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Get The 1920’s Look – Live By Night

Live By Night is a very cool, stylish and captivating movie. Written, directed, co produced by, and starring Ben Affleck, (crikey, he’s been busy!) and with Leonardo DiCaprio taking on the shared role of Producer too, you know you’re in for an exciting watch. Set in 1926, it focuses on a Boston bred mob of gangsters who set up shop in balmy Florida during this prohibition era, facing off against their competition. You’ve got everything to make your heart beat and your eyes go heart shaped; beautiful vintage sets and fashion, money, molls, love, sex and speakeasies. It’s a dang thrill for sure. This ace film is already available as a digital download, but from Monday 22nd May we can get our hands on the DVD or Blu-ray here in the UK, hoooray! So, with it’s release being imminent, I wanna help you get the perfect roaring 20’s look, for day or night, because, trust me, after gettin’ your peepers on this flick you’re gonna wanna get some of that vintage lushness in your life!

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With the talented gals that are Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana and the utterly captivating Sienna Miller all in this film, the fashion reigns supreme for me, gah, the beauty of it all! You get all the looks in this flick, casual daytime looks and the faultless flapper look that every girl loves, right, We ALL love a flapper dress? When it comes to this era of fashion you need to be thinking; femininity, pretty florals, dreamy pastel shades, cottons, silks, and beads. If you wanna wear a daytime look from the 20’s, think delicate cottons, slim flattering cuts, cloche hats (or a Fedora or Newsboy Cap for a more relaxed look too), neat leather bags, and Mary-Jane or T-bar low heeled shoes. A delicate sophistication, a simple and effortless elegance. The women of this era dressed with poise and politeness. But then in the evening, they turned into dazzling and sparkling coquettish glamour girls, with piles of pearls hanging from their neck, tassels, beading, dainty bags, cool cigarette cases; it’s a gorgeous fanciful and frolicsome look, I LOVE it!! Embroidered silk shawls, stockings and red lips make this a really sexy look that you can either add elements of to a modern look or go the whole way and re-create the look to perfection. With authentic vintage items from this era, well, we’re talking about pieces that are nearly 100 years old and so not only can they be rare to find, as many have been lost to time, but also, it can get expensive. But, if you do wanna spend on an original 20’s dress in good condition, hey, it really is worth every penny as it’s an investment and a gorgeous piece of history to keep. If you just wanna add a 20’s touch to a modern outfit you could source a little beaded bag, or a beaded collar necklace to add to a new dress, to hint at the style. Below are some pieces I think are just wonderful, the pink beaded dress is a modern version of an old flapper dress, so you get one in new condition that is less fragile and is generally more affordable than an original 20’s flapper dress, this one is just adorable for a party or wedding! The dress with the bow on the back is (absolutely DREAMY) and is an original dress found on Pinterest, just as inspiration. The original 20’s peach cotton day dress is for sale in my online shop and is a perfect example to team with Mary-Jane’s and a cloche hat. The minty beaded one is also in my shop and is an 80’s dress which clearly has 20’s vibes, finding an 80’s beaded dress is often a cheaper way of getting the look too! All other items I have shown here are on Etsy, get looking on their pages to find gorgeousness galore, and you may just find your dream dress or the perfect accessory to create the look. Hey, a cute idea is to get some 20’s style going on and spend time with friends watching Live By Night; that sounds like a sweet treat of an evening to me!

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Live by Night is out on Digital Download now and available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 22nd May 

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Tie The Knot: Advice For Planning A Last Minute Summer Wedding

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Has your loved one just popped the question? Would you like to get married as soon as possible? Well, lemme tell you, last minute weddings are often the most fun to arrange. While you have a lot of work ahead of you, there’s still enough time to plan something amaaaazing this summer. Just use some of these ideas and advice to ensure you leave no stone un-turned. At the end of the day, this is a moment you will remember for the rest of your life. For that reason, you’re going to need as much help and guidance as possible. This should help….

Finding the perfect venue – Before you do anything else, you’ll want to find a beautiful place in which you can do your thang. The issue is that most places are booked at this time of the year. Still, cancellations happen, and you might get lucky. Just bear in mind that you’re unlikely to receive any discounts for last minute bookings. That means you may need a healthy budget if you want to make your dreams come true. Maybe you could apply for unsecured debt consolidation loans in an attempt to ensure you have as much money as possible? Either that or you could sell something valuable that you no longer want to increase your funds? Whatever you decide, it’s sensible to have more than £2000 at your ready to spend!lou16

Getting a dress you love – Dressmakers can take months to design or adjust the perfect dress for your big day. However, you’ll need them to work faster than that. It’s wise to get in touch with different specialists in your local area and explain your situation. At least one of them should be willing to push your order to the front of the queue. Alternatively, lots of professionals keep second-hand dresses that were only worn once. Nothing is wrong with opting for one of those products if it helps you to achieve your goals. Vintage wedding dresses are also a great affordable and very beautiful option, seek them out by looking on auction sites or searching vintage specialists online. Just make sure you don’t settle for anything less than you’ve imagined in your dreams all these years, of course! 

