After Audrey

A few weeks ago, my dear Mama and I went on shopping together on Portobello Road for my birthday. We started out at What Katie Did, getting me kitted out with a full vintage underwear ensemble, which was great fun. We then carried on to browse various shops and stalls at the north end of the market. The day ended up turning into quite the shopping spree as the right things kept cropping up and I let my mother indulge me. (I did also buy her a friendship bracelet as a memento of our fun day, so it wasn't all about me...)

By coincidence, the shopping trip ended up taking on quite an Audrey Hepburn theme. Firstly, my fancy was captured by a print of Audrey by an illustrator called Stanley Chow at one stall. I pondered it for a while, before opting to have a wander and return if I decided I wanted it.

In the meantime, we tried on some clothes here and there, and stumbled across a lovely little black dress  with a rather '60s evening/cocktail feel, at a great price and with a great fit. After buying that, I remembered a fun necklace I'd seen on the way into the market, and wondered if it might go nicely with the dress. People were starting to pack up this point, and I thought we may have missed out, but happily the stall was still there. And the necklace fit perfectly with the dress! I was pleased, as I felt the two together made a sort of nod - without being a patent copy of - Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. The dress was a classic look, while the necklace brought a slightly unusual, modern element to things.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to bring them together for the first time when I went out to Piano, a piano bar in Kensington, with The Cat as part of my birthday celebrations. I teamed the dress and necklace with the amazing vintage Dior gloves my mother got me as another birthday present (ain't she wonderful?), my What Katie Did suspender belt and seamed stockings, kitten heels from Jones Bootmaker and 'pearl' earrings (a Christmas present from my mother years ago).

We had a great night out too, enjoying the jazz and the atmosphere. It was a lovely, chilled Sunday night vibe but we're now planning to go back one night in the week, when there's apparently a pianist who takes requests and a sort of open mic set up. Sounds fabulous!

Oh, and back to the shopping spree... My mother talked me into letting her get me the Audrey print in the end as well.

A Photographer or Two's Eye on the City

Last Friday night, I went along with a friend to see the photography exhibition currently showing at the Tate Modern, which brings together the work of the American William Klein and Japanese Daido Moriyama. I have to confess to not having known of either of them prior to this visit (though some of Klein's work seemed vaguely familiar) but I'm so glad I went along because the exhibition was fantastic and I made some new discoveries.

It was off to a good start with a room screening a short film called Broadway by Light, which was a 1950s spectacular celebrating New York's neon signage. I love the pop artness of old school neon...

Screen shot from Klein's Broadway by Light (Image source)

In the next room, my friend and I both fell in love with, and stood momentarily mesmerised by this picture:

Evelyn, Isabella, Nina and Mirrors, for Vogue (Image source)

Isn't it wonderful? I absolutely love the composition of it, the backdrop, everything...

Like England's own David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, William Klein was breaking convention in the 1950s/1960s by taking his fashion models out of the safety of the studio and into edgy, urban settings.

We then watched a fascinating video in which the photographer himself talked through the process of selecting one photo over another, and what makes a photo work.

Mai 1968, Paris (Image source)

The selection process turned into an art form itself, as Klein found that marking up contact sheets with red pencil wasn't clear enough and that enamel paint was much more effective...

Painted contact sheet (Image source)

The exhibition also explored Klein's abstract art beginnings and his transition into photography.

Vertical Diamonds (Image source)

Dorothy blowing smoke rings (Image source)

This was also the section in which I learnt that Mondrian, famous for his contribution to the De Stijl movement, with his primary colour blocking, geometric paintings, began life painting rural scenes... I've still so much to learn about art... But that's rather an invigorating and exciting thought, knowing that there's endless things to discover. I got home and looked up Mondrian's early work on the interwebs and sure enough:

One of Mondrian's earlier works (Image source)

The exhibition then segued into Moriyama's work. Generally, I preferred the section on Klein but the Moriyama half also had a lot to offer. 

