Ain't that a splash on the head

Well would ya look at that August has been and gone so that means summer is well and truly over, not to say we had it in the first place but now we're into September, the leaves will be falling the nights will be drawing in etc etc, so as a way of ending the summer in style, last weekend I headed over to the 10th anniversary of the Glen Miller Festival at Twinwood in Bedford with my fella. I have to say I was a Twinwood virgin, I had never been before and if I'm honest with you I wasn't really interested in going either because it was based on 1940s swing music, which I'm afraid ain't really my thing, but I managed to wangle free tickets for me and my better half because I was helping out hosting the Tin Hat hall and was also in the top 10 of the Vintage Life glamour pageant so really I had no excuse but to go!

I did find out also that there were several rock n roll bands and a 50s dj on over the weekend so it wouldn't be all sanitized swing for me, not that I have anything against it but as some of you might know, I'm more of a rockabilly girl at heart and I find swing and jazz music just that bit too tame for my liking, but life wouldn't be exciting if we all had the same taste right?

 

Me and my fella arrived Friday afternoon to what was sodden grass, puddles and yes that dreaded word, rain and lots of it, had I somehow taken a detour and ended up at Glastonbury? Surely this wasn't it? unfortunately I was reassured I was at the correct camp site so I had no other choice other than to trundle on and get tented up, being the ditzy lady that I am, I decided not to pack any practical attire or footwear and only took dresses,sandals and suntops, a lesson that has well been learnt believe me.

For all you wannabe campers out there, rule 1. Don't wear suede Loafers, they will get ruined,
your feet will become wet and your other half will want to hit you because of moaning that your feet are wet and your shoes are now ruined.

So we managed to get the tent up without too much swearing, this was a first time for both of us, swearing and also putting up a tent, and to be honest I think we did a good job, not that I did a lot, I just sat there trying not to get wet, once that was done we went heading off for a well deserved alcoholic beverage.

Our humble abode for the weekend

There wasn't much really going on Friday night,everyone was arriving and setting up for the weekends events, it's not like your average weekender which starts Friday day time and finishes Sunday, oh no sir, all the weekends events were spread out over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which makes sense as it's always on the bank holiday, so people can really make the most of their long weekend off. After having a quick look about we headed back to the tent so I could put my glad rags and attempt to style my hair with a brush and not a lot else. My outfit decision was a black and white fleck wool pencil skirt, blue and white diamond sun top and my collectif cardigan with Rokit Shoes.

Outside the Tin Hat, you wouldn't think I was freezing my backside off!

I headed off to the Tin hat though and started meeting and greeting and handing the flyer's to everyone and anyone I saw, what I noticed straight away here, everyone was so friendly, which lets be honest you don't really get everywhere else so this was a refreshing sight, watching everyone walk past and listening to the music coming out of the Tin hat was really getting me in the mood for a boogie so we soon headed over to the Marquee where Strolling Steve was spinning the wax and what a great night that turned out to be, I didn't stop dancing until we were kicked out of the marquee, during that time we met some great people, who we got to know over the weekend and had a lot of laughs with.

Having a dance Friday night, no shoes, what's new, probably would explain the crippled feet

Saturday morning came around bright and early, that's definitely a downside to camping, sunrise waking you up at 6am and boy did we feel the joys of camping straight away, joints stiffening, legs numb with cold, but that is probably our fault for not thinking ahead, as usual! We had a wander around the camp and saw so many people dressed up to the nines in 40s gear, some women looked so glamorous, taking every little detail into consideration from the hair styles, the accessories and of course the outfit, then obviously there were the uniform posse,men and women wearing American and the British armed forces uniforms from the 40s, this isn't something that appeals to me really because I find a lot of 'part timers' use it as their dress up gear for 40s weekends and not a lot else but some of the men did look rather scrumptious in their uniform, as many women say, I do like a man in uniform, ooo er missus.

I got to catch up with some great friends Saturday and Sunday and also got to see some fab bands such as the one and only Si Cranstoun, who for me never puts a step wrong, I can't really remember a lot of the other bands I saw over those two days but the ones I saw I know were more 50s based so they got my seal of approval.

Myself, Graham and Clare

Si Cranstoun himself, I want him to make a work out video, it would make my life.

