Vintage Find! 1950s Tailoring & My Grandmother's Vintage Wedding Suit

Hi there everyone, I know it has been a while, I've been taking a little bit of a break while I finish my writing my thesis and prepare for my wedding (which I have been taking pictures of every step of the way!).

However, something so fantastic happened I had to write a quick post.

I have been a fan of the classic 1950s suit for a long time. Modern suits just don't flater my shape and I have always imagined that a classic cut suit form the 50s was the answer to my woes. They are so feminine while being tailored.

My favourite colours are anything between the shades green and blue and I especially love teal so the iconic look of Marilyn Monroe in Niagara was something I would one day want to emulate. I've seen several patterns of vintage designes and I've spent some time contemplated getting one made when I finally have enough cash.

So imagine my intrigue when my Grandmother told me that she had her wedding suit from the 1950s?!
I went digging through old photos and found some lovely ones of her dressed casually but also some photos from her wedding in 1956.

Then I got a sneak peek at the suit that had been sat in the cupboard upstairs and asked if I could try it on.

Then lucky me! It fit! Here it is...

The suit was so beautiful, a gorgeous colour and fit almost perfectly that my Nanna said that I could have it. I couldn't be more excited about it. Luckily I also have an event in mind to which I can wear it, so I'm not adding too many pictures at the moment but watch this space.

An All-American Party and a Marilyn Monroe Costume

Hey there!

It’s been a long time since I last updated, what with moving etc., but I’m back now and I’ll be posting regularly from my new location in County Durham.

(Although I will still be visiting Brighton and London occasionally!)

So my first update from the North East is to talk about my leaving party – a joint event with my friend Ann-Sofie who was leaving for new frontiers in the USA (I also need to give her credit for almost everything in terms of organising this party!) so we decided to have a USA theme party and attempted to encourage people to dress up as American icons.

I decided to use this opportunity to dress as an American icon I have been a fan of for a while: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn, even though she has a very classic look, is actually fairly simply styled – classically 50s style, bombshell hair, 50s makeup and ideally the white dress from The Seven Year Itch (of course being a brunette I would require a wig!).

To complete my costume I turned to the website Theme Party Fancy Dress UK to provide me with a Marilyn dress and wig.

When they arrived I have to say I was very pleased with the wig while the quality may not be as good as that of a real hair wig, I found it very affective, and for £12.99 who can complain. It was adjustable for comfort and brush-able so I could attempt to tease it into an appropriate style.

The dress was a little more difficult as it was a generalised size medium, or 12-14, and in order to achieve this the dress needed to have an elasticated back so it could stretch to fit. This meant that the front of the dress provided very little bust support, something that was a real problem for me.

To counteract this problem I needed to sew the strap over the halter neck so that it pulled the neckline up, this spoiled the bist line a bit, but it meant that I could wear a strapless bra with it which made it much easier to wear.

Unfortunate compromises, but I feel that the overall effect was quite well put together.

For the make up I did a simple 50s style flick and red lips. Annoyingly my eyeliner ended up quite a bit heavier than anticipated and my brows, as ever, were too dark I really had to hope that it didn't spoil the illusion too much. Then as I said previously, I loved the wig, I think I’d quite like myself as a blonde occasionally.

The party itself was great fun! It was held at JB's American Diner on the Brighton seafront (I can really recommend their root beer floats!) and there were some really innovative costumes, for example the White House, a hot dog, Minnie Mouse, Catwoman, Rambo, Lucille Ball, Napoleon Dynamite and even a sexy astronaught!

I will miss the fun times in Brighton a lot, but I look forward to my new future in the North.