I first saw this Voodoo Vixen Chelsea dress when I attended London Edge last month. As soon as I saw the peach gingham print I was on board, but even more so once I saw the adorable bow feature neck. So I was really pleased when this dress was swiftly released in their Spring/Summer line and Voodoo Vixen were kind enough to send it to me.
The Dixiefried Vintage Bustier top by Pinup Girl Clothing isn’t a new piece, but it’s recently undergone a design alteration so that it fits slightly longer than the previous cropped version, making it easier to tuck into your high-waisted retro bottoms, whether that be shorts, skirts or pants. It’s fully boned, fastens with buttons at the back, and features a beautiful ruffle trim. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen me wearing the yellow version lately with my Laura Byrnes California High Waisted Parrot Print Pants, giving myself all sorts of tropical sassy feels and feeling a bit like a tiki princess.
Last summer Pinup Girl Clothing previewed the Renee dress, a halter neck dress with faux tied bust, Jenny-esque gathered skirt, and, most notable of all, a midriff cut out. Coming in 5 prints–Tipsy Elephant, Mint Pinup Girl, Navy and white Anchor print, and plain red and plain black–I immediately fell in love. Looking at the dress on Doris Mayday it, of course, looked utterly perfect. But I don’t have Doris’s body, and I have probably bared my midriff maybe thrice in my life? And that is just a guestimate as to what seems likely, not based on any actual memories of having done so. My stomach and its general surrounding area is my low-confidence area. So, while I haunted the Coming Soon section last summer waiting for the Renee (and the other dresses I was lusting after) to drop, I battled with myself as to whether I would have the ovaries to buy Renee when she came out.
All 5 Renee dresses, pictures courtesey of Pinupgirlclothing.com
Queen of Heartz is a retro clothing brand established in 2001 by owner and designer, Letty Tennant, a lover of fine textiles and classic prints that harken back to the authentic silhouettes and stylings of bygone eras as clothes used to be made. All their clothes are handmade in LA and Orange county, offering quality American-made products crafted with care, and the company even offers a custom made atelier section on their site, Letty’s own favourite part of her business.
For a while I owned a Queen of Heartz piece without even realising I did, as I had bought the navy polka dot QoH Olivia dress through Unique Vintage over a year ago, not paying attention at first to which brand made it. This dress is one of my favourites, not merely because the nautical combination of navy and white is one of my favourite colour themes, but because it just fits so well. Every time I wear it people tell me it looks like it was made for me, and I feel so good in it I begin to believe it myself. The entire dress fits me flatteringly on every conceivable body contour and the skirt perfectly encompasses my infamous double petticoats with ease and grace, something which is sure to win me over fast.
Given that I am so smitten with this full skirted QoH piece, I wanted to give one of their gorgeous wiggle dresses a try. Enter, the Vamp dress! This dress is gothic, chic, sexy and classy all at once. Considering that special dark and sultry vibe this dress oozes, I layered on the black lace and tulle to take some vampish shots especially for this post.
When I passed 4k on Instagram I promised a giveaway once Jenny January was over as thanks for all the wonderful support my followers give me, endlessly. But then a crazy thing happened: I gained an extra 600 followers in a week during Jenny January, putting me much nearer to 5k much sooner than I had expected. Now that my busy schedule of late has died down enough that I could get organised to host this giveaway I’m already less than 200 from reaching 5k, somehow.
So, to celebrate not only that little burst of new lovelies finding me on Instagram, but also the readers I have here on the blog (I’ve just passed my 50th post!) I decided to host the giveaway here using Rafflecopter so that you can gain multiple entries to increase your chance of winning for every way in which you might be following me online. Annnnnd I’ve added extra pieces into this giveaway to bump up the prize pack so that the winner will be receiving the following.
