zaterdag 27 januari 2018

Birthday weekend: outfits & presents

I wrote in my last post I had my birthday comming up. I celebrated it last Sunday and on the day itself. In this post: my outfits and the lovely presents I received :)


On Sunday (the day before my actual birthday) Noortje and I went out for some vintage shopping. We didn't actually plan what we were going to do only the outfits we really wanted to wear. We had wanted to wear our tiltiest hats together for some time. 

Lunch break, gives you a better view of our crazy hats and also that we do not always look as arrogant as we do in the picture above, actually we smile/giggle a lot ;)


I found a lovely dress at Bis Vintage, it has it all. It's one my favorite shapes: defined waist, defined shoulders (such interesting sleeve padding made from pleated crin) and a flowy skirt. I also really like embroidery and this has embroidered bows! Looking forward to combining it with different hats etc.

In the evening I invited a few friends for a small diner party at Grand Café 1e Klas 
I wore a purple dress I had bought at the vintage festival in November. I've worn it before but didn't have any good pictures. I made the belt and bows in a contrasting shade because I could not find anything in the same hue as the dress. I think the result makes the dress even more interesting.
A few of my guests (two taking photo's not included) in order of height.

On my birthday my friends Noortje and Tom stayed over and made me breakfast. We then dressed up and went for cake at my favorite patisserie. 


It was the first time I wore this blue hat. It was a birthday present from my parents I had bought myself months ago. It had been laying wrapped up in paper on a shelf to be unwrapped only at my actual birthday. It has an entire bird on it with a tail of pheasant feathers. 

I also wore my fox fur that matches the color of the bird on the hat.

Tom & Noortje: they have become such dear friends over the past year and also the cutest couple I know

Cake at Pompadour

On our way home we met a neighbour who was babysitting this very enthusiastic young dog.
Some people took offense to my wearing dead animals in this picture in particular. I think it has something to do with a live animal being in it and that you can clearly see my accessoiries were once animals too. But I do not see how wearing vintage fur is worse than eating meat, I'm even of the opinion it is probably 'better' because 1) it is far more durable and 2) no new animals were killed. Still so many try to convince me wearing fur is bad because you don't need it like the nourishment meat is. I don't buy this argument, you can live a healthy life without meat, it is just as much a luxury product as fur. But I'll stop my rant now, be assured wearing vintage fur is something I've given great consideration and is not something I do thoughtlessly.

Let's conitnue with the fun of being a birthday girl!
Below are most of the presents I received.


Some deserve  to be looked at in more detail:
I received this package from my friend Sarah from Germany more than a week before my birthday. Having to wait to open it made it all the more fun, but after breakfast on my birthday I couldn't wait any longer.

And what a pretty package!


It contained this stunning dress! 

I had to try it on right away, so excuse the creases. Such a perfect late 30's early 40's silhouet. And color! It's a changeant taffeta so it changes from pink to blue when you move. It reminded me of that scene in the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty where her fairy godmothers keep changing the color of Aurora's dress: pink!, it should be blue!, no pink! etc.

Noortje also gave me a dress. She knows me so well! I saw this dress when we had a photoshoot at Bobbypin Boutique months ago. It wasn't for sale yet but the dress fascinated me. It is made out of typical 1930's/1940's fabrics but was probably a fancy dress costume with a lot of historical references. So to me this is roughly: 1940's doing 1880's doing 1760's 

Putting it on with a little comfirmation wreath on my head even gave it a Lolita look, from long before that subculture even existed!


Noortje drew us: she as a domestic cat and me as a twittering birdy ;) The flowers are a wrist corsage she made to match the purple dress I wore the evening before.


Tom gave me a very fancy container for compact powder. It also has a 'secret' lipstick holder on the side! So pretty!

I think Tom might be the only person I know who would make a little box for it because an irregular shape cannot be gift-wrapped neatly ;)

A card that could only have come from Annemarie, who knew I needed a hatpin. Because you never know who you will meet in a dark back alley

Merel and I share a fascination for magainzes so I got an entire year of reading to catch up upon: Margriet 1951

My mother has knitted little lavender bags to put between my clothes with the same yarns as the cardigans she made for me. 


I also got some money, here are some birthday gifts I bought for myself from it. Frivolously pretty
things that you somehow need, as birthday presents should be ;)

First there is this little hat. Noortje had spotted it on Instagram a while back and showed it to me as she thought it was 'so me'. When my birthday was comming up and I was thinking I needed a fuchsia hat because I have so many dresses with that color it popped up again. 

Here are just some of those dresses in need of a hat in that color to make a perfect outfit. The one with the lace sleeves on the left is also partially a birthday gift from a friend.

It's a tiny hat going perfectly on my little head ;)

And here's another hat. I spotted it on Marktplaats. It came with matching gloves and a hatpin. Such a special shape and veil! It had been worn by the mother of the seller in 1947


It is the kind of hat you would normally find difficult to date and to place correctly on you head. But with the wedding photo I know exactly how it was worn. The veil is in bad shape so I had to shorten it. I thought about replacing it but as it is dark blue it could prove difficult to find one. 


