I Want to Ask You Things

I don't much attend the cinema.  I mean I love films.  Absolutely.  But I just don't tend to go to the big screen often.  That is until I get completely drawn in by some visual or poster or soundtrack or other which just makes me want to sit in the dark and absorb every little detail playing out in front of me.  Carol was one of these such movies.

It was mesmerising.  Beautiful.  Absolutely stunning.  It was a feeling beyond words.  I was completely drawn in from the very first flicker of the screen to the very last credit playing against the soundtrack.  It emotionally absorbed me and pulled me in every which way.  I cried a lot.  Heavy crying.  Hot tears.  Not just because of the story which unfolded before my eyes but because it triggered feelings inside me so real.  My heart drowned in its depths.  Their silent knowing glances.

Cate Blanchett whom I just absolutely adore.  Perfectly casted opposite the quiet, shy Rooney Mara.  It was perfection.  One film that will stay with me forever.  Along with its wonderful soundtrack.

Of course I cannot leave without mentioning and crediting the wonderful work of triple Academy Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell for the to-die-for wardrobe.  To have Carols wardrobe would be a dream...  1952.  The fifties style, early enough so that it still captures the essence of the forties.  J'adore.

Alison xxx

Hand in Glove

I have a thing for gloves... Especially when we are discussing opera length leather loveliness.  The long awaited line by Dita Von Teese which launched recently is like a dream to me.  If you haven't had a chance to gaze your eyes over them, may I present to you a selection of my favourites.

The Flirteese

The Sophisticate 

Perfect for riding I'd say.

The Bon Bon

Sooo cute!

The Erotique

Love the contrast buttons.

The Femme Totale

For all us stocking lovers...

The Flirteese Demi

And last but not least - The Erotique Opera...

My favourite of them all!

I first spotted Erotique on one of the images for Dita's lingerie line Von Follies.  In particular, on the Madame X sets.  There was word that Dita shot with her personal collection of beautiful gloves but also word that a line of delicious styles were being produced by the lady herself.  I was thrilled to hear this; even if I would only be dreaming of owning a pair for myself.

All these beauties and more styles are available at Just One Eye.  I hear Valentines is just around the corner...

Have a good evening,

Alison xxx

Old Style Weekend 2014

Helloooo there.  I know, I know.  It's been another few months since I posted something.  Although not without trying mind.  I just never quite get the time to finish a write-up to post.  Anyhooo, on-wards and upwards...  Feeling the winter air blowing in I cast my mind back to the summer.

I knew I couldn't skip posting about Sweden's Old Style Weekend hosted by A-Bombers.  Especially as I missed going to last years event.  Of course it's more about hanging out and having fun with friends than anything else.  But oh what fun!

Here's a little photo taster of my long weekend away...

On our way.  Woohoo!

Malin joined me as backseat baby for once.

Relaxing a little before the rest of the guys showed up.

Our "Camp" for the weekend :)

Friday night... 

A selfie with my Blondie. Always.

Also sporting my new Luxulite necklace there.

The lovers.

The nice shot...

My favourite shot...!  Hehee.

Saturday fun...

My not so great photo from the hillside.

A video I found from the Hill Climb at Devils Peak.

 The sexiest guy in a band from the weekend ;)

Love a hot guy in a wife-beater. 

Wearing my gorgeous electric blue Vavavoom jumpsuit from Tarantula!

Absolutely love it and thinking of buying it in another colour. 

My hair completely dropped out with all the dancing!

Did a shoe change to keep on dancing...

I spent the majority of the weekend hanging out with friends rather then participating at the event as such.  Missed most of the bands.  It was super fun though!  As always, I hope to go again next year.

Love you Sweden!

Alison xxx

My Vintage Down in the Dumps

The title says it all.  I was having a down time.  Even a bad time when it came to shopping for some 'new to me' pieces.  For some reason I 'd been having a real hard time seeing anything that I liked in my size recently.  Always finding beautiful things in other sizes but my alteration pile is just never ending.  Of course I still had good ol' repro and made to measure to turn to.  Thank goodness.  But we all know it's not the same.  That feeling you get when you find the most amazing of dresses and it is your perfect size!  Gasp!!

I decided I needed to turn this around and so I called on the help of the ladies of the Ooh La La! Vintage Swap and Sell Shop on Facebook.  If you don't know it you should take a look.  Such a gem of a group and some fantastic people on there who not only buy and sell but can also help you with any tricks and tips with your items.  I had joined the group some time ago but never really used it.  That was up until recently and well, I would just like to warn you.  It can get rather obsessive because you never want to miss that one item.

I had noticed that from time to time people would post in the group requesting specific items so I thought why not?  I left a little message on there and hoped that somewhere someone would have some nice things to show me.  Well, they sure did.  The response was more then I had expected.  Not only did I finally find myself some goodies but it also perked me up to try and get my search-on again.  From OLL to Etsy I went.  A determined woman on a mission!


Here are just a few of the items I have managed to acquire...

1950s Black Flocked Organza Dress

This beauty fits me like a glove.  As if it were made for me :D

This bright number needs a bit of TLC which I hope to have fixed up.

I'm going to give it a go anyway.

A pair of early 60s Baby Blue Plaid Wool Cigarette Pants.

Saved for next winter.

As well as clothing I also collected this rainbow set of chiffon scarves.

You can never have too many colours!

However, my major score was this oh-so-stunning set.

This 1940s Sweetheart Dress and Coat Ensemble.

This is probably one of the most amazing pieces of vintage I own and I have been collecting and wearing for many years.  The dress is just a tiny bit big but definitely a keeper.  Unfortunately the coat is too big for me to wear.  I am undecided on what to do with it yet.  I'm torn because I hate the idea of separating them because beautiful pairs like this is so hard to come by.  But on the other hand I feel terrible if it were never to be worn again as the likelihood of me selling the dress on would be very slim.  It's just such a shame that the lovely heart details are not present on any part of the dress itself.  What do you think about my dilemma?  Are any of my readers interested in the coat maybe?  These are the measurements taken from the original listing - coat: length 40.5" / waist 26" / hip open (zipper comes just below waist) / bust 34-36" / sleeve 24" (meant to be blousey).  This here is the link from Etsy with all the details but there was another owner between myself and this seller.

Whilst we are all here, if you have some vintage garments which may be of interest to me do send me a message.  I'm never not looking!  My measurements are 30-31/23-24/33 or there abouts.

I'm sure happy with this lot.  Just goes to show... Never get down in the dumps and never give up hope.  Even if we are only talking about shopping!  I'll be making a post on some of my homeware finds soon.  So keep a look out because I have some goodies to show off.

Hope you have all had a wonderful sunny few days.  There's a little rain a-coming in the next few so keep those head scarves and cardies at the ready!

See you soon,
Alison xxx

VaVa -VaVOOM

Heyhey!

Hope you're all having a lovely day and the week so far has not been dragging since the long BH weekend.  So I've been dying to share this with you all.  Some months ago I felt like the luckiest girl of them all as I had won one of those competitions through Instagram.  You know, the ones that everyone holds where you share their image and tag and hash-tag them to death hoping that you might win at least one in your lifetime?!

Well... How excited was I when I found out that I was the winner of the Tarantula Clothing competition!!!  Best Christmas present ever.  I could choose any item I wanted from their website.  Lucky girl indeed.

Now, choosing was a tough decision.  Just look at this array of beauties they have to offer...

Hard Working Dress - Working hard for your figure!

Continental Circle Skirt which comes in many a fabric options.

Wild Catsuit

Waterfall Dress and Chorus Girl Romper

Can you see how I had a hard time deciding?  Originally I had opted for the Wild Catsuit because I have always wanted one of theirs.  Have you seen photos of the lovely pastel coloured versions?  The gals look absolutely gorgeous in them and I wanted to look just like them!  But just as I was making my mind up Tarantula launched their new number.  Oh boy is it a stunner!

