Tag Archives: pinup

Lady in Red – Tatyanna.co.uk on Sale

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Every woman needs a red dress. This is a truth universally acknowledged–or, at least, it should be. Personally I believe every woman may only need one, but it’s best to have three: one cocktail dress, one casual day dress, and another that’s somewhere in between, simple enough to be dressed up for evening or down for day. I own a sarong wiggle dress in red for evening, a red sailor style dress for day, but somehow I’ve never quite found my in-between. Ah, until now.

I recently discovered that Tatyanna.co.uk is beginning a sale today, Friday 14th November, which is awesome because this is a site that stocks a lot of my favourite high quality reproduction brands, and of course who doesn’t love a sale? One of the items that is in said sale is a dress I have now fallen in love with: the red Milan dress by Heart of Haute.

This dress is sleeveless deep V-neck swing dress, fitted at the waist and coming with it’s own matching fabric covered belt. As I’m a UK 14 Tatyanna.co.uk sent me the size L, and it fits perfectly. I really feel it accentuates my waist well, something not all dresses do and thus require some additional attention of an extra good belt to cinch me in, but the Milan fits me well enough I can leave the belt off if I wish. Another surprising thing is that I, of the petticoat addiction, actually like the way this dress hangs on me even without a petticoat–shocking, truly, as I never leave off my pettiskirt. This is especially good to know for summers that are too hot for extra layers, and for when I want to make this casual enough that a petticoat would nix that intention. It still looks fabulous with a petticoat, of course, and that’s how I photographed it for you, to show it at it’s full glory as per my usual style.

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Petticoat Heaven – Malco Modes + GIVEAWAY

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I’ve wanted to try the Malco Modes petticoats for a long time, since seeing pictures of what appeared to be the fluffiest looking petticoats I’ve ever seen. Finally I’ve got my hot little hands on a Jennifer petticoat, thanks to the lovely team over at Malco Modes, and my goodness, this petticoat is my new favourite thing.

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JOAN-sing For Atypical Girl Clothing

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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.

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A Blouse Named Alika

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For those of you who read my last blog A Dress Named Alika about the Tatyana Alika dress you’ll know I coveted that dress for nigh on a year before I was able to make it mine. It was the gorgeous lattice detail neckline that made me want that dress so badly, so imagine my delight when I logged into the Tatyana website a little while back to check out their Buy One Get One offer only to find they now offered an Alika blouse with that same gorgeous lattice work and a flattering peplum cut. I literally gasped when I saw it, my heart rate increasing. I began swatting at my phone in a panic to load the purchase page as if worried every other pinup in the world might be making this same discovery simultaneously and could cause this item to go out of stock even as I was attempting to buy it. A bit dramatic, but sometimes I excited about pretty things.

With the item safely purchased, I could not wait for my package to arrive! And when it did I was just as in love with this blouse as I thought I would be.

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A Dress Named Alika

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When I was but a newbie pinup–when I was tentatively attempting to craft a retro look out of cheap dancewear circle skirts and still scared of red lipstick–there were 3 dresses I saw in my online wanderings that made me swoon and sigh with want and desire: the Pinup Girl Clothing Monica dress, their Sailor Swing dress, and the Tatyana (then Bettie Page) Alika dress. The Alika dress runs for $150 in the US and in the UK around £120, sadly out of my typical budget, so at the time I yearned and gurned and craved, stored it in the not-so-little part of my brain that houses my dream ‘one day’ wardrobe, and moved on with my life.

Until this summer, when I happened to have an upcoming wedding to attend, and the Alika dress was marked down to $120 in a sale. Our time had come! This would be the perfect opportunity to treat myself to this dress. The Alika, that black elegant goddess of glamour and style, was going to be my lady.

Now that we’re together I am so glad our time finally did come, because we were meant to be. Alika and I went for a little stroll together in the woods to share with you our love.

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Pincurls Part 2: The Sculpture Pin Curler Tool

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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.

