The return of the The Hollywood Starlet

Whilst I was at Blue water this weekend doing a bit of window shopping (and only that let me just clarify!) I noticed a few things that were quite different in some fashion shops, glamour is coming back ladies and not the trashy page three glamour either, that's right Hollywood glamour, I was looking at dresses, tops and there was a very strong vibe of decades from the twenties to the late forties. A friend and I spotted a 1930s inspired dress which was very Madeleine Vionnet , it was classic and it was enchanting, something that could be worn time and time again and a lady would look just as  beautiful in it each time. With a simple style to it I fell in love, however not so much at the price of £195 I had to let it go, bring on the January sales I say!

It seems people are looking back again at times where glamour was a way of life, women between the twenties and early sixties took great pride in their appearance and wanted to look feminine and beautiful and damn right they should. Women are meant to look glamorous and sexy this is what men love about us right?
I'm after a jumpsuit, I was a bit wary of this idea because I've never worn one in my life and I didn't particularly want to look like an eighties  reject and the majority of jumpsuits in shops are just tacky until I went into New Look and Found what seemed to be a seventies influenced but I liked it a simple black one shouldered jump suit.

See now this is something I think looks rather good(excuse my awful cropping of the image!) I tried it on and it just felt so comfortable, like I said it is very seventies however the seventies took a lot of influence from the forties so If I get this for my birthday I think with my hair pin curled it will look lovely! I like the fact that the trousers have a bit of a flare to them and are high waisted so this means it will suit my hourglass frame a treat!

But it was very classic and so was many other things I saw in shops, I mean of course dress lengths haven't really grown and I don't see them growing any time soon, its either maxi or mini I'm afraid and nothing in between, but the bodices of some of the dresses are very forties and fifties influenced and are very flattering for ladies. I also saw that River Island were selling Pretty Polly seamed tights.

Now obviously these aren't as good as seamed stockings in my opinion but for ladies that want a bit of class every day and a cheaper option these could be right up your street. I love the fact also the design is also very vintage inspired with the streamlined radio, the pose of the ladies legs and the general feel to it, very retro indeed.

You also now notice celebrities who go for the Hollywood glamour look such as Katherine Heigl, is it because they want to stand out from the rest or are they generally interested in past times? Or just wearing something their stylist simply told them would look good?

Katherine Heigl wearing a beautiful evening gown at an awards ceremony with fifties inspired hair, wowee!

All of this could be because of the new Cher and Christina Aguilera film BURLESQUE that is coming out this month. People have  certainly now opened their eyes to burlesque and it is certainly becoming more mainstream so are designers wanting to show this through their garments and give ladies a bit of retro chic?

Christina Aguilera in Burlesque

 Or are the general public simply following another trend similar to the "Mad Men" phase? I quite like it to be honest because I can now go into modern clothes shops and find clothes that are actually similar in design to those of the decades I am interested in, the forties and fifties. I can now mix and match vintage with contemporary without feeling too uncomfortable in it because some outfits now do just scream pure class and this is what I like, call me a snob, I don't care, I like to look good and sometimes high street fashion just isn't for me. Personally being a lady myself there is nothing more captivating than a woman dressed up to the nines in alluring garments with a bit of glitz, their hair styled nicely, beautiful red lips and a damn good handbag, I'm sure most of you would agree. So will we see a bit of Hollywood glamour over the Christmas period, oh I do hope so. Ladies, ditch the jeggings and go for something a bit more seductive with a ravishing evening gown or pencil skirt, or like me a classic jumpsuit.

Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx



The Flapping depression final shoot

I'm now coming to the end of my creative styling project, Yes it has been 10 weeks already , and yepp its nearly christmas (Keep an eye out for my next blog about an upcoming christmas event!!)  And I thought I Would show my final images from our very successful photoshoot with the lovely Eddy Shaw again as photographer!!
We kept one of the models from the test shoot at the Ace Cafe, the fabulous Joe Worthington Leese and picked up two other models Billy Sutherland and Bradley Austin who were both just brilliant on the day and so friendly, so if any of you are looking for models for photoshoots I could not recommend these three enough! A great bunch of guys.
But yes the shoot, we had the same trend, very Charlie Chaplin/20s/30s inspired, with a few more outfits thrown in and we shot at Chatham Dockyard to give it a very industrial unique feel to the images.

Here they are. I hope you like them!

I love the layout of this image there is a lot of texture with the brickwork and the darkness from
under the bridge, it creates a sense of mystery and moodiness I think.
I think this composititon works well with three models and the triangles in the garden.
I've given it a different tinge to the previous so it looks more blue.

I found the styling worked quiet well, after we had done this shoot I noticed in Arena Homme magazine
similar styling with the vest over the jacket which looked also very 30s,
I do believe we've caught onto a trend before it's started!
I found this was the only image that worked in colour, I think it is a very
strong fashion image, I like the compostition because it would make a good double page spread
I added a grainey effect to it to make it look a bit more grungey

I love the composition of this because of the texture of the sky because it looks overcast and creates a moody atmosphere

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This was with a train at the location, it looks like working man shot

I loved the jacket we used in this shot which was from Topshop, this is such a natural shot but I think it captures the model and outfit really well.

So these are some of the ones we've decided to use for our final project, fingers crossed for a good mark, overrall I think we've had some successful images throughout this project, I still don't think I'm that good at styling but I'm starting to open up a bit towards it now.
Until next time
Toodle Pip
xxx

The Flapping Depression take one...

At university at this moment in time.. yes that's right now I'm involved in a creative styling product based on a Spring/Summer 2011 trend... this means I had to look at many many catwalks until I went cross eyed over eccentric fabrics and went mad over Japanese kimonos. I looked at men's wear and women's wear a few favourites were Marc Jacobs take on 70s chic and Alexander Wang's slicked futuristic look. But I somehow got drawn to menswear.. I wonder why you may be asking.

My partner in crime Rosie showed me John Galliano's menswear collection and suddenly there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was like a homage to the funny men of the twenties and thirties, yes that's right Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. It worked so well, the references were so strong and it just stood out from other collections. Soon as I'd seen that collection others such as N.Hoolywood all started to make sense, there were links where there were no links before.. The trend we came up with was the Flapping Depression, a cross over between the 1920s and 1930s.

We organised a photo shoot at the Ace Cafe as a test shoot with two models Rosie had previously worked with and our lovely friend Eddy as our photographer. We were looking to create quite a grimey & grungy feel to our images as well as using strong Chaplin references. Here are some of the edited images (all edited by myself of course . Some work really well with the editing some not so well, I'll let you all decide that. This was only our test shoot we have our final shoot of the project on Monday 1st November so I will be reporting with image on that also.
Until next time

Toodle Pip

xxx

                                  This is very in the style of our Chosen Publication; TANK

This is my favourite image from selection, it is very natural and wasn't posed, I think we captured Chaplin very well

This image was meant to look quiet prison like with the denim of the thirties