Vintage Link Love: February 2014

♥ 64 Superb Vintage Pictures Of The Winter Olympics: For the first time in many years, I didn't watch a lot of events during this year's Winter Olympics, but that's only because Tony and I got rid of our cable service a couple of months ago. I still enjoyed catching a few, as well as some of the highlights of the 2014 Games online this year though, and certainly delighted in all of the yesteryear sporting event related stories I came across online like this fab photo roundup from BuzzFeed.


♥ Faces of the men who won America's independence: Amazing early photos of heroes of the Revolutionary War in their old age: Influenced by the history lover, family genealogist, and photographer in me alike, I've always been immensely fascinated by the fact that, in the earliest days of its existence, cameras were able to capture images of people who had been born in the 18th century (decades before functional cameras themselves were developed).

This article from UK paper The Daily Mail takes a look at a selection of photos of some such folks, all of whom were involved with America's Revolutionary War in (1775–1783). If you think that these images stretch far back in time (which they certainly do), stop to ponder the fact that it's entirely possible that the gentlemen pictured here could very well have, in their earliest days, know some elderly people who had been born towards the end of 1600s. Talk about a powerful link to the past.


♥ Air Canada Uniforms from 1938 to 2012: By way of Toronto Life, comes this flip through photo gallery of an Air Canada fashion show that featured models wearing a selection of uniforms that flight attendants, pilots and other employees sported over the course of the years spanning 1938 to 2012.




♥ How the blogging world has changed: It's rare that I read a blog post that resonates as deeply with me as this one did. I first started noticing a drastic change in how people were blogging (with a strong shift towards favouring using social media to post and create a following over, or in addition to, traditional blogging), commenting, the number of folks still maintaining their blog, and several other related points last year. I talked about such things at length on multiple occasions with Tony, but it didn't seem like anyone else I knew or was following was discussing this point publicly.

Much to my relief, it turns out that I wasn't the only one who had spotted some pretty dramatic shifts, changes, and new approaches to blogging. Design Sponge recently wrote about this topic and how such things had been said in hushed whispers in the blogosphere for some time now before the first brave souls decided to start posting about it, as Grace Bonney did in this truly must-read post for absolutely everyone who blogs.


♥ Thoughts on historical accuracy: In a post that a great many of us who wear vintage will be able to relate to, and no doubt have our own opinions on, Stephanie Lynn from The Girl with the Star Spangled Heart shares some of her thoughts on the what it means to dress in a historical accurate manner when it comes to our daily vintage wardrobe (in her post, Stephanie links to another on the same topic by Jennifer Rosbrugh from Historical Sewing called Why You Can't Be 100% Historically Accurate which is definitely worth reading as well).


♥ The Canadian "Rosie the Riveter" - Veronica Foster: Liz of The Vintage Inn has shines the spotlight on one of Canada's most interesting and beautiful war workers, Veronica Foster (pictured below), who was known during the forties as the Bren Gun Girl, and quickly became an inspiring, patriotic war effort icon for Canadians from coast to coast in a similar manner to America's famous Rosie the Riveter.




♥ Selling Your Vintage: More so than any other year that I've been active in the vintage blogging world, I've noticed a wide array of folks in our circle who are looking to give their wardrobes a thorough purging this year and try to earn some cash for the pieces they no longer want to hang onto. That's always a great idea if it's been a while since your last closet clean out or you simply have more than you need/will ever wear. If you're on the same determined war path this year and are looking for a handy list of ways through which you can potentially make cash for your unwanted vintage items, be sure to take a peak at this lovely post on the topic that Janey from Atomic Redhead recently wrote.


♥ Couple met in Nazi death camp, reunited in Toronto: I bookmarked this deeply heartwarming CBC news story last year the moment I saw it and this month, the most famous of the whole year for love, seems like the perfect time to share it.


♥ Style History of 1950s Tops and Blouses: With spring (hopefully) on the cusp of returning, it's all I can do not to pack away my winter coats, gloves, scarves, hats and boots right this very moment and frolic around outdoors in cute vintage blouses and skirts. For inspiration when that fabulous, and no doubt sunny, day does return, I'll be revisiting this lovely, image filled post on the style history of 1950s tops and blouses from The Vintage Dancer.




