April in the New Year [Dancing Days]

Posted on January 14, 2017 by missamymay

Dancing Days have a lot of cute things on offer this season, some of them new colourways of existing separates, like the April cardigan. I first saw it last season and came close many a time to buying it, for some reason never completing the purchase. This season, though, the new colours include mustard yellow and a rich emerald green, two of my favourites, so finally a purchase was guaranteed. In my heart of hearts I wanted the mustard colourway, but since I already have DD’s Modern Love top in that shade as well as a MAK cropped cardigan in mustard, I decided to get the dark green. I think I made the right choice.

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Isadora, I Adore Her [Hell Bunny]

Posted on January 9, 2017 by missamymay

Y’all, faux fur trim has got me feeling some kind of way this winter. Don’t get me wrong, I own several faux fur pieces I bought prior to this latest cold snap; I have faux fur shawls and shrugs, a trimmed coat, a trimmed skirt suit, even. But this season, no. This season it’s different. I’ve been buying or Watch Listing faux furs of every colour. I bought a wrap jacket with cuff and collar trimming while putting two trimmed dresses and a cape bolero on my wishlists for Christmas. And all the while I kept revisiting the Hell Bunny site every few days, loading up the product page of the Isadora coat and pining. Sighing. Swooning.

As the kids these days say: much want. Continue reading →

Off On The Right Foot [Blue Banana]

Posted on January 5, 2017 by missamymay

Let’s get this out of the way: I own a lot of shoes. We’re easily talking over 65 pairs of heels. Just heels. Add in flats and we’re probably nearing 90. I know, it sounds excessive, perhaps downright ridiculous, but let’s look at it sensibly: one pair of black strappy wedges does not equally work well for office wear or a full day’s walk around a city in autumn as it does for a summertime BBQ, though an outfit for each of those scenarios may require black shoes of some description. I wear a lot of red accessories, but different outfits might respectively require red mary jane low heels, a killer pair of red cork heeled wedges with red ankle ties, red bedazzled ballet pumps, red faux suede heels or satin red bow slides. Hence…the downward spiral into multiple shoe racks of a bagillion pairs of pretty pretties for my little piggies. Continue reading →

Modern Love, Vintage Style [Dancing Days]

Posted on December 29, 2016 by missamymay

Dancing Days by Banned Modern Love Knit Top Yolk Mustard Yellow

Dancing Days’ Modern Love top has been around at least since this past SS16 season. Since Dancing Days is a wholesale only brand (selling their line exclusively to stockists but not selling themselves through their own website,) I often find it’s easy to miss some of their pieces altogether, or else to struggle to find your most accessible stockist once you know there’s something you want. It’s a little frustrating because they have some amazing pieces to offer, but that extra little bit of work in finding them for sale tends to be worthwhile.

I was browsing the New In section on Unique Vintage a while back when I saw the Modern Love top available in Yolk, aka mustard yellow, a colour I’ve becoming increasingly obsessed with. I happily buy from Unique Vintage and have it delivered here in the UK, but for a single top the international delivery seemed an excessive step, so I set out to find a European stockist. Continue reading →

Spot On Separates [Voodoo Vixen]

Posted on December 21, 2016 by missamymay

You might not know it because I wear dresses almost exclusively, but I own quite a few skirts too. Whether circle or gathered, when I spot a new vintage-style skirt that makes me swoon I am just as quick to order it as I am a dress. Somehow, though, they seem to get royally shafted in my dress-to-skirt wear ratio. I thought this was because I am a crazy person who makes no sense (and that may be the case on a separate matter entirely) but recently I began to wonder if it’s because I just don’t own enough tops. And not just enough tops, but the right kinds of tops.

Comfortable tops that fit properly and are sleeved for winter. I don’t want something cheap and flimsy that’s going to fall apart after a couple of washes, nor do I want a top like that to cling to all my lumps and bumps. No, I need sturdy tops that can be relied upon and reached for at the last moment, without the need for such mental preparation as ‘Oh, yeah, if I go buy a different bra and a camisole, and maybe don’t bend over while I wear it or eat much, that would look really good to wear on Tuesday night with my blue skirt.’ No thank you.

But the Sophie top, by Voodoo Vixen? Yes, thank you. Thank you very much indeed.

Red Sophie Top Voodoo Vixen Top Vintage Irena Continue reading →

Juliette is the Sun [Collectif]

Posted on December 19, 2016 by missamymay

There were two pieces from Collectif’s autumn/winter season last year that were so perfect they made my knees feel a bit wobbly. You know, the way you get when the guy you have a crush on first texts you ‘Morning beautiful!’ Or when you’re looking at a really, really good looking doughnut. Yeah, you know the kind. Sexy, sexy glaze, nice plump looking dough, maybe some sprinkled crumbled cookie pieces…Mmm.

