When in Melbourne

I'm sad that it has been a week since my last post, but I've been busy travelling and working, working and travelling. At the moment I'm in Melbourne, hunkered down in my hotel room, hiding from the unseasonably chilly weather. Apart from its changeable weather (and fabulous lane ways) Melbourne is famous for its Spring Racing Carnival and the gorgeous fashions are definitely worth a look see (I think I've posted before that it's a little sad, really, that I'm not a fan of horse racing as apart from anything it is a great excuse to wear real life outfits. And hats). This year the winner of the Myer Fashions on the Field comp at Oaks Day was young Queenslander Jaydee Paino in a reconstructed vintage frock that she bought online from the US for only $18 (!) And yes, that is a horsey print.

The tide has definitely turned towards vintage loving ladies. Just check out models Jess Hart, Georgia Jagger and Jerry Hall in their very retro inspired outfits at the same event. Georgia and Jerry both look ravishing in Vivienne Westwood and Jess' red suit looks like something right out of Jane Sterling from Mad Men's closet.

Movie Love: British glamour

I'm sure all you vintage fans have seen the gorgeous Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day before, but I enjoyed an encore performance after raiding my Mum's extensive DVD collection on Sunday, and I thought my blog friends wouldn't mind an encore either.
This delightful film recalls the screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s, with Amy Adams (Delysia Lafosse) resembling Marilyn Monroe in her performance, and Ginger Rogers in her appearance. The late 1930s costumes are divine.

Oh, and I seriously love, love, love Delysia's luxurious London apartment. Can some hotel out there please replicate this room for me?

Here are some gorgeous 1930s evening gowns - courtesy of The Frock - that wouldn't look out of place on the dance floor at smarmy Nick's nightclub.

Am seriously loving ...

this Vogue Italia cover from last month. Very retro looking but with a modern twist (great shorts!), you can't really go wrong with Mariacarla Boscono, oodles of red and a beautiful Armani couture jacket.
So refreshing to see a cover of a fashion magazine where you can actually see a complete outfit. It still is meant to be all about the clothes, right? I definitely took a second glance at this cover as opposed to all the heavily photo shopped smiley celebrity ones that usually line the racks at my local newsagent.
Do you like too? It was shot by Steven Meisel.

A little pot of gold ...

I'm not the world's greatest thrifter; my attention span tends to wane after I've been through one box of bits and bobs, and I tend to need encouragement to keep going. Thankfully my friend Lee acted as both mentor and lucky charm last weekend whilst we were on one of our regular jaunts around Bondi. A young actress - about to head over to LA to try her luck - was selling all her worldly goods by the side of the road and after ploughing through mountains of clothes, my eyes spotted this very cute 1960s trapeze style sundress. Lo and behold the label said Horrockses (!) and even better the former owner was only asking $5. Oh, and it fit.
The label reads 'Horrockses by Taffs of Sydney' so I assume it is a licensed product, made outside of the labels heyday of the 40s and 50s. Can anyone shed any light on the store Taffs?
This is me wearing my new purchase at one of my favourite beach cafes yesterday. Hooray for summer.

Chanel, Chanel ...

Apologies for my complete and total absence this week. I've been busy travelling around the countryside with Di Morrissey (currently the number 1 bestselling author in the country, woo hoo!), and have barely had time to breathe, let alone blog.
My friend Jane, before she scooted over to New York for a holiday, lucky lady, gave me a copy of Justine Picardie's gorgeous new biography of Coco Chanel. After a slew of films and other books, you'd think everything that could be said about Ms Chanel would've been already, but critics are calling Picardie's tome the definitive biography. As I've been flying so much, I haven't got stuck into the lovely hard back yet, but I have looked at the gorgeous images, and I was particularly enamoured of this lovely lady - Marie-Helene Arnaud - who was one of Chanel's favourite models around the time she made her comeback after the war.

For even more Chanel love - and plenty of other designers and home dressmakers too - Charlotte Smith (the owner of the fabulous Darnell Collection) has just released her follow-up to Dreaming of Dior: Dreaming of Chanel. Grant Cowan again provides the beautiful illustrations and with the volume of vintage in Smith's collection, I doubt she'll ever run out of stories to tell. You can check out her blog here.

Both books are published by HarperCollins.

Looks of the Week

Carey Mulligan gets it right more than most and now that she has reportedly broken up with boyfriend Shia Lebeouf, she is looking more spectacular than ever.

This week she stepped out in Preen and Peter Pilotto and looked smashing. Nice way to work the black and white trend and she's growing out that Pixie cut rather well. I remember when I grew out mine that bobby pins became my best friend.

Is it a book?

No, it is actually a purse.
Check out these nifty literary clutches from Kate Spade, with the book covers of some literary greats, re imagined as a party carry all. Okay, maybe carry all isn't quite the right expression as I doubt whether these would fit a real life paperback inside their glossy covers. If they had small built in digital books and they could fit my cash and lippy, then they would truly be the worlds best bag. The whole book not fitting into my fabulous but tiny clutch conundrum has long bothered me. I can never go anywhere without something to read.