Bag: Vintage from Etsy

Sunglasses: Vintage from Vera Mode

Bracelet: Vintage from eBay

Parasol: Vintage from trader at the Crikey! It's Vintage Fair

Earrings: Vintage from Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop (Facebook group)



  

 

Not another floral print dress...

I wore this outfit when I went out for dinner for my Birthday a few months ago.  I have to admit, recently, I have really gone off 1950s floral print dresses... I do really like this one but I see so many floral prints on Etsy that they all start to look the same.  I try to look for more interesting or different prints in 1950s dresses (and I seem to have bought a lot of plaid dresses!)  As a result, there will be a couple of floral print dresses in my wardrobe that I plan on selling as I know I won't be wearing them anymore.

 

 



I think the reason I still like this dress is that I like the black and blue combination, it is great for accessorising.

 

 

I got to wear my new Atomic demi parure on this occasion.  The brooch is almost hidden on this dress!  I don't really like clip on earrings and I try to purchase screw back styles where possible but when the earring are this amazing, then I make an exception. 

 

 

Dress: Vintage Carol Craig from Etsy

Shoes: Vintage from trader at a Vintage Fair

Demi Parure: Vintage from Etsy

Bracelet: Vintage from trader at Rhythm Riot

Belt: Vintage from Etsy

Bag: Vintage from Etsy

 



Atomic Festival!

So since my last post there have been a few changes in my little world... I have moved into a new place with my guy... and it's great!  I also have a new job... or I will do in a few weeks when I start it.  I will still be working in clinical research but in a different role with more responsibility (and more money!) in a different research facility so yay for me.  And I booked a holiday to America for 2015 (Yes, I will finally get to revel in all the VLV fun!)  And I managed to do all this in one week.  But now on to more important things such as....

Atomic Festival!  At the beginning of May, the first ever Atomic Festival was held at Sywell Aerodrome in Northampton.  I had tickets for the Saturday but I kinda wished I had weekend tickets because it was so much fun that I didn't want to go home on Saturday evening!

 

I am so glad that it did not rain... and although it was very sunny, it was a pretty cold start to the day!  This plaid dress was perfect to wear to this 1950s Americana event and I teamed it with my Rocket Originals wedges and then, later on in the day, my saddles shoes. 

 

 

This is actually the second Mr. Mort dress that I own.  The first Mr. Mort dress I have yet to wear even though I consider it to be one of my favourite dresses (how is that possible, to have a 'favourite' dress that I've never worn?!)  This one has a fully lined circle skirt and it's pretty heavy (it swings and hits your partner when you jive in it!) 

 

 

 

 

One of the reasons why I'm a bit gutted I was only there for the Saturday was that I missed the Poodle Parade on the Sunday.  I did get to snap some photos of this super chic lady and her lovely dogs though.

 

 

 

So I have to admit, I was not that enthused to see Demon Drome's Wall of Death but my guy really wanted to go so I went too... AND THEY TOTALLY BLEW MY MIND!!!  It was definitely one of the highlights of my day at the festival - the two guys and girl were amazing and I still can't get over the stunts that they did (they went so fast that I did not get any good photos but if you ever get the chance to see them at an event - DO IT!!!)

 

 

 

I love Classic American cars and I'm glad we got to have a good look around the cars parked in the field.

 

 

Not only was the Festival lots of fun but it took place at such a fantastic venue!  The beautiful Art Deco surroundings of the Aerodrome building and Aviator Hotel looked like they should be the backdrop for an episode of Poirot (rather than a 1950s event!) and I would love to go back one day to explore more of this venue.

 

 

There was so much going on but we managed to see The Revolutionaires later on in the day.  They were so lively and energetic, I hope to be able to see them again in the future.

 



 

To be honest, I don't remember much of Bobby Brooks Wilson's set at Rhythm Riot so I made sure I was right at the front when I caught him at Atomic.  He is so charming and sounds just like his Father, it was a great end to a great day.

 

There was also lots that I didn't take photos of, such as the racing on the drag strip, roller disco, Jive Championships, vintage traders, great food stalls...  Definitely an event I would like to go back to (and next time, hopefully, for both days!)

 

Dress: Vintage Mr. Mort from Etsy

Shoes: Rocket Originals

Sunglasses: Vintage from Vera Mode

Bag: Vintage from Etsy

Earrings: Vintage from Etsy

Bracelet: Vintage from trader at Rhythm Riot

 

 

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!)

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 Mid Century Market and my Birthday!

A few weekends ago, I turned 27 and decided to spend my birthday in London eating lots of good food and looking at pretty vintage clothes.  My birthday also happened to coincide with Bettina Scarlett's 'Mid Century Market' which I blogged about back in March. 

As it was a special day, I just had to wear one of my favourite dresses...

 
This is the Anne Fogarty dress I purchased on the Sunday at Rhythm Riot 2013 and it is such a great little cotton dress.  I'm surprised that this dress lasted until the Sunday of the weekender but I think it was because it was destined to be mine!

Giggling because there were builders doing work on the street opposite and they were somewhat bemused by my "posing"

The dress did actually come with it's own original belt which is in good condition as well.  However, it could do with being an inch smaller (and because the belt is constructed in a particular way, it isn't possible to make it smaller) so I decided to wear this nondescript black belt instead.

OK, so on to the Mid Century Market... I'm so glad I got to go to this event, it was in a great location with lots of lovely traders selling 1950s vintage and vintage inspired items.  Even though it was my birthday and I did have some cash to burn, I managed to be impressively restrained in my spending.

I bought a pair of 1950s cat eye sunglasses that I had been lusting after from Vera Mode Vintage.  It was so good to see her stuff in person and I am surprised that I managed to walk away from her stall with only sunglasses!

I also treated myself to two pairs of vintage inspired earrings from Bow and Crossbones - so many pretty things at this stall! 

Unfortunately, I only took one photo of the market but you can see how it is filled with vintage goodness!

The next fair date has already been set and it is on Saturday 16th August in the same location in Hammersmith, check out the website for more details.  I really hope I can make it to this one too.

Dress: Vintage from trader at Rhythm Riot
Belt: Vintage from eBay
Jacket: Vintage from Ballyhoo Vintage
Shoes: Marks and Spencer
Bag: Vintage from Vintage to Vogue, Bath
Earrings: Vintage from Etsy
Bracelet: Vintage from eBay
Hat: Vintage from The Little Vintage Shop, Lymington

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!