1940s : Swing Fashionista

{ Tag Archives } 1940s

1940s wide pants bolero set in sateen!!!

For all the ladies who adore 1940s style, look at this amazing early 40s set that I found recently! A rare find indeed and it is in mint condition. This set has a bolero tie top and a pair of wide, high-waisted pants with gorgeous embroidery. Very similar to the 1940s sewing shown pattern below.

If you are interested, this item is for sale in my Esty store. Just click on any of the pics and it will link you there

Categories: Clothing
Tagged: 1940s, 1940s bolero, 1940s embroidered, 1940s fashion, 1940s sateen, 1940s wide pants

13 Jan 2013 Posted by Michelle Comments (0)

New to the Etsy shop…November

A few new items for the shop this month including an amazing 1930s gown and celluloid necklace and a 1940s blouse, handbag, dress and coat. Enjoy!

Categories: Accessories, Clothing
Tagged: 1930s, 1930s celluloid necklace, 1930s evening gown, 1930s fashion, 1930s gown, 1930s necklace, 1940s, 1940s blouse, 1940s crepe de chine, 1940s day dress, 1940s dress, 1940s evening coat, 1940s handbag

19 Nov 2012 Posted by Michelle Comments (0)

July Etsy store items …

Hi all! I have been busy putting more items into my Etsy store – Violet’s Vintage Emporium – including an amazing 40s blouse, some bakelite bangles, mens ties, 1920s shoes and a few other things. 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 facebook page.

Vintage Late 1960s Spearmint Green Knitted Top

Categories: Accessories, Clothing, Hats, Men's Fashion, Shoes
Tagged: 1920s fashion, 1920s flapper shoes, 1920s shoes, 1930s bakelite, 1930s bakelite bangle, 1930s jewellery, 1930s tie, 1940s, 1940s blouse, 1940s shoes, 1950s hat, 1960s jacket, 1960s top

15 Jul 2012 Posted by Michelle Comments (0)

Vintage colour swatch…yowza yellow

So, I thought I would do something fun and write a regular post every 2 weeks that focuses on a particular colour. I will also include pics showing all sorts of vintage fashion items that were produced in varying shades of that colour, hopefully to inspire some new outfit combinations in the future and some possible purchases.

Yellow: I chose yellow today because I was inpsired by a superb pale buttery yellow, early 1940s dress in my collection, and funnily enough – a 40s handbag to match. Not a colour I would probably wear myself, but lovely nontheless.

In my mind, yellow clothing always screams warm weather and sunny days. So, since it is summer here in Perth, a yellow gathering of items it will be for this post And oh so many shades…from canary and lemon to mustard, pale yellow and daffodil! Have also included one modern item in this group…but it is very worthy of being here

* Please note that all photos are linked back to their original source.

Categories: Accessories, Clothing, Hats, Shoes
Tagged: 1930s, 1930s hats, 1930s shoes, 1940s, 1940s hats, 1940s shoes, yellow vintage clothing

5 Jan 2012 Posted by Michelle Comments (6)

Carl Erickson Fashion Illustration

Carl Erickson (1891 – 1958) was an American fashion and advertising illustrator from the 1910s through to the 1940s. At the peak of his career, he signed his work “Eric” and was known by this name. He worked a great deal for Vogue in the 1930s and 40s. He had a reputation for being obsessively hardworking. He only ever sketched from live models. For each illustration that appeared in a magazine, he had made dozens of studies. And he was known for bringing his sketchbook with him everywhere he went – to the restaurant, to the theatre – and capturing the elegance he saw around him.

Categories: In Magazines
Tagged: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Carl Erickson, Eric, fashion, fifties, forties, illustration, illustrator, thirties, twenties, vogue

30 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (1)

Top Picks: Burberry Prorsum Fall 2010 Ready To Wear

Military chic a-plenty. Oh for one of these coats…

Categories: On Catwalks
Tagged: 1940s, army, aviator, burberry, Fall 2010, forties, military, navy, prorsum, Ready to Wear, RTW, wartime, World War II, wwii

29 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (0)

Kat Hessen by Alexander Neumann for Vogue Mexico October 2011

Categories: In Magazines
Tagged: 1940s, Alexander Neumann, forties, Kat Hessen, Mexico, vogue

24 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (0)

Gillian Anderson by Squiz Hamilton for Fault Magazine Fall 2011

Categories: Celebrities
Tagged: 1940s, Fall 2011, forties, Gillian Anderson, Squiz Hamilton, suit

21 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (0)

Frida Gustavsson by Andreas Öhlund for Elle Sweden

Andreas Ohlund for Elle Sweden pulls together all those 1940s looks that marched down the Fall catwalks…

Categories: In Magazines
Tagged: 1940s, Andreas Öhlund, Elle, forties, Frida Gustavsson, magazine, Sweden

20 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (2)

Gil Elvgren Pinups: Reality to Fantasy

How interesting to see the difference between reality and the final product in Elvgren’s pinups. I’d never seen these before…

Categories: Vintage Photos
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, art, cheesecake, fifties, forties, Gil Elvgren, girl, photograph, pinup, reality, varga

11 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (2)

Burlesque/Vintage Costume Designer: Stephanie Ludwig

Stephanie is a one of my role models for sure! I was her intern 2 years ago, and she showed me a world filled with rhinestones, feathers, and pasties. Her work is tantalizing and she used to dance with Hop Swing & A Jump back in the day!