Hippie Crime by Moriyama (Image source)

Although, much of his work centred on people, snapped in street scenes, he also concentrated a lot on objects, spotting and focusing in on minor details in the environment (both urban and natural) to create wonderfully textured, almost abstract photographs, picking up lines and light and shadow.

I couldn't help but think how overwhelming the beauty of the world must be if you are constantly looking at it in the way he must be doing, in order to spot so many gem-like, rich details. I sometimes engage in the world on that level and it makes me feel like my head might explode, wanting to absorb and retain all the beauty and detail. To constantly be engaged like that must be wonderful but exhausting!

Not seen in the exhibition but I couldn't resist... Echos of Gatsby, and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, anyone?
(Image source)

My favourite part of the Moriyama section was a room covered in polaroids, which made up a scene of a room interior, shot piece by piece and panelled together. I can't quite explain it, nor can I find a good picture of it to share with you. You'll just have to believe me that it had a wonderful effect.

We finished up the exhibition watching short films in which each of the photographers was interviewed. In the film on Moriyama, he talked about how he loves the intensity of the city and the whirl of humanity, that he is addicted to the city and couldn't photograph without it. Reading about fellow blogger, Kelly-Marie's recent relocation to the seaside, where she quoted a beautiful extract from Anais Nin, made me momentarily resent the city... but this exhibition reminded me again why I adore it and thrive on it.

Birthday treasures

In my recent Boxing Day post, I shared my Christmas outfit, which centred around the amazing white crocheted dress my grandmother made for me. This dress was the granting of a wish, written about in a post some time ago, but which had been around for as long as I've loved the movie, To Sir, With Love.

Hearing about my desire for a crocheted dress, she dug out her collection of old patterns. Together, my grandma, my mum and I decided that this style was the closest match to what I was after, especially if it was altered to leave the cuffs off.

Despite not having crocheted in quite some time, she whipped this up in less than two months to be ready for my birthday, back in September. And apparently she really enjoyed making a return to crocheting, which made me even more pleased than I would have already been, knowing that her kind gift to me was a happy experience for her too.

Here I am, in my fabulous dress, with my amazing birthday cake (made by a gifted cake-making friend) on my birthday. I need to get some better shots of me in the dress but, for now, this one will have to suffice, in which I have allowed one of the sleeves to twist around...

But that's not all the handcrafting that went into my birthday. No, while my grandmother was working away with her crochet hooks, my dearest mother was putting her knitting needles to making me a beautiful cardigan.

Like my grandmother, she pulled out an old pattern book and, after some debate, we decided on 'Skyline' in a rusty pink colour.

And here I am, wearing the beautiful creation, whilst eating rainbow jelly and ice cream. Look how pretty and perfectly stitched is it! I was so impressed when I finally got to see it on my birthday.

I'm such a privileged lady. Think how special I felt in the lead-up to my birthday, knowing that these two were both lovingly creating gifts for me.

'That's a gorgeous cardigan', I hear you say, 'but wait, what's with that backdrop...?'

Oh, yes, that's just my birthday bouncy castle! You're never too old...

And here's a better picture of my cardigan, with the lovely maker. 

'Gee, Miss Marie, where do you get your dress style from?' I know, I know... But we don't always coordinate. Just every now and then...

New Year's Barbie Doll

Now, unlike many of my readers, I don't ever tend to shop for clothes online. I think I can recall only one time that I bought an item of clothing online, and that was because I was desperately looking for a green dress suit for my Birds costume last year and I thought my chances of finding something so particular in the real world was very, very slim.

However, I am on the Beyond Retro emailing list and I generally tend to have a quick, idle browse of their online shop whenever an email comes in. You never know. Today, I came across this amazing item:

1960s peachy pink dress at Beyond Retro

Oh. My. Goodness. It's literally like something Barbie would wear. Something classic Barbie would wear. At first I had in my head the chiffon and sparkles of Day-to-Night Barbie's evening outfit:

Day-to-Night Barbie (Image source)

But then, in looking for images of Day-to-Night Barbie, I came across pictures of Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie, another one from my personal childhood collection. With her peachy, fluffy stole, you just need to change her ballgown-length skirt to a mini and that dress is her outfit:

Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie (Image source)

I can't deny that the dress had me very, very tempted... Especially with New Year's Eve but days away. However, even if I'd ordered it today, it wouldn't have made it in time for that. Besides, I think it might be a tad too small for me. And it's not my colour at all...

