ASOS winner

Hello lovelies,

I've random numbered you and the winner is number 11, Swordlily (great name by the way).

Please drop me a line with your e-mail address and I'll send that voucher right over.


Thanks everyone for taking part!


Lisa

x

What Katie Did - the pin curl and pyjama party

Hello all - sorry for the silence again, I just never seem to have any time these days, what with dating A BOY and training for my new job and a sickly cat to deal with.  A modern girl's life is a busy one, eh?

Recently I was lucky enough to indulge in a little bit of "me time" though, in the form of attending the very lovely Pin Curl and Pyjama party at What Katie Did - the famous London based vintage-style underwear store.

The event was a chance for the guests to learn some very useful vintage hair techniques while the ever glamorous WKD ladies got to show off the stores new loungewear range, which features some very lovely camiknickers, a pyjama set and a dressing gown in a very luxurious black satin.

Anyway - I'm running late for a do and can't wax too lyrical - sorry girl.  Instead here if the event in pictures:

Look at the lovely little hair styling area - turquoise and zebra print wowness.

We each had out own mirror, sectioning clips, setting lotion and combs.  the setting lotion used was a new one on me - Fantasia.  I'll be picking some up soon as it worked a treat.

Aimee, rocking the camiknicker.

the lovely guests enjoying a fortifying gin and elderflower, from teacups, au naturel.

Our stylist demonstrating sectioning the hair.  She recommends keeping the fringe area separate, which is quite different to how I set mine but seemed to work just as well.

Here we can see our teacher with her front hair in rollers - as this is easier to sleep on.  She has just brushed out the dark ladies hair and it looks deliciously 50s. (I forgot EVERYONES names - forgive me lovelies but my brain is riddled with gin shaped holes).

The class hard a-curling.

Our teacher's large pin curls.

It was a pretty basic set but I certainly picked up a few tips and I'd recommend this event for anyone new to pin curling.  Going to bed in a pincurl set really is the easiest way to obtain and maintain a vintage do.  15 mins to set at night and 5 to brush out in the morning.  Who can argue with that?

For those of you tuning it for the ASOS contest - I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow.

Right - night all!

Touting for business...

No, not in that way.  Get your minds out of the gutter.

I'm just selling my worldly goods on eBay.  I've got about a quarter of the item up - there is a lot more to come - most likely another Swirl dress, a Fleur dress, a few Tara Starlet goodies and a few more 50s frocks.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Stuff for sale

ASOS giveaway

Well, its treat time!

I'm not sure quite what I did to deserve it but those lovely people at Appliances Online have sent me a very generous giveaway prize.

£85, yes, £85 of ASOS vouchers.


So, what do you need to do to win?   Well, I'm not yet down with this Rafflecopter stuff so I'm doing it ye olde fashioned way.  

Mandatory entry: Follow my blog and leave a comment below.

Want more chances to win? Additional entries:

• Tweet about this giveaway (including a link) and leave a comment below to confirm

• Blog about this giveaway (including a link) and leave a comment below to confirm

• Post this contest to your Facebook page and leave the link, with another comment here to confirm.

You have to leave separate comments for each entry. In other words, if you become a follower and tweet about the contest at the same time, leave one comment saying you're following and another saying that you tweeted it. Annoying, admittedly, but this helps me count the entries. I'm all for an easy life. :-)

That simple! 

This contest is open to readers worldwide as ASOS offer international delivery.  The giveaway will run until 31 July 2013, after that a winner will be chosen using a random number generator. 

The winner will be the person with the comment of the corresponding number. I will then contact the person via the email left and announce on my blog.

Ok - well good luck my dearies!

Stitched up?

I am always disappointed by Groupon.  I'm not sure whether that has more to do with me or the nature of the site in itself - I mean you do generally get what you pay for in life, right?.   So far my Groupon experiences have been:

- make up class where we didn't learn much and the room wasn't well lit
- photography class that I could never get scheduled in as they were always busy and which expired
- carpet cleaning which left a big mark on the hall carpet
- dinner in a very disappointing restaurant
- eyelash extensions which were stuck to my lid instead of my lashes and left me in pain for days
- home steam cleaner which leaks and makes no discernible difference to the state of said stained carpet

It's a wonder then, that I keep bothering with the site.

Still, I was enticed by the offer of a sewing class at the London Textiles Studio.  The offer looked pretty slick - 6 hours of training at a place near Barbican (and thusly near work) which I could split into either two handy after work sessions or a whole day course.

Typically, however, when I came to book, the course was not in Barbican but in Bow in East London and I had to take the session as a whole day rather than split it into two because of this.  A tad miffed at having to book a days holiday I was still excited to take the course and rocked up at 10am full of excitement.

As I approached the premises however I just knew this wasn't going to be the professional course I was naively hoping for.  The course was held in a rickety studio just by the side of the motorway flyover in an area where the only landmark was a drive in McDonalds.

The room was woefully inadequate for the number of students and despite there being kitchen facilities and a glass cake stand full of biscuits we were offered nothing in the way of refreshments.

After the standard preliminary stuff re: threading the machine and stitching rows and turning corners we were shown the pattern we were going to make up.  A very simple, if rather ugly A line dress.  Now, I understand the reason for this - or course the class is going to be easier to teach if everyone does the same pattern.  My problem here however was that while this would allow us to practise cutting out, hemming, darts etc it did not include either buttonholes or zips.  I had specifically signed up to the course to learn how to insert a zip, something which repeatedly outsmarts me.  both myself and another student mentioned this and we were stridently ignored.  Ho hum. And I was still looking at the biscuits.

