Summer Straw

Celebrating the Roaring Twenties in a Special Series

The Vintage Hat Series: 20s style via 40s/50s straw toqueSkullcaps, a variation of the cloche, were also popular hats in the 1920s. As indicated by their name, they are small, closely following the shape of the head. They were a particularly popular style adopted for eveningwear, and by brides, who worn them with long ribbon-trimmed veils.

Cloches were worn all year round, and ‘were made from felt, straw, or fabric, and could be draped or swathed with silks, tulle, lace, or netting’ … and often featured ‘pleating, beading, embroidery, or appliqué, and glorious trimmings of ribbon rosettes, silk flowers and feathers.’ [Susie Hopkins, The Century of Hats, Chartwell Books, 1999.]

The vintage hat I am wearing is made entirely from straw, intricately woven and trimmed in a galloon fashion with straw braid. Purchased on Etsy, the seller listed it as vintage 40s or 50s, although the style easily suggests the 1920s, particularly when worn with a bob. (I am not a fan of this type of hat worn with long hair, as made popular by Prada with their turbans a couple of years ago. It smacks of hippiedom to me.) It is a very light hat, perfect for summer. 

Dangers Underfoot

Yes, More on Socks

Since I have started wearing socks again I have become aware of a fashion hazard that has hitherto escaped my notice. Not entirely, I hasten to add, for I have long worn black opaque trouser socks under trousers. It’s just that then I didn’t care, because trouser socks are in the main worn only for warmth and are completely hidden by said trousers and winter boots. But now that I have graduated to attractive socks that I want to show off, I have become aware of dangers lying (ahem) underfoot.

What? What could it be? you wonder. Here it is: HEEL RUB.

I can’t be the only one who’s noticed it surely?

You know after you’ve worn a pair of socks a few times you notice that you’ve accidentally worn them every which way, so your heels have rubbed both sides of the sock? What an unsightly appearance they present in shoes with low vamps. Impossible to venture out in public like that. Your socks and your sartorial reputation both in tatters in one fell swoop.

Your socks and your sartorial reputation both in tatters in one fell swoop.

Sure it’s easy to tell which is the right way to pull them on … AFTER THEY’RE RUINED. I remember in the old days they used to sew a little tab or contrasting stitch on the backs of pantyhose so you could tell back from front. They need to do that with socks. And in the glory days there was this thing called a SEAM.

I’ve just recently bought a number of lovely cotton and woollen over-the-knee socks on ASOS and happily these are real socks, with proper fitted heels and toes – some of them even have contrasting colours. No mistakes with those.

But what of the seamless knitted socks like the polka-dotted and transparent frilly ones I am wearing in the picture above? I may have to obsessively resort to sewing on some invisible-to-the-naked-eye identifying mark myself as a preventative measure.

But I’ve just thought of something else even more horrifying … HOLES.

Darn it! Once, every salty young woman knew how to mend those. Holey-moley, another new-old skill to learn. 

Happy Feet

Stripey Merino Socks :: Foxy // Sugar // No flash

I dislike full-length hosiery. I much prefer to wear stay-ups, thigh-highs, over-the-knees, stockings, wachamacallums. But they have to be interesting – I get bored with the stock-standard black that Melbourne stores seem to be chockful of every winter. Last winter caught me unawares, and I was forced to wear the despised tights just to don something colourful.

In preparation for autumn/winter 2013 I started hunting early. End of season is a good time to shop internationally online, because there are all sorts of bargains to be had a season ahead for those of us living in the southern hemisphere.

Late last year I found these gorgeously soft merino wool over-the-knee socks at Free People and snapped them up immediately. At $28 they were a steal. This kind of sock would cost much more retail in Melbourne stores – double at least. Summer started late last year so I actually have worn them out already, and they were much admired. The blue and purple pair I am wearing in the previous post I bought in Lisbon last year for only €11.

Then just yesterday I had another look on Asos and found many more cotton and wool socks on sale, some as low as $6. I bought more. Lots more. My parcel has already been despatched. I am now very excited for autumn, and there’s still one month of summer to go! 

The Naughtiest Girl in the School

* Butter Wouldn’t Melt in Her Mouth**

It’s the first day back at school for most Victorian students today. Can’t say I’m sad those days are long over, but there was one school in my childhood that I adored reading about, and that was Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers series. It was the boarding school of your dreams (not of your nightmares, unlike the brutal reality), and I remember being so disappointed when my big sister kindly told me that it was not in fact a real school. Apparently lots of little English schoolgirls wrote to Ms Blyton, asking the location of Malory Towers. 

How I loved reading about the adventures of Daryl, the heroine, and her friends Sally and Mary-Lou, the mischievous, tricksy Alicia, and the outrageous Gwendolyn (who, in the holidays, never got up before 8 o’clock); Will, who loved horses and her intrepid friend Clarissa; and the American girl who visited one term and alternately amused and shocked all the other girls with her antics, her dreams of treading the boards, and by wearing too much makeup. But then she got caught in the rain or something, suffered an attach of influenza that put her right in her read, and thereafter she wore her hair in plaits and was much nicer, and everyone liked her.

There was that beautiful rockpool that was refreshed whenever the tide came in, midnight feasts, the mysterious and exciting game of lacrosse, kindly Matron, and hilarious tricks to play on the French Mamselles. The North Tower with its view of the sea was where you wanted to sleep though.

I suppose kids today daydream about attending Hogwarts instead. 

** A somewhat accurate translation.

Kent College exterior image taken out from here, and classroom on loan from Miss Terrious.

What I Actually Wore #0071

Serial #: 0071
Date: 18/07/2012
Weather: forecast a chilly 14°C, but doesn’t even reach 9°C by midday
Time Allowed: 8 minutes

I am not a brown lover, but I will make an exception for a classic beige or camel, though usually I will not wear it near my face. I particularly love to pair a neutral beige with an eye-popping pink, such as this basic long-sleeved merino tee by Kookaï. Kookaï has great basics for winter in dozens of colours: 100% merino wool tees of all cuts, with a great variation on necklines, which is important to me since I hate a crew neck. (I am sure I have said before I think a tight neckline makes me look like a pinhead. I prefer a scoop.)

No red with pink? Pooh! Blue and green should never be seen? Balderdash! No white after Labour Day? Poppycock!

With the addition of the frosted pink scarf (an old designer favourite, threaded through with ribbon and tinkling shells on the fringed ends) and the vanilla vintage hat, I feel a bit like an icecream. To offset this toothache effect, I add cable knit stockings in charcoal for warmth, and deliberately wear red shoes, just to break the rules. No red with pink? Pooh! Blue and green should never be seen? Balderdash! No white after Labour Day? Poppycock! Pearl jewellery finishes the look: vintage grape earrings and a bold ring.

Items:

Top: Kookaï
Skirt: Chine Collection
Hat: Valerie Modes, vintage
Scarf: Pony Clothing
Earrings: vintage
Ring: Autore
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Stockings: Columbine
Shoes: Wittner