Wooden Framed Sunglasses

The Wood Look

What goes around comes around in the fashion industry and that's certainly true of sunglasses, the designers of which often look to the past for inspiration, as evidenced by the many retro designs on the market.

Sunglasses with a distinctive wood look have become popular of late and the style refllects mid century sunglass fashions, when wood was commonly used in the frames.

The Baghdad sunglasses below are 'wood effect' rather than real wood but they are also very reasonably priced and once they're on you really can't tell the difference. I bought a pair of these recently and they do have a definite retro look, reminiscent of the 1950s.

Baghdad retro style wood effect sunglasses

Baghdad wood look sunglasses in action

Elsa Schiaparelli; Shocking

Shocking Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli was one of Coco Chanel's biggest rivals. In the Paris scene of the 1930s, the Italian born Schiaparelli personified cultivated chic and was a style leader among the fashion icons of the era. Many of her designs were drawn from the creative influences of the Paris art scene and she collaborated with Salvador Dali and sculptor, Alberto Giacometti.

Yves Saint Laurent Style

The Style King

Easily one of the most recognizable figures in fashion history, by the end of his life, Algerian born Yves Saint Laurent had managed to make his name synonymous with elegant style.

A precocious adolescent, Laurent began designing clothes professionally at 17, while working as a couturier to an assistant of fashion great Christian Dior. Over a career that spanned over fifty years, before his death in 2008, he revolutionized several aspects of the high fashion industry and influenced a host of designers who came after him.

Saint Laurent's rise to fame was phenomenally rapid; at 21 he was named Head of Dior and his first major collection in the spring of 1958 brought him international acclaim - his Trapeze dress, in particular had wowed the industry and public alike.

Ruffles and Pussy Bows

A young Joan Crawford in a magnificently stylish pussy bow, circa 1930s

Ruffles and big, exaggerated floppy bows, as an accent on dresses, were very popular in the 1930s. It was the age of the soft Marcel wave and arched eyebrows and the desired look was feminine but sassy. Fluff and frippery around the neck created an effective contrast to the tailored,  slimline dresses favoured by 30s designers.

Katy Perry's Retro Style

Retro Queen

How many of us could wear this and get away with it? 

Ever since luminous pop queen Katy Perry has been pumping out hits and strutting her considerable assets in public view, she has been a showcase for the kind of  showy, eye-popping modern-retro style that makes contemporary gear look drab by comparison.

Perry's vivid retro style has been integral to her image and phenomenal success and in turn, the singer has elevated vintage allure to new heights of creative wow.

True, Perry's particular brand of retro carries more than a hint of trashy sexiness and is a rarefied look that few of us could carry off with the same confident aplomb - it helps to be tall, well-built and strikingly attractive. Nevertheless, the great thing about vintage is that the wearer can out it together in their own unique way - whatever suits.

Baby Doll Fashions

Sugar and Spice but not Necessarily Nice

Contemporary Baby Doll

Pretty and pouty, sulky and sensual, the classic Baby Doll look is  perhaps a meld of the traditional social meme of female vulnerability and the male fantasy of the child-woman.

Particularly popular in the 60s, the Baby Doll style  took the form of short, often unwaisted dresses or waistlines up under the bust (with cleavage), sometimes with a ribbon sash and knee socks. Baby Doll has always been an ironic look, as, although the theme is infantile innocence, the underlying sub-text is adult sexual allure. 

More recently the look returned with a more obvious sexual oomph, as evident in the picture at right and in the 90s became known as the Kinderwhore look, a kind of grunge retro perversion of the original look.

Esther Williams Swimsuits

Esther in a body hugging 50s swimsuit

Swimming Champion, Beauty and MGM Movie Star...
In the 1940s and 50s, there were few water nymphs as spectacularly watchable as US swimming champion, Esther Williams. A natural athlete, in her teens Williams had already busted through a number of national swimming records but unfortunately, the inconvenient outbreak of WW2 put a hold on her plans to take on the 1940 Olympics.

