#3

It's Saturday, Christmas Eve is in three days, and as usual I'm late with the christmas shopping. I guess that's how it is when most of your time is spent in a library working hard on the last huge paper before the last Masters Thesis.
Today the outfit had to be quick and easy. I wanted to go shopping early to avoid the worst masses of stressed christmas shoppers.

So I chose a sleeveless black dress and a vintage silk shirt which I got from my aunties mother in law for my birthday present a couple of months ago.

This dress is actually very dull. I don't wear it very often, and I'm planing to make it in to a 1940's inspired jumpsuit next time I meet up with my tailor in Montenegro. I think there should be enough fabric to manage such a project. 

Luckily a belt can do miracles with almost anything. I chose a white belt today to match the white shirt, and to really show of my waistline. 

The hair is a 1960s inspired bun. I used a shaper ring to give the bun more volume. And that's it. An elegant, and easy early1960's catholic school girl look. 

#2 The Sack Dress

There is no doubt and it is a fact; the 1950's are in. More and more people get their kicks by wearing vintage clothes and "rockabilly" is the new "hipster". The 50s are in, and most of you will think: "Oh! I love the 50s and the pencil skirt, and the big fluffy crinolines and the ponytails." You have probably already asked your hairdresser to cut your bangs short, just like the ones the infamous pin-up model Bettie Page had.  And you know what -  I don't mind at all. This exactly is the beauty of our age. We can choose to be inspired by whatever we want and like, and use it to individualize our style.
Some of you will probably get annoyed by this stereotype of the American 50's pop culture, and look at your pretty pin-curls, your elegant New Look dress, and thank God you're from Europe or at least inspired by the old world fashion form the early 50's.

I love the classic silhouettes.
I love Dior's New Look from 1947; It's simple, feminine, pure in it's aesthetics and the lines make the female body look as elegant as a ballet figurine from a music box.
I adore the bombshell dress, the one Marilyn Monroe made immortal, and what that kind of dresses do for a woman's curves and sex appeal. A very big bart of my wardrobe contains these styles and not to forget my all-time favorite pencil skirt.
But for me exploring the vintage scene of fashion is more than just these well-known iconic and yet stereotyped silhouettes. For me vintage fashion is to dig deeper and see what else used to exist back in the days.
There is more than 18 years between the birth of Dior's New Look and the so-called death of the golden era of haute couture in the end of the 1960s.

During one of my explorations of the past of fashion I found out that Cristóbal Balenciaga introduced the so-called sack dress in 1957. Basically, it's a very loose and almost baggy dress, it look a lot like a sack and it is just perfectly practical during a long day of work or for the Christmas Eve dinner.
What I love about the sack dress; it's very simple and comfy but with a belt you can make it as sexy as hell.
Unfortunately the sack dress is rare as original, but I was lucky enough to find a dress in COS a couple of years ago that is very similar to the ones introduced in 1957.

I love the details of this dress. The neck get's a very elegant and long line because of the oval opening. 

The main reason I fell in love with this dress is the fabric. It is very thick and heavy. The dress weighs over a kilo. (I've had it on a scale.)

A close-up to get a picture of my brooch. This dress is so simple and elegant, to keep the simplicity I use a brooch. Today I chose a big one with color, to brighten it up.