Meet Skye: Passionate writer, devoted shirtwaist dress fan, and epic vintage hat lover!

May is nearing its end and summer is rearing to round the bend, ready to brighten - quite literally - our lives once more. At the moment though, we're still enjoying the final weeks of spring and as such, it's time to hop right into May's edition of our fun Meet a Fellow Vintage Blogger ongoing interview post series.

Today I'm deeply honoured to have the opportunity to interview none other than Skye from the bracingly wonderful vintage fashion blog, My Kingdom for a Hat. I've been an ardent follower of Skye's blog since discovering it quite some time ago now and greatly appreciate the wit, intellect, and creative flare that she brings to both her writing and her wardrobe choices.




Skye and I share numerous points in common, from a mad love of shirtwaist dresses (the size of her collections smokes mine out of the water!) and vintage hats, Halloween, great books, writing, sporting crimson hued locks, and so much more.

A fascinating, charismatic woman, Skye's honest opinions, exciting ensembles, and stunning yesteryear hats make following her blog a joy of no small magnitude, and really am pleased as can be that she was keen to take part in this series and share so much about herself with us here this month.

Grab your favourite springtime beverage, pull up a cozy seat and join me in to getting to know more about Skye, as we discuss everything from Flannery O'Connor novels to her love of Maleficent, and of course old school chapeaus in spades, too!


Welcome, Skye! For those who are just having the pleasure of meeting you and your vintage blog, My Kingdom for a Hat, for the first time, could you please tell us when your site launched and what inspired its lovely name?

I made my first post on May 2nd, 2012. It was finals season, so what else would I do, in a fit of procrastinatory pique, but start a blog? I'd been sharing my outfits on Facebook for a few months, and I decided it was time for a proper home. The blog was called Color Me Brazen then, a name I kept for almost a year. I've been My Kingdom for a Hat since March 2013. It's a pun on Shakespeare's, "my kingdom for a horse".




Let’s talk vintage hats then, shall we? What sorts of things draw you to a given hat? How often do you tend to wear one?


I wear a hat - or a headscarf, if it's hot - every day. I'm fondest of pillbox and calot styles. Anything that requires pins, really - I love that unmistakably vintage look. Impracticality delights me. Beads, feathers, veils - bring me form over function, every time.


Do you share my perpetual sense of bewilderment (even though I do fully understand the plethora of reasons why such is the case) over the fact that most people willing gave up the wearing of fashionable hats with nary a hint of protest, and, to your mind, what was the leading cause (or causes) for the demise of this thoroughly marvelous accessory?

I know this one! Western fashion, through the 20th century, was basically a march from style to substance. A hundred years ago, people either made their own clothes or had them tailored. Ready-to-wear garments didn't exist on any meaningful scale until the 1920s.

As they became more common, people's tastes grew progressively more casual, and that's about when we dispensed with hats, gloves, etc. People didn't want to spend time and money on non-functional accessories, and I can't say I blame them! I enjoy the ritual of lacing my corset and pinning on my hat just right, but it's definitely not for everyone.




We share an unfettered passion for shirtwaist dresses. What is it in particular about this deeply classic style of garment that appeals to you?

I'm the laziest seamstress ever, and a full skirt/fitted bodice dress is easiest to sew. But really, I'm just a hedonist. I'm very sensory, and swishing about in several yards of fabric is pure luxury.



As I’m sure inquiring minds may wish to know, how many would you say you own at present?

Oh lord - 50? 60? I did an inventory recently, but I turn over my stock a lot. I'm always sewing new things and selling old ones.




What decades do you find yourself most drawn to from a fashion standpoint? Do these differ from, or jive with, the ones that you yourself currently wear?

I find the 1910s and '20s incredibly interesting. I don't think people fully realize that history isn't a linear trip from oppressive to progressive, and the early 20th century shows us that. Women then had more freedom, in some ways, than women 30 years later! Flappers' fashions would make their granddaughters blush. I mostly wear '40s and '50s, though. As much as I love the Roaring Twenties, I'm not quite comfortable in above-knee skirts.


In addition to awesome vintage hats, what are some “must have” yesteryear accessories in your books?

