The best of the 70s

Ce-le-brate-good-times-come-on! Here, I match these dresses (all from Posh Girl) to some of my favourite 70s style heroines:

Bianca Jagger:













Ali McGraw:













Stevie Nicks:













Barbra Streisand:













My mom:

A recent purchase

I'm just all about late 50s/early 60s this week. And it was only $32. I know what you're thinking: looks old ladyish. But trust me, it's all in the cut and colour. And besides, old ladies are my main fashion inspiration.

Which reminds me, I should clarify that this is the only thing posted on this site so far that I've actually purchased...all the other stuff is just dreamin' and pretty much already sold by the time I get my jealous paws on the pics.

Great newage trend for boys

I am a sucker for a boy in seer (seersucker, that is). This latest trend, which borrows heavily from both turn-of-the-century and 1920s styles for men, was featured in today's NY Times style section.

Oh, wouldn't it be lovely if boys would hop on the retro style bandwagon, and get dapper once again? But with a modern twist, of course. For example, these boys on the right (actually blogger has pushed them down below this paragraph) look very handsome in full seersucker regalia (well, the guy in the white suit does--the other guy's just kind of 'there'), but a cool jacket like the one on the left would also look sexy with jeans and a t-shirt. (Interestingly, I don't think the inverse would work so well--seersucker pants without the jacket). Either way, I love the cut of these jackets. Very vintage.

More spring loveliness...

...Desperately trying to block the fact that it snowed here today...Imagining picnics and garden parties...p.s. Can someone I know please have a garden party this year? We need to re-introduce the garden party into middle class society. Hell, maybe I'll have one. Although it would be less 'garden' and more 'wilderness'...

The purse still works either way.






With the perfect picnic purse...

Spring!

With:

Vintage patterns: A new vantage on vintage

I recently purchased a buttercup yellow 1950s petticoat. It's lightly frothy, it's subtly frilly, it's totally fabulous. But where to wear it? My fear is that wearing it under one of my 1950s dresses might be too obvious, looking costumey rather than cool. But at the same time, wearing it makes me so inexplicably happy that I MUST find just the right thing. And what are the chances of that, really?

So I've been racking my brains for weeks, trying to figure out how I'm going to wear the crinoline. Spring is upon us, summer's fast approaching--I needed a solution.

And then I tripped over my old sewing machine, strategically located in a far corner of the dining room (I like to sew in there...that one time...when I made a pair of 1940s style jeans...once), and fell onto my laptop keyboard. Somehow, the pattern made by my flying fingers and elbows spelled 'rusty zipper' in Google. Intrigued, I hit 'enter'. And there it was: a great new vintage site, with lovely clothes and about a zillion patterns. The gods of retro cool were speaking to me! I could MAKE myself something to wear with the crinoline. MAKING your own clothes is so retro! And I could use a vintage pattern to do it!

So, in a nod to the fabulous canary-yellow/deep-red-burgundy combos sported by Michelle Williams and Cate Blanchett (fabulous sense of style, both of them) at the Oscars in recent years, I have decided to make myself a burgundy (true red burgundy, not the more purple version) 1950s button-front shirtdress. And I'll do the stitching in dark pumpkin! I think that will be a really cool colour combo. And I will wear it with the bottom few buttons undone in order to reveal...the buttercup yellow petticoat.

So I'm posting all this here as motivation to follow through on this project. I just ordered the patterns--they haven't arrived yet (that's not one of them on the right--just a sample). But as soon as they do get here...look out Fabricland.

Vintage patterns: another great way to keep the unique beauty of vintage alive.

Oh dahling, that pahty was simply beastly....

A lovely 1930s satin evening number...So Gatsby...If that had been set in the 30s and not the 20s...never mind.







Wear it with...

These:






This:










And/or this:

Bad, bad newage! Bad! Baaad!

These are a few examples of (in my opinion) baaaaaad Fall 2006 Collection newage*. Just a hunch, but I'm thinking if the 6-foot, 110-lb models look like crap in the clothes, so will we.




























*In case you've forgotten: newage=new clothes with a deliberately 'vintage' look

It burns!!! It burns!!! Oooo the pain!!!

Warning: Looking at this coat for too long may lead to its image being permanently burned into your visual cortex.

Other than that, I love it. Yes, I do. I don't care what you say.