Velvet Teen

Wearing a 1950s floral velvet dress, Datter ring and necklace, vintage bangle, Melissa flocked wedges via Recycle Boutique and vintage belt from Two Squirrels.

I got this beautiful rose-print 1950s or 1960s velvet dress from the same Trade Me seller I got this dress from a few weeks ago. She is selling off a good portion of her vintage collection, and I have gladly taken four of them off her hands so far. This is definitely my favourite so far, and maybe even one of my favourite vintage dresses ever. I am trying to move my wardrobe towards being a little more seasonally versatile, so I feel sensible velvet dresses with three-quarter sleeves are a good idea for Wellington. My shoes are new too - the second-hand-but-modern kind of new. I got them from Recycle Boutique the other day, mainly because they reminded me of my long-time internet friend Gabs (who doesn't have a blog for some reason) who always wears full-skirted 1950s dresses with huge badass mary jane wedges. These shoes make me so tall I don't have to constantly be gazing upward to look people in the eye, and I can actually reach the microwave in our house. Magic.

Also pictured: I am wearing eyeliner haha, continuing to attempt to become a makeup-wearing person. My boss (who is probably reading this, hi Fi!) is a total makeup guru and recommended me Maybelline gel eyeliner because my chronic shakey hands mean liquid eyeliner is out of the question. It turned out to be awesome and easy to apply, and I am pleased to report I have not just drawn a zigzag across my eyelid this time. Also pictured: ugh sorry about my part, idk what my hair is doing. It is not meant to be like that. I kind of hate my hair and want to cut it off right now. Also: my lovely aunties gave me this beautiful Datter ring for my 21st and I could not be happier with it. Also: my mum sent me this photo of my dad holding me when I was a baby and he is just really, really handsome.

Sponsorship 'n' shit

I have always had mixed feelings about sponsored/care of/advertising posts on the blog. Christie and I have turned down lots of offers from companies who don't really fit into our aesthetic or we're just not that into, because it seems ridiculously disingenuous to promote something you don't even like on this very personal platform. Boohoo contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if I'd like to do a product review, and I immediately thought I'd politely decline. New-new (as opposed to old-new) clothes don't generally appeal to me massively, but I had a squiz through the 'new items' bit and came across this floral brocadey dress and fell in love a bit. 

It really, really appealed to me because I guess I try to look a little bit more ~profesh~ at work than I did slobbing around as a student. I am luck that my workplace has a much more casual environment than many, but some of my clothes are just not quite there in terms of work-appropriateness. As I'm sure many other vintage lovers experience, a lot of my clothes have flaws that I don't really care about - stains, little repairs, loose threads, wonky hems and faded fabrics. Although I don't mind these at all in everyday wear, I do like to smarten up a little for work. I also find most work-appropriate clothing kinda bland, except stuff from Cue and Orla Kiely but I really can't afford that. (Side note: if anyone knows of any blogs that incorporate vintage into officewear, please let me know!)

So I thought this dress bridged a good gap - very vintage-looking, with its multicoloured shimmery brocade fabric, but still 'smart' enough that I can wear it to the office and not feel weirdly self-conscious. The dress also has a great scoop back and cap sleeves, and the skirt holds its shape well because of the stiffness of the fabric. I'm wearing it with an amazing embroidered 1950s woolen cardigan that I got today from Emporium Vintage, old tights, and these amazing Chloe mary jane flats that I found at Recycle Boutique. They are the most excellent quality shoes I've worn in a while, and when I took them up to the counter they turned out to be half price too. What a win.

So, yeah. I decided to give it a go, the whole advertising-y thing. I am really, really interested in how you all feel about sponsored posts on blogs, and I would love to get some dialogue going. I definitely prefer blogs with a more personal tone rather than a more advertising-y tone. I find it a little discouraging/hard to relate to when an entire outfit is c/o and every post contains something that was sent for review, but the odd bit of advertising or free stuff doesn't bother me at all. It's hard to turn down something that is free and nice, such as this dress. However, I would much rather be honest here than get sent tonnes of free stuff and make readers feel alienated in the process. This blog is not a source of income for me - although I know for many bloggers theirs are, and that's totes okay, just really not my thing. It's more of a way to connect with people and chat about the semiotics of this little world and the way we dress ourselves without too much corporate intrusion - I hope? The whole concept of blogging as a bottom-up way to affect the market is so problematic, though, and I don't want to lapse into that. I guess it comes down to that I don't want my tone or the framing of my posts to be even slightly altered by the hope that companies will see me as marketable. Some people are just really inherently attractive and have saleable images, but I think I would struggle to come across as one of those people.

Soo... thoughts?

Twenty-one

Easter Monday was also April Fool's Day, and also my 21st birthday. I had a super super super fun day, mainly because I got to go feed the red pandas at Wellington Zoo! They were SO CUTE and friendly and amazing! They had these big blunt claws and if you held the little bits of chopped up pear and grape just out of reach they would use them to pull you a bit closer to have a nibble. They climbed all over us and one of them liked me so much she even stayed on my knee for ages once I had run out of food. Also, even though they are kind of big they are really light because they're like 80% fur. Oh god I can't stop thinking about how cute they were and how much I want one as a house pet. Thinking about how adorable they are renders me unable to find any adjectives other than 'cute' and 'adorable' to describe them. Ughhh. I would seriously recommend doing this to anyone in Wellington who likes cuddling adorable animals, which I really do.

Haha, the pandas matched Jack's beard. I wore this amazing 1950s California Cottons heart-print dress that I have posted before on Instagram here and here. I got it from Ziggurat, a which is the most amazing vintage shop here. They had it in the window on Valentine's Day and I decided immediately that it must be mine. It is in beautiful condition and is basically perfect in every way, and I somehow managed to not wear it once before my ~special day. I wore it with opshopped booties, because we had to have sensible footwear, and a 1950s sequinned cardigan off Trade Me. The rest of my birthday was awesome too because it involved curry and beer and wine and gnocchi and more wine.

 

I also had a really nice birthday surprise when Jack made me this cake! The first photo is from my first birthday, and I was going through a phase where I was really obsessed with Pebbles. My big brother James dropped around so we could recreate this classic shot before we demolished this delicious confection. 

While I am being self-obsessed and posting photos of myself that really have nothing to do with fashion other than the fact I am wearing clothes, my friend Jo of Johanna Macdonald Photography took these amazing photos of me hanging out with my new cat friend, who isn't actually mine but seems to think she is.