Curlers! I've almost gotten used to sleeping on them. And gloves, of course, though adapting them for modern day is hard. Ladies of old didn't interact with technology the way we do. Try texting with satin fingertips...




And speaking of things pertaining to books, you’re a passionate writer, can please tell us more about the roll(s) in which writing currently plays in your career and daily life alike?

I am always writing. When I don't have pen and paper, I'm texting myself story ideas. When I don't have my phone, I'm whispering them under my breath, trying to commit them to memory. It's in my blood. I taught myself to read and write when I was four, and I wouldn't even know how to stop. I finished three novels before I graduated from high school, and I desperately wanted to be a teen author. Sometimes I judge myself for having missed the chance - and then I remember I'm only 22. Such an old fart, right?


Right now I work as an office manager, and I write and edit all official company literature. In high school, I was copy editor - their youngest ever- for my town's monthly newspaper. I've written for online magazines and for local community theater. I spend an embarrassing amount of time arguing politics on the internet - I'm actually trying to turn my political blog into a quarterly magazine. In April, I had a short story published in one of Yale's literary journals. I have a few more coming out this summer, and I'm hoping to publish my short-story collection within the next couple of years.


Oh, and the fanfiction. So much fanfiction. I freely admit to being one of Those Girls.


It’s an oldie, but a goodie all the same: Who (past or present), from the arts and literary world, would be seated at your fantasy dinner party?

Louise Brooks, first of all. She was the OG flapper. The real thing, not just for the movies. I've heard she read Schopenhauer on set, which appeals to the snob in me. Eleanor Audley, who played Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, and Angelina Jolie, who played her in the 2014 remake. Gregory Maguire, Stephen Sondheim. Ayn Rand, because I love arguments over dinner. And Oscar Wilde, in case the party started lagging.




Would you describe yourself as a bookworm?

Definitely! Though "books" is putting it broadly. I read mostly longform journalism lately, plus short stories on writers' forums online. The last book I read was Flapper by Joshua Zeitz, a social history of the Jazz Age (J’s note: I own and have read that book as well; it’s excellent!).


What are some of your favourite vintage/classic literature titles?

I was a Latin major, so my definition of "vintage titles" might be skewed! I love Ovid and Catullus. Their work has a crassness people don't expect from the ancients. But people have always been just people, and I love that. There's a famous bit of Roman graffiti that reads "on April 19th, I made bread". So #relatable.

To go a little more recent - I'm a big Flannery O'Connor fan. Everything That Rises Must Converge has been a big influence on my own writing. And as of last year, my all-time favorite book is officially vintage. Wicked was published in 1995. I love retold fairy tales, and Gregory Maguire was my introduction to the genre.




Aside from your beautiful wardrobe, what are some ways in which you inject vintage into your life?

My house is almost 100 years old, which I love. And I buy most of my housewares second hand. My partner and I are slowly amassing antique furniture, including one beautiful but very uncomfortable couch. We're involved with lots of historical reenactment events - Renn Faires, etc. And I make flower wines, which makes me feel positively medieval.


Like myself, you adore the past, but wouldn’t want to permanently live there, if such were possible. However, are there any elements of the decades you hold most dear that you wish were still more prevalent in today’s society?

The self-sufficiency. I rely on modern convenience as much as anyone else, but I make a point of knowing how to cook, sew, shovel a driveway, etc. It's important to know I could take total care of myself, even if I don't currently have to. I'm from New England: blizzard survival skills are a must.




There is an immense allure and undeniable beauty to vintage fashion, which accounts, in part, for its popularity and appreciation to this very day. To your mind, are there elements of 21st that may be looked back upon with similar reverence and appreciation, or will we continue to hold the “golden era” of fashion in high esteem, but not be anywhere near as keen to rekindle today’s looks in another, say, fifty to eighty years? (Not that the two couldn’t, of course, cohabitation in the sartorial world then, too.)

I honestly don't know! Today's fashions are less their own thing and more a remix of the past. We have more access to other eras and cultures than ever before; the lines are more blurred. 2016's "look" is much more eclectic than 1916's. If anything, I think today's renditions of vintage styles will go down in history. "2010s does '50s" will be the "'80s does '50s" of thirty years from now.



How far back in time does your passion for vintage fashions stretch? Were there any defining experiences in particular that cemented such for you?

