New stock: Vintage headband 80s velvet

boy und schwester vintage brings you this fab vintage velvet 80s headband. You can't help but love it! It makes me smile every time I see it. And, it's only $10/£5. What more could you ask? :)

Available on boy und schwester's etsy shop here. And don't forget to check out our other stock! :)

What I'm wearing: Walter Sickert colours

I posted last week about Walter Sickert's use of colour and here's an outfit inspired by his palette. The eagle eyed amongst you will recognise the necklace - I changed the cord for the ribbon to inject more colour.

Dress from H&M

Necklace Accessorize with ribbon from MacCulloch & Wallis

Tights M&S

Shoes Zara

I really want some teal and green-y greys to take this further. But I must resist, it's been an expensive month!

Under the weather :(

I've been day dreaming about wearing some of my vintage dresses this week and I wish I looked like this today (another favourite Walter Sickert painting)

but in reality I am wearing old jeans and my brother's jumper and am developing a deep and meaningful relationship with my Kleenex.

New stock: beautiful summer vintage dress

What a gorgeous dress brought to you by boy und schwester vintage clothing! I found this little gem in South London a few weeks ago. It's in very good condition with no staining. It's white knit fabric with a gorgeous cornflower blue stripe running through it. There's a matching cardigan that's very cute and makes it very versatile. It's mid 1950s but is still a bargaineous $50/£25!

On sale here, at boy und schwester's vintage clothing shop on Etsy.

Blogs of interest: My Mom, the Style Icon

Every now and again I come across a blog which makes me realise just how awesome they can be! On My Mom, the Style Icon readers submit images of their mums looking stylish. It's vintage fashion heaven! I can get lost in it for hours. Enjoy!

My current favourite - what a perfect photo.

It reminds me of the competition the Sartorialist is running to submit old photos of your family and he'll publish the best. Give it a go! Details under the Celine Book Contest post of 24 March, can't link to it directly, sorry.

Inspiration: Walter Sickert's Venetian palette

Are you finding the weather hard to dress for too? I have this huge sense of spring coming. I want to wear bright colours, light fabrics and be outside but the weather swings from sunny to overcast to rainy to cold to sticky at the drop of the hat.

I'm finding solace in the colour palette transition. Beautiful tones of grey, blue and green but mixed with shots of gold and yellow. I love Walter Sickert's work, I hope you find his colouring inspiring too!

Photos from The Telegraph, Country Life and The Independent.

Etsy: the Etsy edit and random search terms

Because the fine people of the UK are less familiar with the wonderfulness that is Etsy, I thought I'd do a series of posts on them to introduce it.

Etsy is a hand-made, vintage and supplies version of Ebay. It's based in America, hence all the prices are in $ but you can buy from the UK easily.

One of my favourite Etsy activities is 'the random search term browse.' For example, today I was eating raisins so I entered raisin and here is a selection of the incredibly, randomly brilliant stuff I found on Etsy...

Here's an American artist's amusing yet serious comment on the current situation of farmers in the US. On sale here.

Or how about a vintage 1940s raisin bran cereal box? Yup, a vintage cereal box. You gotta love the dedication.
This has to be a winner... a Sun-Maid raisins light switch cover!

And that's the genius of Etsy!

New stock: lovely cream handbag

I do like this handbag. Sometimes you find small treasures where you least except them! I found this beauty in South London a few weeks ago. It's listed for $25 - that's about £12.50, so a bargain for a piece of late 1950s-1960s loveliness!

The rest of my stock can be seen here.

Vintage fashion dichotomy

When I wear vintage clothing I am torn between two looks.

1. Bettie Page
Photo from moviestill.

2. Icy, covered up, composure.
Photo from My Vintage Vogue.

Resolution: it's all about what's underneath. Bettie has the answer for everything.
Photo from Threadless Tees.

ps - the film, The Notorious Betty Page, is brilliant. Full of the most amazing outfits, watch it!

Blogs of interest: Klswan

So my very stylish and lovely flatmate Katie has just started her own blog, reviewing films. We're very 21st century and social media aware here!

It's a great blog and has round ups of films being released soon and reviews. Have a look!