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The Classic Trench With A Little Extra Swing [Collectif Dietrich]

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I am a lover of big skirts. Not just big, massive. Gathered circle skirts so roomy I can fit two petticoats underneath. Which is all well and good in summer when I can flounce around as circumference-ly bloated as I please, but come winter it becomes a problem when I need to find a coat that will encompass such voluminous extremes without awkward gaping. There are a few retro repro brands which produce good quality coats, and even ones with a full swing skirt, but I wanted a coat that was classic and weather adaptable without being a super heavy fabric or out of this world glamorous (I know, that’s probably the only time you will witness such a sentiment being expressed by yours truly.) Basically I wanted a classic trench coat but with a big ol’ skirt.

Enter Collectif. This Dietrich swing coat of theirs has been around a while and available in a few colourways. I’ve come close to buying it a few times before but always when it technically was not the right season to be spending £95 on a coat. Collectif are pretty good at having regular sales, though, so at the end of summer I snapped it up for £60. Who doesn’t love a third off? Well you’ll be thrilled to hear that right now it’s on sale for an even smaller sum of £47.50, less than half price. Good luck resisting that!

This coat has all the classic structure and detailing of your timeless trench coat, with a swing skirt that really will keep your skirt entirely covered. I took one of my beautiful friends and her camera out with me on a dreary Saturday to show you just how well this coat will protect your precious pinup duds this winter season, including testing its capabilities of wrangling my infamously double-petticoated dress beneath.

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Favourite Summer Outfits Wrap Up

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One of the best things about summer is the clothes you get to wear. Bold, flowery, fruity prints are in season, and you don’t need to figure out how to adjust a strappy dress for wear in colder weathers.

Summer is at its end, alas. Though I am looking forward to the change of my wardrobe for fall, I’ll be sad to let go of some of my summer favourites until next Spring. So for now, I thought I would indulge in a flashback to my favourite outfits from this summer, my first summer after completing my pinup transition to dressing head to toe retro full-time.

(Click on the thumbnails to see the outfits in full detail)

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  • Dress: Olivia Polka Dot dress from Unique Vintage
  • Cardigan: Rachael bolero cardigan by Hell Bunny
  • Belt: Pinup Girl Clothing
  • Bracelet: New Look
  • Shoes: Red Primark ballet flat personally bedazzled in red crystals
  • Bag: Primark wicker bag

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The Best Kept Secret In Lasting Lipsticks

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I am a long lasting lipstick junkie. I try almost every lipstick or liquid lipstick I can get my hands on that claims to be touchproof, wearproof, budge-proof, kiss-proof…on and on. More often than not they do smudge. And when they don’t, as is the case with liquid lipsticks, they have a tendency to flake off as you eat, which can leave your lips not only patchy but also your teeth covered in little red flakes. Just what every girl wants! Except not.

I’ve covered the Lime Crime Velvetines, their Make Up Academy Luxe Lip Lacquer dupes, and Maybelline 14 hour Superstay lipsticks on the blog before, and these are all great products available across a decent range of prices with brilliant staying power.

I was doing some online beauty shopping the other day and needed to add a couple of quid worth of products to my basket to qualify for free delivery. There’s not much a couple of pounds can get you from the makeup aisle, so I chose a Collection (formerly Collection 2000) Lasting Lipstick in shade Queen of Hearts, thinking that for £2.99 I would at least be getting a nice shade red lipstick even if it didn’t last, as I suspected it wouldn’t.

But Oh. My. God. I am in love. So unexpectedly in love.

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Collection 2000 ‘Queen of Hearts ‘Lasting Lipstick Continue reading →

Getting to Know Bernie (Ms Dexter If You’re Nasty)

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Anyone who follows me on Instagram knows I have a fairly extensive repro wardrobe, but one popular brand missing from it until recently was Bernie Dexter. Going all out, for my first Bernie Dexter purchase I bought not one but three dresses. Typically the lovely dresses designed by this international pinup model fall outside of the per item budget I will allow myself to spend on a dress, but I happened to find that a host of dresses in the clearance section of her site were down to $80 a few weeks ago, almost half their usual price tag. So for the sake of this blog, and not at all because I am a dress buying fiend, I splurged.

Splurged is the right word, not so much because of the dresses but because shipping of these 3 lightweight items cost an astounding $70. SEVENTY DOLLARS. This is the first problem I had with my purchase, and it came very close to me refusing to place an order at all because even for international delivery that is outrageous. Continue reading →