What I Actually Wore #0072

Serial #: 0072
Date: 20/07/2012
Weather: a mild day, 15°C
Time Allowed: 7 minutes

Attenzione! It’s all about the details. In the case of this outfit it was texture and a touch of military. The dress came first, a wool cable sleeveless number by Anthropologie. Cable knit dresses are always a risk, because they add bulk – I guess that’s the reason the dress is sleeveless – but they are so warm and cosy in the cold weather. I really love the tomato-red colour too. The vintage Mai-Tai lipstick by old Aussie brand Poppy matches perfectly.

I added a little military-inspired slim-fitting cardigan for warmth, a vintage and fringed knitted silk scarf (the kind you see 1920s pilots sporting), a white wool beret that I’ve had for years, and cable textured tights along with my multi-strapped patent Mary-Janes. At ease.

Items:

Dress: Far Away From Close for Anthropologie
Cardigan: Sunny Girl
Scarf: vintage
Beret: Melbourne boutique
Earrings: Baku
Ring: Barcelona souvenirs
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Shoes: Zoe Wittner
Lipstick: vintage Mai-Tai by Poppy

Sydney’s Vintage Glitz & Sequinned Kitsch

Rawr :: Watts // Big Up // No flashI’m back from my little three and a half day jaunt to Sydney. I managed to do quite a bit of vintage browsing, although the only fashion purchase I made was a 1960s black and white crocheted raffia cloche that looks very 1920s on. (I have to tilt my chin to a severe angle to see out, so it makes me look like a snooty flapper.)

Pink & Polka-Dotted :: Watts // Big Up // No flashSome of the other delicious things I saw – but didn’t buy – included a 70s lilac blouse with enormous accordion-pleated sleeves (sweltering on), and a wonderful 1980s silk sequinned tiger tee. The latter was $300, and just too expensive for my budget, especially considering the large number of sequinned tops I already own. While I had been there last year, this trip I also discovered that the vintage boutique Grandma Takes a Trip has an upstairs – joy! It was full of gorgeously coloured treasures. I just need to find some more room in my own closet.

Pussycat Pleats :: Watts // Big Up // No flashPsychedelic Prints :: Watts // Big Up // No flash

The Incredible Shrinking Knit

Laundry labels are sewn into garments for a reason. Usually it is best to pay attention to them. Except when it says ‘dry clean only’. I try to get away with handwashing whenever I can, although once it backfired on me. I thoughtlessly threw in a lovely dove grey fine gauge 100% wool knit by Calvin Klein thinking it was certainly washable, only to find it shrunk to doll size. I was rather cross with Calvin.

But there was one occasion when an accidental hot machine wash worked for me rather than against me.

Years ago whilst enjoying a little shopping spree in Hong Kong, I purchased a knit from Max & Co in a size too large for me. I do not know what possessed me to do so. It was too big in every respect, but in particular, the sleeves hung loosely past my fingertips by many centimetres. I loved this Guinevere style knit with its juliet sleeves however, even if it made me look like I was dragging my knuckles on the ground, and I continued to wear it.

I loved this Guinevere style knit … even if it made me look like I was dragging my knuckles on the ground …

One day I chucked in a dark wash – all underthings and spencers and stockings and such. Or so I thought. When I pulled everything out at the end of the cycle I was horrified to find I had inadvertently thrown in this enormous knit! But when it dried, I found that the machine had magically shrunk the jumper a whole size down and it fit me perfectly.*

So you see, sometimes it really does all come right in the wash.

* DISCLAIMER: Attempt at this at home entirely at your own risk. SNAP cannot be held responsible for any knits that have been shrunk too much, felted or otherwise mangled.

Laundromat image from The Magical Miss.

The Original Flappers

Celebrating the Roaring Twenties in a Special Series

I love the idea behind this fashion shoot, presenting 1920s inspired clothing that has in turn been inspired by the style of the original flappers. The editorial, photographed beautifully by Martyn Thompson, presents fashion that is vintage in itself, for it dates from the October/Novomber 1988 issue of FOLLOW me magazine.

The Roaring Twenties remains such a fascinating period for so many factors, chief amongst them being that it was such a period of lighting fast change; a wild party set between the dark days of First World War and the dismal days of the depression. There was the emancipation of women and a new revolution in fashion: bobbed hair and short frocks, and a new breed of la garçonne. Here’s fashion inspired by Edith Sitwell, Daisy Fellowes, Nancy Cunard, and Ladies Diana Cooper and Thelma Furness. Click the images for a closer look and read a little about each of these fascinating women.

Print and Patchwork

Celebrating the Roaring Twenties in a Special Series

Backdrop: Electric Prisms, Sonia Delaunay, 1913; tank top: CueSonia Delaunay at workSonia Delaunay, born in modern-day Ukraine (1185–1979), was a Jewish-French artist of the Art Deco period. She was famous for her colourful geometric textile designs, although her work extended to painting and stage set design too.

It was in 1911 that Delaunay’s distinctive style was born – along with the arrival of her son Charles. She spontaneously created a quilt for his crib, and said of it:

“About 1911 I had the idea of making for my son, who had just been born, a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those I had seen in the houses of Russian peasants. When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions and we then tried to apply the same process to other objects and paintings." [Wikipedia]

Geometric swimsuit designsShe and her husband Robert were inspired by the wild colours used by the Fauvists, and by Cubism too. Experimenting with colour and design in a style they called simultanéisme, the Delaunays explored the way in which colours and shapes interacted and affected one another, employing a theory similar to Pointilism, in which the eye mixes closely-placed dots of primary colours.

Dress, 1913Delaunay met Sergei Diaghilev in 1917 and went on to design costumes for his production of Cleopatra and Aida. On their return to Paris from Madrid, she began to make clothes privately, and in 1923 her textile business was founded. Commissioned by a manufacturer from Lyon, Delaunay created 50 fabric designs in her distinctive style, using geometrical shapes and vivid colours. Soon after she began to work for herself and simultané became her registered trademark.

Although my tank top is not boldly coloured, it put me in mind of Sonia Delaunay’s geometric designs from the first – the pattern was the main reason I purchased it. Along with one of Mariano Fortuny’s pieces, a real Delaunay garment (or even replicas of either) would be a dream to own. 

Scroll past the pictures below and read a profile on the artist, from Elle magazine (issue number unknown) – click image for a larger version.

PochoirTwo models in summer beachwear, 1927Winter fashionElectric Prisms, Sonia Delaunay, 1914Click on image for larger version