Crinoline Robot's vintage week

This was going to be a post about my lovely new vintage dress, which is a black-and-white 1950s cotton shirt dress from CalendarGirlVintage on Etsy. I heartily recommend her for service and speed, as well as quality of goods. However, my selfie skills (meagre as they were) appear to have evaporated, and every photo I took was under-exposed, over-exposed, all boobs, all belly, had scarlet legs (I balanced my camera on the snake's tank, which has a red heat lamp) or were blurry. BAH. So until I can persuade Mr Robot to take photos for me, you'll have to make do with this photo Jen (CDV's owner) took. Obviously it's rather wider on me than the dummy, but I think it looks great.



As for my aim to increase the amount of vintage and repro that I wear: I'm actually succeeding there. Okay, so some days it does boil down to plopping on a brooch as well as carrying my usual 1960s handbag, but even one extra accessory is an increase, and it's making me find fun ways to mix my vintage with my non-vintage. The bow blouse I got in the Heyday sale is a real winner. I'm getting loads of wear out of it and will definitely be ordering more in other colours, possibly with a view to snipping off the bow and adding a few embellishments of my own to vary the look a little. Heyday may not be the cheapest repro brand, but you can't fault the quality. I've also been eyeing up some Vivien of Holloway blouses for later in the year, though a lot of their prints are simply too exuberant for me.

I've really been enjoying reading In Retrospect, a vintage lifestyle magazine. My overall new year's resolution was 'Make things better', and that includes continuing to put money into worthwhile crowdsourced projects. In Retrospect was a digital magazine, and when they wanted to do a print version they had a kickstarter which I chipped into. You can read the online articles, buy print copies and subscribe via In Retrospect's website. It's a nice complement to other vintage mags on the market as they're more fashion-and-fun, easy to dip into if you're just getting into vintage, and this is a thoughtful publication, one that will appeal to the long-termer who wants something more in-depth, less 'vintage-trendy'. There's definitely room for both types of publication!

And my little brother gave me a belated Christmas gift and it is ACE. A collection of Busby Berkley musicals on DVD. Oh yes! It includes Gold Diggers of 1933, which I absolutely adore. Now I just have to persuade Mr Robot to take regular afternoon naps at weekends so I can watch them, because he loathes musicals.

How's your week going?

Comments

  1. Love that dress and can't wait to see you in it. I can highly recommend the VoH blouses. I have the raglan blouse in june rose blue which is gorgeous. It took a couple of attempts sizing wise to get one that fitted me right but it looks really lovely with my 1930s trousers from 20th Century Foxy. I'm considering the plain white one as a 'goes with everything' option.

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  2. The dress looks great, and it's nice to hear positive reports about customer service too.
    I've never heard of In Retrospect, I'll have to take a look. xxx

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  3. I can't wait either to see you in that utterly fab frock! Super choice. I will check out the magazine, and am jealous you have the golddiggers film as I have been trying to track that down but only found extortionately priced ones x

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  4. Beautiful dress. I just went and had a look around her shop at all the lovely clothes. It seems like the best vintage comes from Florida. I wonder if it has to do with being a spot people retire to, so the vintage shopping is better?

    The dress you ordered is lovely, and look like it will be versatile.

    You have a snake? How could I not know that? Do tell about your pet.

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  5. Love the dress! I tried Heyday but sadly I'm just the wrong shape for their frocks :(
    I have one gorgeous Vivian of Holloway dress but I do find it depressing to have to order 3 dress sizes up! Damn me and my very un-vintage sized body.

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  6. Looking forward to seeing that dress, it looks lovely. I always wonder if blouses will be roomy enough on the bust so it is good to know that you recommend Heydays.

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  7. I shall have to have a squizz now! Have you found any probs with customs? I never had before, but bought a hat last year and not only got clattered the £8 odd for the customs...hat was £38...but a hefty-ish "handling charge" at this end too. The postie who served me at the office was furious, says he sees this all the time now and "it's just another way to rip you off". It put me off buying from America, and I used to be able to get quite a lot of fabric from there, cheaper too, no custom cost or anything else, but now international postage has shot up and I can't any more.
    The dress has a nice cut to it, and don't go doping Mr R at the weekends ; )
    My friend gave me a boxed set of the Thin Man films a while ago, wouldn't have thought of them myself, but I did like them. Oh, the glamour of Myra Loy!

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    1. I've had variable issues with Customs. Most of the time my parcels come through intact - they're just jiffybags, hand-written, so I guess they don't look interesting. Every once in a while, though, something gets stopped, and then the Post Office slaps a £12 handling fee on top of the Customs charge. It's really annoying. I don't mind paying a Customs charge, but £12 so they can rip my parcel open and delay it???

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  8. There are so many perks in living where you are, Mim.
    Much more folks out there wear and enjoy vintage wardrobe, there are many vintage fairs, and no one frown upon your vintage look (well, there's always somenone who will lift an eyebrow, but much less often then here).

    Thatns for showing me the way to the magazine .. I doubt I'd find it on my own, dear. :)

    Marija

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    1. Heh, I always feel like all the cool folks live in London! But yeah, even in this area we're a bit spoiled for vintage.

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  9. What a lovely dress, I look forward to seeing you wearing it x

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  10. Greetings from your new fan. Thanks for the tip off about In Retrospect, that looks fab and I'll be putting my feet up soon with a cocktail to peruse it properly.

    Lovely frock! I've been stung by customs recently too. A friend who shall not be named asks her sellers if they would consider putting a small amount as the price paid for items she buys. It's a way of trying to avoid a nasty surprise when the goodies turn up.

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