Pencil Skirts and a Cape!

Two items of clothing that I love. You can't go wrong with a classic pencil skirt. They're brilliant because as a classic shape you can easily find them on the high street. M&S are great. They can be styled up or down and I find them fairly flattering! I have six now. 

Black casual. Navy casual. Khaki casual.

Black smart. Leopard print. Which I think should have its own category, but I'm putting in smart! And now bright teal smart.

The casual ones are all made of stretch fabric. They're great for biking, strolling, housework, and any day with a stiff breeze! They're also only cheap, two are from Primark, and I mean to buy a red one this winter if they still do them. The other is from Asda. They're great just to slouch around in a bit without worrying. I think the black one even has a paint stain from work!!

The leopard print is for fun from TK Maxx. I don't wear it very often, but it is awesome!

The smart black one is a poly cotton blend with a fancy lining. My godmother gave it to me. It has a lovely kick pleat and makes me feel very snazzy! 

The latest addition to my pencil skirt addiction is the bright teal woollen one. Picked up in a charity shop last week. It's by Windsmoor, made in England and is beautiful. Especially for £3.50! It's definitively vintage, although I suspect 80s rather than 50s which is the look I'm going for with it! 

I wore it for the first time last night with an unremarkable black top, my favourite nude heels, and my awesome Burberry cape! (See the last blog post!) it was a dinner for my fiancé's birthday, followed by a visit to a couple of terrible clubs in Colchester. That were half empty. Not quite the wild night I think Eric was after but still, we had fun! 

My highlight being walking out of the bathroom and bring confronted by a lovely lady who looked me up and down, and said "wow, you look so lovely!"

So thank you kind stranger! For making me want to dress up more often! 

Jo.

P.S. got a wardrobe staple? Any strangers say nice things to you recently? :-) 

Outfit: New Shirt

Hello there!

The sun is shining and the other day I used that as an excuse (and who needs one really...) to do a little bit of summery shopping. Those who follow my instagram (@ofavintageair) will have seen my mini haul and today I thought I'd share my new shirt!

Summery Stripey Shirt

There's only so much I can say about a shirt to be honest. I had it tucked in for a while, but wasn't feeling it with these jeans. So I tied a knot which may look a tad silly with a vest underneath but it was still too chilly for anything else!

Those with eagle eyes may notice the headscarf made from a scrap of fabric from my Spring Circle Skirt. When I say made I may be exaggerating slightly as what I actually mean is cut into a triangle and folded!

Now for some silly poses!

The Casual Lean

We all stand in our kitchens like this right??

Rosie the Riveter Pose

I tried to think of some clever alliteration with Jo but nothing came.... The best was Jo the Joiner and to be honest it's pretty much a fail!

The shirt was only £4. It's ever so comfy and soft, and cheap enough that I don't worry about wearing it to work.

Shirt: Tesco
Vest: Asda
Jeans: Charity Shop (I've taken the turn ups down since I last posted a photo and need to do something with them again as they're a bit long!)
Boots: Hard as Nails. Seriously. Every girl needs steel toe caps and soles in her wardrobe surely?

Enjoy the sun!

Jo :-)

Grandma's Dressing Table Set

Hello again!

Today I thought I'd share with you something I love, but unfortunately don't really get a lot of use out of.

When my grandma passed away, a number of years ago now, I inherited a few bits from her. Some more sentimental than others. This is one of the sentimental things.

All the pretty things.

It's a gorgeous dressing table set. I'm guessing thirties or forties although I really know very little about it.
I don't use the brushes really. I worry about the bristles all coming out!

I use the mirror a lot, it's perfect for seeing the back of my head when I do up dos. Or even just to make sure my curls are OK.

I used to use the powder when I was little for fun! I love the smell of it though.

Just that little thing takes me back to sitting in my grandma's bedroom with her, playing with the set on her dressing table. Which was glass topped and had loads of family photos underneath, peeking out at you from behind all the beautiful things.

Jo :-)

Vintage Style Trousers

Gosh. Organisation. A post written last night, to be published this morning. Oh my! Long may it continue!

Now when I say vintage style trousers I'm thinking wide legs, high waist. Typical thirties and forties types as it were. Vivien of Holloway's beauties come to mind!

I've had a couple of pairs of denim wide legged, somewhat high waisted trousers for a year or so now. They're beginning to get rather worn out, I wear them constantly! One pair now has a hole on the inner thigh and in a wild moment, this happened:

Never let me loose with a seam ripper....

You can see where they are worn on my legs, knees and annoyingly large bum! Having pulled one pair apart and laying it out on (totally innapropriate for work!) thin cotton denim I've come to the conclusion that I may need to buy a new pair. Which makes me sad. I've got comfy in these trousers!!

So, I've been on the hunt for some around the interweb and here is what I've found!

Vivien of Holloway 1940s Swing Trousers

Photo from VoH website. Theirs not mine! I just think they're pretty!

Beautiful, classic 1940s design. Only £45 so a bargain really for such good quality clothing. I own a circle skirt dress from here and it's wonderful. My only issue with it would be that it would get wrecked at work! For a smart pair of trousers though, fab!!

A|Wear Ireland Ginger High Waist Wide Leg Trouser




Photo from A|Wear Ireland's Website. Theirs not mine!

 I think these are rather pretty. Certainly not work trousers, but they're currently £9 (?!?) on sale on the website in very limited sizes. If they had my size, I'd definitely be buying a pair!

South Wide Leg Fashion Trousers

From Very's website. Theirs not mine!

I like these, although they have a certain seventies vibe. They come in black and white as well. Also in the sale on Very's website. A bargainous £8. I'd prefer soemthing in denim for work though for the hard wearing properties!

Having had a nose around I think my only decent option for work is to make a pair (once I can get my hands on some nice sturdy denim!) using my old ones as a pattern. I'm intending to make them a bit wider to easily accomadate more layers in the winter and a bit of a higher waist, just cos! I've not made trousers before so I'll make sure to keep you updated! If anyone is actually reading this!

Also, I'd highly recommend Shop Style for searching for clothing online. It's where the trousers above have come from. It came up first on my search engine earlier, but I had already heard about it via Retro Chick's blog post reviewing them so was keen to give them a try!

That's all for now folks!

New Shirt and Head Scarf!

Hello all!

A quick outfit post today! If you follow me on Instagram (@ofaVintageAir) you may have seen that I picked up some bargains in Tesco the other day. I often buy cheap tops and jumpers from places like Tesco and Primark as my things tend to end up with paint or grease or other stainy type things on them at work, so there's no point buying anything expensive!

One of the things I picked up was a lovely pastel coloured, striped shirt. In preparation for sunnier weather, I wore it one day last week and it mostly ended up covered by a jumper!

By the miracle of self timers....

I don't feel massively comfortable showing my stomach off so I'm wearing a white vest underneath (and it was a tad chilly!!) and felt much better about it! I did wear the shirt tucked in for a while, but preferred it like this!

Jo who rivets very rarely....

The head scarf I'm wearing is a cheeky offcut from my Spring Circle Skirt and kept my hair fairly well in check for most of the day.

So my outfit consisted of:

Headscarf: offcut!

Vest: Sainsbury's

Shirt: Tesco (£4)

Jeans: Charity shop. They're the same as my last work outfit post, but I've taken the turn ups down!

And as per usual my awesome "Hard as Nails" steel toe capped boots!

Obligatory Casual Leaning against a wall photo...

So that's all folks. It's been a busy week!

Jo :-)