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Prim Gets Pretty For Norwich Fashion Week

It’s pretty ace to think that since 2010 Norwich Fashion Week has been blasting out a heap of fun every year, growing bigger and better each time, and, that my shop Prim Vintage Fashion has been involved since the very beginning as part of the gob-smackingly gorgeous Vintage Show. Pink. That’s my favourite colour and it’s the signature hue of Prim so it was nothing less than excellent that the set for this years show was pink and sparkly. Boom. I showcased 8 vintage dresses from my store and, oh, a few of them were pink. I was in the pink. Big time. The models were lush, the 70’s music was perfection and the entire event stood out as the most fun and frolicsome of the entire week; well, to me anyways. The Vintage Show always has a very cool tone, a playful vibe, and it was so blummin’ well put together by the NFW team and in particular the marvellous Karen; thanks Doll, you did real good. I was happy as always to be part of this wonderful week; proper fun.
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Beautiful photographs by Andi Sapey

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5 TIPS FOR SPRINGTIME DRESSING

Phew! Now that we’re pretty much over the peak of winter, a lot of us are gonna have our minds fixed on one thing: when will we be able to crack into our spring wardrobe, pleeeease? Soon enough, you’ll be able to ditch the tights, sit outside for lunch, forget the gloom of winter and get on with the year ahead. Hurrah! The days are already getting longer, so get into that fast lane by sorting out your spring style now. Here are five tips for the months ahead…

Discover the Duster Coat, or Something Similar – Duster coats have a lightweight design, ideal for wearing over the garb you have now. Just make a point to ditch your chunky knit jumper, as the extra layers can create too much bulk for a piece of clothing that’s all about looking smart. Various different labels have put out styles that are great for dressing down or going to occasions, and spring usually has a lot of both. A good duster will smarten up your jeans, and present a refreshing change to winter’s short jacket/dress ensemble. If you want something a little more cosy and understated, long cardigans are a good alternative. Here’s a great post on how to style a long cardigan. Whatever your tastes, a duster coat, mac, or similar piece is going to be totally essential for your spring wardrobe.

Stick with Long, Lean Hemlines – Now that it’s getting almost too warm to go out wrapped up in a dozen layers, you’re gonna want a transition, and get used to feeling a breeze around your ankles again; lush. It may sound too simple to be effective, but longer, leaner hemlines are a great way to make the change. The best way to do this is to lose your tights, but keep a long skirt or dress so that you don’t feel too much of a shock. Soon enough, you’ll be ready to start wearing summer’s airy, flirty skirts once again!

Crack out the Florals – Flowers are just totes synonymous with spring. They sum up the fresh starts and beauty we associate with the season, so start digging the florals out from the back of the closet. A floral dress is sure to be the trophy piece, but while the weather’s still warming up, you may want to put it off until you can say with absolute certainty that it’s summer. Still, the weather’s going to be comfortable enough for skirts, tops, jeans and so on. This will get you more tuned to a warm mindset, and get you ready for all the sun that’s on its way, yaaaaaay! 

Let Craft-work Back into Your Life – This is another seasonal tradition that isn’t going to go away any time soon. You know that spring’s arrived when the crochet and lace starts appearing on skirts, blouses, and the hems of dresses. In a few weeks, it will be time to let them all out to play again! While we’re still in the transition period, make sure you’re easing those frills in. Add too much in too short a space of time, and you’ll just over-saturate your outfit. Instead, start off with some touches here and there to give yourself the perfect level of spring dressing. Like, you could go looking for understated decorations on a jacket, and combine the piece with a simple black t-shirt, or a roll-neck. Sleek trousers, either skinny, cropped or wide-leg, but always in a neutral colour, can also be great for balancing out the craft-work in your outfit.

Bare your Feet – You’ve had your feet shut up for long enough. Dip a toe into those fresh spring waters with a good sandal. Gladiator styles are still in massive demand, but these will be better when the summer rolls around. Now, a more standard style will work better, combined with cropped trousers to keep yourself firmly in the right part of the calendar. If you can’t handle these, there are some a lot of boot-sandal hybrids currently on the market which might pique your interest. It can be pretty hard to make these mesh with the rest of your outfit when the days are still fairly chilly. However, they’re always going to beat socks and sandals! Let your feet breathe a bit now, and you’ll be all set for slipping into your favourite heels in the summer.