 

Then of course came the Vintage Life glamour pageant and I was terrified, in my long twenty one years I've only done one pin up contest before this so you could understand why my nerves were ever so slightly trembling. In the face book (wahey) contest I had managed to get to number three in the top 10 but that meant nothing to what was coming, to be honest, it wasn't all that bad, all I had to do was stand on stage while I was looked up and down like picking cows to go to slaughter.Luckily I had a friendly face keeping me company, Miss Stephanie Jay, a beaut I met at Hemsby in May.

Well whaddya know we're almost matching! Me and the gorgeous Stephanie.

 

 I didn't get anywhere, not that I minded, the ladies that came third,second and first truly deserved it and they all looked stunningly authentic, to which I didn't with my tattoos but hey ho, in the end I was glad I got it over and done with because I could go enjoy the rest of the night without having to make sure everything was looking pristine. For the contest I decided on my red satin outerlimitz sarong dress. 

Vintage Life top 10, see if you can spot me!

 

Saturday evening came around which meant more dancing, how my feet kept up I will never know, like a friend of mine said, we had to make the most of a rock n roll or rockabilly song because we didn't know when we'd hear the next one so we really did make the most of it, my feet had blisters to prove it.

When the nights events finished we trotted off to the tent and went to clean our teeth and get ready to get pneumonia, only to find out there was no water,heaven forbid how would I survive!?

Sunday followed similarly to the day before, I did manage to catch a bit of the West end hit show Million Dollar Quartet, what I saw made me want to see the show in London even more than I did  before, lots of high energy performers playing some classic hits from the magnificent four of Sun Records.

 Other bands I got to see were Lucas and the Dynamo's, a well known rock n roll band which somehow I'd managed to miss seeing all my life, so I made sure I got a glimpse of those, a really lively fun band that had the crowd jiving throughout their set.

The evening included more dancing just for a change, I helped out hosting the Tin hat for a couple of hours and even managed to be filmed for a Show Reel on Twinwood so somewhere there will be me on film, sounding like a man. Fantastic. I decided to wear a vintage 50s yellow embroidered pencil dress and matching cardigan, something a bit warmer than the rest of the weekend.

Having a dance with my fella wearing a vintage circle skirt and 49er jaceket

Unfortunately over the weekend the weather was not what I expected ,I was shivering most of it which for me did put a dampener (no pun intended) on it, not to say I didn't have a good time, if I knew then what I know now, I would have definitely been more prepared and took warmer clothes, food and drink etc because paying £6 for Chinese noodles wasn't really my idea of fine cuisine but it's festival food so I shouldn't have really expected a lot. I decided against looking at clothes stalls because I didn't take any spending money and it would have simply been torture looking at them. I'm glad I went overall but I personally wouldn't pay to go because of how much I have decided I hate camping, if someone was to loan me a caravan then without a doubt I would go again, because having to put my curlers in at 1am in the dark is rather tricky to say the least, so I definitely missed my electrical appliances.

This is what dry curlers do to my hair, this is why I use tongs.

 I know many people that are into the 'fun' of camping and the forties scene and I am not disputing them for it but for me personally it got a bit too much for me, I met some great people, a lot that had already recognised me from my face book page and UK Rock( I really do have a lot to be thankful for that magazine!) and I had a hell of a lot of laughs but gimme the Rockabilly Rave any day.

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



Wildest cats in towns Bettina's style

I know this post is rather a bit late now as the Wildest cats in Town weekend is longgg gone but as promised in my last post I said I'd show outfits I wore to that weekend. The Wildest Cats, is well known for it's strong Teddy Boy following so you will see Drape after drape at this weekend, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb because even though it is a Ted weekend you get a lot of other characters there that I must say had the strangest dress sense with ankle boots and circle skirts as just one combination!
I tend to go to weekenders with at least one pair of jeans packed away in my case but this time I made sure I hid them away and packed skirts and Capri pants because I remember once stating in a post that I was going to try and stop wearing jeans as much, I haven't really done that since said  post, until the Wildest Cats!

The first outfit of Friday, very summery I think, a yellow 50s sun top and atomic circle skirt with a yellow thermoset jewellery set, excuse the tatty headscarf, my hair was all pin curled up! With my dearest daddy outside the bar.

Friday night outfit!

