What I Actually Wore #159

Serial #: 0159
Date: 25/12/2013
Weather: 32°C / 90°F
Time Allowed: 10 minutes

Well, it’s interesting to reflect on what I was wearing ten years ago! My style has changed a lot since then, and I would rarely wear a top with such a low-cut front as it’s not at all a 1930s look. The other reason is to avoid sunburn, as I inevitably end up with unsightly suntan marks on my chest, as I am rather slapdash about sunscreen (unless it’s of the parasol variety).

I remember when I bought this dress it reminded me of the one Marilyn Monroe wore in the famous 1954 photo of her standing above the subway grating, taken by photographer Sam Shaw. I would not be surprised to learn that was the designer’s inspiration either. My dress had a satin sash, but it was so soft and floppy it wouldn’t stay tied up tightly, as you can see in the photo.

I’m not sure if I bought it specifically for Christmas day, but that ended up being the one and only time I wore it – afterwards it returned to the charity store. But it was a hot day, and the dress was cool. In my notes for this outfit I’ve written that I had to get ready really fast as I had cut the timing of my departure for the family’s Christmas lunch really fine. Fortunately, I had already planned my accessories, and my makeup was as usual minimal.

I remember how much I loved those high-heeled sandals – I wore them a lot back then. Out of season, I used to store my summer shoes high up on a shelf in my closet. It must have got hot up there, being under a skylight, and when I brought them back down, I was horrified to discover that the glue in the soles had completely detached! After getting some expensive quotes from a shoe repairer, I decided that I could fix ’em myself – and I did, successfully. In fact, today I made a similar repair to a black leather thong (flip-flop) using Selley’s Fix & Go Shoe Repair glue. It works like magic and if you don’t have any in your drawer, go and buy some immediately!

The shoes though were another casualty with my segue into lower-heeled 1930s style. Another long-term favourite, the handbag however stayed in circulation until the day one of its handles broke. Mournfully, I couldn’t bear to part with it, and kept it in storage to ‘get fixed one day’. One day did not come for years – until last year in fact. I found another shoe repairer, and this time I did pay his high price to repair it. It was worth it, as since then I have carried it 16 times. (I can state that definitively as I record my outfits in an app.) I’m still wearing the onyx jewellery set, and while those sunglasses are modern, I now almost exclusively wear vintage 30s and 40s shades in the same round shape.

Items:

Dress: Martini
Earrings: handmade
Bracelet: souvenir
Ring: souvenir
Sunglasses: MinkPink
Bag: vintage 60s
Shoes: Zoe Wittner

Summer’s Endings

It’s going to be autumn – officially – in Melbourne in a few days’ time. Of course, that doesn’t mean an end to the heat, but it’s a shame it hasn’t been a great summer as far as enjoying the seasonal weather goes. I have hardly had to wear big hats like this, and I’ve carried an umbrella more often than a parasol.

A few years ago, I bought this fabulously wide-brimmed hat in an op shop (thrift store) for a few bucks. It was untrimmed, so I decided to decorate it with some vintage ribbon and a bunch of cherries. The velvet ribbon was also an op shop find: included in a huge stash of ribbons in a multitude of colours and styles. I have been able to use them to refurbish more than one chapeau. I love mint green and red together, and the way the weight of the ribbon dipped the hat elegantly on one side.

However, I’ve had to say goodbye to it as the hat developed several holes and tears along the top of the crown and in the brim. The straw had become far too brittle to attempt to repair.

And then, alas, a favourite pair of raspberry suede 40s style platform heels also became too worn out on the soles and tips of the toes. After being repaired once or twice, I regretfully farewelled them as well. I bought them new, from the Australian label Wittner, and I remember the first time I wore them to see an exhibition on vintage fashion at the Bendigo Art Gallery – because of the sheer agony they inflicted! They were so high, and gave me blisters where they cut in around around my toes. But eventually I wore them in, and wore them many, many times, so I can’t regret their loss too much – especially since I no longer wear such high heels these days anyway (a matter of style).

This favourite dress though is currently requiring vintage rescue, as through stupid carelessness I tore off one of the buttons, ripping the fabric around the buttonhole as well – one of those moments in life when you want to shout “Undo, undo!”

I feel like this is a fitting homage to these accessories though, and the end of summer too. So farewell hat and shoes – farewell!

Hello! I just (didn’t) step out of a time machine.

Greetings again dear readers, those of you who have emigrated with me. Apologies for the long silence as I have been very busy working on populating the professional sections of my website. (Please feel free to have a look at the portfolio.) But for those of you who are here only for the fashion, ta-da! Here is a little ‘fashionistamatic’ taken of me three weeks ago.