Instead, Williams joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, a swimming, dance and musical show and it was there that she was discovered by MGM talent scouts, on the look-out for a rival to Fox's sporting star, Sonia Henie (an Olympic ice-skater turned film star).

White Dresses

That Virginal Look

Audrey Hepburn, looking demure in a white floral dress 

Something about white spells 'purity' and it's not by accident that in Western culture it was chosen to represent virginal chastity in the form of a wedding dress. White clothing also features in many religious traditions and is the colour of choice for dressing innocent babies. Why should this be? 

Well, there's been various theories about this - one is that white is a colour that is easily soiled, thus it has a kind of precious fragility. Another is that it is the colour of snow, ice and clouds and therefore has an associated cleanliness. A third reason is that it its the opposite of black, which is associated with darkness and wickedness.

1960s Shoes

The Influential Mods

Modern Go-Gos

The British Mod movement in the early half of the 1960s defined much of that decade's style - as everyone knows, it was a revolutionary period in fashion as well as attitude. Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon, Ben Sherman helped set the tone for hair and clothes and for shoes, designer Beth Levine re-introduced the boot to 60s women and Andre Courrages took it to new levels of funkiness and the white boot became emblematic of the era.

Boots came in various colours and designs to suit mods and non-mods -fur lined ankle boots, white gogo boots in various heights, riding boots, brown or black leather knee-highs, classic blue and white canvas gym boots and later, lace-up Granny boots.

Scottie Dog

Sweet Scottie vintage fruit box label

Scottish Terriers: The Decorative Dog
Scottie dogs, with their distinctive, stylised looks and appealingly earnest facial expressions, have long been a popular 20th century motif for fashion, ornaments and various what nots and bric a brac. They ooze character and have a kind of retro, old-fashioned charm - possibly because their image can be found on so many old  tea towels, cake tins, calendars and brooches etc. Like the poodle, they possess a serious style cachet and were particularly sought after, as decorative accents, from the 1920s through to the 1950s. They even had the distinction of being a Monopoly playing piece.

Animal Pins and Brooches

Creature Chic

Cute

When I was a kid at school, it used to be very popular for a while for children to wear a small mouse brooch (usually with ruby, saphire, or emerald eyes) pinned to your coat. Why mice? Perhaps because they featured heavily in children's stories and nursery ryhmes and are small and non-threatening. Strange that females are traditionally portrayed as fearing mice, yet turn them into cartoons, storybook characters or adornments and we're supposed to find them adorable.

French Berets

The beret is a classic style that never dates, perhaps because it is so simple a design - basically just a circle. It's also very old, dating way back to the Bronze Age and although we associate berets with the French, they were worn in some form or other by the ancient Minoans, Romans and Etruscans and in various military organizations the world over.

Classic wool beret.

The reason for the French association is down to a particularly style of "Basque" beret, which was originally worn by Basque shepherds in the Pyrenees mountain region between southern France and Northern Spain. This style of beret was produced commercially by local craft people as early as the 17th century in Southern  France and when industrialization hit in the 19th century, they were mass produced in factories.

Lace Gloves

Lacy and Racy

White lace gloves.

Ultra-feminine and best seen on slender, delicate hands, lace gloves evoke an era of ruffles, fluttering eyelashes,  swishing skirts and wide-brimmed sun hats or even parasols. They have a kind of Blanche Dubois fragility about them that seems strikingly out of place in the rough and tumble post-feminist world.

I can't imagine ever having occasion to wear them or feeling comfortable in them even if I did but then, I'm not the parasol type. Yet they sell them on Amazon so someone must be wearing them. Perhaps some people wear them ironically, with a leather jacket and bullet belt. More likely it's a kind of retro Madonna thing, to be worn with  pseudo Victorian underwear -eg; white bodice and thigh garter. Very 80s. They could also be worn with a wedding dress, cocktail outfit (in black) or dressing up as a Southern belle. For a variation on a theme, there are also fingerless fishnet gloves, which create a slightly different mood and in black especially, lace and net gloves seem just a bit wicked.