  I love everything Hawaiian and I really think this dress brought the sun out for the weekend, well maybe not but it certainly brightened up my day (oh so cheesy!) The colours and patterns are so gorgeous, soft pastel blues and greens! I bought it at the Rhythm Riot last November and it is vintage, I'm not sure of what era I think quite possibly 60s or 70s but I think it looks perfect for a 50s weekend, it has changeable straps so it can be halterneck or spaghetti straps!
I teamed this with a vintage 50s white jewellery set and white wedge heels from New look.

Another view of my dress with my lovely mother in her Outerlimitz flamingo dress! (I really hate my posture in this picture I look huge!)

 The next day I noticed I managed to get lipstick marks on it, woops!

Day two - day time

Now don't I look attractive with my curlers in! This is a reproduction 40s leopard print beach set from Cal Noir of Hollywood! I was really nervous about wearing this but it was lovely weather for it so I thought I'd get my milk bottle legs out! I teamed it with black espadrilles and my wooden Enid Collins bag. This outfit is ideal for the beach (hence the name!) But I've worn it for shoots as well as at this weekend, I'd love to wear it to the High Rockabilly! 

Day two night time - Saturday night dress!

Saturday night of a weekender is the night to glam up so I thought I'd dust off my blue lurex dress I bought from Outerlimitz last year, I love this dress so much but it does scratch me something chronic! This dress can be worn to any event I think because I don't think it screams 50s too much so it could get away with being a dress bought out of a high street store, I love it and I love outerlimitz!
Because it is so low cut I put a cute vintage broach on the bust to stop my boobs making an appearance!
Once again teamed with my white jewellery set but this time I wore my vintage 50s Lucite heels and Lucite handbag, both very easy to find on eBay if you've got a lot of money and tiny feet (unfortunately I have clown feet but managed to get my shoes at a bargain price of seven quid!)

Another shot of my dress and my handbag with my daddy dearest, doesn't he look smart in his drape?

Day 3! Eek I had four changes on this day, how dramatic right? Well when a girl doesn't feel comfy she just doesn't feel comfy, I started off wearing my vintage 50s aqua cigarette pants but soon changed into my gorrrrgeous Bernie Dexter dress named after yours truly, yes the Scarlett dress!

I am well and truly in love with this dress, it is so comfy and the print is so cute! I teamed it with (my mothers) patent belt and my Vintage Aqua wicker handbag and cork heel wedges.
My dad said it was an evening dress but I thought it was perfect to wear on a gorgeous sunny day!

Evening Attire

I hadn't worn this dress since the Rockabilly Rave two whole years ago and I was so happy that I did again, I bought this dress at Hemsby a while ago and it is a vintage 50s yellow lace pencil dress and I have to say fits me like a glove (which makes it the more difficult to take off!) I was always too scared to wear it again because I love to jive and unfortunately in this dress I can't because of how tight it is under the arms, which most dresses were during the 50s!
But I kept it on for long enough to get an effect and I wore it with my gold Lucite handbag, Lucite heels and yellow thermoset earrings, this was definitely my favourite dress of the weekend, so simple but so stunning!

My dance outfit, yes I could breathe again! I made sure I wore comfy clothes so I could dance, a simple cream 50s blouse and a beautiful school themed 50s circle skirt I got at the Rockabilly Rave car boot this year! Oh and of course I teamed it with my Vivienne Westwood flats hehe!

I must admit even though it is not one of my most favourite weekenders going I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for my outfit choices this time around, lets hope I can keep it up for Twinwood and Hemsby!  I still can't get over that I had nine outfit changes over three days, pretty mental huh? I'm a girl so it makes it OK!
Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

Rave today gone tomorrow

I've just returned from the 15th Anniversary Rockabilly Rave, I cannot believe how quick it's been and gone, unfortunately I thought it wasn't one of the best, it had a strange ol' kind of atmosphere going on, not to say that I didn't enjoy it, it was the Rave of course I did! But it was just a bit flat for me I think, but never mind I had a lot to drink, spent far too much money on clothes and burgers and overall had a giggle!  Here's a few pics of the outfits I wore over the few days

Wearing my vintage Hawaiian sarong dress with friends Graham and Julie, this dress
I bought at Hemsby a couple of years ago and was a bit of a tight squeeze, pity it didn't bring the sunshine out! I thought my flask matched quite well though don't you think?

Vintage one shouldered Aqua embroidered dress made from what looks to be Sari fabric with my fella,
we didn't mean to be matching but I think he scrubs up well when he wants to!  When I first bought this dress it was in a sorry state and also nearly was again when the shoulder ripped so I had to change quick!

Sunday night with the ladies wearing my vintage green halterneck

pencil dress and matching jacket, completely a play it safe outfit for me!

Unfortunately I didn't get to see a lot of the bands because I was too busy eating most of the times or shopping, yes I'll say shopping that's what us girls do! But the bands I did see were super, The Rhythm Shakers on Thursday night probably would have to be the top one of the weekend for me, I've loved these guys and girls for a while now and the rave was the first time I had got to see them, the rest of the wild records artists topped the bill on the Sunday night to a great response from the crowd and of course Saturday showed us the Inferno's( my all time favourite band!) and The Bellfuries who I had doubts about because they only played the rave last year but they blew us away again, the singers voice still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end!

I managed to pick up a few bits and bobs over the weekend including another pair of Capri pants in a beautiful aqua colour... I have 9 pairs now!! I will be able to stop wearing my jeans soon! A lovely printed circle skirt from the Car boot... Yes I managed to get up for the car boot, the first weekend in god knows how many years but I did it! Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea so it was heaving but I came away with my skirt so I was content when I went back to bed. I also bought a vintage white jewellery set and black beaded sweater, good weekend buys I'd say!
I generally had a blast this weekend spending time with close friends and making new ones.
I apologise for this post being a bit short and is a general overview, I'm finding it quite difficult to get motivated at the moment so am running low on ideas but as soon as I get one you lot will be in for a treat!
Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

What a Hurly burly Time

Last Tuesday evening a friend and I took a trip up to London to our first "official" burlesque show, I have always seen little snippets of some burlesque shows at weekenders such as Hemsby and the Rhythm Riot however never stuck around to see the whole shbang generally because I always thought that five minutes of  boobs is enough for me, but I was in need of a night out as Chatham does fairly grind me down ,so with tickets at a bargain price of a mere £10 I couldn't really turn down a night out for that kind of money. So off we went to see Miss Polly Rae's Hurly Burly Show at the Garrack Theatre in Charing Cross.

Directed by William Baker this was a magnificent modern take on the kitsch kooky performance of Burlesque, helping it hit the mainstream that little bit more it  was open to women and men of all ages and looking at the crowd there was just as many women as men so this wasn't your average strip show. At first I have to admit I did feel slightly uncomfortable because I hadn't really seen this many women in so little before and it was all slightly crude but it was all fits and giggles and I realised I was being silly and soon got into it! I loved the fact that all the women were slightly different and weren't your average "pin up" so they weren't all with pin curls and cats eyes but just a gaggle of girls that knew how to dance.

What was I to expect, was it just girls taking their kit off through the show or would there be Shakespeare with extra twirling tassels. Well I'd have to say a bit of both! Of course all the ladies were rather good at slowly stripping the stockings off but there was humour and stylishly thought out themes such as western, police women and school girl... Sounds like a perverts dream come true but no it had class if a school girl can have class?

Each routine had a cleverly put together dance with songs to match such as Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, The Pet Shop Boy's it's a sin and their own self written tunes! And if those women were too much for you then there was a swooning crooner Spencer Day who certainly lightened my evening up, how he managed to control himself with all those beauts is beyond me, He worked his magic while the girls were changing for the next sketch and we girls were more than happy to sit there and drool.

Miss Polly Rae oozed confidence and sophistication and completely stole the show (and so she should as it was her show!) A petite scarlet vixen with a dazzling voice which was a little bit nice but a lot of Naughtiness. She had charm, she had class and she had the crowd in the palm of her hand as well as her Hurly Burly Girls .

With rhinestone encrusted outfits that if you blink you'll miss it, it was a show Dita Von Teese would be proud of, using companies such as Agent Provocateur and What Katie Did to name but a couple, for how scantily dressed the girls were it could have been easily misinterpreted for sleazy but no, thanks to the amount of teasing there was very little time to think about the strip!

This performance made me think that women are using this as a way of empowerment, something that makes them feel good and glamorous about themselves and damn right with burlesque work shops popping up all over the country this show made all the women in the audience think Yes I can do that,I can add a bit of bump and grind into my everyday life! Because that's what it got me thinking but as I have as much class as a plant pot and have two left feet I don't think I'll be stripping my draws off anytime soon, only  when it's time to put my pajamas on. A fab night out that made me proud to be a woman!

