The New Vintage Look at Proud Cabaret

Once again I apologise for lack of posting, I have been ridiculously busy organising something rather exciting! So I hope you will all let me off when you see the reasons why!

Between my friend Sarah and myself, we've been putting together what we hope will be the start of something a little bit amazing.
The New Vintage look! A vintage inspired charity evening full of fashion, fun and frightfully good music and burlesque! Tuesday 10th April at the renowned Proud Cabaret in the heart of London.

Personally I've wanted to do this show for a good couple of years now and finally the time has come.
The New Vintage look is a fashion evening showcasing some of the best 1940s and 50s reproduction clothing companies from the UK, Sweden, and USA, these include the amazing Bernie Dexter, Vintage suits by Mary, Collectif, Heyday vintage, Miss Fortune, Lady K Loves,Playful Promises, Outerlimitz, Stockings and Romance, the Pretty dress company, Miss Bamboo,Miss Candy floss, Oh Sew Vintage, Boo boo Kitty Couture and Scarlett's Vintage attire, wowee what a selection we have for all you lovely ladies out there!
These fabulous companies will be showcased in a catwalk where the gorgeous models will also be wearing Bow and Crossbones jewellery and Razorblaid Mermade jewellery!

As well as the show, there will be burlesque from the outstanding Tempest Rose, cabaret from Alex the Mind reader and Daisy Bourne - hoop artiste

To finish the night off we will have one of the UK's top bands on the Rockin Scene - Knocksville, who have toured with Imelda May and also recently played in Europe, so remember to bring your dancing shoes because these guys will have you on your feet!

If you fancy grabbing yourself a bargain then we'll have something right up your street, a charity auction! Lots of companies have given us great prizes including two pairs of Miss L fire shoes, a dress from Tara Starlet, a hair and make up voucher from The Vanity Box, a manicure voucher from Minnie Moons as well a whole lot more, so we're hoping you'll all dig deep and help raise lots more money!

All money raised is going to the Royal Brompton and Harefield Charity to help fund a neonatal incubator to treat seriously ill babies with heart and lung defects. This charity is a very personal one to me for close members of my family have been treated there and we want to say thank you for all their support! 

Tickets are £12 and are available from

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/159146  

When you buy a ticket you will be entered into a competition to win a pinup photo shoot worth over £250! 

So what are you waiting for, please show your support with us on Tuesday 10th April and make it a night to remember!

Check our website www.thenewvintagelook.co.uk
facebook.com/thenewvintagelook
twitter: @newvintagelook
Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

Champagne in a tea cup... Well it can only be the Vintage Patisserie

At the end of last year and beginning of this year I bagged myself a placement at the fabulous Vintage Patisserie: Angel Adoree and her tremendous team turn dreams into realities with their vintage tea parties they put on in and around the London area. During my time there I did a lot of researching and bits and bobs here and there towards the then up and coming Vintage Tea party book and I learnt a lot about myself and about the Vintage Patisserie and all in all had a top notch time!
A lot of time had passed and before I knew it I saw plugs for the book being released on Amazon and I was pleasantly surprised when I got an invite through the door a few weeks back saying that I had been invited to Angel's Vintage Tea party book launch, even though I was stuck in the middle of nowhere in deepest darkest Lowestoft, I made sure that I managed to get my backside down to London for the party of the season!

I wish all invites looked like this!

 I wasn't really sure of what to wear as this was my first launch party (oh I felt all grown up!)  so I decided on something simple yet glam, a vintage black velvet pencil skirt and a peach embroidered blouse with heels, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my outfit because I was in too much of a rush!  (my feet felt like they were likely to drop off after getting back to my friends). But I trundled along to 93 feet east in Brick Lane and was greeted by one of the ladies from the Patisserie straight away.

Lauren and another beaut from the Patisserie

As I wandered around I was glad to see friendly faces who I'd worked with all those months ago and also saw other faces I recognised such as Gizzi Erskine, the TV presenter and chef and the Vintage Socialite Fleur De Guerre. The girls from the Patisserie were gliding round keeping the guests happy and making sure our cups were full of Champagne or Gin, yum yum  I was more than happy sipping taking the enchanting atmosphere in. I got talking to the lovely Gerado of Vintage Victory, what a super Gent! and looking very dapper I must say! By the looks of it everyone was having the time of their lives,women walking around with Victory Rolls in their hair and Angel was kept busy socialising with everyone, which must have took a long while because it was absolutely packed!!

There was a 40s style french swing band on who really got the crowd going and there were some great Lindy hoppers dancing along, this was Lindy hop at it's best, I'm not usually a big fan of it but I was in aw of it! This really livened the party up and everyone was dancing their socks off, it really was the perfect Vintage tea party.

 These two were fantastic, I really enjoyed watching them! I'd love to give it a go but I think I'd end up tripping over my feet, I'll stick to jiving I think!

I didn't stay too long but had a grand time when I was there and it was really great to see Angel and her ladies again, I do miss them all very much, so I'm hoping when I graduate she will have me back!
I even managed to wangle a goodie bag and it sure as hell lived up to it's name!