Still, the temptation of being able to transform into one of my childhood Barbies by slipping on this dress leaves me unable to put it completely from my mind. I'm still toying with the idea of ordering it up, trying it on, and taking advantage of the returns policy if it ends up being completely wrong. Naturally, the Cat thinks I'm completely mad. 'Why would you want to be dressed like Barbie?', he asks. Pfft, what do boys know?

Anyway, let's just pretend for a moment that I do have that dress, it fits perfectly, and I have lots of spare cash to turn it into a complete Barbie doll New Year's Eve outfit:

Diamond necklace by Harry Winston, found here;
Jimmy Choo clutch and peep-toe shoes, found here and here

Perfect! There's my dream New Year's outfit sorted.

Now I just have to think about what I'm actually going to wear in reality... But really, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's not like I needed that dress because I was short on items or anything. In fact, I have an overabundance of party-appropriate dresses in my wardrobe vying for a night out on the town.

Air Hostess Sassiness

Following up on the travel theme of my last post, and just for a bit of fun... 

Air hostesses. What I also want to know is why they don't make them like this as standard anymore?

All images are from The Retroscape website. If you don't subscribe to it, you really, really should. It is full of amazing images like this, from all different eras.

And thinking of sassy ladies and planes brought my mind to James Bond and Pussy Galore's Flying Circus girls. Which is also relevant as The Cat and I are finally going off to see the Designing 007 exhibition at the Barbican tomorrow. We have pre-ordered our tickets, and our martinis. Very excited!

Pussy Galore and her Flying Circus girls (Image source)

Meant to Be? Or Tailored to Fit?

Some time ago, I came across a truly wonderful find at Paper Dress Vintage on Curtain Road in Shoreditch. A two-piece Mary Quant. Olive green dress and matching jacket, with a sweet blue and yellow floral pattern on the dress bodice and jacket lining and collar. The shade wasn't one I'd usually go for but the whole thing was just so fabulous that I had to try it on. The colour actually suited me quite well it turned out, the fabric was lovely and soft, the whole thing dead comfortable and the perfect length...

... but JUST too big! I was utterly devastated. I wanted it to fit, I willed it to fit, I squinted and pretended that it fitted. But sadly, it wasn't too be. The dress could have worked with some adjustment as it was a pretty simple shift. The jacket, on the other hand, would have required a fair bit of restructuring. The sales assistant, clearly seeing how heartbroken I was, informed me that they had a tailoring service, if I wanted to take advantage of that. I pondered very hard, more seriously than I have ever pondered alteration services but in the end, I walked away.

Although tailors can be amazing, there is something that just doesn't feel right to me about taking a vintage item that has survived intact down the ages, and then nipping and tucking to make it fit you. Especially when it's an iconic designer item, and so perfectly structured and made to begin with. It may sound a bit melodramatic but to me it seems like it wouldn't be a genuine item anymore. In this case, it wouldn't have been Mary Quant anymore, it wouldn't have been what she had designed, it would have been a new garment, even with the most skilled tailor.

So I maintained my philosophy of "if it doesn't fit, it wasn't meant for me and some other girl that comes after me will be the perfect new owner". It's actually one of the things I love about being an almost purely vintage/second-hand girl. Not only does it naturally keep your acquisition rate down, it makes it all the more special when you do find something that not only looks perfect on the rack but looks perfect on you too (such as this amazing find last year). For that reason, if it requires anything more than, say, a hem adjustment or a couple of simple darts (both reversible), I'll leave it behind.