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

Photos by Chris Jackson curtesey of Google ;)

Images for Lady K clothing

Oh dear I'm getting behind on my blog again, seriously I really don't know how people can keep it up constanly, I've got so much to do at the moment it is unreal with trying to keep up with univesity work, modelling, my Uk Rock article I seem to forget about my followers on here, so I do apologise to you all!

So when I went back up to Lowestoft in my reading week I managed to fill it fully with photo shoots because I didn't know when I'd get a chance to do that many when I got back to Kent. One photo shoot I did was for the clothing company Lady K Loves  which is a rather lovely rockabilly 50s inspired clothing line, the lovely lady behind this is Miss Kessie May, me and her got talking over the wonders of facebook and thought it would be great to collaborate for a photo shoot, I'd had my eye on Lady K's clothing for a while and always wanted to shoot in some of it and now was my chance!

Lady K Loves are based in the lovely town of Brighton and if you got to the Hemsby weekend you will see their clothing on the Round Up Records stall there and it's great! Feminine and figure hugging with a neo twist on all things Vintage, what more could a girl want in this day and age?

I had a great shoot with the photographer Emily Jane  who I worked with last summer, a great girl and an AMAZING photographer and here are some of the results we got on a very cold day shooting at the Plantation gardens in Norwich.

Wearing Delores Jacket and skirt

You can't tell luckily how cold it was on that day but we managed it and had a great shoot!

I can't wait to see these outfits on Lady K's website

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



Kenzo : Fashion in Motion

A couple of weeks ago I got a notice saying the fashion company Kenzo were putting on a free (YES FREE!) fashion show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, to celebrate 40 years in the fashion business, wowee doesn't time fly!! It was part of the museums "Fashion in Motion" series, so when we found out, Rosie stayed on the phone to the V&A for a good twenty minutes, bare in mind we had a photo shoot that day but some things are just far more important!

Now for all of you who might not know who Kenzo is, the company was started by Takada Kenzo who was originally from Japan, during 1970 and opened his first boutique in Paris, as well as Women's wear they also do collections for men and children! So there is something for everyone!

But anyway back to the night itself...

Rosie managed to nab 4 free tickets for this show so we grabbed a couple of chums and made it a girls night out with cocktails, do I hear Sex and the City? Yes we were trying to figure out which one each one of us were, apparently I'm Carrie?? Hmmmm I'll let you followers decide!
Anyway we got to the V&A rather early so we got a couple of cosmopolitans down us and had a good ole catch up. We decided to make the effort as Uni does kind of drag the glamour out of you! So I decided to put on my prize dress from winning the Hemsby pin up contest, which was my "Bettina" dress (yes you did hear that right!) designed by the gorgeous Bernie Dexter

Wearing my lovely Red Bettina dress whilst sipping a cocktail, I've done my hair in a 40s style up "do" with mock Victory Rolls as I've not quite grasped it yet!

So it came to near on 8pm and we started queuing up for our seats and oh my it was so exciting, the queue seemed never ending! We sat in our seats, 3 rows from the front so I had a cracking view to take some shots! The show, like any main fashion event started late but once it started, oh my we were all in awe!! I've never seen anything quite like it, girls wearing very floral printed garments with African inspired head dresses and Japanese Geisha inspired shoes, I didn't know where to look  and couldn't seem to click my camera quick enough!

Models wearing pastel pinks with over layering effect and hoop inspired skirts

I love the shades of green and pink in this collection it was just magnificent customising it with vintage styled bra's I love it!

This seemed so African inspired, the fabric looks really exotic and the colours are quite calmer compared to the previous

I  wanted to steal the jacket off this model, it was so nice and is actually wearable other than on the catwalk!!

I found that the darker collections seemed more wearable than the pastel colours, the fabric in this dress seems quite Japanese because of the wave print, very Oriental.

What a Finale! The girls and I did wonder whether the models were doing rather quick changes, but with those head dresses and all that layering I think they would have been there until next week!

So my first Designer fashion show, it made me appreciate the course I am doing at University and made me also realise I am on the right career path, when I was there the atmosphere was unreal and has made me think I want more!
So next Fashion in Motion here I come!

Oh yes before I forget! We had a invite to the Kenzo store in a fortnight for a cocktail party, I may have to check my diary but you know I think I may just go.

Until next time

Toodle pip

xxx