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

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.

Swing

A hundred years ago the world was recovering from its first world war, lifestyles were changing rapidly, and people were brightly optimistic about the future. We cannot say the world is currently in a similar state of positivity; however, while the 1920s roared into life they ended with the Great Depression, so let us hope at the start of this new decade we slowly see the pendulum swing to the opposite direction, that is, to change for the good.

But every new year at least begins with a party! I’m wearing a classic 1920s-inspired look with a bob, grey silk dress, jet bead lariat, that decade’s ubiquitous mary-jane shoes, and attempting a Charleston swing.

Here’s to fresh starts, brand-spanking beginnings, a youthful spring in our step and swing on our hip – happy new year!

Photo: March 2014

Hurrah and Farewell!

It’s the end of a decade, and I’m sending off these Teensies with some 1910s fashion: some antique cotton bloomers and a modern printed cotton dress worn tunic style, which is very reminiscent of Edwardian-era bathing costumes.

I used to wear these bloomers as fun shorts in summer as their very voluminous bottoms were so cool in the heat, but those same baggy bums eventually made me retire them to storage. They are a fun thing to have in a vintage collection, but they do not really work with the typically slim 1930s silhouette!

I hope you all have a fun final day of the year, and a wonderful evening celebrating … see you in the Twenties!

1910 bathing suits – give me that umbrella! Image found on Pinterest

Photo: March 2014

Taking Stock

Belated Christmas greetings, Snapettes. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday full of seasonal blessings of peace and joy, spent with family and loved ones.

I hope also your stockings were filled with good things, not lumps of coal, which would certainly ruin these fine vintage Schiaparelli stockings. I bought them a little while ago in a thrift store, but have not yet dared to wear them for fear of ripping them. They are a size 10½, which I discovered refers to foot length and indicates they are a UK shoe size 7. This is a little bigger than what I wear, but bigger is better than smaller surely! And how pretty is the pink print on one of the stocking tops?

Here’s to continuing festivities as we take stock of what’s passed these last twelve months, and countdown to a new year!