One Skirt: Four Outfits.

In the early days of my blog, I loved to take one item, usually a dress, and style it lots of ways in a single post.  It was just as much for my benefit as it was for my readers.  I loved the creativity of digging through my closet to find things that would pair nicely and for my own curiosity to see just how many ways I could wear a single piece.  Those were the days.  I still do that with my clothes, but now it occurs more spontaneously.  I'll pull a skirt or top out and feel like mixing it up with a different cardi or shoes,etc. and a new outfit is created, but I rarely have time to stop and photograph it anymore.

Getting back to my roots, I decided to sit down and pull together a few outfits for this lovely skirt since it has so much potential and here are the results.  Frankly, I love them all, but I did feel that the cute goose cardi needed an extra photo for a close-up.

Outfit Info: Florence skirt in Navy Vegetables & Strawberry Cardigan from Palava, Goose Cardigan from Urban Outfitters, Navy Tee from Walmart, Qupid heels are old, YeMak burgundy cardigan

Kate Spade Vintage Makeover

Sometimes I see a piece that would be almost perfect.  It just needs a few touches to really give it that vintage flare that I love so much.  This lovely little Kate Spade shirt dress that I thrifted in the springtime for example is work appropriate and completely adorable.  I love the colors and the pattern at the cuffs & hem is just perfect, and you know I can never resist a shirt dress.  The only trouble?  Well, it doesn't really look like the product photos (shown at the bottom and top).  On the model, this dress has a fitted waist and a flared skirt.  On me not so much.  As-is, it's a little frumpy and lacking just a few touches to make it have that vintage style that I need.  The solution?

In order to give this dress more of a vintage look Ihad two options, do a few sewing alterations or style it.  I opted to style it.  I opened the collar, added a belt to cinch in the waist, and also to add a little contrast to the print, and of course, I added a petticoat to make the skirt a little fuller.  I used more modern necklaces because I am really loving the layered necklace look, but the flowers earrings and rings all give vintage vibes and of course my bow headband completes the look.  And now, with just a few small adjustments, this dress is perfect for my style.

Outfit Info:  Kate Spade dress thrifted from Depop, SheIn bag, Life Stride Loafers thrifted from Poshmark

Petticoat Potential

So, you've bought a dress with some serious vintage flare, but when you get it home it falls flat...literally.  If you love vintage styles, then there are a few accessories that can really make your style seem more authentically vintage and in this post we'll discuss a major feature from 1950s and 60s style--petticoats.

I bought this lovely Miss Lulo dress from Modern Millie, completely enamored by the print.  Notice how full and lovely that skirt looks in the product photos.  The dress arrived and the fabric is a very soft soy silk, but I could immediately tell that it had absolutely no fullness of its own. To illustrate that, check out this side by side of the product photo with me wearing the dress:

I think I've made my point.  I was frequently fooled by this in my novice days of vintage styling, wondering why the dresses always looked so authentically vintage in the product photos but limp and lifeless on me.  Then I remembered my square dancing days and the importance of wearing a petticoat to floof out the dresses.  Now to be fair, I like the way this dress looks without the petticoat, but I still want to demonstrate how this one little garment can totally change your look.  So, this is the dress as-is, from my previous post:

Petticoats are available in a huge variety of colors, lengths, and fullness.  The sky is the limit, in fact, speaking from experience, you could wind up with way too many petticoats if you're not careful because it just becomes too easy to want a certain color or length for every occasion.  For this post I'm starting with a basic tulle and nylon petticoat by Leg Avenue in pale pink.  It's allegedly knee length, though mid thigh is more accurate, and if I need it longer I wear it lower on my waist and hips; if I need it shorter, I roll up the top around the waist band.

Leg Avenue petticoats are available on Amazon and Ebay and range from $15 to $25.  They're somewhat costume-y and there are definitely better brands out there, but at the time I bought this one I was not interested in spending a lot of money.  Looking back, I would probably invest in something better, but after 8 years or so, this one is still in good shape.

Notice how it immediately fills out the skirt and makes the outfit look genuinely vintage, and keep in mind that less full petticoats such as this can always be layered to create more fullness and you can mix colors for something truly lovely and unique.

Next up is a beautiful and very full peach petticoat from Doris Designs.  This is definitely a higher quality piece and the price reflects that as these petticoats range from $43-$60 (excluding tax and shipping).  I bought mine for about $20 second hand, because the elastic was completely shot and had to be replaced.

This petticoat has volume to spare and the issue with it is that you must have a skirt that is already full enough to accomodate so much frilly girth.  If not, the skirt will pull and pucker oddly.  Fortunately, this skirt did just fine, though I don't know that photos do it justice for you to truly see how full it makes this skirt.

Last but not least, let's do a comparison of all three skirt fullnesses side by side:

Now that you see the difference a petticoat can make, here's a list of more places that carry quality pieces (these are Not affiliate links):

1.  What Katie Did

2.  Unique Vintage

3.  ModCloth

High Socie-Tea: Colors Matter

I thought I'd do a brief post today about the importance of color and how choosing a print with lots of colors can give you unlimited options for making statement outfits.  Just for a quick comparison, in my first post with this dress, I used a red cardi and navy blue heels.  Compare that with a royal blue cardi and red heels. 

I know it seems like it shouldn't make a difference because I'm drawing from colors that are all part of the same palette that makes up the composition of the dress.  And yet, the colors you choose to highlight change the statement of the look.

For another comparison, I've included  ModCloth's original stylist outfit.  (Man, oh, man, do I miss those ModCloth days, when they provided so much style inspiration!)  You'll notice in that outfit, the stylist drew from four different colors for the accessories by chosing a more muted blue cardigan, mustard heels, a taupe bag, and red chrysanthemum earrings.  Four!  And yet, it still works perfectly!  It's interesting but not busy in a bad way.

While I love what they put together, I simply didn't have all those colors at my disposal, and truly and thankfully gone are the days of me buying a ton of new things just to wear with this outfit,  so I went with the two colors that I did have on hand.

I don't know exactly why certain colors speak to me but if I had to choose between these two outfits, I would say the red cardi version would be for going out and the blue would be for work.  There's no rule against wearing red to work....It just doesn't seem like I would wear it to work.  Do you ever get that way about colors?  

If we take that a step further, let's say we emphasized the mustard or navy blue.  Mustard would create a very warm, cheery look; Navy blue would tone it down.  And Taupe?  Well, taupe would tone it all the way down.  On the other hand, as I mentioned, selecting one of each of those colors to accent and accessorize with would create quite a balanced and interesting composition.

When choosing colors, of course you have to work with what you have available, but when a colorful piece is the starting point, there are so many options for create outfits with varying vibes, you're only limited by your imagination.  I won't say anymore on this for today, but don't forget to keep scrolling and check out the original ModCloth Stylist version at the bottom.

Outfit Info: High Socie-tea Dress from ModCloth is Old, YeMak Cardigan is new, Heels from Honiara Vintage

Slips: A Closet Necessity

As a lifetime lover of all things vintage, of course I have a small collection of vintage slips, but unlike most of my vintage stock, the slips actually get worn and often.  Growing up in the 80s-90s thrift stores in small towns weren't loaded with cool vintage items, they were full of dead people's stuff.  Old dead people.  And, not cool old dead people, sad old dead people who bought ugly clothes in the 70s and apparently having lost faith in fashion proclaimed unanimously, never again!   But there were a few things that I managed to find while scouring those shops for something cool way back when that I have kept to this day.  I found vintage full slips that unlike their modern counterparts actually fit my frame.

My vintage full slips are something that I bought because I loved and held onto even though I spent my 20s and half my 30s while never wearing a slip.  I bought them not of necessity but because they were pretty and I thought they might come back around one day.  Although they didn't come back around in the fashion world at large, I learned when I began wearing dresses most days of my week , which was right around the time this blog began, that slips are an essential addition to any dress lover's wardrobe.

What can a slip do for you?  There are a couple of reasons that slips have become essential in my wardrobe but the number one reason is:  They Slip!  When I lived in Japan, I chose to walk and take public transport over driving.  And when I say I walked, I mean I walked a lot, daily and in all seasons and all kinds of weather, including very windy days or days that started out mild and then turned windy.  I realized after the first unexpected gust of wind lifted my skirt, startling an elderly Japanese woman, that I needed leggings under my dresses.  I immediately ducked into a shop and purchased a pair of shorts to tide me over.  You can read that post and take a trip down memory lane by clicking here. 

Thinking my problem was solved, I walked back outside to finish the two miles I had to go before reaching my destination only to feel my cotton dress bunching up as it rubbed against the shorts.  Every third step I had to pull my dress back down.  Instead of solving my problem, I had just created a new one.  Fortunately there was another shop at the end of this journey, where I ducked in and bought three half slips: one white, one beige, one black, all in various lengths, and Voila!  No more stickage!  The nylon slip when placed between layers of fabrics like cotton allows them to slide against each other instead of bunching up.

Reason # 2 to wear a slip: Smooth Lines.  Whether it's a bulky lace bra showing through your chiffon blouse, the wind blowing your skirt so that it leaves nothing to the imagination about what's under it either by blowing your skirt up or pressing it directly against your legs, or the dreaded panty-line, no one wants things showing that shouldn't be.  A slip creates an extra layer to smooth out the lines between your under things and your outer things.  Suddenly that silhouette is as sleek as you hoped it would be, no bulk, no bunching.  Slips are also a nice extra layer of insulation if you work in freezing temps like I do, but that's really just a bonus.

Slips, as I see it, are just as much a necessary part of a woman's wardrobe as they ever were, especially as fabric has become cheaper and thinner, hiding less than in by gone eras.  The trouble is that slips are hard to find nowadays.  Good luck finding them at any standard department store, even their availability online is mostly limited to brands you have never heard of and with names that appear to be a string of random letters.  How is a vintage-loving, dress-wearing girl to find a trustworthy slip in these modern times?

Well, while Maidenform has gone the way of mostly shapewear and underwear, (hey you gotta go where the money is, right?!) Vanity Fair still carries a full selection of half and full slips as well as camis and yes, even shapewear.  You can find a full range of items on Amazon or on their home site where you'll save 25% by signing up for their newsletter.  They may not be as beautiful and glamourous as in their glory days, but Vanity Fair's slips are still pretty and more importantly functional.  

If you need a little extra pizazz in your slips, why not get a few from one of those inexpensive and unpronounceable Amazon brands and then dye them yourself to make something uniquely yours.  Although I do recommend if you want that vintage glamour, just buy vintage.  There's really nothing today quite like those slips of the 1950s and 60s.  Whichever way you decide to go, you really cannot go wrong with a slip.  They add so much to your wardrobe for very little investment, and maybe together we can help them make a much needed mainstream comeback.