The New Grace Kelly

Congratulations to the happy couple! I got quite caught up in the romance of the day, how about the rest of you? I caught up witha long lost friend, with tea, cake, and strawberries and cream. Oh, and the plastic tiaras!!

One thing I really found remarkable was Catherine's composure. Bowing of the head each time William saluted. Not showing too much emotion, even though I bet she was bursting at the seams. This generation's 'ice-berg', as Grace Kelly was dubbed?

Worst bit of the day: the solemnity of the service. Repeating 3 times the 'fear of God' did nothing to inspire romance in me. It just scared me, especially in the voice of the Dark Lord...

What to Buy? Royal Wedding Souvenirs

Everyone's trying to cash in aren't they? What particularly annoyed me was when I found this site, which is totally not official but is trying to make out it is! 'The London Mint Office' doesn't exist!!

Asda has commissioned a mug that looks a bit more modern than most of the Royal china that gets done. I'm not sure if that's a good thing? I quite like the old-fashioned look with tiny pictures of the Royals and lots of pattern around the outside. Still, it's just £5 if it floats your boat!

Good old M&S have an entire section of their website dedicated to Royal Wedding inspired wares, from socks to umbrellas. My favourite item is their copy of the engagement ring, I know you can buy copies on the high-street from just £5 at the moment, but theirs is platinum-plated and still only £18.

How about a 'Kate & Will Always' t-shirt, from New Look? Just £8.99, or 2 for £12

Finally, as a 'joke' souvenir, you could buy a mug...with HARRY and Kate on it! It's been all over the news about the mistake someone made with this item, hilarious!

Available at Guandong Enterprises


Do let me know if you end up buying any tat to mark tomorrow's occasion!

Vintage Inspired: 1923 Range at Wallis

First, I must tell you that this range has nothing to do with the 1920s - that's just when British High Street store Wallis was launched. The collection that they have brought out is 1950s, from patterns in their archive. There are just 5 dresses, retailing at around £70 each. Let's have a look at them.

One of the dresses, a yellow-print sundress, no longer seems to be on the website - sold out already perhaps? Please excuse the lack of a picture!

My favourite is the green one, and I saw someone wearing the orange poppy one yesterday on an outing, it really was rather lovely and bright, really stood out from what everyone else was wearing.

What do you all think? £70 is a bit steep perhaps?

Poirot Fashion Special: The King of Clubs

Happy Easter to you! And welcome to another Poirot delight. Well, it's a small delight this week as The King of Clubs is an episode devoid of any real wardrobe changes - Niamh Cusack is the female lead but alas, the story is set over quite a short span of time and therefore she doesn't get many outfits in! First of all, Niamh is in a desert-scene in the film studio, and is wearing your typical desert-safari garb. The Arabian Prince on the left gets a better outfit deal in this scene for sure!


I don't mean to be unkind, but I'm not sure if the secretary in this next scene is actually a woman - she's really tall and quite masculine, is that actually a man in drag?! There's something about the hair that doesn't sit quite right. Love the bow, is that classed as a 'jabot'?


In contrast, Niamh looks feminine in this odd garment - is it a dress with a tunic jacket over it? It's so unusual, has anybody seen anything like this before? On looking through the accompanying Poirot Magazine to this episode, it's listed as a 'Mink day shawl'.

Later she changes into a lovely polkadot dress with matching hat, with a white fur coat over the top. Again the use of white fur shows just how much money she's making! I just love that the bow on the hat matches the one on the dress. For a very similar dress, you could try this one from Puttin' On the Ritz. The red dress the lady is wearing in the background is also nice but there isn't a clear shot of it.

The older lady on the phone has a brown blouse with white and orange print on it - or is it a dress?
Later, Niamh's in a white nightie as she recuperates from her little trauma of the night before.
Browns and dark reds again for the other ladies in the house, makes them seem quite drab in contrast, particularly as they don't have lipstick on! Still, I like the suit on the right.

