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