The Ric Rac Club – Girls, Gin and Gunpowder.

Yes, it is that time again, myself and the rest of the Vintage Mafia are back with the Ric Rac Club.

After a hugely successful launch in September, here is our second instalment. The Ric Rac is a club aimed at vintage aficionados and newcomers alike, with the focus on socialising rather than partner dancing. You can expect the best tunes from the 1930s to the 1960s spread over two rooms, a creative drinks menu, a soon-to-be legendary free raffle and a fun, welcoming crowd of well-dressed guests.

Specially selected guest DJs this month are Johnny Chrome and Silver, who will be spinning 50s lounge music, and All Fringe, No Knickers who will be playing 60s and Northern Soul hits, accompanied by a Northern Soul dancing demonstration.

Gemma will serenade the guests with her ukulele – playing hits of the golden era and the 21st Century and Auntie Maureen will putting together a playlist of hits from the dawn of the dance band era.

This time we also have the fantabulosa Miss Honey Bare on hand to transform you into a vintage queen with her mobile hair and make-up salon (appointments can be pre booked at http://heydayhoney.com/contact/).

The Ric Rac club is sponsored by The King's Ginger liqueur, allowing us to provide a free cocktail for every guest. All attendees also receive a free raffle ticket, and with prizes ranging from vintage accessories, homewares, and fabulous garments from Love Ur Look and Yellow Bird Hats, booze, food and other assorted delights, no one goes home empty-handed... or at least not sober.

The Ric Rac Club – Girls, Gin and Gunpowder.

Saturday 5th November

•FREE Ginger Gunpowder cocktail on arrival!

•1930s dance band tunes to 1960s Northern Soul, spread over two floors!

•Semi-impromptu solo dancing demonstrations!

•DJs Johnny Chrome & Silver and 60s diva All Fringe, No Knickers! plus Auntie Maureen!

•Special set by ukulele lady Miss Gemma!

•Soon-to-be legendary FREE raffle with amazing prizes including food, booze and vintage!

•Smoking terrace, amazing atmospheric pub & a super time all guaranteed!



The Fox, 28 Paul Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A



Tickets £10/£8 adv from http://www.thevintagemafia.com

....and we have a winner!

Sorry for being so late in announcing the winner of the Salux giveaway.  I've been rather busy over the weekend and have only just got to this now.

The random number generator tells me that the winner is Old@heart!  Please send me your details so I can post your goodies out to you.

Cindy Sherman for MAC

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with the new Cindy Sherman campaign for MAC. When I saw the pictures for the first time yesterday I actually gave a yelp of delight. MAC have been losing kudos for a while; with rumours flying that their products aren’t as good since the Estee Lauder takeover and with the rise of that enfant terrible of make-up houses, Illamasqua, they needed to do something to regain face.*

Frankly many of their recent campaigns have bored the pants off me – I’m a fully grown adult woman for fucks sake – not a little girl – and as such I don’t want Hello Kitty on my lipstick. Or sodding Wonder Woman – how utterly patronising. Treat me like a woman, not a child, thanks.

What I do want to know is how effective a product is, what I can achieve with it and, hell, I wouldn’t mind this being shown in an interesting and educational way. After all – the MAC motto is that make up is "Our medium of transformation."

Sherman was the perfect choice to lift the brand out of its little girl doldrums, famous for her own metamorphoses her art centres around transforming herself through clothing and make up, with an often provocative edge.
The campaign features the artist in three guises – an all American ingénue with a forced smile, a sad clown and a garish heiress, leopard print coat and all. None of them are pretty – they certainly aren’t looks I’ll be copying – but damn this campaign makes a point. Make up isn’t just for looking pretty and looking young, it can also be used to transform, to strengthen – make up can change us, camouflage is, even armour us.

Bravo MAC and bravo Cindy.





* did you see my pun there, did you, really?

A gorgeous giveaway!

Ooh, do I have a treat for you!  After my deservedly glowing post on the Salux bath cloth, here,  the lovely folk at Salux UK have sent me one to give to a lucky reader so that they can try this marvellous product too.

Salux cloths have been manufactured in Japan since 1969 but have only recently become available in the UK, just last month in fact!  These cloths really are the best thing I have found to exfoliate in the bath and shower as they can be balled up to clean your legs and arms and then stretched out for exfoliating your back too.  No need for someone to scrub you, you can do it yourself.  Though of course that isn't quite as much fun....ahem.


They really do get the circulation going and smooth the skin, helping with acne, ingrown hairs, dry skin and as a great prep before fake tanning, if you like that sort of thing.


They also last ages as they dry quickly (no mouldy loofahs here folks) and are machine washable.

This really is a product that has been a revelation to me, I only use it once or twice a week but can say, completely honestly, that my skin has never looked as good or felt as smooth.

So - to the giveaway - I have for you one Salux cloth in pink, a mini showergel and a mini pot of utterly gorgeous Soap and Glory - The Righteous Butter.  A perfect Salux starter kit I'd say.

So, what do you need to do to win?

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

Want more chances to win? Additional entries:

• follow @LisaSmuts on Twitter and 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 me.

That simple!

This contest is open to readers worldwide and will run until October 14, 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!

Maidenform Instant Slimmer waist nipper review

Now, every vintage loving gal knows the benefit of shapewear, it really is key to getting the right silhouette for all looks from the 30s to the 60s.  I am not blessed with a naturally nipped in waist, in fact it really is the one part of me I'm quite unhappy about, and so when Maidenform offered to send me their waistnipper for review I jumped at the chance.