We'll finish with a couple of shots of the gentlemen, just because I think they look quite dapper in these screen grabs!

I love the ostentatious look of this last shot, with the crazy blue swirling wallpaper and the gold everywhere - proper old Hollywood in feel.

That's all folks, it was indeed a short one this time!

Outfit Post: Tea by the Sea

Top and skirt (with belt): New Look

Neck Scarf: can't remember!

Deck shoes: Asda

Well, tea does always taste better out of a proper cup and saucer! Sorry for the poor quality of my photos recently - my camera has been repaired and they've promised I'll have it back soon, so normal service will be resumed shortly!

Also, has anyone else gone all healthy recently? I actually felt the urge to go for a run the other day, most unlike me I assure you!! The warm weather is having a tonic-like effect!

1938 Master Hair Stylist in Action

1938 Archive video from Scotland! Tune in from about 6 minutes for a video clip of a master hairstylist in action... Click here as I couldn't embed the video on this page. It's worth a click, I promise!

I found the video when I was researching Saxone regarding those mysterious boots, there's a little segment showing the factory in full swing too, and also a clip about dogs.

Enjoy!

Outfit Post: Spring Skirt

Skirt: Matalan

Shoes: Bronx

Pussybow Top: Next

Bag: Asda!

Mysterious Boots - Mystery Solved!

A little news - my other half contacted the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, home of the biggest shoe collection *in the world* (why haven't I been there?!)

One of their staff sent him a very helpful reply:

"I can quite definitively say they are ice skate boots. We have a very similar pair in the collection by Lilley & Skinner. They are almost the same colour of leather and have that very distinctive seam down the vamp (toe). When you look at the holes in the soles they are exactly the shape of skates. In fact you can clearly see the shape of the skate attachment. The area is very clean and has a faint black line. Outside of this area it is much more grubby and black. Saxone were a very large company producing many shoes over their manufacturing life. They made men's, women's and children's and this included boots for ice skates. Our Lilley & Skinner pair date to the 1920s. Yours could easily date to post First World War to 1920s."

So - that's quite a 'final answer' on this topic! They were indeed ice-skates. Thanks again to all of you lovely ladies who spent so much time looking at pictures and investigating boots for other sports!

Ebay: Accessorize Bag and a Cashmere Summer Sweater!

I've had another clearout - anyone want a brand new with tags Accessorize bag, or a cashmere short-sleeved jumper? 99p starting bids on both... Click here for the link to my Ebay store. Sorry for the shameless self-promotion of my wares (not even vintage ones) but I'm only £10 away from having enough money in my paypal account for a pair of vintage repro jeans, and I'm desperate to get the last tenner in soon!!

Day Trip: Bath Wedding Exhibition & Afternoon Tea!

I've been on a small adventure today! A trip to Bath to see my friend Victoria, and her friend Jan. We are all vintage-obsessed, so a trip to the Fashion Museum was a must. The exhibition currently running is 'What will she wear?', a special collection of wedding dresses spanning well over a century. My Beloved did raise an eyebrow when I said I was going to look at wedding dresses until I explained that it was purely for Victoria and Jan to get inspiration for their creative works, and for me to do a little blog post. It's a great exhibition, some really interesting dresses. They're not presented in chronological order, so it was really noticeable when a modern 'bad taste' dress was nestled next to a vintage beauty - I'm citing the dress in the bottom right of my little photo montage as a prime example of this. Who would want buttock cleavage at their wedding?!

Dress ages, from left to right,

Top row: early 1900's; early 1960's; 1928

Middle row: 1940s; 1934; 1959

Bottom row: 1989; 1878; 1992

Vintage Inspired: Electric Gypsy

I came across the brand Electric Gypsy a little while ago, as they stock it in Cardiff's Looby Loo's boutique. It's a brand that has vintage-inspired dresses from across the decades, as well as stocking vintage dresses from the 1960s and 1970s. Based in Devon, they are a brand to consider if you're trying to buy British! The vintage-inspired collection is based on real vintage patterns, but they promise they've adjusted the patterns to suit modern figures. Here are my top picks from their current selection, but they welcome customisation of the dresses with your own choice of fabrics so this isn't definitive.

