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.

Ordinary women in trousers

This posted started with me looking at pictures of women in suits, thinking that I would have a section in that post with women in trouser suits. Then I thought that it would be better to make that into a post on its own, but when I started looking I realized that I would need to split it up. Ordinary women versus the movie stars. Women did wear trousers in the 30’s and 40’s, but they were worn for leisure wear. A Marlene Dietrich or Katherine Hepburn might have gotten away with trousers on all sorts of occasions, but for your average female, you wore them for sports, the beach or for lounging around in the home, not for formal occasions. In Sweden, which I’m sure held true for other countries as well, some workplaces and restaurants forbade women to use trousers well into the sixties. Not all women wore trousers either. My grandmother Greta, who you can see on the picture below, obviously wore trousers for a picnic in sometime in the late 30’s. She was a very fashion conscious girl and her roommate complained because she spent every penny that didn’t go to food and rent, on clothes. However, her mother who was born in the 1880’s could never get used to the idea to don a pair.

A brief sewing update

I got a bit behind on my regular sewing as I made a dress for Fraulein Frauke. I didn’t feel altogether pleased with the result and the camera went on strike, so no pictures of that. The club was as fun as usual though and I got the opportunity to say hello to some of my fellow vintage bloggers, Pimpinett, Elsa and Miss Meadows. But now I’m back to normal and trying to finish my yellow ensemble. It feels like very slow work, partly because I use French seams which is a bore to sew, even though the end result is worth it. It’s also three garments, not one, but now the skirt and the blouse only need some finishing touches. I still need to set in the sleeves and make the lapels on the bolero though.

Much to my dismay I have realized that you can find the reproduction patters from Vogue and Buttericks on Etsy. Very dangerous for my wallet, but so nice to find out of print patterns for good prices and definitely lower shipping costs! I just got these lovelies, a coat from 1946 and a suit from 1940.

Style icons

Kristina of Dahling It’s Vintagy made a post about style icons. It was a fun and interesting post to read and it got me thinking of the things that have influenced me. Quite interesting, to me at least, is that how many of the things that inspire and interest me today are things that got cemented in my childhood; the aesthetics of the first half of the 20th century and the 18the century and my love for fashion history, history and literature. It also turned into a very long post, so instead of trying to cover everything, I will just give you a few important highlights. In case you want to see more, then you can check out the Icon’s board at Pinterest.

This picture of Rita Hayworth from Salome was part of my mother’s collection of “filmisar”, small cards with pictures of various movie stars. I don’t have the card anymore and I’m sorry that I have never found the colour version of it as that was the one I had. I had no idea who Rita Hayworth was, but I found her so incredibly beautiful and to this day she is one of my favourite actresses ever.

New green shoes

I’m a busy girl at the moment, frantically finishing my dress for Fraulein Frauke tonight. I have just noticed a mistake that I just won’t have time to fix… Hopefully it won’t show. So instead for a long and interesting post I will just show you my new shoes, the green Betsy from Miss L Fire.



Aren't they gorgeous! I have wanted a pair of green shoes forever!

Chanel No 5

I guess that there and no other perfume that has so many myths surrounding it, like Chanel No 5. Launched in 1921 it is still going strong, an eternal classic that everyone knows about. Funnily enough I have never met anyone who actually wears it. Perhaps it’s such an iconic perfume that people feel a bit afraid of it.

Top notes: Aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, neroli
Heart notes: Jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, orris, ylang-ylang
Base notes: Vetiver, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla, amber, civet, musk

"New" black dress

Yesterday I went to a vintage sewing meet-up at Lillgull’s from Onedreamycloset. It was only me and Betty from Kalops och champagne who were able to attend, but it was really nice. As none of us had met outside the Net before we spent more time talking and getting to know each other than actually sewing, but it was fun and I’m sure we will do it again.

I also thought it was a good opportunity to wear my new dress. For once neither home-made nor a repro, but something vintage. It isn’t that easy to find vintage clothes that fit’s me, but a while ago Va-Voom Vintage talked about Vintage Curve, an Etsy shop that specialize in larger sizes and I found this one: