A vintage purple prom dress . . . and lots of lucite

My hubby and I went out last weekend to a lovely French restaurant in Melbourne called 'Bergerac'. It is a very traditional French restaurant, so we had snails for entree, a lovely Seafood platter and a Bombe Alaska for dessert, with a Grande Marnier flambe. We then went for cocktails to the Vue de Monde bar (great view but ordinary cocktails). It was a great night.

We were celebrating the news that we are moving to France for 2 years next March. My hubby is from Europe (Ireland) so it is great news for us - we can be near his family instead of 10,000 miles away.Of course, that means that I will be 10,000 miles away from my family, but that is the price you pay for marrying a handsome Irish man I guess (I blame it on my 80's crush on Bono).

I wore this purple 50's prom dress which I got at a vintage store in Melbourne yonks ago, but haven't worn until now (I had to get it taken in a bit, then I had to wait for it to be warm enough to wear it).



I absolutely love this colour. I would love to get a royal blue version of this dress actually.

I wore it with my favourite vintage Lucite shoes. . .

And my very favourite Lucite bag . . .

 



Outfit details

Vintage 50s purple dress Top Hat Vintage, Northcote, Melbourne

Shawl ebay

lucite shoes ebay

lucite bag ebay/etsy (can't remember!)

brooch thrifted/op shop

earrings Callie Whelan, Camberwell Markets and the Vintage Garage

Channelling Joanie - A curvy red dress

I know I don't come anywhere near looking like the amazing Joan from Mad Men . . . but we can all dream can't we?

 

This is a dress by the fabulous US designed Hattie Carnegie. She is not as well known as Suzy Perette, Lilli Ann and the like, but the suits and dresses are very nice. I personally do not think the quality of the design and fabric is the same as Lilli Ann, but as I said, they are very nice all the same (and quite a bit cheaper as they are not as sought after!).

Everyone should own a curvy red dress like this. It really does make you feel fabulous, particularly if it hugs in all the 'right places'! 

 I am a latecomer to the colour red. Because I am so pale and freckly I have been very scared of it. The right shade red can look great though (although I have learnt to stay away from the orangey type reds). I

am also a late arrival to the advantages of figure-hugging dresses. I have fairly 'generous' hips and for many years tried to hide them from view. It is only in recent years (and with a little help from shapewear!) that I have discovered it is actually better to celebrate your hips in dresses like this! (Thanks Joanie!)

 

Outfit details:

Vintage red dress (mid 60's?) Hattie Carnegie ebay USA

vintage needlepoint bag etsy

PS Sorry for the absence from the blogging world. I have been seriously busy at work, but hope to be a better blogger!

A brown velvet Handmacher Suit

I have been a bad blogger of late . . .  apologies! There is the little matter of my Phd and my work getting in the way of my blogging. These past few months have been very stressful one way or another. But one thing that keeps me sane is my vintage!!

I am sure my law colleagues think I am an air head - one of my colleagues was talking to me the other day and said "I had some important info to pass onto you, and now I can't think of it". And I said (quite seriously) 'Was it about fashion or law?'. She gave me rather an odd look when I said that and said, in a very deadpan voice: 'Law . . .'.(Oops!)


Anyway, onto much more interesting things (!). This is number 2 in my (small!) collection of Handmacher suits (the collection being only made up of 2 suits!).

I got this suit for an absolutely bargain price of US$30 from etsy because the jacket has some fading on the sides of the sleeves and under the arms. But it is still very wearable. The nature of the fabric makes the fading not so noticeable.

The only thing I would say is that (as you can probably see!) the skirt is a little 'snug' on me. I need to lose a few pounds there I think (don't we all!). On that point, I have been doing cycle classes on my gym - if you need to lose a few pounds those classes are the way to go. My gosh they are intense!


The Handmacher suits are nice in that the shoulders are quite soft and feminine. Some of the Lilli Ann 40s jackets, whilst beautiful, are a little too wide on my shoulders. If you are short like me (I am 5 foot and a half!) you have to be careful of jackets with wide shoulders (they make you look like a gridiron player!)


If you want some more information on Handmacher suits, the lovely Couture Allure has a great blog post on it. http://coutureallure.blogspot.com/2010/10/history-of-handmacher-suits.html

Happy Handmaching hunting!


VS x

Hats off to the High Tea - Melbourne Spring Fashion Week

Yesterday I attended a lovely event - the 'Hats Off to the High Tea' at the Block Arcade in Melbourne. The event is organised by the Collins Street Precinct and is part of the hat exhibition run in Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.  I also went to this tea last year (see this link). I absolutely love this high tea. The people are fantastic (the guests are usually all local milliners) and the high tea, which is catered by the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, is beautiful. There was a great mixture of savoury and sweet things and the salmon sandwiches are particularly nice.

I wore a 'Dior style' hat and dress to the event and managed to win 'Best dressed'. That was quite the compliment given how well dressed the other ladies were. The picture below shows myself (on right) with Sandy Aslett, the winner of the best hat competition (there were prizes for the best exhibition of hats during the week). She is a milliner from Buderim, Queensland and a lovely lady (for her online shop please see this link). All the milliners are very friendly and inspirational ladies. I greatly admire them for their creativity. They are all so talented and I like the fact that they run their own businesses in what is a very competitive market.

My outfit details:

1950s 'New Look' hat  etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/melmacparadise)

Marie Phillips 1950s dress ebay

This dress is actually a pink and grey version of the dress I wore to the High tea last year. I love this Dior style with the nipped in waist and soft shoulders. I had in expertly taken in by my fabulous tailors, St Kilda Tailors, highly recommended for altering vintage clothing.

I have also loaded some close ups of my hat at the end of this post if you'd like more details about that.

Now onto the gorgeous hats at the High Tea.