Getting your spring wardrobe right is all a question of balance. Lighten or lose a few layers, compensate where you need to, and above all else get comfortable and ready to feel a little sun on your face!

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Victorian Fashion for Today

The early 1800’s represented a quintessential era in Victorian dresses and fashion. These vintage party dresses not only reflected the elegant silhouette of a women’s body but they also showed off the amount of wealth and class that particular women and her family had. The Victorian era revolved around extravagant and flashy clothing compared to years prior. During the Victorian era, a women’s place was at home, not like in previous years when women were able to help their husband’s at work or in the fields. Also during the Victorian era is when sewing machines and the ability to mass-produce clothing started booming. The booming clothing business ultimately lead to the extravagant vintage party dresses worn by females during the Victorian era.

In today’s world of fashion, the Victorian era and its fashion is totally, not dead. Victorian dresses are still worn in today’s fashion industry just in a slightly different way. One main area to look at, if you’re looking for the Victorian look in fashion, is wedding dresses. The idea of a large, white dress was actually inspired by Queen Victoria herself, the Queen of Victorian fashion. Wedding dresses today have beautiful necklines showing off the collar bones, which was a popular trend back in the 1800’s, also wedding dresses often have trains and long trails, another popular trend that owes its ancestry to the 1800’s.

The Victorian style also has its place in everyday fashion. When considering the three main elements of Victorian fashion it is important to consider:

* Lace

* Heirloom Styling

* Lush Fabrics

If a piece of clothing has at least one of these three elements, one can almost guarantee that it was Victorian inspired by the designer. Another large trend that was popular back in the Victorian era was corsets, and surely you are aware that corsets have made a huge comeback in recent years as girls strive to have the best bodies possible. Corsets are sewn right into dresses and shirts and are not often separate pieces like they were back in the 1800’s.

Next time you’re out shopping, keep your eyes peeled for some of these details that you now know were inspired over one hundred years ago back in Queen Victoria’s day! The Victorian style is not just for women dressed to the nines with lavish dresses and perfect bell-shaped bodies with feather hats, but also for everyday wear. Simple touches, such as lace or ruffles are trends inspired by the 1800’s, now isn’t that a fun fact!

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Finishing School Advice The Women Of The Past Lived By

For the most part, finishing school is now considered a pretty outdated concept. Of course, there are still finishing schools situated across the UK and the wider world, but only the socially elite attend them. But, if you were to travel back in time 60 years, you’d find that the majority of women go on to attend finishing school after their formal education has been completed, wow!

The concept of finishing school is simple: to teach women how to be polite, well mannered, and socially accepted members of society. Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, if you didn’t know the importance of picking up a champagne glass from the bottom of the stem and offering desserts from the left, you were considered unforgivably rude and uneducated. Today, luckily, such customs are no longer considered to be important, phew! Just because finishing schools aren’t a popular concept in 2017, that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn some things from them though. You see, the things that they taught, were things that the women of the past lived by – it wasn’t just about being a good wife (that was part of it though if you can believe it!) but also about being the best (and happiest) that you could be, ace! It sounds like we could learn a lot from the tips that the women of the past were taught in finishing school and lived by. So, here are some of the tips of social etiquette that the women from the 40’s and 50’s lived by….

Tip 1: Always look your best

One of the first things that women were taught in finishing school was to always look their best. According to a finishing school handbook this meant ensuring that their hair was neatly styled, their nails were perfectly manicured, their makeup was beautifully applied, and their outfit – day or night – was picture-perfect. Looking their best was to do with social etiquette. Part of the concept of always looking their best was about feeling confident in their appearance, as a confident woman is a happy woman, right? We might have mastered looking our best during the day with pretty hairstyles, gel manicures, and smart, stylish clothing, but what about at night? Far too many of us simple pop on an oversized t-shirt and get into bed – it might be comfy but does it make you feel good? To feel good in what you wear to bed, something pretty, like a neglige from the Vanilla night and day range, could be perfect. It’s not about looking good for anyone else; it’s about being happy in yourself and feeling good about what you’re wearing.

