In Retrospect

There’s a few different magazines around aimed at the different facets of vintage style and culture, one of which is In Retrospect. Launched at the end of last year, I attended the launch party in January with most of my British Belles lovelies, where we had a fabulous night watching a screening of a vintage style short film, meeting some new pinup lovelies, and getting our hands on a copy of the new In Retrospect issue. The next day all the Belles seemed to be reading through their issues as they each travelled home on their respective trains, sending messages to one another about how impressed they were with the quality of the content in the magazine.inretrospect4

Fast forward a few months and I was super excited in Spring to be asked by owner Mat Keller to be a part of their Autumn/Winter issue cover shoot. The theme was murder mystery/film noir so it took me all of maybe 5 seconds to agree to take part.

The shoot took place in July at two vintage themed railways stations in Tunbridge Wells, (for international readers, that’s a medium-sized town in the south of England.) There were four of us modelling for the shoot, pairing up to make two couples; Danielle and Ernie playing the innocents, and Tom and I the murderous duo. The clothing was provided by Chester Cordite and Revival Retro, and it was beyond gorgeous. Hair was styled beautifully by Natasha of Pretty Me Vintage, whom managed to give me incredible finger-wave style pronounced waves from the tight pincurl set I had turned up in. Consequently, I have since decided this is another style I need to learn to master. Continue reading

Niagara Will Make You Fall

The Niagara dress by Pinup Girl Clothing is a ruched wiggle dress heavily inspired by the pink dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the movie Niagara. The original dress from the movie, designed by 3-time Oscar winning costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, was such a hit after fans saw the movie that copies were made and sold in 1950s department stores. Dorothy originally made and screen tested the dress in red, as seen below, before it was decided that the hot pink version that appeared in the movie was the winning colour. Pinup Girl Clothing tip their hat to the design of this dress by making it in both the hot pink and red colours Dorothy designed, as well as black and a tiffany blue. In the past other colourways, such as navy and bronze taffeta, have also been made.

Marilyn_Monroe_in_Niagara

Like the dress worn by Marilyn in the movie, the PUG Niagara dress features an underbust cut-out, ruching on the stomach, and a wide collar-bone bearing neckline. The PUG version, while incredibly similar, has a front slit, more pronounced ruching, and a smaller keyhole. Continue reading

Audrey In The Country [Goldie’s Clothing]

This is the final installment in my series of dresses from Goldie’s Clothing, Spanish vintage repro clothing brand. I’ve previously featured two dresses that have some seriously boob-flattering sweetheart necklines, but this final dress is not only different but in a league of it’s own. A Hepburn league.

I give you, the Audrey dress.

Goldie's Clothing Audrey dress Continue reading

June Outfits Round Up

We learnt last month that I was wearing the same couple of pairs of shoes almost on repeat, as well as the same set of wooden bangles (but I love them so!) So this month I set myself the challenge to show a little more love to the other items in my shoe racks. Let’s see if I succeeded!

Click on the pictures for a closer look. You can find links in the description to any item that is still available to buy. Anything not linked is from a past season and cannot be found for purchase any longer and/or is not available to buy online.

Voodoo Vixen Juicy Lucy dress, everything5pounds.com heels

Voodoo Vixen Juicy Lucy dress, everything5pounds.com heels

Continue reading

Glamour [Bunny] & Tiki

Time for me to review another dress that feels like a summer classic to me, and this time it’s the Glamour Bunny Tiki Temptation dress. Available in three colourways, plain red, pale pink and a floral pale blue, this dress has the classic 50s sarong style silhouette.

Made of a comfortable stretch cotton fabric, it comes with detachable halter straps and has boning for extra support that may allow it to be worn strapless. The skirt ties on the left hand side and the dress fastens with a back zipper.

Glamour Bunny Tiki Temptation dress Continue reading

A Garden State of Mind [Unique Vintage]

The Garden State Sheer Mesh cocktail dress by Unique Vintage is such a beautiful, classic design that they’ve been offering this dress in multiple colourwards for 3 years. I first came across it last year and had my first little swoon session over it. Since then it’s been on my wishlist in multiple colourways but I could never commit to any one colour. When I saw Unique Vintage post this Mint & White Polka Dot version on their Instagram I fell in love–sheer overlays, pleating, mint, princess-like fairytale status style? ALL THINGS I LOVE. I was thrilled and super grateful when UV offered to send me one because they felt it would look lovely on me. Oh UV, you little charmers, you! As if you needed me to fall even more in love with you. But I did. I zipped up this dress and I did. Because this dress. Oh.

