Age of Aquarius Exhibtion

During my absence from blogging, I was still doing a tonne of fun stuff. Including attending this amazing exhibition at The Dowse with my friend Joy.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, or if you actually know me in real life, you'll know when it comes to vintage I'm all about the 1970s. So I was so excited to have a chance to head along to this!

It was good to see this exhibition actually included some menswear! How rad are all these suits? Also those shoes on the bottom right of the photo above are platforms. How great is this carpet as well?

I love the colour blocking on this dress, and the rad carpet of course!! The dress below is so pretty, I'd totally wear that.

I love that one shouldered frock. I remember when I was in university the whole one shouldered dress/top was "in" but I didn't have the confidence to wear it. I have been thinking of making a one shouldered dress to wear to a friends wedding later this  year. Also LOOK AT THE SPARKLES on that shirt!

Some parts of the exhibition did not include clear descriptions - including the cabinet with this in it. Naked yoga before bed anyone?

These craft and design type books were in the same cabinet as the naked yoga book. The house in the bottom left image is amazing.

These were also  in the same cabinet - I really wish there had been more information. Who owned this shirt and badges and what were they like? I would love to have know more about the activism they were involved in.

 This part of the exhibition was pretty glamorous - velvet, satin, furs...

I loved this sparkly lurex top and the super cute camel skirt - I don't really even LIKE camels that much but there was something appealing about this skirt.

 This velvet frock was absolutely beautiful - I loved the flowers on the bottom.

 This dress is tricky - it looks like the mid-drift is exposed, but that's actually just white fabric!

 There was also a very disco type display - so many sparkles, I do really love sparkles!

How great is the fox detail on the back of this dress - its incredible! Although I'm not convinced that it would be that comfortable to wear, wouldn't it be heavy? I guess its worth it for the sake of fashion.

I hear that "cut outs" are a "thing" in fashion right now (I don't really understand fashion). Look at all these 1970s cut outs - they really had cut outs down to a fine art.

Not sure what underwear you would wear with this and I'm pretty sure you WANT to wear underwear with lurex.

Finally my favourite dress of the exhibition - this little green dress. Its not as flashy as some of the other frocks, but I would totally wear this to the office tomorrow if I could. I might even add that headgear, its pretty much a flower crown after all!

The Monthly Stitch: Vintage Patterns

A few months back a few of my friends from the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network set up a monthly sewing challenge via The Monthly Stitch, which is an ongoing sew-a-long with a new challenge each month.

I didn't quite get around to completing the August challenge, but I decided I WOULD do the September Challenge which is vintage sewing patterns.

I'm sure that many other people doing this challenge will be making patterns MUCH older than mine - I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of patterns from the 1940s and 1950s.  However, whilst I was once rather smitten with the 1950s - really these are not decades I'm crazy about in terms of style. I'm much more of a 1960s/1970s girl (ok I admit it the 1980s was pretty rad) so that's what I made.

First up the pattern is my trusty old Maudella 5619 that was gifted to me by Vix. It had been my intention to make a vintage pattern I had not made before for this challenge, but the month kind of got away from me and I figured I should just make something I was familiar with or I would not have time to  make anything at all.

I could not find any further information about Maudella 5619 online and its not dated, but I'm guessing from the style and the art on the pattern envelope its from the 1960s. I chose to make it in this GLORIOUS stretch sparkly fabric I bought at the last fabric-a-brac.

Action shot of cutting out the pattern - I use novels as pattern weights, because I'm super fancy.

I REALLY wanted to do some dress action shots for this post, because this dress looks pretty sack like if its not on an actual human body (or dress form). I planned to do this after work today as daylight savings started on Sunday. But the weather was pretty grey, dark and rainy today and when I got home it wasn't the kind of weather for outfit posts. So you all will have to cope with sack like photos for now and I'll add action shots at a later date.

Like I said - it looks sack like when its not on a body! But I was determined to do this post before September ticked over to October. 

This is the fourth time I've made this dress pattern (because I'm the kind of sewist that finds a pattern she likes and makes it over and over) and I think the construction on this dress is some of the best I've ever done so feeling pretty pleased with myself about that.

