Vintage beauty

Fashion and beauty have always gone hand in hand. So for those of you who wear vintage clothing, why not adapt your makeup and hair to match and try out some different looks from a by-gone era.

There are so many styles to try out; from the popular ivory look in the 1930's, to the bright colours of the 80's.

If you are not sure which look you want to try out or just unsure of how to apply it, the watch the video below for some tips and advice.

The following video is an original makeup tutorial from the 1940's. It's extremely old fashioned but fun to watch!

For complete self indulgence, contact the girls at Lipstick and Curls and let them do your make-up for you. The company are specialists in vintage styling; inparticular hair and makeup from the 20's-50's. They often run events so keep an eye on their website to see where they are next.

Vintage Wedding dresses

According to google insights the number of people searching for vintage wedding dresses has more than doubled over the past five years, with 2009 getting the highest number of searches.

The average cost of a wedding in 2009 in the UK is a staggering £18000, so it's no wonder that that there has been a dramatic increase of interest in vintage wedding dresses this year.

Everybody wants their wedding day to be special, so what could be more special than a dress designed by Versace or Yves St Laurent at a fraction of the cost!

STYLES OF DRESSES

So what kind of styles can you expect to find? Well, depending on what era you look at there is a type of dress to suit every taste.



1920's and 1930's
Long, slinky and beaded dresses were popular in the 20's and 30's, usually made from silk or satin in shades of ivory. Dropped waistlines and thin straps are quite often a feature from this era.

1940's

War-time brides wore long sleeved wedding dresses with a fitted waistline and usually with a crew-neck style neckline.

1950's

Lace and tulle were the fabrics in fashion in the 195o's. Hemlines were shorter and sometimes teamed with a full skirt and strapless top.

Image by ttumlin

1960's

Wedding dress took on a slightly caftan look, with an A-line style skirt and capped sleeves. Trains began to come into fashion and were often attached at the upper back of the dress.

1970's
70's dresses took on a almost medieval look with draping fabrics and a "dust ruffle" which was attached to the hem of the dress.

Image by nouveaustar

Biba

Biba is one of the most iconic and recognisable fashion houses, and epitomises the street style fashion of London in the 60's and 70's.

It is therefore not suprising that it made a comeback during London Fashion Week in 2006, and launched a new Biba boutique in 2008.

So what made Biba so popular, and how did it change the face of fashion?

HISTORY OF BIBA

Biba was founded by Barbara Hulanicki and was run with the help of her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon. It started out as a mail order company through the Daily Express, and had varying success until Hulanicki designed a gingham dress for a reader offer through the Daily Mirror. The dress was a huge success and over 4000 orders were received the morning after the advert went out.

In September 1964 the first shop was opened in Kensington, London.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/malevagotica/ / CC BY 2.0

THE BIBA LOOK

Biba was one of the first fashion houses aimed at the under 30's and was youthful in terms of its design and unlike anything before it.

Hulanicki described the look as "‘fresh little foals with long legs, bright faces and round dolly eyes."

Mini skirts and smocks were the most popular items.

Have a look at this video of Twiggy (one of the most recognised faces in the 1960's) reminiscing about the first Biba dress she bought.

Why is Vintage fashion popular?

There are many benefits to buying and wearing vintage clothing which is possibly one of the reasons why its popularity has grown in recent years.

To get an idea of why vintage fashion is so popular, have a listen to this interview with the owner of the newly opened vintage clothing shop in Preston: Vintage a go-go.

BENEFITS

So just what are these benefits to vintage fashion?

Altering clothing

With women being completely different sizes today than they were 50 years ago, it can sometimes be difficult to buy vintage clothing to fit your shape perfectly.

If you've bought a dress or a top but it doesnt quite fit right then watch this helpful video on how to alter it yourself. It might seem a bit daunting cutting up something thats really old, but think of the money you will save by doing it yourself!

Some more helpul tips can be found here on altering or transforming a vintage piece.

Vintage Food

I came across some beautiful vintage style cupcakes on flickr, which look very 1920's-esque in pale, pastel colours.