Tip 2: Don’t slump

For the women of the past, good posture was seen as being the key to charm, beauty and social success. Look back at old photos of women from this time period, and you will see that in each and every photo, people stand tall with their head held high. Walking along with a straight spine, squared shoulders, and your head held high gives you confidence. Don’t look down when you walk, keep your head held high – you will look better for it, as well as feeling more confident. Posture isn’t just important when walking; it’s also crucial when standing still. Instead of popping a hand on your hip and bending one knee, stand straight with your shoulders back and head held high, and place one foot slightly in front of the other. Finishing school also taught women that they looked more attractive when sitting gracefully – another thing that we can learn from today. When sat, whether at home, while out for dinner, or at a social event, always sit with a straight back, your shoulders held high and your head up, it’ll male you feel more positive and alert, and it’ll help ease backache too!

Rule 3: The E’s of beauty

The three E’s of beauty are things that women of the past swore by when it came to looking and feeling good throughout life.

Early to bed: By getting a good night’s sleep, your entire body is happier and healthier, including your skin. When you don’t sleep well, it’s visible on your face, so getting a good night’s sleep every night is pretty important.

Eat well: Eating well means eating for beauty. This means avoiding processed sugar as much as possible as processed sugar is bad for the skin and your waistline. It means eating clean, wholesome foods and drinking plenty of water.

Exercise regularly: Exercising regularly is important not only for your waistline but also for your mind – a woman who exercises regularly tends to be happier and less stressed than a woman who doesn’t. I do Yoga every day and it helps me enormously.
So, there you have it, a guide to the advice that the women of the past learned at finishing school and lived by! The overall idea of finishing schools is an old fashioned one but, we can take the best tips into our modern lives to feel better and more like we are being our best selves. How wonderful.

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The Perfect 1930’s Fashion of Woody Allen’s Cafe Society

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If movies were beverages, Woody Allen’s Cafe Society would be a cool glass of smooth Champagne; sparkling and decadent. A beautifully enchanting and bittersweet film, set in 1930’s Hollywood and New York. This latest Allen offering has his usual perfectly paced wit and charm, with Jesse Eisenberg captivating in his lead role, particularly personifying a younger Allen, a modern embodiment of the man himself with his faultless delivery of the dialogue and eager awkwardness. The film has a gorgeous, subtle and easy pace alongside the scintillating quickness of the script. Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart are the fashion in this film, gah, what era is more cinematically superb than the 1930’s? This is a feast of fashion indeed.

Floaty, feminine fabrics, dainty and fragile details, the 30’s clothes in this movie are so expertly selected, with pastels and ditzy florals in abundance for day wear and jaw dropping glamour when it comes to the evening wear. We’re watching the Bette Davis era, the elegance and sophistication is magnified and each outfit creates heart-shaped eyes for the viewer. Frilled cape sleeves, floppy neck ties, slim lines and below the knee hemlines conjure up a time when fashion was neat and beautifully effeminate. On a fashion note alone, this stunning film is worth watching just for the red silk gown worn by Lively, which in my opinion easily rivals that green dress worn by Keira Knightley in the film Atonement. Oh my.

You’ll come away from this movie with the 30’s on your mind, eager to add some of that look to your wardrobe, trust me, you really will. You’ll want sherbet colours, delicate details and prim gloves, you’ll be inspired to add a bias cut to your repertoire – which is flattering for every shape – you’ll want a neat short curled bob in your hair and a beaded bag on your arm. The day wear is cute and accessible and the evening wear is pure luxury on your skin, be it crepe or silk, no gal can feel unnoticed in a 30’s gown. Scour sites like Etsy for originals and replicas, or seek out online vintage fashion stores like mine which have done the hard work for you and have found the best pieces. To wear authentic items can be a pricey affair, but these pieces are a true investment with their value constantly on the rise, they’re an excellent addition to any collection, plus if you take the time to search you can find amazing items at fair prices or you can simply invest in some accessories of the era to add to your modern look, giving a discreet nod to this perfect period.

Cafe Society is available to own on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download from 26th December 2016, courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and I defy you to watch it and not be inspired to dress and dream as though you are living in the utter delight of the decade. Swoon.

 

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