Lavender & Twill : themed style

Showing posts with label themed style. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

༺ Manor of the Setting Sun ༻

Vintage style for a Bernie Dexter dress | Lavender & Twill Vintage style in tropical Thailand | Lavender & Twill Tropical fields and misty mountains in Chiang Mai, Thailand | Lavender & Twill

Oh hai, hey, hello… Yes, of course I like to dress like Scandinavian princess escaping from imminent beheading with her jewel box and her life by hiding out as a goose girl or a pony herder… Why ever do you ask?

…I even found some ponies to go along with my disguise…!

Haha ~ not really. Thai ponies are quite skittish, and these ones wanted nothing to do with the strange lady tottering around in high heels all over their paddocks. I really can’t imagine why!

I did convince one of them to come over to me and say hello, which was the highlight of this photo shoot as far as I am concerned. Nothing makes me happier than spending time with horses, but sadly I didn’t have any convenient carrots in my pockets. I was woefully underprepared for life in hiding as a peasant. Haha!

All the dress up and story telling aside, I really did enjoy this ensemble. I wore it when the Mister and I had our Valentine’s Day date to see How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World, and I’d totally wear it again anytime I wanted an evening outfit or something a little fancy.

I do love wearing Bernie Dexter dresses ~ there’s something special in the way each one is designed, and the Amy Manor dress is no exception. It’s an older style, as it has been around for couple of years now, but it’s been at the top of my wish list for all of that time.

The delicate pink roses harmonize beautifully with the Renaissance inspired border print, and the puff sleeves combined with the corset waist creates an extremely flattering silhouette. The skirt has a fabulous amount pouf and holds its shape well without a petticoat, and add the fact that it has pockets ~ there couldn’t really be much more of a perfect frock in my eyes.

I styled it with a silk pashmina I picked up in Chiang Mai, and a lovely vintage box handbag that I found on eBay. The handbag isn’t labelled and I have no idea what era it’s from, but the lucite handle is lovely, and I do think you can’t get much more fun than a whole bunch of daisies and poppies on top of your purse!

The last element to this look was the petal pink ribbon with a vintage rhinestone dress clip as a choker ~ I adore these 1950s dress clips but I really, really love choker necklaces. I’m obsessed with how romantic they look, it’s forever a mood.

Of course, the reality of shooting in the heat is far less romantic. I was sooo hot and my water bottle emptied far too quickly! By the end of if, my shoes where off and I was walking around in the dust and leaf litter lugging my camera, tripod, and etcetera back to the car. Thailand is super dry at the moment ~ all the big trees are shedding their leaves faster than you can drop a hot coal. It makes for very crunchy leaf carpets, and a weird feeling that autumn is mingling with spring as the weather heats up after our cool respite for “winter”.

It’s interesting here with the burning season well under way much earlier than normal. It’s wrecking havoc with my asthma but makes for a very aesthetic haze, and loads of charming light. I know I was playing a bit too much with direct sunlight in this shoot, but what can I say ~ I love a good lens flare.

However, one of these days I’ll have to remember to stop playing with sunbeams and get some better detail close ups… Not that you really need to see how scuffed up my heels got running around in the dirt and stubble… All the same, I am curious ~ do you want to see more close up shots? I try to remember to get them, but I think I’ve done a pretty rubbish job this time, so let me know!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

༺ Pink Valentine ༻

Hellooo m’dears!

I can’t truly call this my Valentine’s Day look as one: these pictures were taken ages past February 14th, and two: we didn’t celebrate Valentine's Day at all this year ~ which is actually pretty standard for us. The Mister and I personally enjoy celebrating our own day ~ our wedding anniversary ~ rather than an arbitrary holiday, but that being said; yay for a reason to dress up! ₊·*◟(˶╹̆ꇴ╹̆˵)◜‧*･

I love a good themed ensemble and although I originally had plans to create a 1910’s inspired outfit, I found when I was putting it together on me {as opposed to in my head!}, it wasn’t working out at all like I had pictured it.

So that called for plan B and I went with my second favourite style of alternative dress to period vintage ~ romantic doll style, as inspired by the ever exquisite Maire Antoinette.

Yes, I have borrowed ideas from her marvellous fashions before ~ Shall We Eat Cake? ~ but I feel like I’ve stuck more with the wearable-translation rather than the costumed-translation which is half way to a full-blown cosplay, but not quite! Haha!

I tried out a 18th centenary makeup look and hairstyle {though I have neither enough hair or powder on said hair to be true to the period} and I have to say, it was a lot of fun to play with! {…Though certainly not an everyday look… Haha!}

I feel sure that one day I will actually delve into the realm of historical costuming. I find that as I learn about the past influences on vintage fashion design, the more I am fascinated with the history and culture paradigms that are woven in into very construction of the clothes we wore, and do wear today.

Yes, I nerd out over buttons and bonnets and corsets and caps and all the fun things that pertain to the art of moulding a two dimensional piece of fabric into a three dimensional structure! There really is nothing quite like taking something so inherently unable to be what you need in it’s raw format and coaxing it to not only take on a new shape but to become useful!

Then, if you really want to learn to master the fabric, I personally feel that studying vintage and historical techniques that you can will help you understand the innate nature of draping and design. There is so much craftsmanship that is lost in garment design these days ~ all those little details that up until the 1960s really made clothing fascinating, that helped to create the individuality and character of each piece.

Those little details ~ those are the reasons I fell into love with vintage, and when I began to understand it was the design, that drew me even further in, but whoops! I didn’t mean to turn this blog post on a dissertation of clothing design and why we should love it!

Eheh… (=⌒ _ ⌒=)'

Back to the current outfit then?

