Hi all, I recently had a 10% off sale for Australia Day in my Etsy store, but I have decided to extend it until the end of January. The code is KOALA for those interested.
Here is the link to the shop:
Categories: Books, Clothing, Hats, In Magazines, Men's Fashion
I’ve featured a few items here so I hope you enjoy looking. If you would like to keep up to date with all the listings, join my VVE page.
Hi vintage lovers! I have been busy putting more items into my Etsy store – – including some more 40s and 50s dresses, 40s rayon shirt, knitting patterns, vintage magazines and 4 pairs of 40s seamless stockings in mint condition and an amazing 30s wedding gown.
I’ve featured a few items here so I hope you enjoy looking. If you would like to keep up to date with all the listings, join my VVE page.
If like me, you are fan of , you will have heard of it’s founder; Gabriela Hernandez. She released a book on the History of Makeup in 2011 that is wonderfully in-depth. A great read for all fashion historians and vintage lovers alike. Here is the description from the Bésame website:
Author and founder of Bésame Cosmetics, Gabriela Hernandez, takes you on a grand tour of the rich history of facial trends and styles in her new book, “Classic Beauty: History of Makeup”. Enjoy this in-depth and historical journey of the many trends and styles of the classic beauty looks throughout the ages.
This vivid reference book follows the ever changing concept of what defines beauty by showcasing historical trends and the evolution of makeup innovations for the eyes, face, and lips. Fascinating and bizarre vintage ads, detailed makeup application guides, and profiles of famous makeup innovators, connoisseurs, and iconic faces offer a glimpse of the rich history of facial trends from the ancient times to today. Enjoy over 430 images, timelines, and detailed color-correct vintage color palettes.
Can you see inside the book and purchase it .
Ahh…La Femme Chez Elle. So many beautiful art deco minimalist style covers and fashion plates within. And lots of nifty hat making tips! I have scanned some of the articles for you here from a few of my collection. Yes, they are in French, but the visuals are worth looking at. Some lovely knitting patterns too and I really want to try and make the tilted straw hat. So cute! If you are interested, I have some for sale in my store. I noticed that Artposters.com even has copies of the covers for sale as prints.
Hello to our lovely followers. Just wanted to let you all know that I have finally opened my own Etsy store: , so I will post items that are coming to shop here as well as the Facebook page before I put them in the shop so you have a heads up. I will have clothing, shoes, hats, sewing patterns and jewellery from the 1920s to the 70s for sale.
I was inspired to open the shop because of my love of vintage style since childhood, which has never waned.So now I have a large collection of vintage clothing and accessories and I am always looking for more, as I have been selling on ebay for years too. But Etsy is easier and more efficient!
I hope these little pieces of history give their new owners as much joy as they have given me – in both hunting for them and passing them on to you 
Please pass on the FB page and Etsy pages to anyone you know who loves vintage style Some samples from todays listings.
Violet’s Vintage Emporium on
Violet’s Vintage Emporium on
Categories: Accessories, Books, Clothing, Shoes
Tagged: 1920s fashion, 1930s fashion, 1940s fashion, 1940s shoes, Violet's Vintage Emporium
As always, moving house means that you must sort, pack, then un-pack all of your worldly goods. Sometimes you come across items that you haven’s seen for a while, as I did with my precious ‘Delineater’ magazines from the 20s and 30s. It was with glee that found a group of 4 many years ago in a tiny out of town antique store, and I love them to bits, but I had carefully stored them away and had almost forgotten I had them!
As a designer, I adore Delineator cover art in all it’s elegant art deco simplicity and the wonderful fashions portrayed, so I thought I’d go on a hunt for some more online. For those unfamiliar to the magazine, Delineator (A Journal of Fashion, Culture, and Fine Arts) was launched in 1873 by Ebenezer Butterick – yes, that Butterick. In the early 20s, the magazine published the work of romance novelists and many famous illustrators worked on staff. The magazine later merged with William Randolph Hearst’s Pictorial Review in 1937.
The Delineator was originally a magazine of women’s fashion, with dressmakers patterns, as well as articles covering women’s issues, women in sport and in cultural life. In 1920, it hosted ‘more advertising than was ever inserted in any magazine published for women at any time, anywhere’, thanks to it’s 1 million readers and I believe it was published in many languages. Well, 4 of them found their way to a little store in country town Australia … so there you are!
I hope you enjoy these beautiful covers. I would never part with my copies.
Categories: Books, Clothing, Hats, In Magazines
Tagged: 1920s magazine, 1930s fashion, 1930s magazine, Delineator magazine
Released today, Charlotte Fiell’s … I need this in my bookshelf immediately! Here’s the blurb:
The 1930s are remembered largely as an era of economic insecurity and crisis in the US, political instability and heated rhetoric filling the airwaves in myriad corners of the globe. What better time than the present, then, to revisit and reassess the fashions and styles of that troubled era? Despite the tensions and perils of that long-ago decade, the fashions of the time were often achingly chic, with the insouciantly androgynous flapper styles of the 1920s replaced by sweeping bias-cut gowns with deep-cut backs, floral tea-dresses, tailored suits and draped furs for anybody who could afford them. The latest volume in a series of resources devoted to specific decades, Fashion Sourcebook 1930s collects the most unforgettable looks of the decade, documenting its season-by-season fashions and offering an extensive selection of original photographs, sketches and prints–some 600 images in all, the majority in color–that give a full sense of the opulence and elegance of the period. These images are given depth and context by an essay providing a summary of the major themes within the era’s fashion and presents its most notable designers. This is an essential handbook for fashion students as well as anyone interested in fashion or cultural history.
Oh my yes. I’m off to buy it at !
It occurred to me today that I had not posted about Naomi Thompson’s new book,. The book is a very good basic guide to vintage clothing for those new to vintage collecting and wearing, covering decade by decade from the 1920s to 1980s. Great presentation and many of her own special tips included.
Inside you will find sections covering wearing, dating vintage clothing, caring for vintage, and where to shop for vintage. If you’re just beginning to get into vintage looks and need advice on styling etc then this is the book for you. Naomi has also listed all her favourite blogs, websites and online shops which is also very handy.
If you go to one of my favourite blogs , you could win a copy of the book or you can purchase it at .
Categories: Books, ClothingHi all, just wanted to let all my vintage loving friends know about a new series coming to Aussie TV. is a drama series of thirteen one-hour episodes, scheduled for airing on ABC1 on 24 February 2012. It is based on Australian author Kerry Greenwood’s series of detective novels. Kerry began writing the Phryne Fisher books in 1989 and there are now 18 in the series. I have included some info from the website below:
Immerse yourself in the opulent, exciting world of Australia’s leading lady detective Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Phryne (pronounced Fry-nee) is a glamorous and thoroughly modern woman of the 1920s. Our lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life. But behind the façade of elegance and charm are the scars of the past which drive Phryne to find justice for those who can’t help themselves and to pursue the truth of her own dark history.
Australian TV (like British) generally does historical drama very authentically wardrobe-wise, so I am keen to see how this turns out. Just have to wait and see I guess. I am pretty picky though, which is a curse…haha. Looks fun regardless and I dare say that a lot of Melbourne’s great Art Deco buildings and sites will have been used when filming. I shall report back!
Well, I am rested and back from a camping and a trip and ready to start 2012! Here is a little something I stumbled across for all you admirers of Art Deco icon; Louise Brooks. The Louise Brooks Society is offering a 25% discount off the book, Diary of a Lost Girl. Go to this to find all the info you need to get book the discounted price. The offer is only open til January 6th, 2012.
Book Description from Amazon
Charlotte Fiell’s latest compilation has just been released today: ! I’m guessing this will be a gorgeous sourcebook for original images of twenties fashions. I want this now! But I can’t buy it until February when I move to London (and therefore have a bookshelf to put it in!). Oh well, you kids can buy it now at . Here’s the blurb:
Saucy flappers and manic Charlestons, dramatic silent movies and the bigband euphoria of early jazz: the 1920s must surely rank amoung the most dashing eras in American styles history, and this volume documents in ravishing detail the clothing that helped make the decade so stylish and glamorous. Sumptuously illustrated with more than 600 original photographs, drawings and prints, Fashion Sourcebook 1920s focuses largely on the Art Deco period, with its beautiful beaded dresses, cloche hats and t-bar shoes as worn by the fahsionable flappers and the “bright young things” of the time. Hemlines and haircuts both became drastically shorter, mirroring the changing social roles: at the decade’s outset, women gained the right to vote and Prohibition led many otherwise law abiding Americans to break the law of the land rather than abandon their gin fizzes. This title will prove an indispensable reference work not only for students of fashion but for all fashionistas seeking ideas for the major themes within fashion during this period, surveying its most famous designers and assessing their creative contributions. A cornucopia of beautiful clothes with exquisite detailing, this book is a rich source of inspiration as well as an important survey of Art Deco fashion.
Just released today, a new book claiming to be the most comprehensive survey of hairstyles ever published. I trust this will be an amazing sourcebook, with tonnes of inspirational images, since it’s coming from Charlotte Fiell, the editor behind those fantastic Taschen design icon books – you know the ones? She also has two fashion sourcebooks being released soon: being released in a few days, and due out in March 2012. I’ll post about those shortly.
Here’s the blurb for Hairstyles Ancient to Present:
No part of the human body is as culturally determined, and as diverse in its possible expressions, as hair. The afro, beehive, bob, bouffant, bowl cut, dreadlocks, mullet, mohawk, perm, pompadour – from year to year, and from era to era, old and new hairstyles come and go, telling a new tale about their wearers each time around. Hairstyles: Ancient to Present is not only the most comprehensive survery of hairstyles ever published, it is also a visual celebration of this endlessly inventive cultural phenomenon that looks at the entire cultural sprectrum of hairstyle, from ancient Greek tresses and eighteenth century powdered wigs to Art Deco bobs and Punk spikes, to the latest directions in the world of hairdressing today. Throughly researched, with 800 illustrations, this book showcases an amazing array of wonderfully imaginative styles, while also demonstrating the remarkable skill of their creators. It includes over 1,000 hairstyles, from resplendent Victorian chignons to 1950′s ponytails to the creations of today’s top stylists. With page after page of visual inspiration, Hairstyles contextualises through its accompanying texts the historical and and cultural relevance of hairdressing in society, as well as analyzing its role as a signifier of social status.
For me, as a vintage clothing collector and wearer, old clothing catalogues are must have as they are gold-mines of imagery and info. Part of recreating a vintage look is understanding how an outfit was put together back in the day, and old catalogues are the best way to find this out.
The clothes people bought to wear to work, around the house, for vacations or for more formal or glamourous occasions are all to be found in Sears catalogues. Dresses, hats, shoes, purses and scarves, jewellery and stockings. These books are a wonderful record of exactly what people wore in the 20s, 30s and 40s and HOW they wore it. It can be hard to source original catalogues these days and most go for a fortune on ebay, so these three “Everyday Fashions” books from Dover Publications are great resource and not too expensive. I use them all the time as a reference. They are available from
Categories: Books
A divine book about a divine style icon, not just for the photos of Cary Grant in all his splendor, but a wonderful read as well. What a way to express fashion and style:
I’m talking about style, not only in the sense of how he wore his Savile Row suits, but style as a revelation of character, as a way of facing the world, a means by which all of life’s riches are embraced and celebrated.
- Prologue pXII
This is a book I bought myself for Christmas. It covers fashion history from the 18th century to the 20th century, with glossy photographs of the collection held by the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan. The book has been out for a while, but oh my, if you don’t own it yet, go out and buy it immediately! So much inspiration for any swing fashionista, the kind of clothes that are so beautiful it makes my chest ache. The Poiret, the Schiaparelli, the Chanel, oh god the Vionnet! The Vionnet, people! Now I want desperately to visit the Kyoto Costume Institute. A holiday to Japan anyone?
Seriously folks, this book is sheer fashion heaven. It is definitely now one of the favourites in my collection. You can buy it . Enjoy!
Mad Men: The Illustrated World is the first official Mad Men book, and it’s filled with gorgeous retro illustrations by Dyna Moe. You can get it for only $10.20 at ! I desperately want this on my bookshelf, but first I need to get a bookshelf…
This looks like a fantastic book! Do any of you own this book? Have you flipped through it? What is your personal review?
Here is a great review from !
Information provided by seller:
Love Vintage takes the reader on a charming visual and literary journey through the annals of 20th-century fashion design.
With beautiful photography and an elegant text, It effortlessly reveals both the recurring themes of fashion whilst also identifying the distinct features and innovations of each era.
Vintage clothing is much valued, not least because if its graceful and fluid appearance, but also on account of the wearability and durability of the garments. Unlike the mass-manufactured clothing of today, where garments are more-often-than-not two-sided grabs of fabric hastily stitched together, much of the clothing of the past was designed to be refashioned and reworn as time went by. They were shaped garments, structured in three dimensions, and designed to impose form upon the wearer.
Love Vintage covers both the glamorous and everyday garments of the past and, despite the apparent complexity of some, shows how each was perfectly designed to suit the occasion for which it was worn. They were ultimately so much more functional, wearable and sustainable than the clothing of today.
The book also contains a wealth of information about fashion design, of high value to both the experienced and novice collector, together with an inspirational collection of photography that helps describe each piece to its full. Also included are valuable notes on dress construction, vintage designers, and fabrics.
This book is the culmination of almost 30 years of studying, collecting and repairing vintage clothes, fuelled by a passion for the art of design and a humble respect for the dressmaking skills of a bygone era that brought such creative visions into reality.
Nicole Jenkins is a costume designer, vintage clothing afficionado, and owner of the highly respected vintage clothing store, CIRCA, in the heart of Melbourne’s vintage district in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
Categories: Books, Vintage Photos
A lot of SwingFashionista.com readers have written in mentioning this book, so I thought I’d post it up, just in case any of you lovely ladies hadn’t heard about it. It’s called Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques, and it’s by Lauren Rennells. I wish I’d had this when I first started out! Here’s the blurb:
There was something very special and beautiful about women in the early- to mid-20th century. The way they dressed was elegant and the way they wore their hair was feminine. This book shows how to create so many of those hairstyles by taking hairstyles from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s and breaking them down into simple, easy-to-follow instructions. It uses brand new photographs and detailed directions. Not only a manual, it is also fun to read. The Finished Styles chapter of the book contains coffee table book quality images of models with their finished hairstyles. Sprinkled in introductions and throughout the book are interesting facts about the history of hairstyling, origins of styles, and information about starlets and performers who made the styles popular. This 200-page full-color book has 6 main chapters. The book begins with the basics of styling and works its way back to advanced techniques. It also provides information on makeup, nails, and accessories for a finished look.
You can pick it up for $36.95 on Amazon.com:
