custom | Miss Amy May

eShakti is a clothing website offering a wide range of dresses, tops and skirts, many of which are vintage inspired, and all of which are available to be customised to not only your own measurements and height, but also to the neckline, sleeve length and skirt length you want. You can also ask for zippers to be moved to/from the back or the side and have pockets removed (but what kind of crazy would opt for that?!) And this special customisation fee available on all pieces? It doesn’t cost an arm, a leg, or even your first born. Whether you want just a zipper moved or the entire piece made to your measurements as well as changing the length, neckline and sleeve type, all customisation costs just $9.95 per item. (Previously it has always been $7.50, but over time costs have inflated and they’ve had to implement their slightly higher fee from March 1st.)

They offer designs in tons of prints, colours and styles, all reasonably priced, often available on offer, and, of course, I’ve been dying to try them out for a while. They don’t ship to the UK, frustratingly, and hopefully that will change someday and soon, but I have readers all over the globe, plenty of which live in the USA and Canada, where eShakti ships to, so I wanted to check them out for you guys at least. So, while I was stateside in October last year, I bought 3 dresses in a 3 for 2 deal. Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →