Accessories for work



Bought at Lisa Loot



Thank you for all the pep and suggestions in yesterday's post. I feel slightly better about it now. There is another nice thing about the uniform- it actually fit me. Shirts are hard on me as I have a narrow back and shoulders, but not a very narrow front... So it was a nice surpise to find that it fitted quite well. several of you suggested jewelry, which I honestly hadn't thought about. I'm good at putting my clothes out the day before, but not not jewelry. Unfortunately I don't think I can wear pins and brooches and bangles drives me crazy, but nice earrings are an excellent option.

Bought at Majean Vintage



Despite having a workmate insisting that I look like a horse when I wear them, I really like my hairnets from Arthelia's Attic. The black one would go well with the uniform, but a grey or a green one would do as well.

I also really like the quality of the hair flowers from Belle Blossoms. I have found that I rarely reach for the very large ones, and wearing one behind my ear just tickles, but smaller ones on a comb are quite useful. And they do have a lot of nice ones

The combs are really excellent, usually such items just slip out of my hair, but these are called Grip-Truth and the stay were you put them. It is also possible to buy them plain and glue whatever decorations you want on them.

Aris Allen All Black 1940s Suede Sole Mary Jane Wingtip

Dance Store has many nice shoes I want- I have mentioned them before. And I think any of these could be worn at work to perk up my day.

Aris Allen Black 1930s Velvet Oxford



Aris Allen 1930s Black & Silver Faux Ostrich Heeled Oxford







Aris Allen 1940s Black Faux Suede 3 Buckle Heeled



I also have a huge collection of stockings. A couple of years ago I shopped at Calezza any time I felt for candy. Undoubtely good for my figure, but now I have two drawers fills with stockings and one of those are solely unopened! Partly because my taste have changed a bit. I used to go for patterend stocking, now I usually wear plain ones with back seams. With a plain black skirt I think I could use up my patterned ones. Most of my stockings are out of stock now, but here are a few examples from my stocking-wardrobe.





Hair grips from the 40's or 50's. Bought at Vintage Curves



A braided updo

It’s very easy to fall into a trap of thinking that a special look is the only look for a certain period. Victory rolls is part of the forties look up to a point that one sometimes feel that every single woman sported them. That is not true, of course. My grandmother Greta never wore them, for example, she almost always wore her hair rather short and curly. After both Pimpinett and I mentioned the character Helga from Allo’ Allo’ in our posts about style icons, Kristina mentioned that she was thinking of getting some false hair to try to emulate her braided hairdo. That’s something I have been thinking about as well as that is a hairstyle that crops up here and there during the forties. At Beauty Is A Thing of the Past where I found this picture of it called “The Countess”, but I think Gretchen-braids is the most common name for it.

A 1940's updo tutorial

I was asked how I did my hair here and as that may interest more people, here is a little how-to. My hair is cut in a middy that is quite long- soon it will be a femme fatale. The longest part is a little below my shoulders and the shortest layer reach me to my chin. It's also rather thick. You can do this style with both shorter and longer hair, if shorter it needs to be long enough to roll and with longer hair your rolls will be bigger.

What you need is booby pins, pomade, hair spray and some patience.

You also need to know a few things to start out. First you need to curl your hair. I always do my standing pin curls, but you can curl you hair any way you like best.

Fräulein Frauke and my new hair

Fräulein Frauke Presents Duty Calls took place on Saturday, and a mighty good time was had, I must say. Nalen is an absolutely fantastic location and though it was pretty crowded the ceiling is so high that it never got too hot or felt too crowded. However, I met a friend in the wardrobe and then manage to not locate her for the rest of the evening, so it was definitely a lot of people there. We were early so we were among the first 250 who got a free glass of champagne when we come. I didn't see all of the cabaret, but the artist I did see were very good. Fräulein Frauke was, as usual, adorable:



I also enjoyed the ringmaster, Dusty Limits, very much as well as Vicky Butterfly

I'm going to the hairdresser tomorrow

I’m going to Retroella tomorrow to spruce up my middy. I’ll keep it longish, but I do need a trim. I’m also contemplating something else… I stopped dyeing my hair in the beginning of this year. I have dyed it a dark brown for the last ten years, or so, so it felt a bit odd to see my own lighter brown turn up again. It’s actually not as mousy as I remember it, but a rather nice bronzy colour. The ends are still darker, but it looks ok anyway. So I decided to keep my natural colour, it could be nice to have it around before it starts graying. Not that I’m graying just yet, but at my age you never know. After deciding that I quickly got bored with not playing with my haircolour (I think it’s addictive) and have been thinking of what I could do that would add some fun and be a suitable vintage solution. I came up with this:


(Picture source: http://thedressersroom.wordpress.com/)

Of course, I won't ever be as glamorous as Rita Hayworth!