I've always loved costumey clothes. I was a theater geek; I wore cloaks and sparkly shoes to school well into my teens. I went thrifting all the time, and I took pride in the fact that I would wear anything. When I was about 18, I fell in love with the "vintage dresses and colorful tights" ModCloth aesthetic. I walked around like a total hipster for a couple of years until I started craving more elegance. Now I wear vintage as it was supposed to be worn: the whole corset and caboodle. It feels right - even more so when I get asked if I'm in a play.




At this point in your life, how would describe your personal style?

"Walking anachronism". I love straight-up vintage; forget the "modern twist". If I don't look like your grandma in her prime, I'm not feeling my best.


We share many points in common, another of which is an unending love for All Hallows Eve. Can you share more about your passion for such and some ways (if applicable) in which you keep such going strong all throughout the year?

I've been volunteering at haunted houses for a decade (J's note: that is officially awesome!). It's actually how I met my partner of three years. Since 2014, I've been on the production team of the largest haunted event in the county.

I make costumes, help script scenes, and attend your demon-wrangling needs. This year, though, my partner and I are taking time off to experience other local haunts. We're calling it "research and development", though our motives are totally ulterior and we both know it.


Does your love of Halloween factor, in any outwardly discernible way, into your current fashion choices?

I love Halloween in part because it's an excuse to be totally, unabashedly garish. I like to think I'm channeling Hallows' Eve when I wear a corset and petticoat to work. Life's too short not to use the good china!

I also have a pumpkin-patch tattoo down my right side, so I'm always carrying a little autumn spirit around.
 

Back to blogging, for a moment. What are some things that you’re surprised to see remain largely uncovered (as in, not written about) in the vintage fashion world? Do you feel any compulsion to cover such yourself?

The concept of "classiness" is really loaded, and I want to see more vintage lovers examine it. I see too many fellow bloggers reference eras "when women dressed like ladies" or disparage today's women to elevate the past. There's nothing inherently respectable or not about certain styles of dress. I'm not personally comfortable in clubwear and stiletto heels, but it's not my place to judge women who are. We can celebrate vintage style without the implicit (and sometimes explicit) slut-shaming.

Besides, what's modest today was once revolutionary. Mae West was arrested for public indecency. Bettie Page made freaking fetish porn! In their time, they were no different from the girls we decry as "immodest" today. Even makeup was once considered scandalous.


Are a big social media fan? Any sites/apps you love/loath?

My relationship with social media is begrudging. I've got my blogs, and I use Facebook to talk with friends and browse vintage groups, but that's about it. I know it's pretty much essential these days, but I hate being constantly connected. I loathe "personal branding". I don't even have a smartphone, and I plan on being the last holdout under the age of 80.


So often, I find, that those of us who are heavily immersed in the vintage scene (and/or the wearing of vintage) come to have such almost exclusively represent, to the world, who they are and thus a certainly singularity of interests is perceived, when in relatively, such is very rarely the case. 

In an effort to change this, I’m immensely interested in discussing with fellow vintage fans what some of their other passions/goals/dreams are. Any such areas that you wish to share here with us?

I'm obsessed with Maleficent! I love her, always have. I have dolls, posters, t-shirts, even a tissue box with her face on it. Hell, I have a tattoo of her horns on the back of my neck! I'm active in the (unfortunately small) Maleficent fanfiction community online. She's my favorite character of all time, and I counted down the days to her movie in 2014.



And last, but not least, circling back to the earliest questions here, what would be your “take my kingdom, it’s yours!” unicorn of a vintage hat be?

I absolutely love Mode de Lis's lemon hat. Making my own version would be pretty easy, but it's just not the same as finding it in the wild.

Connect with Skye on the following sites:

Her blog: My Kingdom for a Hat

Her Tumblr blog: Beginning Our Dissent

Her Etsy shop: Dressed in the Dark Vintage

Meet the past interviewees who have taken part in this delightful ongoing post series:

February 2015: Emileigh | March 2015: CiCi | April 2015: Helen Mae | May 2015: Esther | June 2015: Ms. Falcon | July 2015: Jessie, and Laurence & Sylvain | August 2015: Holly | September 2015: Rhia | October 2015: Franny | November 2015: Emily | December 2015: Porcelina | January 2016: Nora | February 2016: Kate | March 2016: Carla | April 2016: Jessica E.

