Vera Ellen EXPLOSION

So it's been one of those days where I planned to be good and get a lot of practical things done and somehow all I've done is swallow lots of tea and play on the computer and listen to an amazing Liza Minnelli record. OH WELL. Anyway the internet led me to some Vera Ellen stalking and she really is Amazing. Clearly from my blog, you can see I like her, but I feel I need to see more of her movies. She was just such a killer dancer, and so adorable, and she had some Fantastic costumes. Let's gush over her amazingness now, shall we? Oh yes, let's.

I finally did it.

Still waiting to hear on a job, but in other news...I finally opened up a wee etsy shop! There are only five items including a very small (32" bust, 25" waist) but very cute yellow 1950s dress. I hope to expand on this a lot eventally!

Party like it's 1939

My mother's non-profit had an event at a vintage car show, so I dressed up as 1937 (not 1939 as this post title might hint) as possible, to match this 1937 Alpenrose milk truck and even did my hair in finger waves. To my shock, the wave setting worked wonders this time (I now see the light-the hair MUST be soaking, not just damp, etc). I had a lovely time taking pictures with folks and just looking at all the pretty. On a side note, I realize that the next time I have money that isn't needed for Responsible things, I'm going to invest in some vintage-y shape wear as this garter-belt-showing-through-my-dress look isn't Quite as sophisticated as I would like.

A couple owners let me sit in their cars too!

I met this adorable lady named Dijon (just like the mustard) whilst looking at this big gorgeous, silly-fantastic car. She was dressed completely 1920s style along with her beau who wore a boater and suspenders.

You can drink like Dita...

http://www.ditasdomain.com/cointreau/

But can you look as fabulous? Every single time I go Dita-stalking around the internet, I fall in love with her all over again and am newly inspired to look as ridiculously decadent as I can every day, the way she does.

"As I said, Betty Grable was a big influence because she had this way about her both onscreen and off that made her sexy AND likeable. … She was a real “girls’ girl” and therefore she had a lot of female fans but was still a sex symbol. A lot of sex symbols become someone women are afraid of … the “man-eater” quality makes us afraid of them! There’s nothing better than a beautiful, talented woman who respects other women."-Dita Von Teese Read the full article here.

I have to say I completely agree with her.

This picture marks the first time I've not been 300% in LOVE with her ensemble. That being said, I adore that she's wearing something a little kooky for a change-it reminds me a little of myself. I guess feel a little more legitimate about the silly things I wear when I see her wearing fun silly clothes, too.

Diorgasm!

I know John Galliano is probably a scary-crazy racist, but man, can he design clothes I would salivate over. I snatched these photos from this marvelous blog, The Swelle Life. You should check it out if you haven't and you like dresses and tea cups and cup cakes and pretty things like I do.

STOP! Are you a lady??!!

I think I need to start putting pictures of Dita around my room for health/make-up/overall awesomeness inspiration

If you are a lady, or you enjoy wearing ladies' garments, I have brilliant news! The rumors you've been hearing around town...you know, the talk that goes something like this:

A: Gloria, I heard high cut underwear is making a comeback!

B: Doris, that just can't be. All my friends wear those g-strings and those tiny handkerchiefs they call "booty shorts"! Things that cinch at the waist are O-U-T!

A: That simply isn't so! Why just yesterday I read in a magazine that they're all the rage and I swung through town and got myself two pair! And I actually like them!

ALL OF IT IS TRUE.

I always looked at those high cut underwear and thought....."old lady." The cotton ones look so big on the hanger. Part of the reason I buy bikini underwear and other hip-hugging styles is that they look so small and sweet, and I can pretend that my derriere is merely so big. The waist cinching satin panties, though of a nice material and a vintage look, still seemed huge on the hanger, awkward, old. And THEN, ladies, THEN I tried them on and my life (my silly little life) was CHANGED.

I now have something that looks perfect with my bustier, that looks perfectly vintage, that will look good under dresses (esp. the vintage and vintage inspired), that creates the hourglass shape I always aspire to have. How could I have doubted the age-old style? The Bettie Page-approved undergarment? Where have I been keeping my brain for twenty-three years???

A babble on loving luxury...with photos

Is it so bad that some of us are naturally inclined to love the silly frivolities of life? I'm very frivolous. It's not just because I was Raised that way...I'm sure that has something to do with it, but I also feel that the second I existed I was destined to love dressing up and playing with hair and being a GIRL and a WOMAN in the old-fashioned sense of those words. This doesn't mean I hate sports or the outdoors or not wearing make up occasionally. I am a human being with many inconsistencies just like everybody. But I love glamour and frills and lace and satin and underthings and tea sandwiches and beautiful old architecture and beautiful old everything. I buy chocolate regularly and think nothing of it.

I know that material things can not buy happiness, of course they can't. However, I swear that there is joy in the littlest things....like food and drink and a hot bubble bath and wearing something that makes you feel like a Royal in the 1950s....or even a prom date in the 1950s. A part of me feels silly for enjoying material things, and I do sincerely want to learn to DIY more. But another part of me feels stubbornly righted in liking the subtleties and intricacies of a "fine" life.

People sometimes say they don't have the patience to do pin curls, for example, and that's fine by me, of course, but I think that as a whole, we've lost the ability to understand that fast doesn't mean better in any way, necessarily. When I think about old novels...like Jane Austen, and the film adaptations, I think about these people, men and women alike, who put so much time into the subtleties of their appearance, detail by detail. Dressing for dinner. Stitching bonnets, learning haberdashery (I think I really want to get into millinery...this fabulous seller on etsy makes the most AMAZING vintage inspired hats but they are far beyond my budget at around $300 a pop). And then they gather together and go to Bath, and walk around the beach, and sit at candlelit dinners, and everything feels very slow, beautiful, languid, and they talk about poetry and travel and it's idyllic and lovely. Of course these people are wealthy and probably bored half the time, but I can't help but fall in love with the picture. I'm not fancy all the time, but I love being fancy, I feel more alive when I feel fancy, I feel like I can create some little fantasy to move around in. I think slow is fun. Guess I'm just crazy....but I don't think it's about materialism so much as a love of detail and effort and STYLE. A love of glamour. Is that so bad? I hope not.

Sometimes I see people like scientists in pictures on the NPR website, for example, and they're doing amazing work and wearing drab garments. And I just think....does this mean I'm a frivolous person who won't do any good in the world? Scientists and doctors and savers of the world probably don't go around in party dresses....not that I'm going to be a scientist or a doctor (giggle....yeah right) but I would really like to think I can be useful to the world one way or another.

And now...a lot of fantasy luxury shopping. See, I know it's maybe wrong to even imagine spending so much money on just...THINGS. But when those things are so beautiful???? I don't know.... Once I become a successful career gal, maybe I'll be less confused because I'll be able to occasionally indulge.

Extravagance. Agent Provacateur

Vintage-inspired. Kiss Me Deadly

Sturdy and beautifully retro.

Remix Vintage.