1950s Cat Eye Glasses

Amazon cat eyes

Few things screech middle century as loudly as those out there cat eye glasses that were so evocative of the 1950s in particular. Subtle they weren't. Rather, they were an eccentric style, designed for women, to lift the face and create interest - perhaps even the illusion of feline grace and slinkiness. In the 40s, glasses had had a more rounded shape but it seems the 50s penchant for extreme, fin-like accents extended to more than just cars.

A Hat and Gloves

1930s . Ladies trying to keep their hats on at the Brisbane races.

1940s. Hats and gloves were still essential items.

Hard to believe but there was a time when few women would be seen in public without a hat and gloves. Up until the 1960s when fashion relaxed, along with traditional social mores, these accessories  were a marker of good dressing- even respectability. Men too, were socially required to wear hats...not only that, but to 'tip' them as a woman approached, as a signal of respect

Dressing was much more occasion-orientated - if a woman went into town or out to lunch, it was considered worth dressing up for. Of course, it also made the whole clothes thing much more rigid - there wasn't the same oh wear what you like freedom. Attitudes demanded a certain conformity to set standards. The 60s revolution must have broken the hearts of the glove manufacturers, not to mention the milliners (hat-makers).

Hoop Earrings

Large stainless steel hoops from Amazon

Hoops are probably one of the oldest style of earrings in the world, having been worn by both men and women in a variety of cultures throughout human history from diverse locations- including Ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Spain, the Middle East and among African tribes people. Later, small but chunky gold hoops had been popularly worn by European sailors for generations - custom dictated that the earrings were a kind of insurance payment, in exchange for a decent burial for the sailors who wore them.

French Stripes

French toy sailor...Sino war uniform,

Coco Chanel's vintage nautical theme

Like the classic beret, French stripes are a wardrobe theme that never seems to go stale. Popularised by Coco Chanel in the early 20th century, they became a particularly hot item in the late 50s and sixties and have made frequent appearances ever since.

Sailor suits, with the traditional large piped  collar,  had been popular in the Edwardian era, especially for children -but not stripes.

Chanel took her inspiration from the French marinière - low ranked, deck-swabbing sailors who traditionally wore a long sleeved, blue and white striped boat neck top.

When it shifted from the deck to the catwalk, it's a look that became eternally chic. Whether it appears in tops, skirts, tees, leggings or something else, the French stripe is casually classy.

The full-blown classic French mariners look is a blue and white striped T- shirt, matched with a navy beret, navy skirt or pants and occasionally...a red scarf tied around the neck, if you want to be obvious.

Jean Seberg in classic French chic

From the Nostalgia Shop

H.E. Homino Emerito striped T

French Connection Toulouse Striped T

Arched Eyebrows

Marlene Dietrich

The early  20th century penchant for highly stylized, arched eyebrows began in Hollywood in the 1930s. Brows were plucked into fine, high arched feminine lines and definition was pencilled in. 1920s brows had also been thinly plucked but were markedly straighter in design.

 The fine, high arch was a dramatic look, designed to emphasize the plains of a woman's face, even if at times, it did give the wearer a rather startled, unnatural appearance.

In the 40s the trend veered toward medium thickness and a more understated look -red lips, heavy on the schtick, rather than brows, were the defining facial characteristic of that era.

A young Joan Crawford in the 1930s

Getting Thicker

Joan Crawford's look reveals a  change of brow fashion

The cult of the arched eyebrow returned with a force in the mid 20th century, only this time with a dark heaviness reminiscent of the Egyptian Queens. However, while the fineness had disappeared, the high drama remained and the brows became strong personality statements, indicating feminine power and sexuality in a new way.

The change of styles can be seen clearly in actress Joan Crawford, who in the late 40s/50s chose a distinctly heavy, dark eyebrow arch - it certainly drew the eye, even threatening to overwhelm her facial features. In the 30s however, Joan had worn the classic Hollywood fine arches of the day.

In the 60s and 70s a more natural look was beginning to predominate. Interestingly, a 2007 study  revealed that younger people prefer lower placed eyebrows with a subtle arch, while those over fifty favour a high arch.