1930's Cape Collar Dress, £65

1930's Esther Dress, £67.00

1940's Tea Dress, £68.00 1940's Make Do Dress, £68.00 1950's Bow Dress, £56.00 1950's Sweetheart Dress, £51.00 1960's British Bulldog Scooter Shift Dress, £42.00

1960's Kimono Dress, £45.00

My own personal favourite is the first dress in red - alas, I tried it on in Looby Loo's and it appears I'm too tall for it! The bust didn't sit in the right place on me, but then I am 5'9" and used to this problem. My other criticism would be that ideally that dress would be in some sort of drapey fabric, like a crepe or a silk (or just a synthetic version to keep the price down!). However, it's done in a stiff cotton, and it just doesn't do it for me. Still, I think the stiff cotton works well for some of the other dresses, such as the 1950s styles.

Have a look at their website ladies, and report back if you make any purchases!

Outfit Post: My 'Peggy' Dress

Dress: Tara Starlet

Gloves: Vintage - Looby Loo's Boutique, Cardiff

Shoes: Office

The Affair of the Mysterious Boots Continues!

It sounds like a Poirot novel, doesn't it?! Thank you all so much again for your responses to my post requesting help in identifying these mysterious boots. We've also been in touch with a curator at an auction house and while he couldn't help with the identification he said that interest in golf memoribilia (if they are indeed golf boots!) has dropped so that selling them at auction isn't recommended. I think my beloved has decided to sell them on ebay because he really has no use for them and neither of us has space at the moment for such artefacts! Maybe in the future when we have a big house we could have a car-boot treasure room, but that's some distance away. I'll let you all know anyway if he decides to sell them. In the meantime, here are some more photos for you to have a look at. Thanks again, I really was impressed by the level of knowledge you readers have! Porcelina xz

Mysterious Vintage Boots

Vintage shoe experts, step forward! I have already asked folks over at The Fedora Lounge about these boots but haven't had any confident responses so it's over to you readers to solve this mystery!

My other half found an interesting pair of boots in the car boot sale on Sunday morning and we'd really appreciate some help in identifying a) what kind of boots they are and b) how old they are. They're supersoft brown leather, with leather soles and eyelet lacing up the front. The aglets at the ends of the laces are metal. Stamped inside with 'Saxone' in gold, and some numbers. Soles are stamped with 640 N (N for narrow? They're barely 2 inches wide at the arch of the foot!) Length of the boots is 10 and a half inches approx. They have a small, wide flat heel.

My other half is convinced they're womens' because of the small width but I'm not sure at all. The other odd thing is that the soles haven't got any real wear and are dotted with holes indicating that maybe something was attached - ice skates perhaps? However, there is no ankle-support whatsoever, it's soft, floppy leather, and the laces don't come far enough down the boots as is normal on skates.

My research so far has shown that the Saxone Shoe Co. Ltd was founded in 1901 and they had a factory in Kilmarnock, Scotland. I think they even had two factories there at one point when business was obviously booming! They made both men and women's shoes, but I have no idea if they did indeed make ice-skates. They made military style boots in the 1915-1918 period as I've seen a couple of old newspaper ads on the web for that sort of thing - click here for an example.

I'd be interested to hear your views - pics are below to help stimulate your little grey cells!

Chasing Spring

A good friend of mine has embarked on a crazy adventure - following the path of Spring up the length of the UK. By bicycle!! Izzy and her co-cyclist, Matt, are creating a documentary, and you can follow their progress on their website. They both have diaries too charting their progress - read Izzy's here.



They're up in the Midlands at the moment, two weeks in I think so that's great progress!