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Arranging catering – The guests at your wedding will need something to fill up those hungry tummies. However, you don’t want to spend a fortune because that decreases the money you can spend on your dress and venue, obvs, so, you gotta think outside of the box and try something different. Cool catering vans selling yummy street food or fish and chips are popular these days because they’re a cheap, simple and fun solution. Maybe something like that would keep your guests happy? There are specialists you can call who will provide enough food for one-hundred people for less than £1000. You just need to get in touch with them as soon as possible to get them booked! 

If you take the advice from this page, your summer wedding should be sorted in a matter of days, hah, easy-peasy! All you have to think about then is where you want to hold the reception. At the end of the day, there’s no reason to spend a fortune on that venue. In most instances, you will employ a DJ and keep the lights low. Many of your guests will get a tad tiddly and have fun regardless of the surroundings. Do yourself a favour and ensure you spend the bulk of your budget on the wedding venue itself. That is where you will take professional photographs, and it’s where you’ll make your memories. Enjoy planning!

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What To Do If You Don’t Consider Yourself ‘Fashionable’

So, you don’t consider yourself fashion. There are no rules out there really as to what ‘fashionable is’. You might look at somebody wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans and think they’re fashionable, while somebody else might look at the eccentric outfits of Carrie Bradshaw for inspiration. If you don’t consider yourself fashionable but you’d quite like to be, here’s what you can do:

Overcome Any Self Image Issues – Maybe you don’t consider yourself fashionable because you have self image issues. Everybody has these to some extent, so don’t beat yourself up. The key is to make sure you try to work past them. Where have your self image issues come from? What do you believe about yourself that might not be quite true? By making sure you’re consistent and work on your self image issues each day, in no time your thinking might just begin to change. Your mindset is everything! One thing many people like to do is listen to subliminal messages as they sleep. You could also try reading many self help books on the subject.

Work Out What Clothes You Really Like – Make sure you figure out what clothes you really like. Maybe you don’t really like that shirt and jeans you wear all the time; you just like them because they hide your figure, which you’re conscious of. You need to get over things like this if you’re going to start enjoying the clothes you wear. Here are some tips for figuring out what you like:

  • Decide which clothes you like the look of on your body best. What shapes and styles suit you?
  • Decide on your own personal color scheme. What makes your look radiant?
  • Which clothes make you feel unstoppable when you wear them?

Take A Look At The Celebs – There’s probably a tiny percentage of celebrities out there who actually dress themselves. They pretty much all have personal stylists, so take a look and see who’s style you like best. You can find them in trending stories on the internet and on the news. Buy a few magazines and make a collage. Doing this will help you to figure out the kind of styles you love the most, and it’ll be a big indicator of what you should be wearing. Don’t feel envious of other styles, wear them!

Don’t Compare Yourself To Others – Stop comparing yourself to others. Finding fashionistas that inspire you is a great thing to do, but comparing yourself will only get you down.

Take Pride In Your Uniqueness – Start taking pride in your uniqueness. Love your unique look and body shape. Your unique personality. There’s only one of you in the world. Emulate this with your clothes and see how you feel!

Experiment – Experimenting could help you to improve your confidence a little and get used to wearing new styles. Sometimes all it takes is trying out something new for your eyes to be opened.

Try these things and you might just start considering yourself to be fashionable sooner than you think!

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The 70’s Cool of Free Fire

I got lucky and was invited to the preview screening of Ben Wheatley’s new movie Free Fire at Cinema City in Norwich this week, the evening included a chat afterwards with Ben too. A movie, a glass of wine and exclusive talk from the Director. Nice. Happy me. I hadn’t heard much about this film beforehand but I knew three things; it was by Ben (Kill List and High Rise are two of his films I had already enjoyed) I knew it was set in the 70’s (massive cool points) and I also knew that Cillian Murphy stars in it (swoon)…. so I was anticipating a pretty ace bit of entertainment. Set in the 70’s, this film all takes place in one location, a dusty, derelict warehouse, where Justine who is superbly portrayed by Brie Larson, sets up a meeting between a gun dealer and Irish gang members who wanna buy the weapons. What should be a relatively straightforward exchange of cash for goods, becomes a tense, gripping and hilariously heart stopping game of survival when shots are fired and a free-for-all frenzy erupts. I’m not generally an action movie kinda gal, I tend to lose interest and get bored of the dizzying direction and muddled attacks, but, the sheer simplicity of this film kept me captivated the whole way through. And, it’s really funny, the audience laughed out loud a lot. It’s one and a half hours in the same space, with 10 characters, all of whom are flawlessly played. The styling of the film gives it a dark and muted palette, with hues of gold, dusty sand and sunset 70’s orange. The action isn’t fussy or messy, it’s sharp and witty, it holds your attention rather than making you feel like you’ve been whacked around the head with a rifle 100 times, which some action movies make me feel. When a movie is set in the 70’s it’s usually one of two things, a parody of the era, or absolute coolness; Free Fire is most definitely the latter. We’re seeing 70’s fashion at its very best. The guys are all big collars, plush fabrics and flares. Sharlto Copley as Vernon stands out as a fashion peacock in his pastel blue suit ‘from Saville Row’ who doesn’t wanna get blood splats on his threads! Larson’s Justine parades that classic bohemian meets Farrah Fawcett chic in a teal blazer, jeans, big hair and a neck scarf, it just doesn’t get much cooler than that. When asked why he chose to set this in the era of the 1970’s, Ben said that he had been reading about gun smugglers shipping weapons on the QE2 in the 70’s, from America to Ireland at the height of the IRA reign, and that fascinated him. Also, the lack of mobile phones at that time made his decision; “in an action film like this, if even one person had a mobile phone the story would be fucked” he said. I loved that it was set in this time, it felt truly authentic and had an awesome mix of glamour and grit. I personally would have liked more female characters in the film, but, Larson’s lone female role kicks ass in abundance, she kinda had the female representation covered all by herself. Ben got Martin Scorsese on board to be an executive producer which gives this movie even more prestige; Ben’s playing with the big boys now. Ben explained that he read of Scorsese complimenting one of his films and got to meet up with him, Scorsese then offered to get involved with his next project. Hell yes. What a guy. Free Fire is very slick, very fast, very seductive of your senses and is very, very cool.

