Vintage Event: Riding the old trains at the Bluebell railway 1940s weekend

A little while ago I went to the Bluebell Railway for their Southern at War weekend. It was a whole weekend of memorials and activities dedicated to preserving the memory of WWII.

The Bluebell railway is a preserved heritage railway and it has many working steam trains there for visitors to ride and authentically kept stations, platforms and surroundings. This meant that the whole place was the perfect location for a weekend of vintage style frolicks.

I decided to get dressed up for the event and wore a true vintage 1940s green dress and a (late) 1940s suit jacket over the top. I got a few compliments on my look and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

 The husband and I got train tickets so that we could explore the other stations and ride on the train. I'm so glad we did as the 20 minute train journey in the vintage carriage was lovely, there were so many bluebells along the line too it was clear to see where the line got its name from.

Here is one of the lovely steam trains:

And me by one of the carriages:

There were also other period vehicals on display too from vintage army vans and trucks to fire engines.

Best name for a car ever!

Something that I really liked was the fact that they had renactors around who were playing the role of the home guard, as well as singers, dancers and stalls selling vintage wares. All of these things added to the authentic feel of the weekend and I loved it. I also really liked how many visitors had decided to get dressed up too, there were moments when you would look down the train platform and see only people dressed in 1940s clothing and it really made you feel like you had stepped back in time.

 

There was also a flypast by a Hurricane which did a pretty amazing job.

 The railway platforms were great places to be a bit silly to take pictures, there were lots of props. I especially liked the huge pile of luggage!

Outfit Details:

Dress: Vintage

Jacket: Vintage

Gloves: Vintage

Bag: Vintage

Hat: Vintage

Shoes: Rocket Originals

Yeah, I went pretty hardcore on the outfit this time around.

Have you ever been to a reenactment event?

Going for the chop: Lets talk about hair...

Just a quick post today. I've been trying hard with my hair lately, trying to learn more styles practising and improving the styles I know. Which has lead to a few good hair days.

For example this one (excuse the coat hanger). Where I backcombed and teased my victory rolls for the first time. Would you also believe I slept in this style and woke up in the morning looking like this?

Or there was the time I learnt to brush out my hair properly by using a proper large paddle brush (thanks to this tutorial).

 Glasses from SpecsPost by the way.

The only problem is that on lazy days when I didn't style my hair, it looked more like this:

SCARY!!!!!!

This is what I can best describe as a frizz bomb. It was really unfortunate that the leftover perm from over a year ago had taken its toll. The thing with perms is that you need to do regular intensive conditioning and to have it re-permed, which I did not.

So I decided to chop all of that damage off. I had a pretty drastic cut, adding layering, shortening and new colour that is much closer to my natural colour.

Now styling has been fun with this new do, at one point I ended up looking quite a bit like Moss from the IT Crowd...

But I am pretty confident that I have got the hang of styling it now :) I am really enjoying how easy it is to set too as there is so much less of it! I'm starting to feel a little more like Betty Draper than a frizzy lion.

So I will have to give the complex up-dos a miss for a little while but at the moment I am totally not missing them. Several people at work have even told me that I look like Snow White :)

Can you believe I'm wearing brown? No me neither, but it is a beautiful late 1950s St Michael dress...

Around 12 years ago there was a phase in fashion where brown was really, really in. I remember it vividly because I had this brown and blue skirt from Next that was the only concession I would make to the brown trend. About 10 years ago I decided I hated said skirt not only because of the colour, but also the stupid asymmetric hem. Ew.

So imagine my surprise when I came across a vintage dress that was most certainly brown, and I really, really liked it. WHAT?! I think the saviour of this dress was that it was not a chocolate brown, but also that it had a print design to it. I can best liken it to a cross between animal print and tree bark. Miaow.

The dress is 1950s St. Michael or Marks and Spencer as it's known now and still has the satin label that was used at the time. I love the fact that M&S changed their labels so frequently allowing their clothes to be dated so easily.

With the dress I wore a modern M&S cardigan, vintage beads and a vintage belt (that is dropping to bits and desperately needs replacing!).

My freshly trimmed hair was tucked into a nylon scarf bow that I tied around my head. I am so much happier with my hair now that I have had all the perm damage cut off. It is in so much better condition and I think I suit the darker colour so much more than the red.

And the back of my hair showing how I tucked it all in the nylon scarf.

The back drop for these photos was a super glamourous back alley in Alnwick, Northumberland. I felt the colours made a lovely combination to go with the dress.

Last think to mention is something else pretty cool. In Alnwick there is a huge second hand book store where the famous/infamous Keep Calm and Carry On poster was originally found. Since the keep calm thing is a huge now it was pretty nifty to see the original.

Outfit details:

Dress: Vintage St. Michaels

Cardigan: Modern M&S

Necklace and Belt: Vintage

Hair Scarf: From Natalie Vintageous

Shoes: Clarks

 How do you find brown clothes? Yey or Ney? 

Its Spring! So I'm going to take one last chance to celebrate the winter coat...

So I've been away for a few weeks and the weather has changed and so has my wardrobe. In the few weeks that I have been away from the blog I have put all my coats away, stored my super thick black tights and swapped my winter boots over for more dainty shoes. I am loving spring!

But I wanted to take one last minute to celebrate the winter coat.

