Fashion and style changes- what does a rockabilly pagan wear?

Last night I went down memory lane and looked at all the photos I had been tagged in on Facebook and how different my style is now from when I was in my early twenties.

When I was at younger I was at art college and I dressed more Gothic than anything else. Black and red was my watch words and I loved the style. I even brought a PVC dress for my 21st birthday! 

This picture use to get me a lot of 'likes' on vampirefreaks!

Everything I wore was pretty much red and black!

As time went by and I got more involved with the faerie and fantasy art community I found my style became a bit more hippie with other colours like purple and brown creeping in, my ears even grew longer and pointy!

At chalice well gardens 2009

For a little while my fashion sense went out the window, no longer feeling I could carry off being gothic as I got older and was no longer a student.

Then this happened!

I won a beautiful dress on eBay from Hell Bunny and I decided to learn how do do my hair in a vintage style to go with it, well I had never received so many compliments from friends and complete strangers  and it made me feel good!

Now I don't dress like this everyday so now my fashion style is a fusion of rockabilly, 40s/50s style along with a more ethic/ pagan clothing. So I have evolved a rockabilly pagan fashion style!

But of course there is always the excuse to get dressed up as a faerie!

 A dread pirate!

or a Steampunk!

My clothing choice has changed over the years I think I feel at my most confident now with my style and really that is all that matters.

My Best Friend's Wedding

This blog post will be in two halves. The first half will be a overview of what I have recently been
Up to and the second half will be a review on something from that day.

So last Thursday, (26th April) was my best friends wedding which I was a bridesmaid at. During the planning stage The bride to be said that we could wear whatever style bridesmaid dress we wanted as long as it was purple and something we would be happy to wear again. Instantly I new I wanted a 1950s style dress.
During my search I decided upon a satin halter neck circle dress from vintage repro company Vivien of Holloway. It was a little bit more expensive then I had budgeted for but I did have 15% off so I took the plunge and ordered one.
In a recent post I showed a photo of how my hair was going to look and I found some fabulous purple patent shoes for £25 from M and S.
The night before the wedding we all gathered at one of the other bridesmaids house for massages and a sleep over so we could all get ready in the morning together.
The bride was so excited the following morning that I decided to get up at 6:30 to join in the excitement. I planned to do my hair in victory rolls so after I put my dress on I got to work curling my hair using curling tongs and pinning them in place to help keep the curl.  I suppose they cam out Ok but I think the practice ones I did were a lot better and placed neater on my head.
We managed to get ready in time and arrived promptly at the registry office and the rain was holding back but it was bitterly cold and windy. It really didn't feel like April.
After the ceremony we went back to the brides and grooms for nibbles and more photographs before going on to a local carvery for the wedding reception and a disco in the evening. It was a very simple (though didn't feel that way in preparation for it!)  yet wonderful day.

The Bride with Bridesmaids

The dress- My review.
I am so glad I decided to buy the Vivien of Holloway dress. The Purple satin was a divine colour and the fit of the dress was just perfect and I felt comfortable in it the whole day, from 8:30 till midnight.
Many people commented on how lovely the dress looked on me which always great to hear. One thing I wish I had done was to invest in a better petticoat but I ran out of the funds and had to make do with an old petticoat I had from a previous wedding.

Dancing is when this dress really came into it's own. I loved spinning in it.

Another point, after such a long day it did pick up a few stains on the way, mainly from a little girl who plastered her sticky food covered hand on my dress to help get her off the floor, I didn't mind but I did have a reminder  left on the skirt so I will have to get it dry cleaned before I can wear it again.
If Vivien of Holloway clothing has been calling to you and you have been putting it off then take it from me, the clothing is worth the price and is extremely well made and comfortable to wear. Just make sure you measure correctly because 1950s clothing size are completely different to modern sizing.

Taken just before going home. The lipstick had long since worn off but the victory rolls were still in place!

Photos by LJS Digital Photography and from wedding guest.
Dress: http://www.vivienofholloway.com/

Spectacular spectacles

I wear glasses for my short sightedness and for the longest time I have been searching for some vintage frames to wear as I love the 1950s cat-eye style.

eBay searches have been a bit lacking but etsy proved to bring forth a huge amount of wonderful frames of different shape and price.

I found this pair which I brought from America, but the lenses on them were very thick, I felt sorry for the previous owner as their eyesight must have been really poor!

Photo  courtesy of the etsy seller retroactivevintage

The glasses are in quite good condition apart from the plastic on the temple ends are now quite brittle which is to be expected with 60 year old plastic.

Fellow blogger and Rockabilly jewellery maker Dolly Cool recommended Ineedspex.co.uk for fitting replacement prescription lenses into vintage frames, so as soon as my frames arrived from America I shipped them off again to have my prescription put in for £15.

My frames came back at the weekend and I am thrilled with them!

They are two toned aluminium and brass colour with a etched leaf pattern.

On the inside arm is the inscription Dorothy Gotez/ Gotey not sure on the last letter, who was probably the poor near-sighted original owner.

  

It's amazing what different eye shapes frames do to your face.

I'm now on the search for some frames can get tinted lenses put in as sunglasses.