Wait, what was I saying?

Oh right, Collectif absolutely f*%$ing nailing it.

Collectif Juliette Jacquard Swing Dress Continue reading →

Plaid Perfection [Voodoo Vixen + Chicago Chic]

Posted on December 16, 2016 by missamymay

Rachel Jensen of Chicago Chic Blog is one of my style inspirations, for a thousand obvious reasons, so I was pretty excited when I learned that she had collaborated with Voodoo Vixen to design a capsule collection of pieces for their Autumn/Winter 2016 line.

I actually saw previews of one of her designs, the Lola dress, before I knew Rachel had a hand in designing it. When previews from the photoshoot of the Voodoo Vixen AW16 Lookbook were first released, the Lola dress was one of the first images I saw. It was an immediate favourite. Everything about the dress struck me as perfect: the navy and rich green check, the pleated bust, the longer vintage length, the removable faux fur collar. Continue reading →

The Grey Lady [Heart My Closet]

Posted on December 15, 2016 by missamymay

Heart My Closet Custom Made Nancy Dress Dark Grey

One of the best things about dressing in a vintage style, I think, is that the clothes, once you know where to find them, are typically of a better quality and fit that the stuff you might find at your usual mall. Yes, in the reproduction world there’s as much difference between brands as there is on the high street, but on the whole I hear time and again from women that have moved their style backwards through the eras is that now they’re able to find clothes that actually fit them properly and make them feel great.

With off-the-rack, ready-to-wear clothing that’s wonderful enough, but the other bonus to living the pinup lifestyle is this: access to vintage-style custom makers. I know if I asked my non-pinup friends where they think they could go to get a dress custom made for them they probably wouldn’t have much of an idea. Thankfully, if I have an exact item in mind that I can’t find for sale anywhere, or I know probably won’t fit my exact body type in a standard measurement garment, there are places I can go–or load, more accurately–online to find what I want. Heart My Closet is the latest custom made clothing company I’ve had the pleasure to try and I’m so pleased it’s another great service I can add to my list. Continue reading →

Florals at Christmas [Lady V London]

Posted on December 13, 2016 by missamymay

Floral prints are typically associated with spring and summer clothing, understandably. There’s some gorgeous flowers that are favourites for autumn and winter though, like poppies and poinsettias, so I’ve often wondered why it isn’t more common to find floral prints for the colder seasons that feature these flowers. At the very least, it wouldn’t be so hard to create a floral print in darker, autumnal colours that would work well through the end of the year, even if the flowers featured in them aren’t technically winter bloomers.

Well, Lady V London have fulfilled my yearning for a winter floral with their limited edition Christmas Floral Print Lyra dress. The Lyra dress is actually a key bestseller piece from Lady Voluptuous, Lady V London’s plus sized range designed in collaboration with Georgina of Fuller Figure Fuller Bust, with all designs available in UK sizes 16 to 30/32. The Lyra dress in particular makes for a perfect Christmas outfit not just because of this gorgeous seasonal floral, but also because it’s so damn comfortable to wear. Whether you’re hosting a dinner party for friends, busting a move at the office work do’ or eating your way through the house on Christmas day itself, Lyra has got you covered in style and comfort.

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Apple of My Eye [Love UR Look]

Posted on December 12, 2016 by missamymay

I know I’m an adult (technically, by age, perhaps not so much by personality)–but I hold a grudge against apples. They make me sort of grumpy, likely to pull a stubbornly ill-accommodating face like a 6 year old offered spinach. I am known to describe powdery apples as ‘tasting of disappointment and hell.’

It’s because during phases of my life when I was determined to be several dress sizes smaller than it is naturally comfortable for me to be, I ate so many apples that I am now permanently sick of them…in their natural form. In an apple pie or a crumble, however? Apples and I are very definitely friends again then. In a strudel, for sure, load me up. Apple danish, fritters, muffins–basically any way in which you can take an apple and improve upon it by caking it in sweetened crusts, batter and actual cake, I am entirely on board. But off a tree? No thank you, only to pose with for adorable late summer photos.

Well, as it happens I’ve found another way I don’t mind apples: wearing them. Namely, in the form of the Love UR Look Green Apple Shirt dress. It’s cute, it’s quirky, and it has the added benefit of not potentially widening my waistline like my other preferred servings of apples are likely to do.

Love UR Look Green Apple shirt dress Continue reading →