I really think these pretty Daisy Jean Floral Designs hair flowers where just the things I needed to complete this ensemble! I had three different DFJ in my hair; the peach double rose, one of their signature pieces, a white hydrangea {which is lovely and huge!} and lastly, a Valentine’s Day pink and white rose fascinator.

I’m sure you’ve already heard me ramble on about DJF ~ they do lovely themed fascinators as well as hair flowers in a huge variety of colours and styles that are wonderful for matching to any shade of ensemble you might be wearing!

And while I am not used to wearing flowers that are quite as large as the hydrangea, I just pretend it is a hat and wear it like that. ٩(• ̤̀ᵕ - ̤́๑)✧

If you are ever in need of a quality hair accessory, please do check out Daisy Jean Floral Designs! Yes, I am working in collaboration with this local Australian small business, and having tried out a wide variety of their offerings I can truly say that I adore their pieces. They create a special something for every occasion, and I simply can’t go past a pretty hair flower to finish off my outfits! Plus, I’m super excited to be able to share a coupon code with you all so that if you wish to purchase your own pretties from DJF you can use “LAVENDERTWILL10” for a discount! Yay!

Now I just need a giant picture hat with a massive feather to complete the look… Don’t you think that would be perfect? Haha!

I’m also wondering if I should try to do something Regency inspired as that is another favourite era of mine… Or Victorian. Or Edwardian ~ oh, I do find it hard to choose just one! It’s given me lots to think about ~ you would like to see some more ensembles styled with a historical twist? Which eras do you think I should pick?

xox,

bonita

Disclosure | Daisy Jean Floral Designs and Lavender & Twill have partnered up this year to bring to you some amazing floral hair accessories! I purchase the items at a discount and share my thoughts on the pieces. There is also a discount code for anyone wishing to purchase from Daisy Jean Floral Designs : LAVENDERTWILL10

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

༺ Sí, Señorita ༻

Am I anywhere with this much sunshine at the moment?

Alas, no, I am not… However, this is a flash back to my amazing trip to the Gold Coast! I hope you are not sick of these yet, because I still have another post to come after this one… ( ˃̗εू˂ )

I have been hoarding this glorious Daisy Jean Floral Designs tiki-inspired floral hair piece for just the right outfit to wear it with. I needed something bright, something colourful and something slightly crazy…

When Harlow Darling told me about the amazing cactus garden at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, and asked if I was planning to dress to a Mexican theme, I went ~ “No, I don’t have anything to we…!! Hang on!” Instantly this sequined circle skirt {yes, another one… What can I say? This girl adores sparkle!!} popped into mind.

The skirt is not 1950’s vintage, more like 80’s, or perhaps 90’s retro, but it does the job so well. The rest of the outfit practically pulled itself together without any extra planning ~ it just danced into my head like some sort of animated thought sequence.

Not a Mexican theme, but a Spanish one!

Recently I have really been getting into the equestrian discipline of Working Equitation with my horse Copper. It has quite a fascinating history, which I enjoy as part of the sport. WE started in Italy in 1986, where it grew as a way for farmers to pass on the traditional methods of training their horses for useful ranch work after the advent of machinery taking over the job. It quickly spread to surrounding European countries where it is practised to this day, and Portugal have remained the world champions of the competition.

Because I have been learning so much about the discipline’s history and competition rules {the competitors wear their countries traditional ranchero attire when competing} I have had traditional European ranch wear floating around in my head. Now, this outfit isn’t even a smidge bit close to what you would wear while riding, being neither culturally or historically accurate, so my inspiration fell more along the lines of a 1950’s ensemble for a fashionable señorita la casa de rancho.

I have had this vintage silk blouse in my wardrobe ever since I started collecting and wearing vintage. I picked it up at the thrift shop when I was hunting for some pieces to start my new style journey, and it’s one of the few pieces that have lasted through all the wardrobe purges. I’m only kicking myself that I didn’t pick the exact same one up in grey, I thought that one would be enough… Silly me.

The pink blouse was the perfect pairing with this skirt however, and even better I could add my deadstock 1950s celluloid pony brooch that was a recent purchase. It goes without saying that I’m obsessed with anything equine, and those pastel pink galloping horses just HAD to be mine!

I really do think that the finishing touch to this ensemble has to go to the amazing DJF hair flowers though, and also; the red glitter earrings!

Yes, DJF has launched their own line of resin glitter jewellery, and it’s so pretty. There are a ton of different colours and designs to pick from ~ and while I went for red {for some reason I don’t have any red vintage earrings? Weird!} it was a very difficult choice between these ones or the gold glitter pair. Also, they’ve recently release some new brooch designs, which is exciting. Me being the obsessive brooch nut that I am can feel an imminent purchase coming on. *(~ ‿ •)

Now, I did change from this outfit into the one I posted about earlier with forget-me-nots and toile, but that’s the best thing about hanging out with bloggers! Harlow helped me out with the different photo shoots by helping to pick the locations, and taking some behind the scene snaps and everything. It’s just so great to spend time with people who have the same hobbies as you. They understand exactly what kind of work goes it to it, and what you need to do, rather than looking at you like you are crazy when you have to go change in the ladies public rest room so that you can go shoot a second ensemble… Haha! Thank you Harlow for being so cool!

xox,

bonita

Disclosure | Daisy Jean Floral Designs and Lavender & Twill have partnered up this year to bring to you some amazing floral hair accessories! I bought the DJF hair flowers because I really like them, but I’m also excited to feature this wonderful Australian small business, and the pieces I buy are discounted as part of our agreement. (✿◠‿◠)

༺ ♡ ༻

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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

༺ Manor of the Setting Sun ༻

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

༺ Pink Valentine ༻

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

༺ Sí, Señorita ༻

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