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Free Fire is released on 31st March 2017

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A Dress From Audrey’s Wardrobe

I, have been working in vintage fashion for over 15 years now, and, by far, one of the things I MOST love about vintage is the history and stories behind the clothes. I adore the fact that many of these dresses have been around longer then I have been alive, have lived a life, enjoyed outings and been loved by others before me. I especially relish in a dress when I find out who it once belonged to and where it has been before it arrived in my hands. I love pink, I love gold and I love vintage dresses, so, my heart skipped a beat when I came across this amaaaazing sugar pink and gold satin brocade cocktail dress. I saw this beauty on eBay and, to be honest, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, it had captured me and I knew I needed to make it mine. I’m a determined girl and that dress wasn’t going to go anywhere except for my closet. It was destiny for sure. I bought the dress, hitting the ‘buy it now’ button without hesitation, I knew that it and I would be a perfect match. Helen, who sold it to me messaged me straight away explaining that it had belonged to her Mother, Audrey Watson, and that it was a part of her huge collection of clothing that she had lovingly collected throughout her lifetime and that she hoped I would love it as much as her Mother had; that it had been a hard one to let go of. It immediately added charm to the dress that I now knew who it had belonged to. Then it arrived. It fitted me as if it had been tailored just for me and I knew it was gonna go straight into my own personal collection of vintage dresses that I will never be able to part with. It is a pure stunner. I love it so much I included in in my collection of dresses recently showcased in The Vintage Show as part of Norwich Fashion Week, I just had to show it off. In the package with the dress, Helen kindly enclosed a copy of an article in Saga magazine about Audrey and her vast collection of clothing. I was thrilled to know more about the previous owner and hurriedly messaged Helen to tell her that I loved the dress even more than I thought I would and to ask if she could let Audrey know that it will be forever cherished. She was delighted, I was delighted, and I hope Audrey was delighted too, that her dress had found a new happy owner. IMG_9870

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Would ya just look at the beauty? Isn’t it pretty? Made by ‘Marjon Couture’, I discovered that Audrey bought this dream dress in 1962 in a small shop in Sleaford, in a sale, she actually bought two of the same dress and took apart the second in order to make a matching jacket. Oh my. Imagine the days when there was more than one of these dresses on the rail! Audrey will be 88 years old in May this year and during her life so far she has amassed thousands of items of fashion including dresses, jumpsuits, jewellery and shoes. Just imagine! What a fashionable gal! Her collection has even caught the eye of vintage lover Wayne Hemingway, that’s how great her archives are! During the 60’s and 70’s Audrey made many trips from her home in Lincolnshire down to London to hit the boutiques on the King’s Road and Carnaby Street. How I would adore to ask her about all her memories; “I went for clothes that stood out and were unusual rather than a particular label. I didn’t want to look like everyone else” she said to Saga Magazine. The interview in Saga goes on to say that ‘One outfit was rarely enough. Audrey used to put several in the car boot in case she changed her mind halfway through the evening’, she sounds like a true fashion dream! The majority of Audrey’s collection has now been auctioned off and is now being worn by a new generation, you can see more of the story on the Facebook page that Helen has set up. It turns out that Audrey never actually wore this pink dress, so I will be the first person, after all these years, to wear it, and I cannot wait. It has been cared for and saved by Audrey until it found it’s new owner; meeee! Thank you Audrey for this dress, it will be truly treasured. “All my clothes have memories attached” said Audrey, and now it will be making new memories with me. I couldn’t love it more.

Here’s some gorgeous pictures of Audrey and her love for fashion!

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First image by Anna Gowthorpe, images of Audrey by kind permission of Helen and her Facebook page

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