Look at all the goodies I got!! I was getting a bit low on stocking and nail polish so I was more than happy with these!

A little chocolate, it didn't last long trust me, it looked too good to eat!!

The book and goodie bag!!

Lookie look!! Angel mentioned me in the book for helping out! I feel honoured!

This really made me smile, I have to say!

I managed to have a look at the book when I was on the tube and it is truly an amazing book, there has been so much thought and effort into it, it's beautiful, the design, the recipes, everything about it, I can't wait to read it properly and try out (well attempt) some of the recipes, ha me and cooking, I should be so lucky!!
So if you've not picked a copy up yet, buy one because it is worth every penny!

Angel and the ladies of the Vintage Patisserie

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

Victory Rolls... The happy shopper version

So after my last post I had a comment asking if I could give any tips on how to do Victory rolls so I thought I'd quickly put some images together and give you a how to! because to be honest I'm not sure how I learn, I just practised one day and voila there we had it, Victory rolls... Bettina style! Now they're not perfected in any way yet but I think this will give you a rough idea of how I do them and you may be able to figure it out a bit better then I showed you!!

So here we go!! Excuse the really poor quality images and the person in the images wearing very little make up and Afro hair... It is a Wednesday and I have washed my hair!  But anyway...

I don't think it matters on where your parting is in your hair, I've had a side parting since I was about 12 years old because personally I do not think a centre one suits me but victory rolls often work really well with a centre parting and it is easier when it comes to sectioning your hair off because you get an even amount on each side...

Start by getting a small section of hair (enough to make quite a thick roll out of it!)

Then get a comb and back comb near the roots of the section so it makes it stand out a bit more,

make sure you smooth it all out before or after you've done your roll because otherwise you look
like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards and that is not a good look!

Next get the end of the section of the hair and roll it into a circle... If you're having trouble with this you can spray it a bit with hairspray so it all stays in place when you're rolling it. Once you have rolled the end into a circle, keep rolling it towards your head like you word a pin curl so then it looks like a barrel against your scalp. (Everyone now Roooolllll outtt thhheee barrrellll... no just me? )

 Grip it in place with Kirby Grips, you can try to hide them so it looks like it's standing up all by itself but if that's too fiddly just clip it in anywhere so it stays in place

And if any of that made sense it should look something like this!

Basically you have to do exactly the same on the other side but when it comes to Sectioning it make sure its around the same amount of hair as the other roll because when it comes to rolling it it could look uneven and ruin the whole Do!

Rolling the second one may take a few attempts to make sure it looks even and right compared to the other, but luckily you've got the other side of your head to look at to even them out!

And this is what the rolls should look like! Given they are a bit scruffy but you get the idea I hope?

Now if you have a fringe you could always leave it but I think this often ruins the hair style so why not try rolling your fringe too?

You don't necessarily have to have a fringe to be able to roll it, just make sure you section a small part of your hair before you start this whooole process

You do the fringe roll pretty much similar to the others but I don't tend to back comb mine, I used to have to do it with heated rollers or tongs but I've got the hang of doing it without these now, if you are still a bit wary you can just roll it with your tongs and then clip it in place with a grip

I tend to do mine at a diagonal angle because I think it shapes my face better but you can do it horizontal so you've got a Bettie Page Esq style fringe, I find it looks more forties then a diagonal fringe so I tend to stay away from it because I'm more of a fifties gal.

Try curling the rest of your hair with tongs or rollers to glam it up more or you can clip the rest of the hair up also for a easy up do!

But ta da here is what you should end up with!!

All in all this took me around 5 minutes to do, not bad really considering I've only

just got the hang of it! This may take you a bit longer at first but once you've got the hang of it you'll be able to do it easy peasy, but be prepared to have aching arms because you will get them and after all practise does make perfect!!

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



Bettina Scarlett styling Miss Dollface Darling

So here I am again, making yet another apology because I've fell behind on my blog! How terrible! I really cant be doing this can I, but as I've just started this one, I have just had a few more light bulbs light up in that little brain of mine so hopefully I'll keep going for a bit! Being back at university really is taking its toll. On my course we've been thrown in the deep end with a creative styling project which is great as over the summer I had a bit more experience in styling a photoshoot for my beautiful friend Dollface Darling.
   If you remember from past posts me and Dollface got on like a house on fire at a photoshoot we did at the East Anglian transport museum so as I was looking for some styling experience I tagged along to a photoshoot her and the delightful Dominic Fenn had at the beginning of September, here are a few of my fave shots! All of which are unedited.

I loved this idea of Dominic taking the photo over Dollface when she is surrounded by sweets

Originally Dollface's idea was a cupcake shoot with her baking cakes etc so when she told me I started researching a few kitsch ideas and as I still worked in my delightful seaside cafe I managed to pick up lots of goodies! including rainbow sticks of rock, windmills, a hulahoop and lollies! So we were going off the subject a bit but I think the images were really successful, Dollface brought a selection of outfits so I picked what went with what including accessories I'd brought along and gave her my thoughts on how she should do her eye make up and hair .