This waistnipper is the pull on style, in black satin, and is boned and elasticated to really smooth out your shape.  I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of pull on shapewear, I favour long, tapered 30s style manicures and pulling on a very tight elasticated garment is always a threat to my talons.  Still, it went on without too much of a struggle  (it should have done, being sold as "Easy-Up") and certainly did the job well - my trousers definitely felt looser.

It isn't the most ornate or beautiful of garments but anything goes with plain black satin, however, it isn't something to wear if someone (read: someone you want to impress) is going to see it as not only is it a bit of a pain to remove with any decorum but on a slightly fuller figure such as mine it pushes the excess flesh to the top.  The effect being a slight under-boob muffin top.  Hot...not.  Again I think this is the result of the pull on style as I don't get a similar effect with my Rago which does up with a row of hooks and eyes. 

Still, it was comfortable on for a good 12 hours and didn't roll up or bunch as many cheaper shapewear items can tend to do. 

Also, it sadly does not come with suspenders.  Which means you either need to go bare legged, wear an additional suspender belt or, as I do, keep it for wearing with trousers.

So the good:

• affordable at just £19
• a good classic design if nothing fancy
• actually does nip in the waist

and the bad:

• pull on design
• no suspenders
• sizing seems a bit off

All in all it is a good basic item and definitely represents value for money, it is perfect for wearing with dresses in the summer and with trousers.  The thing is that, as a sort-of vintagista, I really do prefer something that clasps at the front and has the option of being used with stockings by having removable suspender straps - but hey, you can't have everything for £19.

You can buy this product, and the rest of the Maidenform shapewear range at their website.

Old Movie Madness: Remember the Night (1940)

Oh, Barbara, Barbara, Barbara...she can do no wrong in my eyes.  Yes, after the disappointment of my last old movie viewing I decided to treat myself to something I knew I'd love - a 1940 movie starring the luminous and talented Barbara Stanwyck.

Our Babs stars as Lee Leander, a professional shoplifter who has just been arrested for the third time, John Sargeant (Fred MacMurray) is hired to prosecute her and, thinking that the jury will let her off because it is almost Christmas, he postpones the trial.  He then suffers a pang of guilt and posts bail for her so that she can spend Christmas out of prison.

Having nowhere else to go Lee winds up on John's doorstep and, as her family are from the same state, he offers to drop her at home on the way to his mothers.  All sorts of silliness ensues, involving minor car crashes, milking cows and a fire in a waste paper bin, which serves to cement John's view of the little lady as a petty career criminal.  He starts to change his mind after meeting her mother however, and decides to take her home with him so that she can share a warm family Christmas before sentencing.

The pair fall, rather predictably, in love and John's mother warns Lee that their relationship can only damage her sons legal career.  Lee agrees and, when John offers her a chance to escape she refuses, deciding to take her punishment. What does the future hold for them?

The film is saved from schmaltz by afine turn from Miss Stanwyck, she really excels in the bad girl doing good roles (Stella Dallas for example) and brings consierable gravity to what would otherwise be a rather frothy romcom.  It is also a joy to look at, Lee's wardrobe is stunning, including a range of incredible architectural hats which really pin the film into its 1940 date.

Take a look at these outfits:

I would kill for each and every one of those, and for this dressing gown:

There are also some lovely comedy moments, one in particular where Lee is putting on an old fashioned country style evening dress with a 19inch corset and padded bust.  Mrs Sargeant comments that in her day Lee's 25 inch waist would have been considered large.  Can you imagine?

I really enjoyed this movie, but given the female lead, I was always going to.  It also spawned the Lady Eve, which writer Preston Sturges created for Stanwyck based on her performance here. 

Oh knickers! Paloma Faith for La Senza

As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, I've been updating the old lingerie drawer recently.  After a long period of singledom I have decided it is time to get back out there and I've been going on a few dates and decided I needed the pants to match my new found attitude.  Those Primark cotton numbers just aren't doing it for me and certainly wouldn't do it for whichever lucky chap or chappess I decide to bestow my charms upon.

I've had a couple of little sprees at both good old M&S and the wonderful Lulu and Lush (I'll be talking more about this little gem of a shop in a  coming post) but, on reading my colleagues (not mine honest) copy of "Closer" magazine today I spotted another range I am just going to have to take a gander at.  the lovely and delightfully offbeat Paloma Faith has designed a range of silky vintage style pretties for La Senza, in aid of Breast Cancer Care.  This girl knows her vintage, and from the pictures I've seen the range shows that.  I also love the choice of colour, green being a somewhat unusual choice for lingerie.  And also, as a donation is made to charity with each purchase this is the kind of guilt free shopping I adore.

As the lady herself states:

"I'm really excited about my range of lingerie that I've designed for Breast Cancer Care this year. I've gone for a luxurious 1940s style and I can't wait for you all to see it! It's going to hit La Senza stores in October and every penny we raise will be used to help people affected by breast cancer. My Mum had breast cancer so this is a cause I am very passionate about. Without Breast Cancer Care some women would have nowhere to turn to. With one person diagnosed with breast cancer every 10 minutes, many of us will sadly know of someone dealing with the disease right now. Breast Cancer Care will use the money we raise together to ensure none of them face it alone."

Hmmmm....I am definitely going to have to get the set in green and the knickers in the black for wearing with my girdle.

I just hope I find someone to show them off to soon.  ;-)