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It was a joy to get to know you better, Skye, thank you ever so much for this excellent interview and for sharing your love of the past with us through your blog. I wholeheartedly encourage one and all to pop on over and follow Skye there, if you're not doing so already.

With less than a month to go until summer, the following weeks of (typically!) near perfect, absolutely gorgeous weather will no doubt be full, exciting ones for many of us.

Not too busy though, on this end at least, for June's next Fellow Vintage Blogger interview post, which I'm thrilled to say will see us boarding our fabulous imaginary vintage jet and traversing back to Europe, where I'll chat with one of my oldest and dearest online friends.

Her many passions include such things as knitting, crafting in general, visiting museums, and vintage shopping, so I'm sure we'll have an absolute bevy of things to chat about. I can hardly wait!

Here's to the tail end of spring and all the fun and loveliness it holds in store for each of us, my dears!

We make our own trends

Last year my lovely friend Laurence from the blog Lost in the 50s mentioned a point in the context of one her and her husband's fabulous vintage outfit posts that really resonated with me, especially since it's something that I've thought about many times myself over the years.

She mentioned how sometimes when you've been wearing vintage for many years, you feel the need to step outside of your usual sartorial comfort zone and try something new (in context of the outfit she shared in that summertime post, it was full length 1940s summer dresses) and that really got me thinking about how we within the vintage wearing realm create our own personal trends.

Now, what do I mean by this? As we draw our inspiration and wardrobe choices from the past, decades that are long done and over with, there aren't any new of-the-moment trends happening for us to follow, if so desired. To clarify, I mean that because we're not living in, say, 1935 or 1952 and experiencing the new styles coming out in the moment then, we don't get to try out new things as easily as if we were keeping up with what was in vogue in the moment.

Of course, the upside to that is that we can now look back on the decades that we adore as a whole and pick and chose what we want to wear from each, but there again, already knowing what existed and what was to come, can somewhat take the element of trends out of the equation.

Now, that isn't to say that there aren't trends of sorts amount vintage/repro/pinup fashion wearers today. One has only to look at the epic spike in interest surrounding vintage novelty prints, Bakelite, or swing dresses, for example, in recent years, to see that some items of vintage clothing really come out on top as favourites with many wearers. Likewise, in the more repro/vintage inspired realm, 2015 has seen a boom in indie jewelry designers, especially those making laser cut, hand painted wooden brooches, who are gaining major followings (especially on Instagram) and large customer bases in the process.

I'm certain that as time goes on, such trends will only continue, especially in the repro/vintage inspired realm, and new items will have their fleeting moments in the sun, whereas others will become practically de rigueur for many vintage enthusiasts.

Still through, we don't get to open up copies of Vogue, Harper's, Elle, Burda or any other fashion magazine that was hugely popular in the mid-twentieth century and have the chance to contemplate if a new trend speaks to us or not. We know, as mentioned above, what's coming up next already and has such, if we want to shake things up on the fashion front, we need to, by and large create our own trends on a personal level based on what elements of the past speak to us in terms of our wardrobes.



{We might not have the latest editions of our favourite fashion magazines to turn to inspiration on what's trending at the moment, but thanks to our ability to look back on time and to explore every wardrobe related element of an era, we're ensured the ability to always find and fall in love with new looks and in the process, keep our wardrobes feeling and looking fresh at our own pace. Vintage Vogue magazine cover image source.}


I think that for many folks who wear vintage, the longer we sport old school styles, the more we happily branch out. When we begin, it's natural to want to play it safe, so to speak, and many people (though certainly not all, of course) opt for pieces that are really emblematic of the era(s) that they're drawn to. So, for example, a 1950s fan might really put an emphasis on circle skirts, crinolines, polka dots, and cute, classic cardigans. Nothing wrong with that in the slightest and of course all of those pieces were common players in that decade.

As time goes on though, that same person may find that they want to expand their daily wardrobe options and start adding in vintage hats, gloves, play suits, patio sets/(so-called) squaw dresses), lucite handbags, (possibly) fur garments, Audrey Hepburn-esque skinny pants, cat's eye glasses and many other fashion elements of the period.

Further still beyond that though, we may discover that as even more time goes on, we want to broaden our closet's horizons and seek out pieces that perhaps before, we hadn't paid much attention to and/or found ourselves drawn to. I know that such has rung true for me in my own life many times, with new vintage fashion interests coming along on regular intervals.

I adore when my attention gets drawn towards something that I'd previously not felt super pulled in the direction of and think that this is fairly akin to the thrill of hopping on the bandwagon with trends, were there monthly/seasonal/yearly ones for us to do so with, if so desired, much like the ladies (and gents) of the decades we adore most often used to do.

There's something very special about this actually. We create trends that work for us and aren't a slave, so to speak, to fashion's whims. No matter how much you love vintage (and the volume of garments + accessories that you own), there are always more styles and pieces out there waiting to be explored, and so the act of creating our own personal trends becomes all the more of a joy that we can set at our pace for as long as we don our beloved vintage threads.

So while we might not have new copies of Vogue to flip open and fall in love with a cutting edge (vintage) style, we do have the endless possibilities that the fashions of the past hold and our tastes and imaginations alike to help ensure that, if so compelled, our wardrobes need never lack for new looks and creative options. A point that makes me, someone who was never really much one for following current fashion trends anyhow, a rather happy vintage wearing camper. How about you?

Modeling the hand knit Darla pillbox hat from White Purls against a sea of gorgeous fall hues

Outfit details

Vintage style grey knit Darla pillbox hat: c/o White Purls
1950s blue, white and black skirt suit: eBay
1950s white rhinestone cluster brooch: Local swap meet
c. 1950s black ruched gloves: Unknown, had for years (probably eBay or Etsy)
Grey faux pearl stretch bracelets: Thrifted (Value Village)
1950s/1960s grey handbag: Running Rabbits Studio
Black seamed nude stockings: eBay
White pumps: Payless
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red


Photography by Tony Cangiano

(True to my word in this recent outfit post: teeth! )

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Fall's colour palette is a grand and glorious one. As vibrant as a spring or summer garden is, and as deep the soulful shades of winter, no season can truly top autumn's radiant spectrum of hues. We get our fair share of stunning ones around these parts, but iconic red leaves are not actually something one spots in every yard.

I knew the moment that I put together the 1950s ensemble in today's photos that I wanted to hunt down just such crimson leaves however and luckily, by venturing more than an hour north of our town, we able to do just that and, if I may say, the results were absolutely gorgeous!

That beauty was helped in no small part by the this exquisite mid-century style grey handknit pillbox hat that I'm sporting here. Earlier this year I was contacted by Myriam, the lovely entrepreneur behind the millinery brand White Purls (don't you just adore that play-on-words:)), and very kindly offered my choice of their stylish vintage inspired hats.

I'm really trying to up the grey in my wardrobe (it's one of my favourite colours and yet, in many areas of my closet, I own little to none of it at present) and felt that a chapeau in this colour would be a very fitting choice for fall and winter (the time of year when I'm most apt to wear a knit hat to begin with). Thus, I selected the elegant topper you see here and could hardly wait to share it with all of you.

Myriam crafts all of the hats that she sells herself and puts such skillful detail and care into each of these marvelous works of millinery art. She starts by knitting the the material for the hat and then sewing it onto a frame, thereby ensuring that each hat keeps its classic shape. At present Myriam is focusing on pillbox styles, which will surely delight many vintage wearers and old school hat fans of all sorts.

She uses very high quality materials and embellishes many of her hats with, fitting, pearl beads. Like Myriam, I'm a massive pearl fan and love that I got to weave some new grey ones into my wardrobe care of this fantastic hat (which I want to wholeheartedly thank White Purls for). It is a beautifully made, styled and presented hat that arrived to me in a cardboard hat box tied up with pretty ribbon and accompanied by a lovely little note. I adore when sellers put that kind of attention to detail into their packaging and knew before I had even gotten the lid off the box that my socks were going to be thoroughly knocked off.