We started cutting out only to find that the size 14 pattern I needed was missing.  While the rest of the class had nicely cut out cardboard templates I finally had to use the very crumpled original tissue which the previous user had cut out to the wrong size.

There was very little room to cut, the scissors were blunt, there was only one ruler and two pieces of chalk between us.  All in all things weren't going well.

Visibly annoyed I left the venue in search of lunch, only to find that McDonalds was the only vaguely hygienic option in a 10 minute walk.  I scarfed down a cheeseburger with a heady mix of revulsion and glee and then wafted back to class.

The sewing up went pretty well - we took it in stages and things were explained clearly.  I learnt how to properly finish a dart, about snipping into interfacings to make them lie flush and about proper hemming.  however due to the lack of space everything was running later and so we didn't get a chance to hand sew the shoulders of the piece together and I had to fudge this at home, nor were we given a chance to make the matching belt which I was looking forward to trying - no vintage dress is complete without a matching belt, after all.

Anyway.  I left with an almost finished and very ugly dress.

Overall I did learn a lot, I did.  The teachers and staff were lovely and my confidence has increased greatly.  But, and its a big but...a BUT if you will..... I was and remain very disappointed in the overall set up of the course.

Everything was disorganised, the room grubby and there was a general lack of equipment.  As a result I didn't get to learn many of the items on my list and still have my fear of buttons and zips.

Anyway - here is my...ahem...creation.  Yes, it is a dress not a top.  A line on my "mahoosive" 38 inch bust makes everything look squat.

Have you take a sewing course or did you teach yourself?

Flapp(er)ing about in anticipation!

Just a quick post lovelies - to link you up with this book now available for pre-order
Art Deco Hair: Hairstyles from the 1920s & 1930s (Vintage Living)

I've got mine on order and cannot wait to review it once it arrives.

Squeak!

Biba - a foray into the 60s to meet an icon

Golly, I’ve been slack again lately.  My life is pretty hectic and I rarely get the time to just sit and write a blog post.  I used to try and squeeze them in during my lunch hour but now that I use that time to pick heavy things up and put them down again repeatedly I just cannot seem to find a blogging space anywhere. So – as a result – this entry is rather late.  A fortnight late in fact.  Sorry Sophia.

Whats more, Blogger is being WEIRD. So please excuse the formatting oddities below.  The highlighting means nothing. the font changes mean nothing. I'll try and fix it later.

Anyway – a fortnight ago I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to meet Barbara Hulanicki, the brains behind Biba.   Barbara has just had a book published – “Seamless from Biba – A Life In Design” which showcases her career as a designer of clothing, interiors, shoes and , well, pretty much everything.

For those who don’t know (is there anyone who doesn’t know?) Biba was the beating heart of London style in the 60s and 70s.  After starting off as a mail order company, selling one dress via the Daily Mirror newspaper back in 1964, they company opened their first store later that year and another in 1965.  Selling an estimated three million garments by the time the company closed.

The teenagers of the UK were hungry for something new and Biba aimed their clothes directly at them – affordable (many would even say cheap), wild in design and sized for the waif like figures of the young the clothes were an instant hit.  The shops eventually became department stores – selling everything from baked beans and dog food to wallpaper and cutlery.

I have to say meeting Barbara was a real experience – I was expecting her to be somewhat terrifying – surely a woman with that much entrepreneurial spirit and talent would be.  I was in for a surprise though – she really is a warm, funny, self effacing lady.  Delicate and birdlike and full of surprise and joy at her success and the enduring appeal of her work.

Simply everything was covered -  reminiscences about her time at the shop, her favourite model, the launch of the make-up range, celebrity gossip and her design influences.

Barbara cites her influences to be the Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the movies of the 30s – namely those of Garbo and Dietrich.  Her favourite actress however and ideal customer was Audrey Hepburn – who mixes the glamour of old Hollywood with the gamine figure of the 60s.

Audrey in Sabrina - the film Barbara cites as awakening her interest in fashion by sending her on a quest for  some shoes worn in the film.  Not being able to find them Barbara hacked some shoes up to make her own.  

These influences led the designer to use a lot of original vintage fabric too, rich 30s velvets and rayons, even prompting Barbara to bring people out of retirement to weave the fabrics she wanted rather than falling prey to the polyesters and crimplenes of the day. I suppose now we'd call it affordable luxe or something equally daft.

Of her celebrity customers and visitors the most memorable were Suzi Quattro – who filmed a music video there and who she was afraid would damage the shop as she jumped around Marc Bolan who famously wore one of her sequinned jackets and the New York Dolls who while being utterly charming and elegant, proceeded to shoplift several outfits and later wore them in one of their videos.

The New York Dolls - I believe the spotty blouse you can see was pinched from Biba.

Mr Bolan himself looking ever so impish and adorable in a Biba jacket from 1973

Biba also had its own cosmetics range which was incredibly bold in colour - a stark contrast to the last 60s obsession with coral coral and more coral.  Barbara told us that they had terrible trouble getting anyone to make the colours up for them at first and but once they got into the shops they flew off the shelves.

Green Biba lipstick in Vanity Fair, 1971

Amazing Biba make up guides for copying various old Hollywood looks.

Barbara's favourite models were Ingrid Boulting and Maddie Smith, who I believe were, like many of her models, taken from the ranks of her shop floor staff.

Visit this blog for a lovely article of Ingrid Boulting's take on the Biba look

I'm not going to bombard you with pictures of Biba dresses, you are all more than capable to your own google-fu and I've been wittering on long enough.  Suffice to say I had a marvellous time and have really enjoyed looking through the book which has certainly given me a few fashion ideas.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the wonderful lady herself: