Adventures in Vintage Hair Styling: Fun with Snoods for Snoodtember

There are many wonderful vintage blogs on the web, but one of my favorites is Tanith Rowan's.  Tanith is a brilliant milliner and I adore all of her work.  I interviewed her here, and she made my 1950s coolie hat.  Tanith's blog is devoted to all kinds of vintage head gear, not just her own designs.  There are posts on historical hats and instructional posts for the crafty to make hats of their own, (sadly I am  not among the crafty).  This September Tanith is celebrating the snood:

She has created an instragram hashtag #snoodtember and posted photos of beautiful snoods and tips on how to wear them.   

I'm right alongside Tanith in her love of snoods.   A snood is any sort of net or bag that is designed to hold a woman's hair.  They where particularly popular during the 1940s when women working in factories needed to contain their hair for safety's reasons.

However, snoods where not only for casual wear. They could be dressed up too, like this gorgeous beaded version on Ginger Rogers.

For myself, the appeal of the snood is  the simplicity.  A snood gives you a vintage hair do with basically zero effort, no rollers or pin curls required.   Plenty of vintage fans create elaborate styles to go with their snoods, but as I have zero hair styling talent I just pull my locks into the snood and perhaps curl my bangs.  Easy, peasy, and takes less then two minutes.   I found this post from Vavoom Vintage very helpful when I first started wearing snoods.  

It took me about 30 second to put on this snood

All of my snoods are from Arthelia's Attic, and she makes a beautiful snood.  I am sure you can find them for cheaper but her quality can't be beat and her snoods are beautiful, sturdy, and stay put.  I have four of  them and love them to pieces.   I have gotten plenty of compliments on them, including one lovely lady who told me I brought her right back to her youth in the 1940s.




I love to wear snoods to work since they are so quick to put on:

  But they are great fun for weekends too.   
                                            

Snoods are traditionally more of a 1940s accessory, but I like to pair them with 50s looks too.  Like my Bernie Dexter  kitten print dress:

What do you think of snoods?  Do you have a favorite hair accessory?

Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

Today marks the 47th anniversary of Woodstock:

Despite a brief flirtation with grungy hippie style when I was in high school and college in the 90s, I've never been much for hippie fashions (I prefer the more polished looks of the early 60s), but since childhood I have had a great fondness for one hippie accessory, the flower crown:

Now to be fair, the flower crown made its appearance long before the 1960s.  There are plenty of images of gorgeous Edwardian ladies in flower crowns

and 1920s flappers sported them too:

  

But the look achieved its full glory in the late '60s, and floral band headgear will forever be associated with the optimistic hippies.

And it is a beautiful look, one that takes a little big of courage to wear, but once you take the plunge you'll see its fun and fabulous.  I now feel a bit naked with out a flower or a hat on my head.  

In honor of the 47th anniversary of 3 Days of Peace, Love, and Music here is my take on the flower child look.

 The dress is from Bernie Dexter.      It's the Paris Dress in My Deer print and I got it through the face book group: The Bernie Dexter Collective.  This is a group of Bernie fanatics like myself, many of whom re-sell dresses they have tired of or which didn't fit properly, so I managed to get this dress for a great price.  

Sometimes a comapnies designs just suit you, and that is how I feel about Bernie Dexter, she clearly shares my love of novelty prints and all of her dresses seem to fit me well.  I'm quite short, five feet, and they are never too long on me.  I wear a large in Bernie and so far I've tried the Kelly, Paris and Veronique style dresses and all have fit me well.  

This dress is in the Paris cut, and initially I was a little nervous that I would find the spaghetti straps and neckline too revealing, but I really like it.  It's cut high enough that it doesn't show underarm chub and it stays up well.  It reminds me of some of the spaghetti strap styles Marilyn wore.

I like the back too, low but not shockingly so.

This outfit makes me feel  a bit child like, like a fairy princess, in the best way possible.  No doubt it is the flower crown which I got about two years ago from Chatter Blossom and which is a copy of the 1920s crown worn by Louise Brooks.  I couldn't find any woodland animals to commune with so I settled for Fry and Spot.

Peace!