That they most certainly were! This hat - which stays in place thanks to a skinny elastic strap that is hidden under one's hair - is breathtaking, classic, comfortable, cozy, and deeply stylish. Though definitely vintage inspired, it's not so old school looking that a modern fashionista or bride couldn't easily avail of a hat like this as well. Myriam very kindly let me select cotton yarn (she offers various designs in wool, cotton or silk), which was fantastic, as I'm allergic to wool (it gives me hives when it touches my skin) and this way I can spot her attractive grey pillbox hat without a speck of worry on that front.

I truly love this hat - the style of which is called The Darla - and feel honoured to add such an elegant, professionally made pillbox to my wardrobe.

A hat this magnificent calls for an equally chic outfit and so, with the temps dropping by the day, I figured it was high time I shared this 1950s skirt suit here with all of you. It's spring/summer/early fall weight (made from a fairly thin, unlined fabric) and I rarely sport it in the winter, so now the time to do so. I love this sophisticated vintage suit and have had it for, oh, probably about six years now, I'd say, though somehow it had, up until now, avoided appearing on my blog (this point is all the more amazing when you consider how few suits I own).

Summer weight it may be, colour wise it suits the second half of fall superbly and when partnered with this resplendent earthy ruby hues that autumn very kindly provided as a backdrop, it takes to this season like a duck to water. A handful of vintage accessories capped off the look, which I must say, is one of favourites so far this year.

It's hard to believe that in little more than a month, winter will be here again and the skies, streets, and slushy snow piles alike will all take on a grey tone of their own more often than not. Right now though, we're still enjoying the last enchanting vestiges of this season. A point that makes me a gleeful as wearing this strikingly pretty hand knit grey pillbox hat from White Purls does!

Flickr Favourites: September 7, 2015

{Hair pins win war ~ X-Ray Delta One}


{Lady in Green postcard ~ Totally Mystified}  


{Acorn ~ Marko_K}



{Bon Fête postcard ~ Totally Mystified}



{Web ~ Kenny Louie}



{1960 Denby Pottery ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{1957 hair colors ~ Totally Mystified}


{Male Wood Duck ~ Karen Chappell}



{1956 illustration by Joan Beale ~ Totally Mystified}



{Vogue magazine 1948 ~ Dovima2010}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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Has the first nip of autumn graced your town yet or are you still in the last energetic throws of summer? We land in the latter camp, but it won't be long now until the two seasons collide, their palettes mingling, their temperates fluctuating, their respective garden offerings changing hands in a silent waltz that has gone on for countless centuries.

The brief, gorgeous, enticing period that hangs between summer and autumn is rarely more than a two or three weeks long, but what a special, exciting time of the year it is! Warm, but not blazingly so, crisp, but not icy. It smells of lingering sunscreen and the first plumes of chimney smoke alike. School returns to session, swimsuits and wool coats pass each other like ship's in the night, one coming into rotation, as the other is loving packed away until late next summer (or a much needed winter vacation). There are peaches and pumpkins, summertime pinks and rusty fall golds, bare legs one day, knit tight clad gams the next.

There is a vitality that feels nearly palpable to the finale days of summer, as sunflowers sway in the breeze, backpack clad youngsters scampering down the sidewalk in the crisp morning light, and one's natural instinct to rouse the oven from hibernation returns as suddenly as the ability to comfortably wear open toed shoes disappears.

Today's edition of Flickr Favourites captures some of the hues and imagery itself of this fleeting window, this changing of the season guards, this new year of sorts, nearly four months before the ball officially drops.

While I do wish summer would stick around for another decade or so, I'll admit to feeling a touch giddy already about autumn's return and each merry, magical, marvelous day that it promises. Today however, with the thermostat still closer to July than January, I'll stay squarely parked in summer's camp a little longer. It's warm and sunny, tranquil and invigorating at the same time here, plus, it lets me wear my beloved vintage sundresses a little longer.

Soon though, as quickly as a spider spins a web during the night, fall will be here and I will, I assure you, be singing its praises from the amber leaf strew rooftop - seasonal blog posts aplenty squarely in tow.

Introducing a new video series: Vintage Fashion 101 (which kicks off with a look at snoods)

Ever since returning to YouTube last month, my mind has been teaming with ideas for possible videos there, which I must say, I truly love and appreciate, because when I first tiptoed onto the YouTube stage in the summer of 2014, it was often crickets and tumbleweeds on the “what video topic to cover” front.