Boy oh boy was the Collectif sale good this year, so good in fact that I bought 3 coats! But when they are around £35 each over 3 months it really doesn't seem like such a naughty thing... Maybe.

I though it was worthwhile mentioning this coat too as even though it is out of stock right now Collectif are really great at tweaking popular designs and releasing improved versions in new and exciting fabrics and colours. I for one hope a version of this coat comes back, in a navy blue!

So this coat is the Annabelle. It came in two colours; mint green and pink. I decided to get the green as I thought it was a simply gorgeous colour. 

It has a lovely sumptuous fur collar and cuffs too and a silky floral lining that makes it really comfortable. It is generally a warm coat but it is not quite as warm as the Rachel coat I showcased in this post and because of this I think it is the perfect coat for transitioning from winter to spring.

As always the Annabelle features a full skirted design which is great for fitting over full skirts like the Mary which I am wearing underneath ;)

One thing I will say is that this coat is small fitting. I was able to buy the Rachel in a size 12 and this size 14 Annabelle only just fits me so if they do re-release a similar style to this be wary when choosing your size.

Did I mention how much I am loving spring?

Outfit Details

Coat: Collectif

Jumper: Collectif

Skirt: Collectif

Shoes: Clarks

Have you made the wardrobe transition yet? What do you do to switch to spring? Do you do anything at all?!

Casual Cosplay: Harley Quinn meets Vivien of Holloway

Some time ago I entered a costume competition run on the Vivien of Holloway facebook page. I didn't win it, but I had a lot of fun putting together this little casual cosplay.

The challenge was to create a costume using a Vivien of Holloway dress so I decided to use my Peggy Lee dress. The red colour and the white collar really reminded me of Harley Quinn so I decided to throw together a vintage inspired Harley look.

I made this look by tacking the diamonds on to the dress. I tacked them on very badly because it was just for a one off but I would applique then neatly if I was going to do this again.

I also wore two pairs of tights, in this instance I didn't cut the tights, but I would have cut them and re sewn them if I wanted to wear this costume again.

It was also a great opportunity to break out the Worbla mask again and the blonde wig.

I also decided to have a little fun with some prop signs...

Have you ever thrown a costume together in a rush? Did it work?

A post about one of my best charity shop finds to date!!! EEK! A vintage early 60s Harrods dress!

I've been very much neglecting my charity shop duties of late as I've been trying to cut back a little bit and save some money. However I missed my train home a few weeks ago so I decided to have a peek in the local charity shop Hospice in the Weald. This is one of the better charity shops in my area as they have a really good mix of items.

Anywho, I was drawn immediately to a blue sleeve on the dress rail and absolutely delighted to to pull out this 1960s shirt waister dress - in my size!!

Things got better still when I checked inside for labels and found the label saying Harrods. EEP! A lovely dress, true vintage and from Harrods? How could it get any better?!?!

Price tag: £6.

Well how could I not get it...

(On a side note I used Vintage Fashion Guild for label checking - they are an amazingly useful resource for the vintage gal/chap)

The only downside was that it was unlined, however I wore it with a vintage slip and I don't think you would ever know the difference.

All in all I thought it was a delightful find. It is also worth noting that this post was one of the earliest with my freshly coloured hair. I think it goes rather well with the dress and belt!

And one last one with my vintage Laura Ashley coat:

What is your best charity shop find?

Outfit Details:

Dress: Vintage Harrods

Belt: Vintage (from my Nanna)

Scarf: Gift

Coat: Vintage Laura Ashley

The day I saw a random vintage 1950s caravan...

I visited my parents in Durham not long ago and while I was wandering around the city centre I came across this delight!

The folks at Beamish were out promoting their new development a 1950s area!! For those of you that don't know Beamish it is huge interactive museum that allows its visitors to experience living history. So far most of the developments have been areas based on the late 1890s and earlier 1900s. Which is brilliant in itself, but the fact they want to open a 1950s area is soooo exciting!

I also got to nip in and have a look inside the caravan and while I loved some of the decor...
































I wouldn't say I was enamoured with the facilities - just look at that sink!

A question vintage enthusiasts are often asked is whether they would rather live now, or in one of their chosen decades. I can certainly say I would rather live now than in the 1950s... I've watched enough Call the Midwife to know that!

What is also really cool about the whole development is that Beamish are running a competition for your house to be built in the area if it is a post-war semi. Because the North East was so damaged by bombing in WWII there are a lot of these types of houses in the area so I think it is a great chance to get involved. Here are the details.

If you haven't been to Beamish and you visit the North East I would highly recommend it. I've had a great time whenever I've been (I went for Halloween last year, you can read about that here).

The ladies that were promoting the new development were really nice, when I walked up to them one of them even said 'oh, you look like you should come work with us.'
Not exactly true but I appreciated the comment.

Here is what I was wearing:

Oh boy did the Collectif sale ruin me this month! I know I go on and on about this brand, but when you're a bigger lass it is sometimes really hard to find true vintage in your size. Both the jumper and skirt are from Collectif and this jumper is becoming a fast favourite of mine!

I also adore how swishy this skirt is!

Do you think you could spend a week in a vintage caravan?

Outfit details:

Jumper: Collectif

Skirt: Collectif

Hat: Accessorize

Shoes: Clarks