If you want to have a go at making some pretty cupcakes similar to these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sugarbloom_cupcakes/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Then follow this Rachel Allen recipe from Good to know recipes:

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6). Place 12 paper bun cases in a bun tray.

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it almost comes to the boil, take it off the heat, add the butter and stir to melt, then set aside.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and add the salt. In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla extract with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy, for about 10 mins. Gradually beat in the sugar until thick and mousse-like. Turn the speed down and blend in the flour, then the milk. Stop beating as soon as it's all mixed in.

Spoon into each paper case and bake in the oven for 15 mins or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool slightly in the tin before moving to a wire rack and icing.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with 1tbsp cream and the vanilla extract; if it's not a good spreading consistency, add a little more cream. To ice the cupcakes,dip a table knife into boiling water and spread the icing over each cake with the warm knife.

Another intriguing discovery is the Vintage Patisserie

They hold tea parties served to you by 1920's maids with 20's music playing in the background. There is even the chance to don your vintage clothes as a 1920's dress up trunk is provided for you to "try a bit of vintage sophistication." Lovely!

Where to buy Vintage

As mentioned in a previous post, vintage and retro clothing has become far easier to purchase in recent years. There is an abundance of online shops, stores on the highstreet and also Vintage fashion fairs.

The affordable vintage fashion fair holds regular events across the whole of the UK inlcuding Manchester, London and Newcastle. They sell everything from clothes to shoes and jewellery all at an affordable price.

The fair has been bringing vintage fashion to major citites since 2005 with a variety of clothes spanning the 40's to the 80's.

Another good place to find vintage clothing is Oxfam, they even have specific vintage shops where you can get your vintage fix at the same time as donating to charity. Fashion with a conscience...perfect!

Have a look at the links on this blog to other online stores.

Retro nights out

With the popularity of vintage and retro fashion ever increasing, along with the revival of numerous subcultures, some nightclubs have noticed a gap in the market.

Cue the creation of retro nights out! Nightclubs all over the country have started to host special nights where only retro music is played and vintage clothing is compulsory.

Like-minded people can enjoy an evening listening to 50's rock n roll and dancing around in a glamorous vintage dress...perhaps not the men!

Useful websites:
The slippery bell burlesque
The Black Gardenia
The Blitz party

Have a look at this video from The Slippery Bell Burlesque show, which according to the Subculture nightclub is:
"...a rather faboulous evening of Burlesque and witty Cabaret to tickle your senses. Dress Code - Kittens in Corsets, Moulin Rouge Excess, Dinner Suits, Retro Chic, 1920's Gangster, Sharpe Suits, Bohemian and Glamour."

Clothes and music- are they connected?

Think of vintage clothing and what type of music springs to mind? 40's, 60's, 80's? What about rave music? The first image that popped into my head was people wearing neon clothing. So this got me thinking, are clothes and music connected?

I used the website ask500people to see what people think about the relationship between fashion and music.

The first question I asked was: are clothes are music connected?

As you can see from the chart below, people agree that there is definately a connection between the two.

So having established that fashion and music hold some kind of relationship, I created a more visual question to find out if people associate the same type of clothing with a particular genre of music.

Using four images of different items of clothing I posed the question: Which of the following items do you associate with rave music?

69% of people said that they associated neon clothing with rave music.

It may be a bit of a sweeping generalisation that everybody who likes rave music wears neon clothing, as this is probably not the case. Yet many people who like indie music tend to all wear a similar type of clothing: the same applies to emo and punk music.

Whether all fans of music follow a corresponding fashion is arguable, but the majority opinion is that there is a clear link between the two.

What is vintage fashion?

The term vintage fashion describes second hand or sometimes never worn garments from another era. The beauty of vintage fashion is that it encompasses clothing and accessories from the 1920's to the 1980's, meaning not only is there a huge choice of styles but each item has its own story.

The popularity of vintage clothing has increased massively over the past few years, with numerous celebrities like Kate Moss embracing the trend. As a result of this, vintage items are far more easily accessible with many vintage shops opening on the high street and online.

With the revival of subcultures such as Swing and Rockabilly vintage is, for some people, a lifestyle choice.

A few vintage pieces:

Image by Andre-Batiste

Image by Sherry Rose Cottage