What are your thoughts on modifying vintage items? Do you like your finds unadulterated or do you enjoy the challenge of making clothes work for you? Alternatively, do you use tailoring and altering services? Do you think I'm mad for my thinking that it wouldn't have been Mary Quant anymore if I'd modified the jacket? Do you feel like crying when you see, for example, a 1940s dress that was clearly originally knee-length, hacked off to be made into a mini (I once encountered a whole shop full of such abominations)? Or do you like personalizing and modernizing old items? I'd love to hear your comments.

Outdone on The Birds Costume...

I recently received an email from Nikki, a lovely lady in the States who had stumbled across pictures of my Birds costume from last Halloween. She was making a Birds costume for the Mermaid Parade in Brooklyn, she told me, and was after some advice on how I had made the birds work on my outfit. I described my strategy as best I could and wished her luck with getting her outfit together...

Just the other day, she emailed me with some pics of the parade. I willingly admit defeat in creating the most awesome Tippi costume ever:

As she explained, she made the dress suit out of sequined fabric so that it would be appropriately bright and flashy for the parade. And as she was a mermaid Tippi, she's being attacked by seagulls. Genius.

Do you not think it's absolutely fabulous? I feel so pleased that I was able to give my little bit of assistance in helping to create such a wonderful outfit.

Public transport - the best fun to be had in a costume, as you cause concern
and confusion amongst the commuters...

Nikki has her own bit of the internet over at Style Schematic, if you'd like to follow her on over and have a look at what other amazing things this talented lady has been up to.

[All photos used with Nikki's prior consent]

Ballgowns at the V&A

Image source: The Guardian

Recently, I went to see the new exhibition at the V&A Museum - Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950. I had been looking forward to seeing this, and when I recently bought membership for the V&A, I decided that this would be my first exhibition with my fancy new card.

There were some delightful dresses and I really enjoyed the way that they had chosen to curate the exhibits. Instead of going chronologically or some other such way, they grouped together dresses by colour palette. It was fun to see dresses from, say, the '50s, '70s and '80s side by side with almost exactly the same shades and combinations of colour.

Yellows and oranges. The '70s number here (second from left)
was surprisingly one of my favourites. I'm not usually a '70s
girl, but I just found it so simple and elegant
(Image source: Vogue)

Reds and blacks. (Image source: Vogue)

Corals. I was fascinated by the kaftan dress on the left.
I couldn't quite work out whether there was actually anything
holding the sides together. Would be quite fun to wear, I think.
(Image source: Vogue)

Naturally, I loved practically all the '50s dress and most of the '60s, but I also found something to like in every era. When I moved up to the present-day dresses on the upper floor I was rather underwhelmed though - somewhat ironically as the dresses there felt like they were desperate to make a statement and grab some attention. But for me they felt somehow soulless. Perhaps because they haven't stood the test of time... Or perhaps because, being modern, it was just like going into Top Shop or some such, which I always find depressing...

Give me old fashioned elegance any day (Image source: Stylist)

Despite all the lovely vintage dresses downstairs, I have to confess that I would have been slightly disappointed if I'd paid to get into the exhibition. It felt rather thin somehow. I think my main complaint would be the lack of interpretation. There was hardly anything to put ballgowns into context or to chart their development - the information boards could basically be summed up in one sentence: "People used to wear ballgowns to debutante balls and other such events, now celebrities wear them on the red carpet". A few select dresses had further information but I felt that so much more could have been said to draw out the viewer's appreciation and understanding of the dresses and how fashions have developed. As it was, it just felt kind of like window shopping... Except I couldn't walk in and try any of them on! I was also frustrated about the lack of mirrors in some of the display cases. There was one amazing 1950s dress with some lovely detailing around the waist - I would have loved to have been able to see how it was constructed at the back and a well-placed mirror would have enabled that. I think such simple measures might have encouraged more overall appreciation of the dresses' structure and craftsmanship.

So, despite some undoubtedly lovely dresses, not necessarily one to hurry off and see. The recently re-opened fashion galley is looking great though. I only had a quick look around the permanent exhibits but will be going back for a proper visit some time. And I will also return with a review of the V&A's other current exhibition British Design 1948-2011 once I've been to that. I've heard good things about it from a couple of workmates so I'm looking forward to it.

