Havana A Good Time [PUG Havana Dress]

The Havana dress by Pinup Girl Clothing is one of those dresses I’ve overlooked for a long time because it is, in no bad way, rather plain and simple. I’ve always assumed the particular neckline would look boxy on me, someone who is bottom heavy, not particularly large of breast nor slim of torso. I figured that without a lower neckline, more delicate straps or a distracting print this dress would probably give me a bit of a trunk torso and highlight my ‘flaws’ rather than flatter them.

The red colourway, the only one that had ever truly tempted me, sold out months ago, and I never wanted the olive, black or purple colourways. This summer a Midnight blue colourway was announced and I found myself reconsidering. Suddenly I came to wonder whether I should try out the cool toned cabana stripes colourway, one of only two printed colourways, because I reasoned that the stripes might be more flattering on me than any of the plain colours, as prints have a camouflaging effect for lumps and bumps. But while I lingered over my decision as to whether even the stripes might make this dress work on me that colourway, too, sold out.

So there it was. It was down to me and the coming soon Midnight Blue. A battle of wills. Who would win? Would I cave? Well obviously. But would Havana be kind to me, flattering and gentle and nice? Or would she throw me and my cake-padded waist into sharp relief and unflattering focus?

Pinup Girl Clothing Havana dress Midnight Blue Continue reading

Curves In Corn [Goldie’s Clothing Lauren Dress]

Goldie’s Clothing is a Spanish vintage style clothing company based out of Barcelona. Formerly known as Cindy Bangs until earlier this year, they’re been producing handmade men’s and women’s clothing inspired by 1940’s and 1950’s fashions since 2011 and have their own store in Barcelona. This is an exciting year of expansion for the Goldie’s crew and I was thrilled when they offered to send me some pieces for trial so I could review the quality of their pieces for you.

First off I’m showing you the Lauren dress, a classic wiggle dress made in high quality stretch bengaline featuring a sweetheart neckline.

Goldie's Clothing Navy Lauren dress Continue reading

July Outfits Round Up

Another month gone and it’s been a cracker! This month not only did I host Jenny July, which means there’s a whole host of Jenny centric outfits to go over in this post, but I also had the pleasure of meeting Pinup Girl Clothing’s founder, owner and head designer, Laura Byrnes. If any of you have ever noticed just how PUG heavy some of my outfit wrap up posts have been some months and goggled at how much PUG that must mean I own, I can assure you that nothing was more difficult than deciding which pieces to wear to meet the Supreme Overlord of my favourite brand.

That glory aside, July has been a weird month of temperature fluctuations, with some hottest-day-of-the-year highs and some drizzly, autumnal lows, so this wrap up should involve a strange mix for a mid-summer month. It also features me wearing my hair up more times in one month than I have probably done total for the entire rest of the year up until now.

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.

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Discontinued Pinup Girl Clothing Spanish Fan Print Jenny dress, PUG cropped cardigan in mint, PUG red sateen grommet belt, and New Look mint flats

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Summer Whites In Eveline

A lot of people are afraid of wearing white. Some people are definitely spillers–my younger sister and my mum are two of such people–but even those who are able to drink coffee and eat spaghetti without a comical mishandling of the consumption often have a white fabric fear. I’m here to tell you guys that it is not that serious. Really.

Sure, wearing white when you know you’re going to be spending a full day with young kids or helping a friend to move house is probably a bad idea, but think about it; how often do you come home from a typical night with friends or a shopping trip and go ‘Damn, I got stuff all over myself. How did I do that?’ Probably next to never. If that’s the case I hereby formally invite you to be part of The Fearless Summertime White Dress Wearers Society. (Okay, we’ll work on the name.)

Because a white dress in summer time is basically as chic as it gets. You might think that’s an exclusive club that you’re not allowed to join, but I’ve forced my way inside it without an invite so if anyone asks just tell them you’re with me.

Unique Vintage Eveline Hell Bunny Dress Continue reading

Vixen In Training [Modelling for Voodoo Vixen]

I don’t do a lot of event or experience based posts on the blog because, quite frankly, my life is just not that interesting; I go to work Monday to Friday like your typical worker bee, I spend a lot of my free time with my family and friends, and then another chunk of time on this blog focusing on the fun not-so-usual style aspects of my life. But occasionally I have something cool I get to share with you, and this time it’s my recent experience modelling for Voodoo Vixen.