Introducing the VAVA-VAVOOM Catsuit!

I just received the package last week and hopefully I can show it off to you all very soon.  My VaVa-VaVoom is in the most beautiful sparkly electric blue.  Perfect for dancing in!  As soon as I have a photo of me wearing it out and about I'll be sure to make a post on here right away.

Until then, toodles, 

Alison xxx

Puttin' on the Glitz

Gosh, I tried my darn-dist I really did but I never quite managed to continue blogging as I had intended to this last year.  Well, let us start again here shall we...?

Hello All!  Lady of the Parlour/Miss Cherrylicious/Alison here.  How do you do?  Pleased to make your acquaintance... Again.  There has been so much happening in my life, so many events attended, so many people I've met, so many shopping trips.  So much clothing to show you... And all the new shooooes!

Before I do an outfit/shopping/wardrobe post I wanted to write about a recent event I attended at The British Library.  Puttin' on the Glitz - Fashion & Film in the Jazz Age hosted as part of their Spring Festival at the library saw the amazingly fabulous Amber Jane Butchart and Christopher Laverty grace the stage to speak to us about the wonders that was the Jazz Age.  For afters there was a Cocktail Party hosted by the lovely ladies of The Vintage Mafia.  And what a party it was; with live music from the one and only Alex Mendham and his Orchestra.  Such a treat!

Well I say we start with an event post but what's an event post without my event outfit!?
Here's a quick look at my hair and dressage for the evening...

Hair - the higher the better!

It is hard to tell here as my hair is in a net but the length is actually down to my waist.

But isn't it great to have the option to make ones hair appear shorter?

This is probably the best photo of my outfit captured outside the cocktail party venue.

© Luca Sage 

I never like to read too much into any talk if I already know I will be attending as I hate to spoil things for myself by knowing too much.  The lovely Christopher whom I had not had the pleasure of coming across before this event was a wonderful speaker.  Such passion and so very engaging.  I could have listened to him talk all night about men' fashions!  It also happened to be an more interesting talk (for myself) as Christopher based his talk on the costumes of the characters from The Boardwalk Empire series ( a personal favourite; which I am very behind on) due to their historically correct costuming.  Some rather interesting facts that Christopher pointed out was the alignment of ones suiting pattern... which I'm sure everyone was subsequently noticing for the rest of the evening; along with myself.  The wondrous array of colours that were actually worn by the men of the Jazz Age.  Those dandies and gangsters knew how to dress alright!  Such inspiration to the modern world which is usually hidden behind the black and white films and photography that we see around.

I first discovered Amber in my early years in London when I would be out on the town night after night.  Spotting Amber as part of her DJ duo The Broken Hearts whom can be seen at the most fashionable events around!  Amber spoke of the fashions from the silent movie eras through to when the talkies took over.  How Hollywood and Paris fought it out for top spot as fashion leaders to the world.  And surprisingly how movie stars would bring in their own wardrobe as costumes for the films they were stars of!

I am highly anticipating Amber's new project which she is currently working on entitled Nautical Chic due for publish in 2015.  In the meantime her current book Fashion Miscellany is on my to-buy list.

On to the Vintage Mafia hosted Cocktail Party...

It was rather busy as you can imagine whilst trying to capture a shot of Alex and his band.

Everyone was having a whale of a time Charleston-ing it out to the sounds! 

Photo-booth present - Outtakes not ;) 

My own version - Wanted to show you this dreamy car...

As part of the evening the talented Mr Hanson Leatherby had his Vintage Travelling Portrait Studio set up at the cocktail party for guests to have a little souvenir to look back on.  You can have a look through the rest of the shots here.  This below is my still... Hanson making me look good.  I almost feel as if I should autograph it like a Hollywood Starlet!  Almost...

I say, if that was even a slight taster of the Jazz Age parties then take me there.  Sharpish!

Until next time...
Alison xxx


P.S - A little video captured by The Vintage News crew giving you a snippet of the event.  You can also see a lot more photographs taken at the event on their website.