And lastly a pair of blue shoes. It is a hard color to find and as blue is such a staple color in my wardrobe I could not resist buying these Rocket Originals when they went on sale.

For my next post I'm thinking about writing a blog with more useful content as my scribbles here are becoming a little superficial (and I have Instagram for that).
Maybe about mending, (online) sources I use for
inspiration or a bit of related fashion history? 
Anything you'd like me to write about?

Birthe


woensdag 17 januari 2018

How is it January already?



You know they say when it's September it'll be Christmas before you know it and the year is nearly over. And well since my last blogpost it has been 'snap' and somehow it turned into January. Here's a quick update with some outfit highlights from the last months. Above is one last bit of September. My friend Noortje and I own very similar lace and crêpe dresses and we thought it'd be fun to wear them at the same time. It was the beginning of an Autumn filled with matching outfits as you will see in this blog. 


October


On a very warm day in October we went out without coats it was like summer had returned for one last time.

We had been to the premiere of the ballet 'Mata Hari' the night before.

I wore a new to me 1930's eveningdress I got from a friend. The lace was in bad condition so I repaired it and lined the panels with tule to make it more sturdy. I suspect it might have been a wedding dress as there are a loose train and pruse. Could have been dyed green after the wedding, or a colored wedding dress, which was quite common.


I don't wear pants very often, I don't think they suit me. This ensemble however is my favorite for occassions where you need some practicality.


I met Sarah (right) for the first time at the house of my friend Katy in Germany. How lovely that social media give you the opportunity to meet new people with the same interests!

We had a women's weekend with some make-up, cocktails and lots of talking.  

Sarah made Katy and me twinning blouses! So lovely and such a sweet gift!

I also modelled some dresses for Bobby Pin Boutique where my friend Noortje is a regular model. It was interesting to see myself in clothes from different era's. This early 60's suit is such a stunner and I quite like how it looks on me. I would never wear anything like it as the bodycon cut makes me feel too selfconscious, but so nice to see.

November

In the the beginning of November I gave some talks. One was at the 'Vintage Fashion Festijn' in Amsterdam. It included a fashion show where Noortje modelled a mix of mine and her clothes and I talked about them in a historical context. Included was this 50's eveningdress I've owned for years but have never worn. Somehow it never fits when I have an occassion, either to tight or too loose, which makes it slip down. Couldn't resist trying it on again...

Noortje and I did another matchy outfit thing for this event. I wore one of my most prized possesions: a stunning 1940's jacket. It is so bold it is very hard to combine.

I believe it might be a (licensed) copy of a Molyneux design from 1946. These illustrations are too sketchy to tell for sure though.

And the dress underneath, one of my nicest little black dresses.

The organizers Bart & Saskia are filmmakers and they made a short film about my wardrobe. I'm dressing up three times a day, simple morning outfit, elaborate afternoon 'visiting' outfit and an evening dress for the opera, like a lady of leisure would have done. It is fiction ofcourse, I don't spend my days like this, but a nice dream it is. I was affraid of it comming off as too frivolous, like there's nothing more to me than clothes. In the end I quite like the result as it does show something of the lost world I long for, without taking it too serious. 

You can see it below:


Or on YouTube A Day of Leisure

To go to a Paul Poiret exibition.

And Murder on the Oriënt Express

I went to the collectors fair at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht where I found some hats.


Some undies too. Any idea why Belgian sellers have the best lingerie?

Sensible blue handbag and nude shoes.

An American jacket with big shouderpads and a nipped waist I got from a friend.

Best Episode find of this Autumn. Love this color and a very wearable daily style of dress.

Late November, classic place where my father takes Autumn pics almost every year.

This dress...Burgundy and blue, one of my favorite color combinations. 

I made the dress I was planning to make in my last post. I did change the design a bit.


My mother knitted me this cardigan with a little blue crochet beret.



December

I wore so many lovely dressy outfits in December but have hardly any pictures because of the absence good light. These outfits were worn for going antiques/ Christmas present shopping through a blizzard. Noortje and I have such a big difference in height (21 cm) I stood on a stool.

And then Christmas


I travelled to Germany for NYE with friends and stayed at the lovely home of Katy again. Noortje and I got to try on some of her hats. 

This veil!


And NYE, I wore an evening dress mind you but no decent pics..(the dress is featured in the little video of me mentioned above though)

New Year's Day with triple outfit matching and very tired faces

And then it was January......

And I HATE January!

But had to come to terms with it.

I mean there are a lot of fun things

Like the annual New Year's meeting of Club Interbellum. I organized it this year and was really happy so many people turned up!



I love a good bit of vintage fur!

The day after was a perfect lazy Sunday spent with my friends Tom & Noortje who were staying at my place for the weekend. 
After a good breakfast we dressed up and went out to shop for antiques and vintage. And to eat cake.

Color coordinated in blue. 

Wore my brown CC41 coat.

At the antiques centre.

The right kind of weekend to help me over my January blues. Now on with the rest of 2018

Last fun thing in January will be my birthday comming Monday. So I might make a short post with outfit & presents afterwards.

Birthe