I love Christmas for a whole host of reasons–the food, the gift giving, the time spent with family, the decorations and festive songs, the food, the break from work…the food. Ha. But since becoming a pinup I’ve also fallen in love with the chance to get utterly dolled up. My idea of ‘casual’ is most people’s idea of getting dressed up, so for me the festive period presents the opportunity to get unashamedly glamorous as well as jolly. I pre-ordered what was to be my Christmas day dress back in late October, but after winning both the Oh My Honey and Deadly Is The Female social media contests which presented me with 2 new dresses, I had to do some party outfit reshuffling. Plus, Unique Vintage had another one of their $25 dresses sales over Black Friday which included a dress I had been coveting for some while, something I obviously bought. So, armed with a literal armful of beautiful dresses, I took the opportunity to get truly trussed up for several occasions this Christmas period and below I’ve gathered together the pictures and outfit details from each event so that you can catch up on it all in one handy place if your own Christmas revelry was too raucous for you to have been able to keep up to date with your Instagram and/or blog feeds this holiday. Let us begin!
The Dress: Pinup Girl Clothing Birdie Dress in Dark Red Raffeta won from Deadly Is The Female
The Occasion: Worn for my Christmas dinner date with my dear friend Steph Continue reading
2014 saw my style evolve from newbie pinup to fully-fledged, fully-confident pinup. I thought that transformation was mostly internal until I looked back at these collages and saw all the small changes I had made throughout the 12 months last passed, from ditching my jeans altogether even for runs to the supermarket to a marked, marked improvement in my hair game. Scroll through below to see my year’s worth of OOTD’s as I posted to Instagram.
January
February
I have fairly good luck when it comes to winning social media giveaway contests somehow, something I attribute to the universe balancing out my otherwise terrible luck by on occasion humoring me with a free dress, so I was thrilled a couple weeks ago to win the Oh My Honey Dresses Instagram giveaway of one of their gorgeous candy cane dresses. It arrived a week before Christmas, custom made, and fit flawlessly, a dress so perfect for Christmas that I bumped the dress I had previously ordered for my Christmas day wear to another holiday event so that this confection goodness could take centre stage on the big day. Everyone who has seen this dress has fallen in love with it, so I knew I had to feature it on a blog post to give you a full run down on how I wore it for the most festive Christmas look ever and to let you know a little bit more about the other beautiful pieces this UK company designs and makes here on our fair British shores.
Glitter Candy Canes Dress (Photo belongs to Ohmyhoney.co.uk)
Today on the blog I thought I’d share something a little bit different with you. This isn’t a review or a How To, but more so a glimpse into a particular day in my life, a particular day that was very stylish and fun and resulted in several lovely photos I wanted to share with you because I’m proud of them, for several reasons.
I come from a big family, child 4 of 5. My siblings and I are diversely talented, but my younger sister, Rachel, has the talent that it would perhaps have been more useful that I, the vintage style lover, would have had: she’s a nifty little clothes maker. She’s in her final year of her Costume Design degree and already doing lots of ridiculously impressive work freelance on international stage shows alongside her mentors, which she would be very embarrassed about my mentioning, but hey, a big sister’s gotta brag. Every term for her university degree she undertakes a new design-and-make project, and this unit she designed a Hungarian embroidered retro-inspired peplum waistcoat fitted to the exact measurements of her lucky big sister, Miss Amy May 😉
I’m not quite lucky enough to get to keep it–and God do I wish I could keep it–but I did have a fabulous day shooting this gorgeous piece styled as 3 separate outfits for her portfolio. We took to the streets (and a galleria, and the pier,) with her photographer friend in tow, and these are the shots I’ve been granted special sisterly permission to share with you.
A lot of you know I am a Pinup Girl Clothing addict, and when my UK readers/IG followers ask me where they can find our much beloved PUG in the UK I direct them to one site–Deadly Is The Female.
Deadly Is The Female is a brick and mortar store based in Frome, Somerset, here in the UK. But for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to have visited the real life store their online shop stocks plenty of amazing things to keep your typical pinup happy. In addition to stocking PUG they also carry Stop Staring, Trashy Diva and Tatyana, bringing you swing dresses and wiggles, separates and swimwear, makeup and sunglasses and stoles and handbags and…well, all the best of pretty much everything. They even stock some B.A.I.T footwear, something I’ve personally found hard to track down in the UK so that I don’t have to pay hefty international postage fees and additionally hefty import taxes. New stock flows in all the time, and I love keeping up to date with DisF on their Instagram and Facebook feeds, where they post all sorts of cute retro pictures and meme-like lols as well as shots of their gorgeous stock. Continue reading
Miss Amy May 