And since I write a fashion blog, here she is, surprised this morning on her way to work! Katie would win the Olympic gold medal for stylish layering. And here's a great example.

Hotty McTotty spotting!

I really don't think my 100 or so Twitter followers were excited enough about the fact the I saw David Gandy in the street on Monday.

Then I realised the name might not mean much so I thought I'd post a picture of him. He is the Dolce & Gabbana model.
Ok, I just could not resist posting this.

And to top it off, on Tuesday, the day after I saw Hotty McTotty number 1, I saw Hotty McTotty number 2, Dominic West in Soho! Dominic West of The Wire, 300 and The Devil's Whore. I am a lucky (and very happy) woman.

Oh, and they are both as attractive in real life.

Beyonce's yellow Telephone video dress

So we've all watched Telephone by now and had a What the Gaga? moment at it's 10 minute length and general mind-boggling crazy fabulousness. There's been plenty of talk about the fashion it but I'm not sure the source of Beyonce's yellow dress has been much identified. Well, here it is, brought to you by boy und schwester! It's made by Atsuko Kudo, a couture latex designer, whose designs are regularly featured in high end fashion magazines.

If you want your own, it will only set you back £230. Not bad for a piece of music video and fashion history.

Vintage gold leather frame handbag with matching mirror and purse

More new stock! Wow, I'm on fire this week! :)

Lovely vintage evening handbag in soft gold leather. It has a matching coin purse and a mirror, which is original.
On sale now for $18! Bargainaous! Click here to buy it.

Vintage bedroom ideas from vintage fashion photography

Vintage Vanities and Old Hollywood Glamour, a post on the blog Love Your Place, has lots of inspiring vintage bedroom ideas.

Here are some defining features:
1. A striking, sculptural chair for your dressing table (or in my case, Argos desk...)

2. Plenty of mirrors, even mirrored furniture. Marks & Spencer has some nice examples that aren't too twee. They're in the sale too!

3. Stylish lighting, all the dressing tables have lamps. Investing in a statement lamp will transform the look. It's easy to pick up vintage lighting on Etsy and Ebay, just get them safety checked!

4. It's all about the careful accessorisation (is that even a word?) Silver backed hair brushes, beautiful perfume bottles and a very few casually strewn jewels.

Here are my favourite images.
Greta Garbo looking incredible in a beautiful 1930s bedroom. Note the mirror, lighting and accessorisation!

Beautiful lamp here, the stem is filled with fake flowers. And there's a mirrored bedside table.

Sculptural chair and lots of mirror!

And finally, it's not just a 21st century thing to have too many shoes!

New stock! Beautiful 80s belt

New stock! Finally!

A small string of accessories will be put up over the next week and here's the first item, a lovely 80s belt. It's navy and beautiful. I wish it fitted me, but it's too small :( I hope someone out there fits it and can enjoy it! A bargain at $18.
Look at it here and the rest of it my shop here!

Brogues and braces

I was feeling inspired by Kleidsam yesterday when I got dressed and so I whipped out my brogues and men's trousers and wore one of my favourite looks 'girls in classic men's clothing.' You can just about see the braces too, which I'd not worn before. I love them! So pleased I finally wore them.

At my mother's house, with a suitable back drop for brogues and braces.

Blogs of interest: Kleidsam

I came across this blog via, erm, I'm not sure... either What You Wore (the reader's part of What Katie Wore) or another German blog. I've been reading a few as practice to improve my German. I figure German fashion blogs are legitimate practice!

His blog Kleidsam is in English though and features Dennis, an extremely dapper guy from Hessen. I love what he wears: classic gentleman, brought up to date. It reminds me of a more conservative What's James Wearing? That's another favourite man's style blog!
Love the flash of orange and double jackets. So well brought together.
Brown check on brown check with blue check? Click for a bigger image to see it better. It's serious pattern matching. Masterful!

It's all in the details - like the cuff turned up on these jeans.
And the purple and brown. A favourite of combination of mine!