How much can you do with a hula hoop? Well we were limited but Dollface managed to work with it very well and this is one of my favourite shots

I got inspiration for this image from a vintage photograph of the fifties of a lady with a hulahoop, I can't find the image now which has annoyed me because I would of liked to show my references

Final two images with the windmills, the colours worked really well with what Dollface was wearing, I chose well even if I do say so myself!



Gil Elvgren I do love you!

I've received some images of a shoot I did recently with the fabulous Dominic Fenn, a local photographer who is quickly getting a great reputation for taking fantastic images!
When he first emailed me he hit the nail on the head straight away by saying he wanted to do images in the style of Gil Elvgren, one of the most famous pin up artists of all time. I had been wanting to do this style of shoot for a while now but was having trouble finding the right photographer. So after having a first successful Hollywood glamour styled shoot we quickly arranged our Gil inspired shoot!

   When I'd got organised I met Dom and he had done so well picking up little accessories and bits and bobs for the shoot, vintage phone, diy books, a giant parcel! Even bubbles and ice cream, he was well prepared I'd say!

    It was a lot of fun and I think we created some great images, all with a Elvgren vibe, I took a extremely full suitcase of clothes as I usually do, I think this time though I had to sit on the suitcase to shut it!

   So here are a few of my favourite images from the days shoot! Hope you like them, would love to hear some feed back to see what you think!

We were quite lucky that the images didn't need too much editing!

Happy Birthday from Bettina

Wearing vintage 50s black Sun top and atomic circle skirt!

Wearing What Katie Did  stockings and a
 1950s dressing gown

Some lovely bubbles to end the shoot with

A few shots from the fabulous museum

So here they are people, I've only had a few images back so far but I'm rather pleased with them already! They are exactly what I was looking for and I'm so glad I chose the photographers I did because of the amazing results! I found it so difficult choosing because I had astounding feed back from so many photographers but I am very pleased with the ones I chose.

For these images I wore a pale blue and white vintage 1940s day dress with adorable glass buttons, my bag was a vintage 40s-50s wicker one from a local antique store that I bought many years ago and my shoes were would you believe it a primark bargin! The gorgeous gloves were from my lovely accomplise Dollface Darling!

The images look really authentic don't you think? We used a vintage tram for these set of images and it was so fun to work on!!

I will be putting some more images up soon so keep all your eyes peeled for it!

A tribute to one in a million

My gran... what a babe

This blog doesn't have any tips or photos of Bettina this time, but it is a tribute to one in a million... my gran.
     Born Myrtle Naomi Jespersen on September 22nd 1928 In Penarth, South Wales. Nicknamed Jess because she couldn't stand the name given.. which I'm sure her parents loved her for it really. Gran came from a big family with four other sisters and a brother.

She grew up fast through the second world war in Wales then moving to Coventry, having a wide variety of careers including a teacher and a policewoman. In Coventry she met my grandad, Norman Bickley and they got married on boxing day  and led a happy marriage for over 50 years baring three children, two boys and a girl, my mother and my two uncles. Eventuallyin the 1970s they moved to Lowestoft of which they lived the rest of their lives.

Gran and grandads wedding day- her dress she made herself

My gran and one of my uncles

Gran was an inspiration to me, she never had a bad word to say and very rarely swore ,if she did she would apologise for it straight away which is nice in today's day and age where every other word in people's vocubulary is a swear word. She used to say "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't laugh" which was a lifestyle she had, she always had a smile and could laugh at anything and very rarely got angry.

My gran and my aunt in the 50s in dresses they made no doubt

She started my love of fashion, we would sit at hers and talk about fashions of the 1950s, how her and my aunties would make their own clothes during the day then wear them out that evening, gran and her sisters were dressmakers and made most of their clothes. She also made several clothes for me, of which I still have dresses and skirts that still fit me today. She taught me to sew and I could tell how proud she was to know I was taking after her and my aunts. For this I now have her vintage patterns from first time arround, three sewing machines and an endless supply of fabric.. a vintage girls dream?! You betcha!
I used to love listening to her stories of when she was growing up,the things she would do, when my mum was young, how she also loved rock n roll when it first came out in the 1950s.
Gran continued to make clothes until she was unable to which was when she was in her seventies, she always kept herself busy through decorating the houses she lived in, my mum tells me that all the houses they lived in grandad left gran alone to decorate the whole house of which she was happy to.
A few times a year we'd have get togethers at her house where all the family would come down for dinner, the house would be full of family from all over the midlands, what laughs we would have, and how much food would we eat, of which gran would make herself.
When I was younger she took me and my brother to Penarth, the town in Wales she was born and lived, gran had always been proud to be Welsh and I am proud of my heritage because of her.

My gran and I

Gran died this year just before easter and I still miss her everyday, she is a person that will never be forgotten about. She would never let us forget her I know that. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be making the career choices that I'm making, I wouldn't have learn to sew or learnt about fashions, she was one in a million, the best gran I could ever wish for.
Loves ya gran.