Pretty hair things

My vanity and wish to look nice is in constant battle with my laziness. I can spend a lot of time getting ready for a party, but on an ordinary workday, especially when I get up at 4.30 in the morning, I don’t want to fuzz. For years I kept my hair long and it took me five minutes, at the very most, to fix it in the mornings and I really wasn’t prepared to spend longer time on it when I cut it in a middy. Fortunately I don’t have to, even if I have pin curls to brush out, my morning routines are only marginally longer.

How to choose a flattering hairdo

My trusty book, Alla kvinnors bok has opinions on everything, so of course it gives advice on how to choose the perfect hairdo. It start out by saying that Swedish hair colours are usually quite boringly mousy, but if your hair is on the blonder side then you can bleach the top hair around your face. A darker blond will benefit from using henna shampoo to give the colour depth. When choosing your new hairdo, take the advice from a good hairdresser, but never from a man. The Swedish man, according to my book, are extremely conservative when it comes to female hair and don’t want flowers or any other kind of jewelry in it. It shouldn’t be too curly or too straight or too much in any way. So don’t even ask him.

The best pin curls

The best for me, that is. I’ve been doing pin curls for a couple of years and read up on tutorials all over the web and in every book I could find. There are a lot of opinions on how to do them the best way and I don’t think any of those are wrong. They just didn’t work so well for me. I came up on the way that suited me best quite by chance and perhaps some of you will find it useful too. It depends, of course, how you want your final “do” to look. You may not like the effect that I prefer. Hair quality is another factor. My hair is fairly thick and with a natural wave and reaches just below my shoulders in the back. It is also cut in a middy- the best haircut I ever had and one that really makes it easier to curl your hair.

I start with my hair wet, but again, that is a matter of preference. My hair dries overnight, but you may have better result with only damp hair. I don’t use any setting lotion, but that’s because I never get around buying some. I probably will one day and be converted, but with this method my curls lasts three days, which I’m fine with. I use a rat-tail comb, booby pins, hairclips, a brush and some pomade. Setting and lotion and hairspray could be used too, even if I don't.

Hairstyling how-to's

Would you like to make this 1946 hairdo? Well, look no further than under the cut to get the instructions. I do love this kind of instructions that show both how to set the pin-curls and how to brush the hair. It really shows how much different sets had an impact on the final hairstyle. I’m not sure how easy this is to do on yourself, but it’s still very interesting.

Blue hat, red sweater

In the bottom of a box filled with hat supplies I inherited from my grandmother I found a blue hat. At first glance it looked a complete wreck, badly smashed up and very dusty, which is no wonder as it has probably been there for 50 years or more. On closer examination I found that it was in pretty good shape, despite it looks, so I decided to try to renovate it.

Hair care

A beautiful hairdo begins with taking care of the hair. The recommendations in the 1940’s were a bit different from today, for example how often one should wash. There are different bids, though. I have found one recommendation for washing normal hair once a week and greasy hair even less often. Another book states that really dry hair should only be washed every third week- if possible only every forth, while greasy hair should be washed every seventh or tenth day. But whatever advice you follow, the rule is that the hair should be as clean as possible.

My birthday hair

I’m a child of April, so I celebrated my birthday recently. I was mightily pleased with my hair, but none of the pictures came out very clear, so I have been debating with myself if I should show them or not. Obviously I decided to inflict them on you anyway, so here it is, my birthday hair:

Retroella, a vintage hairdresser

Last Thursday I had a haircut at Retroella, a vintage hairdresser in Stockholm. (I urge you to check the gallery for some lovely hairstyles!) When I first decided to get a middy cut last year i did what I guess most do. Armed myself with the diagram for a middy that floats around on the Net and tried to explain for the hairdresser what I wanted. I must say that he didn't do badly and was also quite enthusiastic, but when I heard of Retroella I knew I wanted to have my hair cut by someone who actually knew what a middy was.