A Decade a Day to the Jubilee

Some of my colleagues and I are doing a "decade a day" countdown to the Diamond Jubilee this week, marking each decade of Her Majesty's reign by dressing in an appropriate outfit. We've been doing a little photo shoot each day (which we've decided to also turn into a development of female emancipation). 

As is my usual fashion, I'm sparing innocent people the embarrassment of appearing on my blog with the aid of some crafty cropping, but I thought I'd share my outfits with you...

Yesterday was 1950s. I kind of regret not going more "all out" with petticoats and red lipstick and such, but I was a bit shy about wearing such trappings to work!

1950s female office assistant's duties - making tea and dusting the books.

Today was the 1960s. I listened to the Kinks as I got dressed and tried to channel Jean Shrimpton...

We can kind of have a proper, independent career now,  if we're happy
being advertising models. The men still decide who passes though...

Tomorrow, we enter the 1970s...

If you fancy joining in the fun, it's not too late! Dress up tomorrow and leave me a link to your photos! Or email me your pics and let me know if you're happy for me to post them in my next post!

Barbican Bond!

Yes, please!  An exhibition of Bond style to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr No, the film that begun it all, at the unashamedly Brutalist Barbican Centre in the 30th anniversary of its opening?  This is so, so right...  Can't wait for July!

Chamberlain, Powell and Bon model of the Barbican complex, 1956 (Image source)

The Queen! Now at the V&A!

As if the Windsor exhibition wasn't enough, now the V&A are having a Diamond Jubilee photography exhibition, featuring Cecil Beaton's mid-20th century photos of Betty and the rest of the royal fam.

Princess Elizabeth at Sweet Sixteen (Image source: V&A)

On now, until 22nd April.  Unfortunately, for me, those are heavy duty thesis months but we'll see how I go...  Maybe if I kept away from my blog, as I said I would...

Mid-Century Feel (A Visit to Royal Festival Hall)

Dress: Inherited from a friend.  Not my usual style or hem-length but so fun!
Beret: Inherited from a (different) friend
Scarf: Gift from The Cat's mum
Gloves: Southbank Vintage Fair 2011
Boots: Jones Bootmaker
Bag: Beyond Retro

On the weekend, I took The Cat to the aquarium for his birthday.  He's a big fan of water and fish, and neither of us had been to an aquarium in years and years so it was a fun treat.  We enjoyed watching all the different fish (and penguins!) swimming and bobbing about.  We also got to go on a behind the scenes tour.  They are introducing these next year and there will be an entrance charge when they do, but they are currently doing some free trials just to get feedback.  We happened to be in the right place at the right time (for the record - by the stingray lagoon, bemused by the stingrays' strange behaviour).  A staff member approached us specifically (perhaps as some of the few adults without kids attached...) to ask if we were interested in seeing how the aquarium operates and seeing some creatures not usually on view.  Of course we were interested!  So we got to see cute baby fishes amongst other things, and learn about how everything works and how the fishes are monitored and looked after.  There's a lot more involved than you realise, I can say that!

Afterwards, we stayed on the Southbank for dinner and then I took The Cat into Royal Festival Hall.  He's not particularly interested in mid-20th century architecture but I'm trying hard to teach him its merits.  I think this one surviving remnant of the 1951 Festival of Britain needs to be seen from the inside to be understood.  This is what I found from my own personal experience and happily, he was reasonably won over when I took him in.  Hurrah!  Perhaps now he will see it as a positive architectural piece contributing to the riverside?  I doubt he'll ever rank it above the Palace of Westminster but he may view it slightly more kindly at least.

I didn't take any external photos because I think I would have struggled with my wee camera at nighttime, but I did try to capture some of its lovely internal lines and feel with a few photos which I'd like to share with you, my dear readers.  We went in whilst a show was on in the theatre so there weren't too many people in the public areas, hence the somewhat muted and melancholy vibe of the pictures.  But still so warm and beautiful, in my opinion.  I was particularly taken with the abandoned balloon on the stairs towards the end...