Chillinen Vintage Dreams

Hello, vintage darlings.  I see you're admiring my dress.  Why, no, it's not authentic vintage, but it certainly does look like it.  I love that Chillinen honors women: their shapes, their sizes, their phases in life with styles inspired by an era that knew how to make us look good and flatter every body.  I'm 45 now and my body has changed.  I've always been a bit shy about a fitted skirt because I have some dangerous curves, but since entering this time in my life I have avoided them at all costs.  Not so with this dress.  It accentuates those curves in just the right way.  Plus, these dresses wash well and wear well.  My readers save $12 off their first purchase with my code BLEU.  For a more detailed review, check out my YouTube Video below.

Outfit Info: Midi Linen Half Sleeve Dress from Chillinen Use promo code BLEU for $12 off your purchase

Lead the Way with Chillinen

Today's post features another lovely stand-out piece from Chillinen.  I absolutely adore their dresses and they've given my readers a promo code for $12 off your purchase with code BLEU.  Speaking of stand-out pieces, have you ever looked at your style and realized it's not really your style at all?  Everyone at work or in your social group is dressing the same way and you don't like it, because it doesn't feel like you.  So, you decide to be bold and wear something that's more like you and less like the crowd.  The first thing you should prepare yourself for is opposition.  Yeah, crowd-people don't like it when you do your own thing.  Get ready for some side glances and "what are you so dressed up for?"  Don't let this phase you, it will pass!  The next thing you're going to notice is like-minded individuals, who are also quietly unhappy with how they dress when they follow the crowd but aren't going to stick their necks out...until you do.  That's right, if you lead the way, others will follow.  They might copy you to some degree, hey, you like dresses?  I like dresses!  Or they might go in a completely different direction, but it's all thanks to your courage, because you were willing to go against the grain and lead the way.

Outfit Info:  Maxi Cotton Dress Half Sleeve V Neck in French Blue Stripe from Chillinen Use promo code BLEU for $12 off your purchase

Warm Autumn with Chillinen

I don't know what it's like where you live, but for me, there are two sides to autumn every year.  September and the first half of October are always hot to very warm.  Then, sometime around Halloween, it suddenly turns cold.  Like overnight.  The autumn portion of my wardrobe is by far the largest and in order to get the most wear out of my favorite season of clothes, I've had to divide them into warm-autumn which is all the light linens and cottons and cool-autumn, which is more wool and layering based.  I know it's a little outside the traditional autumn palette of red, orange, yellow, and brown, but I love to mix in a few olive and forest greens because I think they really standout against the autumn trees.  This lovely Midi Linen dress in vintage green from Chillinen checks all the boxes for warm-autumn wear.  t's a single layer, very light and cool, and just the perfect silhouette. Of course, one the weather does cool off, I'll layer it up with tights and sweaters, and it will look perfect in the spring and summer too, but for now, it's everything I need and the best part is that my readers save $12 off their purchase with code BLEU and my full review for this dress is in the YouTube video below.

Outfit Info:  Midi Linen V Neck Half Sleeve Dress in Vintage Green from Chillinen Use promo code BLEU for $12 off your purchase

GownTown Blue

Another gorgeous 1950s vintage GownTown style in this Betty Blue.  Full skirt, fitted bodice, pockets, and love, love, love this bow at the collar.  So sweet!  

Outfit Info:  GownTown 1950s Retro Vintage Party Dress

Pass the Palava, Please

Everything is bland; have you noticed? Architecture, automobiles, and fashion, even the brands that claim to be couture/high-end are often poorly made and of the cheapest materials,  everything expensive and yet somehow so cheap, basic, boring. So, when I meet a brand that really does seem to care and it shows in the quality of their work, I'm absolutely on board to support them.  That's Palava, 100%.  

This Green Peas dress was my Mother's Day gift this year and I loved it so much, I decided to buy a few more things over the next few months.  Eeesh, I love it all.  So well made and so lovely, I can't get enough.  I've worn this Peas dress nearly every week to work since May, because it's just so darling.  These pieces are made to last and mine have held up beautifully to all the wear, but I can't help but be excited to see what new prints come out in the Fall/Winter collection.

Outfit Info:  Louise- Green Peas Dress from Palava, VIVAIA Flats, YeMak Sweater

Chasing Chelsea

I bounce back and forth between wanting a small fully utilized wardrobe and absolutely adoring all my many, many clothes and the endless options they create.  In the past year I've learned something about my brain and how it works that truly has been a lightbulb, making everything make sense.  

Oddly enough this epiphany came from a podcast on home design, not fashion or neuroscience.  The guest spoke about the psychology of our homes and how the "farmhouse/ greige minimalist/hyper awareness of the resale value movement appeals to people who are overstimulated and seeking relief.  They see the bareness, simplicity as a sanctuary from the world, exactly as our homes should be.  When presented in that light, I felt rather guilty for being such a harsh critic.  

The reverse then is true for me.  Generally speaking, I find the world very understimulating.  Every spralling Midwest town looks the same, everyone in athleisure, cars all some easy to resell shade of neutral, and all my days spent in greige cement buildings under florescent lights.  So boring.   

My brain craves new, interesting, beautiful, intricate, unusual, challenging, detailed, different.  It's why I shop so much, read four books at a time, and worked three jobs at once. Even the challenge of decluttering and living on a small capsule wardrobe is tied in to that cycle of something new, the next challenge. Then I get bored. My home and my wardrobe are naturally an extension of this.  I crave the hunt of a harsh to find dress, the challenge of alterations, the creative burst of styling it.  And then my brain wants to move on to the next hunt, the next challenge.   It's killer on my bank account if I'm not careful, but I've been this way my whole life; this is just how my brain works and it's unlikely to change.  However, it can be managed and knowing this about myself brings me a great deal of peace.

All of this has been a very circuitous way of saying, I've found another Bernie Dexter beauty from my ISO list.  This Chelsea dress in book print is one I almost never see pop up for resale.  I had to scour the BST groups, found a months old post, and had it shipped from another country to finally bring it home, but here she is and just in time for autumn styling.  No regrets.

Outfit Info:  Bernie Dexter Chelsea Dress in Books Print, B.A.I.T. heels, Vintage bag, Collectif Shrug