Heavenly sigh.

I received this dress two days before the wedding of one of my best friend’s and immediately began the mental recalculations of what accessories I could dig out of my closet to make this outfit happen. I was laying in bed the night before the wedding when I remembered I had a vintage basket weave box purse that would work perfectly, and lo’ and behold, both the dress and the box purse were a total smash at the reception–while in no way threatening to upstage the bride, of course. Every pinup knows her proper etiquette, after all.

Unique Vintage Garden State dress in mint, vintage box purse, old Monsoon heels, handmade hair flowers

Unique Vintage Garden State dress in mint, vintage box purse, old Monsoon heels, handmade hair flowers

Continue reading

JOAN-sing For Atypical Girl Clothing

atypicalgirl

I was recently very excited to attend the launch party for Atypical-girl.com, a brand new clothing website stocking a selection of carefully curated original vintage and reproduction clothing, aimed at retro loving dolls and girls with a fashion edge. Atypical Girl is different to your typical pinup clothing site because the focus is on finding your own style, whether that be with a truly authentic eye to a classic era or with a modern take on vintage looks you love. So I was very curious to attend to the launch party and see just what Atypical Girl would be about–and of course, it was no surprise that it was a great event held in a funky private member’s club, featuring a variety of excellent retro music, vintage canapes and even some kick-ass Go Go dancers. I was thrilled to meet Atypical Girl’s founder Simone Hadfield, @missturnstiles to you Instagrammers, who, yes, is as gorgeous, chic and lovely in person as you’d expect. I love me some Girl Bosses, and Simone is definitely one of them. Pictures of the event can be found on the Atypical Girl’s Facebook page, which you should go like. Bonus points to the first reader to count up the number of times I’m caught pulling a stupid face while actively engaging in conversation (It is, I’m ashamed to say, many times.)

After attending such a wonderful event it was obvious I needed something from the Atypical Girl range, and at Simone’s own suggestion I couldn’t help but agree that the Joan dress had to join my wardrobe. This green wiggle dress is a true classic, made of knitted twill it’s comfortable as well as flattering, and I love the waist detail of pleats settled beneath a fabric kind-of-belt that crosses at the front then fastens behind with a single button. The dress is truly timeless, and considering how killer it would look on Christina Hendricks’ character in Mad Men it is no surprise at all why this hot little item is named the Joan. All you redheaded ladies definitely need to pick up this colourway as it will be true magic with your ginger hair, but it’s such a universally complimentary colour that I can’t think of a single hair colour or skin tone that wouldn’t wow in this dress.

joan1 Continue reading

Pincurls Part 2: The Sculpture Pin Curler Tool

I showed you pincurling beginners how to start working on your pincurls only a few weeks ago, but I’m very excited to be able to show you another way to achieve perfect pincurls now without the weeks and months of practise. How? By using a pincurling tool, specifically the  Sculpture Pin Curler Tool.

pincurlerset1

pincurlerset2 Continue reading

A Beginner’s Guide To: Pincurls

I am no pincurls expert. I want to state that right now. But I have been attempting to master pincurls for over a year now, as well as other wetset and hotset methods of retro styling one’s hair, so I’ve learned a few things. I’ll be including videos at the bottom of this post showing you how true pincurling experts roll their tresses, the same videos that I watched to figure out how to do it when I first started venturing into pinup style. Despite being no master at vintage hair, I’ve still been asked multiple times on my Instagram to do my own tutorial on pincurling, and finally I decided that perhaps I do have something to offer on this subject; not my expertise, but my lack of it. The thing about learning to pincurl your hair is that it’s tricky, it takes time and practise, and at the beginning it can leave you frustrated and make your arms ache. Even now, a year on, I don’t roll the neatest pincurls, but I want to show you that it’s still possible to get a pretty and passable ‘do out of a less than perfect wetset.

For true beginners please note that an overnight wetset is not the only option for achieving vintage waves. There are also foam rollers, which are easier to apply but can have varying results, and may also take a bit of practice. For ladies who have serious humidity and frizz problems with their hair they can hotset their hair. There’s several options for this, including hot rollers, hot sticks, and also heated pincurls, where you use heated curling tongs to create the curl that is created by hand in the winding process of wetset pincurls, then secured in the same way as wet pincurls as an elevated or flat pincurl. These pincurls created by heat ought to be fixed with a light layer of hairspray and can be left overnight to set firmly into hair the same as with pincurls, but if being done on the day of an event then they must at least be left to cool completely before being taken out and brushed through. Continue reading