Since I last was consistently posting here, my personal style has evolved once more, and it is the 1930s era that I have become enamoured with. I won’t wax lyrical about it just yet, as it deserves lots of paragraphs: I’ve been thinking of writing a little series on why I think the 30s are the most stylish era EVER – perhaps a grandiose claim which will require copious justification to allay some skeptics.

I do own quite a lot of original 1930s garments and accessories, which I have bought both online from vintage boutiques or eBay, and a great many – remarkably – from op shops (thrift stores) right here in Melbourne. I have a theory that most of the volunteer staff, while au fait with 40s or 50s fashion, really do not know how to identify original 30s items because they confuse them with the 1970s. (The Thirties did have a big influence in that era too, via films such as Bonnie & Clyde.)

I’ve always said that I would hate to look like I have stepped out of a period film, or out of a time machine, and one way I have tried to maintain some semblance of modernity is by mixing eras. Hair and makeup styles help too. However, if I could have an entire wardrobe of original 30s garments, I would not hesitate to wear it head to toe, all day, every day. (1930s shoes are the most comfortable I’ve ever worn – they don’t make them like they used to!) Unfortunately, availability and cost hinder me somewhat.

Here I am wearing a 1930s straw hat trimmed with black velvet and celluloid berries, which I bought on eBay. The berries make the cutest clicking sound in my ear as I walk – like billiard balls. The blouse is modern, and the silk scarf is actually from an earlier period – the seller thought either Edwardian or even Victorian. Neckline embellishments such as collars, scarves and bows were huge in the 30s though, literally and figuratively. I’m also wearing a pair of vintage earrings (not sure of era) that match the celluloid berries really well. Those and the blouse were op shop purchases.

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PS You’ll see now I’ve added a blog header, and an archive drop-down menu so you can find things a bit more easily (the section header temporarily enlarges when the menu is opened, which seems to be unavoidable). I have also transferred most if not all of the old Look Book galleries, accessible in the main navigation. Unfortunately something very weird happened to the Ten Commandments on style stories in the migration from my old site, so that is temporarily inaccessible as I will have to lay that out in its entirety afresh when I have time. Please also note that there will be some weird formatting on any posts older than this one; I will try to fix these if and when I have time, but there is ten years’ worth of blogging below here!

So Not A Princess is Moving!

Greetings dear readers, it’s been a very long time indeed since I last posted. What can I say – I just needed a break, even before the pandemic played havoc with all our lives. (You’d think with all the extra time on hand during Melbourne’s numerous lockdowns I would have being posting more, but no – I was not so inspired.) Considering I have not been posting for years however, I am pretty chuffed that people are still reading, and some of you are visiting direct – thank you so much, that’s very encouraging!

I have some news now though: So Not a Princess is moving (insert fanfare of trumpets):

As of 6 January 2023, my erstwhile domain name will be obsolete, but both the Style and Sketchbook blogs will survive intact at helenaturinski.com. Those of you with an eagle eye may have noticed that SNAP is already directing to the new domain name.

This website will briefly continue to look like this until the migration to Squarespace’s upgraded platform is completed, but when the transition is complete, you will still be able to click through to the blogs from the homepage.

There may even be – gasp! – some new content for your viewing pleasure. Until then …

Happy New Leaf

Hello! It’s been a while, I know – there’s a year-shaped hole in this blog. At first it was unintentional: I was busy with other creative pursuits, but as 2020 wore on, beginning with fires then floods in Australia, and followed by a global plague and an interminable (or seven months to be exact) lockdown in Melbourne, I came to realise that 2020 was a year that deserved to be finished as quickly as possible and cast post-haste into oblivion. (If only everyone’s post had been haste this year, but I digress!)  So here we are, between my last post of 1 January 2020 and today’s post of 1 January 2021 lies … a blank, and it shall remain that way.

Today I strolled in the Botanic Gardens with one of my sisters, wearing a 1930s dress, parasol and handbag, and a great pair of modern Ray Bans that I bought recently for a song in a thrift store. As we passed this enormous-leafed tree, I asked my sister to photograph me alongside it, as an apt metaphor of New Year’s Day.

As you have no doubt already countless times read or heard elsewhere, may I suggest we now draw the curtain on that horrible year-that-has-passed and look forward – hopefully – to a brighter and healthier 2021. Though we might not be quite out of the woods yet, we can at least turn over a new leaf.