Outfit Details:

My Deer Dress-Bernie Dexter (I got mine for a very discounted price from the facebook group, Bernie Dexter collective)
Vintage Flower Crown-Chatter Blossom
Bakelite-Thrifed
1960s Novelty Purse-
1940s Style Canvas Sandals-Remix Vintage Shoes

Vintage Outfit Post-Mid Century Modern Madness in the Bernie Dexter Kelly In The Kitchen Dress

I've always dreamed of living in a 1950s ranch house:

with a perfect mid century modern kitchen.

However, living in the New York City area makes this a practical impossibility.  So I've had to settle for the next best thing, the Bernie Dexter Kelly in The Kitchen print dress.  Bernie Dexter always has the most amazing novelty prints and this is one of the best.  It's so sunny and adorable with a perfect happy house wife feel.

This dress really has a very 1950s style print but I styled it with a mix of 1940s and 50s accessories, I have to thank vintage blogger Jessica Cangiano at Chronically Vintage for this idea when she pointed out on my blog that 50s dresses often have a 40s look when you forgo a crinoline.

I added a 1940s style snood from Arthelia's Attic.  This is my first snood and I really enjoy wearing it.  It's easy to put on and is a simple way to get vintage looking hair with minimal effort (hair styling is the bane of my vintage obsession.)  I love that the snood gives a sort of vintage cafeteria lady vibe to the outfit. 

 My shoes are also 1940s style Remix's I've had for a few years.

The rest of the accessories are pretty 1950s.  The purse is pretty awesome, its one of the best in my novelty purse collection and is either 1950s or 60s with cool fruit and veggie appliqués:

The cute hand drawn vintage stand mixer brooch is from fellow vintage blogger Housewife Chic by Ruby who has an Esty shop.  The brooch looks like it was made for the dress with is pretty cool.

My red polka dot stockings are from vintage style lingerie and hosiery brand What Katie Did.  I'm not sure if they are a really authentic vintage item, I've never seen dotted hosiery in vintage images, but they really are cute and I've never been a stickler for authenticity.

The perfect final touch, is my beloved 1950s rhinestone cats eye sunglasses.  They are so much fun!

So I may never have a 1950s kitchen but I have a 1950s style kitchen dress, and thats almost as good.  What is your dream home?

Outfit Details:

Kelly in The Kitchen Dress-Bernie Dexter
Snood-Arthelia's Attic
1940s Style Wedge Sandals-Remix Vintage Shoes
Fruite and Vegetable Novelty Purse-thrifted
Bakelite Bangles-Various Sources Including Brighter Bakelite
Polka Dot Tights-What Katie Did
Novelty Mixer Brooch-Housewife Chic by Ruby
1950s Cat's Eye Rhinestone Sunglasses-thrifted

Vintage Outfit Post-1950s Bernie Dexter BBQ Dress

Many of my favorite mid century images involve picnics and barbecues 

So its not surprising that when I saw the Bernie Dexter BBQ print last year I feel head over heels.   Bernie Dexter is one of my favorite repro companies and a big part of the reason I've been moving towards more 1950s looks.  Her dresses are always  comfortable and you can't help but smile in the fun prints.   They don't come cheap, but they are very well made and if you join her mailing list there are tons of coupons and sales.  I watched the website for some time and shortly after Christmas I was rewarded, I scored my dream dress for 50% off.  I had to wait all winter to wear it, but it was well worth the wait.  This dress is divine! 

 It can be casual or a little more dressy.  The day these pictures where taken I wore it to an afternoon wedding.  I dressed it up with a Daisy hair band from Chatter Blossom and  one of my Amazon petticoats.  I love how a petticoat can completely change the look of a dress.  

I also wore my Remix penny sandals, some bakelite bangalls and a 1960s novelty purse that has fabric flowers beneath the clear plastic.  I'm crazy about these purses.

I finished the look with one my all time favorite mid century pieces my white rhine stone cats eye sunglasses.  They always make me smile:

We even got a rare shot of  my husband and I together at the wedding, he is usually behind the camera.

A fun dress for fun times!  Thank you Bernie Dexter!



Outfit Details

BBQ print dress (sadly sold out)-Bernie Dexter
Petticoat-Amazon
Daisy Hair band-Chatterblossom
Bangles-Thrifted
1960s Floral Purse-In The Year Vintage
Black Penny Sandals-Remix Vintage Shoes