My fellow British Belle Amber and I were both asked to be part of a Spring/Summer campaign lookbook for VV in early June and we were thrilled to say yes. Taking a day off work, we travelled up to London for a vintage picnic themed shoot early on a Tuesday morning with our hair in pincurls and the usual London commuters staring. The shoot was in east London, east enough that the Londoners on the team considered it Essex while wee country bumpkin that I am still resolutely saw the London around us.

Shooting in public is always an interesting and amusing experience because people can have curious reactions to stumbling upon a photoshoot in action. On our very first set up, with Amber and I posing against a downed log near a pond, a group of small primary school children were ushered past us on a school trip…and were all lined up and sat down on a small hill immediately facing us, for no other apparent reason we could gather than to have a look at what we were doing.

Voodoo Vixen diner Dress

Casual sassy log chilling in the ‘Alison’ dress for Amber and ‘Leona’ for me

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Sweet, Fair Isabella [Lady V London]

The Isabella dress by Lady V London isn’t a new design for the company, but as it’s rapidly approaching summer they’ve added a lovely selection of new prints to their SS line of the style. When an email announcing as such hit my inbox last week the pink rose on cream floral colourway immediately caught my eye. A few days later, thanks to the generosity of Lady V, I had it in my happy little hands (and on my body) ready to show you why I fell for it.

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I love this colourway. I know that will surprise some of you as I am nothing if not outspoken about my almost-all-encompassing hatred of the colour pink, but one of the few ways I can not only stand the shade, but indeed like it, is when included in floral prints, especially when balanced out with touches of green or blue. This print, therefore, is perfect. The cream background keeps this print from being ‘too girly’ for a girl like me whose sentiments typically run somewhere between the bold and the classic, and the latter is certainly a perfect word for this print. Continue reading

Wasp Waist [Orchard Corset Mesh Waspie CS-201]

I’m not a corset wearer in general and certainly not a waist-trainer or tight-lacer. For this reason I can’t claim this review will have all the particular informative depth of a person who has extensive experience in that area, but I can review this corset as a hourglass woman who carries her weight on her stomach, has recently gained enough weight that she feels shapewear in wiggles is a necessity for a better, smoother silhouette, and has tried a lot of different kinds of shapewear of varying degrees of comfort and control strength in an attempt to find the best option.

I probably own 15 corsets, some of them purely fashion corsets with shoddy, cheap plastic boning for costume and play, and some middle-ground quality corsets with full steel bones and decent cinching power. I’d been curious about this Orchard Corset CS-201 Mesh Waspie for quite a long time because I wanted to get a waspie corset that I hoped would give me a more pronounced waist in wiggle dresses without having to go the route of wearing a full corset or a longline underbust that would dig into me when I sat in it. Plus the fact that this corset is mesh made me sure it would be more comfortable in warmer weathers and stuffy rooms than layering a ‘proper’ corset underneath my clothing. Continue reading

Enchanted By Ella [Pinup Girl Clothing]

The Pinup Girl Clothing Ella dress was first released last year, named after  super PUG customer and gorgeous blogger Miss Victory Violet. It originally came in three colourways, pink, yellow, and blue. Neither colour really spoke to me, so I wrote it off as a pretty dress that wasn’t for me…Until my darling friend Sarah Forshaw got it and I saw these amazing pictures of her in it.

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I mean, apart from taking the time to be stunned by how goddamn gorgeous my friend is, it was a wake up call that a dark red lip and dark hair looks beautiful paired with the vibrant blue of this dress, and hello, I have dark hair and love a rich red lip! And while Sarah is more olive of skin than my pale self is, I knew it would work with my skintone too. It was official: it was being placed upon my wishlist. I put this dress into my basket twice on PUG orders after making that Must Have It decision, then wussed out and removed it from my basket both times when my total purchase value ran too high. After that second time of bottling out I realised I had deep No Purchase regrets and I resolved that it would be a dress that I bought in May as a birthday gift. It stayed in my basket for several weeks until March when I decided I would buy it asap anyway, damn waiting for my birthday! The day after deciding this I went to place my next PUG order…and it was gone. Out of stock.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!11 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

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March Outfits Round Up

I’ve debated doing a monthly outfit round up post for a while now and after receiving a positive response on Instagram when I offered it, this it’s becoming a thing! So, without further ado, here are my March outfits and all their details.

Click the images to get a closer look at the details.

Black Vicki dress by Tatyana. Handmade bedazzled ballet flats

Black Vicki dress by Tatyana. Handmade bedazzled ballet flats

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