I asked Stephanie to share her story about how she came about making costumes, here is piece from my interview with her:

I was inspired to make show/dancer costumes after I saw a really terrible burlesque show in 1999. The dancers’ costumes were falling off at all the wrong times, besides looking really cheap and badly made. I was attracted to the idea of reverse engineering – making clothing to meant to peel off effortlessly and the fact that I coud work with fun materials like sequins and beading. I kept the idea in the back of my head until I finally contacted a burlesque dancer to offer my costuming services. She encouraged me to just join her troupe and make costumes for myself, which I did. My first costume was a pearl bead embellished bra and belt, which I still love. I’ve made many costumes since – my favorite burlesque costumes are the Marie Antoinette piece and the blue satin corset outfit.

Categories: Clothing
Tagged: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, burlesque, fashion, lingerie, Stephanie Ludwig, vintage inspired

6 Oct 2011 Posted by Morgan Lee Comments (0)

Forties Style at Miu Miu, Fall 2011

Categories: On Catwalks
Tagged: 1940s, Fall 2011, forties, miu miu, Ready to Wear, RTW

5 Oct 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (2)

Wearing History Patterns

I like to sew. I may not be great at it but there is something very satisfying about sewing a garment yourself from scratch. And I really love making reproduction clothing of the 30s and 40s from original or vintage repro patterns. This means you can have authentic looking garments from the era that are easy to care for and that can be thrown in the washing machine, unlike like original vintage pieces.

Seems that sewing is becoming a dying art amongst the young ladies of today, which is why I love to keep my hand in. I have taught myself over the years and you can only really learn by doing. It’s also nice to have a bunch friends in the vintage scene that sew and a few that even have their own line of patterns for sale. One my favourite lines comes from Wearing History, which is run by my friend Lauren Maringola. She is an amazing seamstress and you can see many of the pieces in her line made up on her site.

I have made several garments from her patterns and they fit like a dream and are very easy to put together in most cases. I am an intermediate sewer so haven’t tried the more advanced ones yet. My next project is a pair of 1930s beach pajamas to take to Thailand with me. The thing I love about WH patterns is that they are based on original patterns with some tweaking to make them easier to make. They also come in many sizes which is a real bonus. She even has hat patterns

You can check out Wearing History Patterns here: http://wearinghistorypatterns.com

Categories: Clothing, Hats
Tagged: 1930s, 1940s, patterns, reproduction, sewing, wearing history

20 Sep 2011 Posted by Michelle Comments (1)

The many hairstyles of Ginger Rogers

Ginger is definitely one of my greatest idols, and her look in the 30s inspired me to go blonde myself. She had a long career, so her style (and hairstyles!) span the golden era of showbiz. Here are some of her looks that I love love love.

Categories: Celebrities, Hair
Tagged: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, blonde, bob, fifties, fingerwaves, forties, Ginger Rogers, hairdo, hairstyle, pageboy, platinum, thirties

16 Sep 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (2)

Modcloth: So many shoes, so little time…

Well, I’m in Argentina right now, so Modcloth shopping is out of the question. Boooo. But you should all go buy some delicious shoes over at Modcloth.com, so that I can live vicariously through you Send me photos! Here’s a danceable selection….

Categories: Shoes
Tagged: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, dance, fifties, forties, heels, pumps, retro, Shoes, style, swing, thirties, vintage

10 Sep 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (2)

100 Years of Fashion in 100 seconds

Lovely! Great concept, how fantastic…

Categories: On Film
Tagged: 100 years, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, decade, fashion, fifties, forties, history, sixties, style, thirties, trend, twenties, video

9 Sep 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (0)

Vanity Fair September 11: Editorial for W.E

Oh what a delicious editorial in this month’s Vanity Fair, shot by Tom Munro! The shoot is to promote the upcoming film W.E (directed by Madonna!) which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in a few days. If you haven’t heard about it yet, W.E of course stands for Wallis and Edward, and the film will explore the story of the romance between Mrs Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry the glamorous divorcee. Some stills have been released from the film, so I will post those as well – it’s going to be a Swing Fashionista’s dream come true, swoon!

Categories: In Magazines, On Film
Tagged: 1930s, 1940s, Andrea Riseborough, Edward, forties, James D’Arcy, King Edward, Madonna, Mrs Simpson, thirties, Tom Munro, Vanity Fair, W.E, Wallis, Wallis Simpson

24 Aug 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (4)

Everyday fashions of the 20s, 30s & 40s by Sears

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 Amazon.com

Categories: Books
Tagged: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, catalogs, catalogues, fashions, forties, Sears, thirties, twenties

17 Aug 2011 Posted by Michelle Comments (0)

Book: “Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style”

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

Categories: Books, Men's Fashion
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Cary Grant, celebration of style, fifties, forties, Savile Row, sixties, suits

15 Mar 2011 Posted by Sharon Comments (6)

Golden Gowns

I stumbled across this photo of Cheryl Cole in a golden gown on the X-Factor. It reminded me of some photos of vintage starlets in metallic gowns I have set aside over the years. Amongst the beauties here we have Ginger Rogers, Jean Harlow, Baba Beaton, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, Nancy Coleman, Veronica Lake, Myrna Loy, Carol Hughes and Delores Del Rio. Wow, I need something like this…