I'm sure, as with most creative endeavors, there will be further periods of feast and famine there as time goes on, but thankfully, again, at the moment, the well is not running dry and one of my favourites that I've struck upon as of late is is that of a Vintage Fashion 101 series of videos.

When it comes to the trifecta of beauty/makeup, hair, and fashion, the latter is my strongest suit and the one that I'm best able to readily create videos about.

Due to a couple of my conditions, my hands/arms shake when I hold them up for very long and I'm not a super great expert on fancy makeup how-tos, so that one isn't an area of videos that I'll likely make many on. Plus I wear a wig all the time, so between that and the whole shaky arms situation, hairstyling techniques, are not a topic I'll probably make a ton of videos on, but I can talk about and show examples pertaining to vintage fashion until the cows come home!

Not to contradict what I just said, as they are something of a hair accessory, but I decided to kick of this fun new video series with an in-depth, fun filled look at snoods. Those classic, comfy, stylish (usually) netted crocheted or knitted hair coverings that had a major moment during the mid-twentieth century.

In this video, I talk about the history of snoods, provide snood styling ideas and tips, talk about how to prevent your hair from sticking out of the holes in a snood, discuss some of the best places to source snoods from, and share examples of snoods from my own personal collection.

{Snoods are one of my absolute favourite vintage accessories and I wear them quite frequently both in outfit posts, as avid readers of my blog will know, and in my daily life, so I thought they'd make for a great topic to launch my exciting new Vintage Fashion 101 YouTube video series off on.}

Generally speaking, especially when I own examples of the garments or accessories that I'll be talking about in my videos, this is the sort of format that I suspect my Vintage Fashion 101 videos will take.

I adore hearing about what you guys like to see on my channel, so if there are wardrobe related topics that you'd like me to cover in my Vintage Fashion 101 video series, please let me know in the comment section here, on YouTube, or really, anywhere you can reach me. 

You guys, I am really jazzed about this fun new YouTube series (which will likely be randomly occurring, as inspiration or a suggestion to create a new one strikes), especially since it lets me talk about an area that, humbly, I tend to know a great deal about (vintage fashion).

I hope that you all enjoy watching these delightful looks at a different vintage wardrobe area and creative, helpful ways to style that particular garment or accessory.

Flickr Favourites: August 8, 2015

{Playtime togs ~ kristine}




{Vegetable sandwich~ Sara Domjan}



{Model in striped wool jersey dress (c. 1946) ~ Arnold Kabini}




{1959 Dole Pineapple ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{I'm feeling a little blue today ~ Steve Wilson}



{Good Housekeeping Mar 1951 ~ File Photo Digital Archive}



{1957 Saxone ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{1958 Admiral Stero ad ~ Totally Mystified}



{Baby Hérisson ~ Swann Chedemail}



{Blue and gold (1946) ~ Roz Leibowitz}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.} 

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August is a bold time of the year - brazen, some might even say. As a general rule, it's summer's last great stance, and indeed, is the final full month of the season. It's hot, fun, and full of rich, captivating, beautiful colours, amongst which gold, blue, dusty brown, and black always spring to mind for me.

They make me think of everything from dips in the lake when it's a sultry 35C at 11pm to evenings spent watching stars pirouette across the heavens to the colours of the sand and sagebrush strew hills that flank our town.

I love August and its intoxicating heat. I use it to nap, to talk walks, to wear my favourite sundresses, and to simply sit quietly and do nothing sometimes, in the great tradition of summers and porches everywhere.

August might feel like it flies by in the blink of an eye, but its rarely rushed and it loves to take the wheel, dictating, happily I might add, how you spend a good chunk of it. Thankfully, most of us so want to soak up every last ounce of sunshine while it’s still here, so that’s rarely a negative thing.

Stores are already starting to make room on their shelves for Halloween decorations and while I adore fall and its wonderful holidays with an unending passion, I am nowhere near getting my rake, plastic pumpkins, or Thanksgiving recipes out of storage yet.

Nope, no siree, no way. Right here, right now, I just want to watch the sun set over Okanagan Lake every night in a captivating, alluring, soulful palette that rather resembles the one featured here in this month's edition of Flickr Favourites. Coincidence? Just between you and I, not in the slightest! :)