♥ Is that really an authentic vintage dress you're buying?: By way of one of the web's leading genuine vintage, vintage reproduction, and vintage inspired fashion sellers, Blue Velvet Vintage, comes a wonderful post about how companies looking to cash in on the trend for old school fashions in recent years has lead to an increase in clothing and accessories being called "1950s" (or whatever decade) or "vintage", when in fact they are modern pieces that simply look the part (aka, may be vintage appropriate), and the side effects that this has on sellers who deal in, and buyers who wear, real vintage items.


♥ On a Heart Pin to Make for Valentine’s Day: In last month's edition of Vintage Link Love, I shared a great tutorial for a vintage style fruit brooch that was posted over at Technicolor Cutie's site, and this month, on the homemade jewelry front, I'm delighted to bring you another splendidly simple project that even a novice crafter can tackle: a super cute felt and pipe cleaner heart brooch tutorial from Inky of On Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax (that's perfect for Feb. 14th, but could easily be sported the whole year 'round, too).


♥ Lamé and lurex: A few months ago, completely out of the blue, I got the strongest longing I've ever had to own a vintage gold lame or lurex garment. I've adding doing so to my shopping ongoing fashion shopping list, and am spurred on all the more to find just the right piece for my wardrobe thanks to this fantastic image filled post on both shimmery fabrics from Joanna Öst.

♥  On the home blogging front in the last few weeks, I've had the great pleasure of being interviewed by UK app developer Wallpop in a post on their site called Chronically Vintage: a 100% vintage blog!, and had the wonderfully touching distinction and honour of being named one of Lindsay Lane's Favourite Female Vintage Bloggers. 

Thank you very much to both of these great sites for making Chronically Vintage a part of your online world this winter. I wholeheartedly appreciate it.

{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Last month's inaugural edition of Vintage Link Love was meet with much enthusiasm, which is awesome, because it's quickly become, even in the very short time it's been in existence, one of my favourite post series to write. In fact, I was all but champing at the bit for this month to wrap up, just so I could compose February's edition.


No doubt that fact that I'm keen to wave buh-bye to winter in general helped spur on my desire to see the shortest month of the year come to end as well. Usually, you know, I flat out love most elements of winter and don't mind how long it wants to drag on and on (and on...), but this year, I grew tired of it early and have been immensely excited for spring's return ever since January.


I was thinking about this a couple of week ago and it struck me that one factor adding to those feeling is that I haven't yet gotten a chance to wear most of the vintage garments, as many are best suited to spring and summer, that I purchased during our awesome trip to Calgary last September. Well, not at least outdoors without a heavy winter coat and scarf covering them up, and I'm keen to weave them into my daily warm weather wear (and no doubt share some in vintage outfit posts here and on Instragram).


That's not the only factor though by a long shot and another biggie, which I know many of my fellow fashion bloggers can relate to well, is that as much as it can be fun to do the occasional shoot in the snow (such as this one last month), I strongly miss being able to take pictures without feeling like my fingers, toes and ears are going to turn into icicles in a matter of minutes, as well as not having to worry nearly as much about what kind of temperamental mood the weather is in.


I'm ready for spring's fresh produce, dying Easter eggs, the first blooms of the season, taking walks on the beach, falling asleep outside in the sun, packing picnics to enjoy in the wilderness, splashing in puddles, the local farmer's market reopening, bringing out my beloved vintage sundresses, and countless other things that usually become distant memories during the snow covered half of the year.


We're not quite there yet, but with a bit of luck, by the time I sit down to pen March's edition of Vintage Link Love, at least a few of those things will have happened and the prospect of the rest will be mere days, or weeks at most, away.

No doubt, in true Canadian fashion, during the sweltering dog days of summer, I'll be pining for snowmen, stockings hung by the chimney with care, hot cocoa, warm woolen mittens, and scores of characteristically wintry things, but for now, spring and its beautiful successor, summer, can't get here quickly enough for me. How about for you?