How to Arch your Eyebrows

The Floral Dress

As fashion seasons come and go, floral dresses rise and fall in popularity yet have remained a constant in women's clothes since the early 20th century. Ultra feminine, they provoke an association with womanliness and softness - it's hard to feel aggressive and hard-headed in a flower print dress.

When it works, the floral look can be sexier than a young Brigitte Bardot naked in an open sports car...

Wow....Sophia Loren in floral print

Yet florals can also conjure associations with 'old maids' in sensible shoes....
 

Not too sexy...

A Feminine Statement

Shades of the 1920s/30s. Holly Willoughby floral print.

Much depends on attitude of course and the raw material inside the dress but anyone can wear florals..it's just a matter of discovering the right style for the right body and personality.

Florals have a rejuvenating effect, perhaps because of their strong spring/summer associations. You don't see see too many floral dresses around in winter, yet as Spring bounces around, out come the flowers, as a young maiden''s thoughts turn to...retail shopping.

Garden inspired  dresses are also versatile...they can be tight fitting and sexy, loose and willowy - long, short, mid length, dressy, casual or dressy and and worn with flats, sandals, heels or boots.

The Birth of the Floral Dress

Amazon.$27.24

Although floral prints have been around for hundreds of years, originating in the beautiful, ornate designs of the Far East and Asia; in Western culture the floral dress really only took off in a big way during the industrial revolution, when machine printed chintz could be produced en masse and in the early 20th century, off the rack floral print dresses became hugely popular.

In Rosemary Harden's hardcover book, Floral Frocks, the author explores the design history of floral prints over the last hundred years, through text and 140 luscious illustrations - "from the naturalistic to the painterly, from the graphic to the abstract". 

Audrey Hepburn collecting her 1954 Academy Award in a white floral embossed gown.

Sophia Loren Style

Polka Dot Accessories

In praise of the polka dot...

Red Polka dot clutch from Clara's Handbag Boutique

When I think of polka dots, they conjure very early memories of two things -a particular grey/blue polka dot silk summer blouse my mother used to wear and a multi-pastel coloured Diana Ware platter, that I saved from being thrown out and still have, though it's seriously chipped.  

Maybe those early recollections left a permanent polka dot pattern impression somewhere deep in my psyche because those gay little circles cause a ripple of reaction in me. They're a very basic design and found in nature - in the delicate furls of flowers and the spectacular coats of animals. I love them, yet have to be in the right mood to wear them.,

Polka dots make a strong statement and when employed as a fashion accessory,  if used to excess, can overwhelm the wearer. Generally though they add a touch of whimsy and gaiety to an outfit - a splash of colourful eccentricity in what can sometimes be a grey, conservative world.

Kate Spade Dizzy Dot tote.

Pedra yellow polka dot watch

Why are they called polka dots...? Well apparently this is because the pattern became popular in the UK around the same time time as the polka dance - toward the end of the 19th century. The dot pattern is also a traditional  design for the costumes of flamenco dancers. In the early 20th century the pattern became a popular choice for baby linen and children and by the 1930s dots were making a regular appearance in women's dresses and shoe designs.

However the heyday of the polka dot was in the ostentatious, design-loving 1950s, appearing on scarves, skirts shirts, ties and dresses as well as kitchen ware and soft furnishings.

According to a Slate article on the topic, in the medieval era, it was considered a taboo to wear a spotted pattern on clothing...possibly because, without machinery, it was hard to get the pattern uniform and irregular dots conjured up unpleasant associations with blemishes and disease. Yet in the ancient Australian aboriginal culture, intricate patterns created with tiny dots feature heavily in  the aesthetic design of art and tools.

Ivanka Trump polka dot platform wedge

Polka dots of course, come in many guises - big and absurd, disturbingly irregular, tiny and conservatively  understated or middle of the road uniform. There's something very fundamental about the dot..it connects with the human psyche in ways we probably don't even understand. One thing seems certain though - in fashion terms, polka dot=impact.

Black and white pola dots from love it have it