1950s dress with incredible strip skirt

Photo from MyVintageVogue.com
This dress is incredible. It looks so modern yet it's old. Does anyone know anything more about it? It reminds me of Prada Autumn/Winter 2009.
Photo from Style.com
I think the idea would lend itself very easily to a DIY project. You could even just buy a leather pencil skirt and slice it up. Simple.

Alexander McQueen's last collection

The last collection Alexander McQueen ever created was shown yesterday. It's unbelievably beautiful, like all his work. I think everyone feels a little like McQueen's clothing speaks to them, but this one feels very personal to me. He combined my love of the medieval world with his beautiful clothes.

Click here for full size shots from Style.com

Look 13 is my favourite, if I had to pick just one.

More vintage interiors...

I thought the last post I wrote on vintage interiors was fairly rubbish to be honest! I surprised anyone read it at all! So here's a better one...

I don't know about you, but it can be easy to get into the habit of thinking the past was always nostalgic and twee. For example, the imagined 1950s often look this:
When in reality, it was a decade with as much cutting edge design as now. The Royal Festival Hall was built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain (note that the shell centre hasn't even been built yet!)
The 1950s also gave us numerous awesome pieces of Ercol furniture. These tables were designed in 1956.
Funnily enough, these tables are still on sale at the Royal Festival Hall, at their shop on Festival Terrace. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of my own Ercol chairs - the spindel back kind.

This reminds me of the modern Bang and Olufsen phone shaped like this.

A really great place to get vintage interior style ideas is from vintage fashion photography. A great way to combine two passions - vintage fashion and vintage interior design! Here are a selection from My Vintage Vogue, a website with a brilliant selection of vintage fashion photographs.





Vintage fashion photographs all from My Vintage Vogue.

Now you can lust over vintage clothes and vintage interior design!

An incredibly well dressed Oscars 2010

The world and his wife will be blogging about Oscar dresses today but who cares!

My hands down favourite was Sarah Jessica Parker in Chanel Couture. Kudos for wearing something a little different on the red carpet that was unusual, up-to-date and a beautiful colour. She looked incredible. I'm sad that not everyone else agrees. Photo from Red Carpet Fashion Awards.

I loved Vera Farmiga's use of colour. Her Marchesa dress is stunning. It could have drowned some people but she looks so composed in it. Oh, for an ounce of that poise! Photo from the LA Times, who also have a lovely selection of photos of the dresses.

Anna Kendrick, co-star of Vera Farmiga from Up in the Air, also looked lovely in Elie Saab. Romantic and soft without being frilly and girly. I love her hair too. Photo from My Fashion Life.

Yay for Tina Fey! She looks hot in Michael Korrs! Proving clever, funny women are attractive and stylish! Modern feminism at work?! Photo from My Fashion Life.

Kate Winselt simply glowed last night in Yves Saint Laurent. Photo from LA Times.

She's my age so I can't really say she looks sweet, but Carey Mulligan does look so excited to be at the Oscars! I like her Prada dress a lot but don't love it. More colour perhaps? The sequin details are little scissors and other fun things. Photo from the LA Times.

One of the best dressed on the red carpet was Meryl Streep in Chris March, she looks modern and stunning. Photo from LA Times.

Maggie Gyllenhaal also looked great. A lovely use of print and colour. She looked modern and un-princessy, which so many others went for. Isn't this picture of her and her brother Jake lovely? Photo from The Telegraph.

Kirsten Stewart looked the best I have ever seen her on the red carpet in Monique Lhullier. I think it's mainly because she's smiling! Some earrings would have made it perfect though.
Photo from The Telegraph.

And wait for this one, Miley Cyrus looked nice. A little orange perhaps, but what a lovely dress from Jenny Packham.
Photo from The Telegraph.

I really like the thought that went into Robert Downey Jr.'s teal bow tie. None of the men on the red carpet were going to do a 'What James Wore?' but I like this bit of interest. Apparently it matches the colour of his wife's dress but you can't really tell that from this photo. Photo from the LA Times.

But, for interest, just note the difference in how the bow tie sits in the shirt collar in these photos of Robert Downey Jr and Tom Ford... Photo from the BBC.

Tom Ford - the manifestation of perfection in detail. And don't you love the leather white rose? The details make the man.