Octobers Monthly Stitch is "Dress it up for frocktober" - I think I can manage that!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge:1970's

Today is Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge number two from CB at Citybirds nest - today's challenge was 1970's, which can only mean one thing - POLYESTER! 

Luckily I LOVE polyester!

Rich currently has lectures on Wednesday nights, so I bought a wee tripod to see if I could take some photos myself - but I have to admit they are pretty rubbish compared to the ones Rich usually takes.

Also I've decided after looking at the photos I took with the tripod that our apartment may be slightly lop-sided. These pictures turned out so wonky!

I guess that's what you get for living in an "old" art deco apartment!

Here's a close up of the fabric of this dress - which I love so much! This dress comes with a wee story actually, I seen a dress identical to this in one of the "vintage" stores in town, I LOVED the print, but the price they were asking just seemed silly. So I decided we weren't meant to be together!

Then a few weeks ago I was op shopping at opportunity for animals and they had the EXACT same dress for $7 and it fit me perfectly - I bought it straight away and left with a smile on my face.

Turns out I even have the perfect tights to wear with this dress - I haven't worn these tights for a long time as they are a bit breezy for winter.

But now its spring so they are just perfect.

I haven't worn this guy for a LONG time - so I thought I'd wear him today. Rich made him for me out of fimo (polymer clay) YEARS ago.

Here's an up close photo of me not smiling - yes, sometimes I'm actually NOT smiling - hard to believe I know.

Finally - here's a close up of the animal friends that came with me to work today - a giraffe and a deer.

So I was hoping by now that Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge would be back up and running - but it doesn't seem to be the case. So if you have any ideas for a wardrobe challenge do let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Next week I'll be taking up Helga's challenge - 'attire to be worn whilst beating off cannibals' (I'm thinking "bad ass chic" for this one).

I also still have challenges to complete from Sarah, Mary and Curtise.

So if you have any ideas - no matter how simple (for example wear green) or how weird - let me know and I'll see if I can complete them all.

Finally - before I sign off I thought I'd show you my swipe card seen as I usually seem to be wearing it in my outfit posts. At work we get the standard office swipe card with our name on it. I decided to pimp mine out with Hello Kitty - because I'm TOTALLY a grown up.

OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes - The Big Shwop

Tights - Glassons

Dress - Opportunity for Animals, Kilbirnie

Belt - From another dress

Brooch - Made by Rich

Bracelet - Gift from my globe trotting friends Lisa & Aaris

Ring - Clothes Swap

Necklace - Diva

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge - The 1970s

Today's wardrobe challenge was the 1970s - when I think of the 1970s one word springs to mind and that word is POLYESTER! This frock is 100% polyester - I won't be wearing it when it gets warmer but its perfect right now as the days are still relatively cool without being cold. I kept my shoes and tights pretty basic today - but if I did have blue shoes I would have worn them. Must look out for blue shoes in op shops in the future.

Yes I am wearing this white belt again - it goes so well with darn near everything I own!
The ring is a cheap one from equipt, sorry I didn't get a better photo - I took three photos and this was the best one I got! The bracelet is from a street vendor in Hong Kong, Rich did that bartering to get it for me. I am so terrible at bartering for items when travelling - I would just pay full price, even though I'm getting "ripped off" the item is still likely to be a lot cheaper than what it would be if I bought it in New Zealand.

Outfit Deets:

Dress - Retro Room

Tights - Farmers

Shoes - Cotton on

Bracelet - From Hong Kong

Ring - Equipt

Belt - Glassons

I just have one last thing to share with you - a photo in which I look kind of terrible (I hate non-smiling photos of myself) but I am wearing some new sunnies I bought on sale from Domino Dollhouse. One of the great things about living in the southern hemisphere is that you can pick up loads of summer goodies from USA/European websites when they are on sale and its just in time for summer in your part of the world! Excellent! I also bought this pretty little frock for a steal. Summer is just around the corner - I can't wait.