Look at this fabulous red creation . . .

Look at this beautiful lady, how happy does she look? Do you know why? She is wearing a hat!

This lady was sitting next to me at the High Tea. Her name is Zuzana Vranovska and she was also very lovely and friendly. She is also a local milliner and sells vintage as well (see below near end of post for her contact details). I love the cherries in her hat.

Another gorgeous red creation - a close up of Sandy Aslett, talented Australian milliner . . . 

And lastly, this beautiful girl was wearing a hat from the Hat shop at Flinder's Street Station (where she works). But she added some magnificent decorations to it. I love the feathers and art deco look to it. Divine.

So there you go, a' hat heavy' post, but I hope you liked it!

Many of the milliners pictured above sell their hats in Collins Street and online so if you are interested, please look them up. Some of these include: 

- Marea Bright Exclusive Milliner Level 1, Suite 107 Centreway Arcade 259 Collins Street. 

Zuzana Vranovska, Couture & Vintage Millinery, shop 8 , 974 High Street Armadale - Kings Arcade

Online - see Serena Lindeman and, as mentioned above, Sandy Aslett. 

Also, for those who are interested, please see below of close ups of the hat I wore to the High Tea. I might give you a good idea as to how to date and buy hats online. The style, along with the label (see photo 3) dates it as vintage. On that issue, I have found that anything with the label 'New York' is going to be top quality. The only thing to note with buying hats online is the sizing. You need to measure your head and then make sure it marries up with the measurements given by the seller. You also must ask the seller to package the hat well so it does not get damaged in the post. That is why, when possible, I like to buy my hats in a 'real life' bricks and mortar store!

Happy hat shopping!

A beautiful 'Lilli Annette' Diminuitive Suit

As regular readers will know, I love the US vintage designer 'Lilli Ann'. I was very lucky to buy a beautiful 'petite' blue and red suit on etsy from the lovely Catbooks1940s a few months ago. It is probably one of the nicest suits I have ever bought.  The quality of the fabric and tailoring is really quite breathtaking.

 I should note that the skirt I am wearing with the jacket is not actually Lilli Ann, but one that Catbooks1940s had originally listed with the jacket on etsy. She had misplaced the matching Lilli Ann skirt, but then later found it and threw that in for free so I got two skirts for the price of one (what a nice seller!). This is great for mixing and matching and makes the suit really versatile.

Unfortunately I can't wear the matching (navy) skirt at the moment because I have put on a little bit of weight over winter (cough!) and it is too tight on me now. Fortunately I think the red skirt works well with this jacket (I do have to cut down on the sweets though, I just ate homemade apple sponge pudding and icecream - yowzers!).

 I love the red cuffs on the jacket - totally adorable.

These are some photos of the suit from Catbooks1940s listing of the item on etsy which will show you better detail of the jacket. You can see (from her far superior photography!) the beauty of the trim on the suit. . .

And finally, one of my favourite parts of vintage items - the label! This one says 'Lilli Annette - Diminuitive. Ahhh, isn't that cute? (I am only 5 1/2 feet tall)(I count that half!) so it is accurate, and rather nice, to say I am 'Diminuitive'!

I hope you enjoyed that little look at my little Lilli Annette suit!

Outfit details

Lilli Ann jacket and vintage skirt  Catbooks1940s on etsy

bag etsy

earrings  etsy

A handy green Handmacher suit

Hello again, I am finally back! Thanks to everyone for being so patient during my 'computer crash' hiatus from blogging. My new computer is still on its way, but in the meantime I actually figured out how to upload and edit photos on a laptop without Canon software (answer: irfanview - free software from the internet, in case you were wondering!)

Anyway, enough about boring computers, lets talk vintage now . . .

Regular readers will know I love Lilli Ann suits, but I have recently bought a few 'Handmacher' suits, which were also made in the 40s and 50s and have excellent tailoring. I have to say I don't think they are equal with 50s Lilli Ann in terms of the workmanship and complexity of the tailoring, but they are beautiful in their own right. I particularly like the close cut of the jackets  . . .

The cut of the suits are also very feminine and hug in 'all the right places'. I particularly like the rounded colours and the pocket detail which is a signature feature of Handmacher suits.

This is not actually a colour I would normally buy for myself as I am a little scared of pastel type colours with my fair skin. I tend to go for deeper greens, like emeralds. However, the hue of this particular acqua green is OK on me.

It also looks nice with the jacket open and a nice white pussy bow blouse underneath (that is also a little more comfortable too!)

This is perfect work wear, although I had to darn a number of holes in the skirt (6-7 in total, some of them quite large!) so I probably wouldn't wear it to an important meeting or in a lecture. It is OK for in the office though and like me, I guess many flaws are what makes it!

Lastly, I thought this photo might give you a laugh - I have to take most of my photos with a tripod and timer. So I try and line up where I will stand, centre the camera, press the auto button, it beeps for 10 seconds and in that time I have to run around to the front, look composed, smile and off it goes. Naturally it takes me about 20 goes to get 2 decent photos and I have a tendency to go off centre all the time. Exhibit 1 - little ol' me in the very corner of this photo - after I cut all the unwanted background out, all I was left with was this  .  . . 

 dear me, enough said!

Outfit details

1950s Handmacher suit etsy

white pussy bow blouse ebay

earrings vintage Lisner - etsy  



A momentary service interruption to my blog

Dear Readers
Apologies for my delay in posting these past 2 weeks. My computer hardrive decided to crash and we have to get a new computer (something to do with the 'motherboard'!). Unfortunately all my camera/photo programs are on that computer so I will have to reinstall everything (when I can find the CD's in which to do this!). I will be back to 'normal' in a few weeks. Thanks for your understanding! Maria (Vintage Suburbia)