Swan Lake Hat

A friend of mine just decided to sell some clothes and accessories, and was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to buy a certain hat from her, before she sold it to someone else. When I saw it, I definitely felt this one needed to be added to my hat collection! And here is why...

Gorgeous, isn't is?... It's a half hat from the 1940s or 50s, covered in the softest white feathers, that has light-pink nuances in it.

As the label on the inside says, it originally comes from Modes Bettina in Vienna. I googled the name, but unfortunately I didn't find any info about it's origins.

It fits my small-sized head perfectly, and I feel I could definitely dance Swan Lake in it. Haha! Love my new hat...

The Hatparade!

For the second year in a row hatmaker and sex-inspirer Marika Smith invited everyone in the possession of a hat to join the Hatparade!

We've had a really cold and grey summer this year in Sweden. But on this day - which also happened to be my birthday - the sun was shining, and it was warm and nice!

We all gathered outside the beautiful Hallwyl Museum. It was great to see people of all ages and styles had come to join in the parade.

Then we all paraded towards Djurgården (The Royal Game Park), where we sat down in the grass for a picninc.

It was a lovely day, and the perfect way to celebrate my birthday. Already looking forward to next year's Hatparade!





All photos (except for the top one) by Marika Smith.

Grandma

As you might already know, my beloved grandma - Birgit - passed away on July 4th this year. In November she was going to turn 96, so even though it's incredibly sad she's gone, I'm just grateful we got to have her in our lives for as long as we did.

Grandma was always very stylish, and she loved to see me wear clothes from the 40s and 50s. Every time she visited us, I had to show her what I was wearing before leaving the house, and seeing my dresses she remembered things she had worn herself back in the days when the vintage clothes I treasure so much today, were actually created. So for her funeral I didn't want to wear the usual black. Instead I chose a pretty 50s dress I know she loved, paired with vintage transparent gloves...

...and a 50s half-hat made of fabric Lilies of the Valley - both her and my favorite flower!

Except from a shared interest in old, beautiful clothes, me and granny also shared the love of dancing 

and being on stage. Here she's performing an act called Jitterbug together with a man named Jeddy, but called Gäddan (The Pike Fish) at a cabaret in Norrtälje, in 1946.

A few years ago my mother got a tattoo of her mom done on her upper arm. Granny thought this was a bit silly, but I know she really liked it too. Haha! Except for being one of the strongest women I have ever met - one of her many sayings was: "If it doesn't work, it works anyway" - she she was also one of the funnest, wittiest persons I have ever known. Her tongue could be very sharp sometimes, and she always found a clever response when someone said something stupid to her. Like for example: grandma was very tall and statuesque, something that women shouldn't be back in the day when she was young. Once a man asked her "what it feels up there, where you can feel the angel's farts", well, granny retorted, "a lot better than down there, where you can feel the stench of the shit on the ground". Haha!!!

I love you grandma, and I can't wait to see you - and dance with you - again in the future!

Lilli Ann Suit

I have been looking for a vintage suit from the 40s for some time now. Since I'm such a small person, it's difficult to find things that fit me. Usually I can alter things to make them sit better on me, but a suit jacket is something I don't feel like trying to alter too much. But then one day, while searching through Etsy, and ending up at Shanghai Lili's Portmanteau of Pleasure, I found just what I had been looking for - a 40s suit in my size!!! And it gets even better - it's a Lilli Ann suit!

The clothing company Lilli Ann was started in San Francisco in 1933, by Adolph Schuman. He named it after his wife - Lillian - and during the 40s and 50s they were known for their high-quality fabrics and their elaborately designed suits and coats. I have seen pictures of many Lilli Ann suits, and admired the shape and details on all of them. So I have to say I felt quite satisfied when I found one...

It's slightly light-damaged. Probably from hanging in a store window. But it's far from as visible in reality, than on these pictures. If you don't know about it, you probably wouldn't think of it! When I look at these photos I'm not even sure the color shifts you can see in them really are the light-damage, or just my cameras fault...

The suit is made of wool, so it's perfect for fall! And as you can see it came with a short cape to make it even warmer!

According to the Vintage Fashion Guild the label is from late 40s-early 50s. 

The red felt hat is made by Sweden's own sexpert/hat designer Marika Smith, and was part of my payment for working and performing at her burlesque flea market last Saturday. But more about that another day...

Champagne-Brännbolls-Picnic

On Saturday me and a bunch of other vintage-people gathered in a park on Djurgården (The Royal Hunting Ground) in Stockholm to picnic and to play the game "brännboll" ("burn-ball"). It's the Swedish version of baseball. The only difference with the way we played it on this certain day, was that we called it "champagne-brännboll", which meant that at all the four bases there stood a bottle of bubbles and a shot glass, and every time you stopped, you drank!

In honor of the day, I wore a hat made by Magdalena Kellerman, it has the head of a long dead mink on it!

My 50s dress comes from Rococo Vintage!

Karin - one of the two girls who had invited us all to this event - looked dashing in a safari-inspired outfit! And considering the fact that we had three dogs, a lady bug, and a dead fish in the group, it almost was a safari! There were also some men there...

Here we see two outstanding examples of that almost lost species "gentlemen". Johannes and Mikael!

Niklas and Elsa! In the background you can see the Vasa Museum.

Then the game began! Above you see one of the bases, including tipsyfying beverage. Very good to have around when you're doing sports in hot weather!

Clara - the other girl in charge of the activities - handled the bat well! I love it how she has just hit the ball, and already has her eyes set on the first bottle!

Compared to baseball we don't have anyone throwing the ball at us in brännboll, we hold it ourselves, and then hit it. Here we have Hans in deep concentration...Because of my pain problem I hadn't played this game for years. But this Saturday I did! And I ran for the first time since I injured myself, over 7,5 years ago! I felt it afterwards, but it was completely ok. I also realized how good I am at hitting balls with a bat!

Photographer John Paul Bichard and his lovely wife Fräulein Frauke was also there. 

Fräulein Frauke and her baby Morticia! Besides the fact that I really like to hang out with these two lovely people, there's another plus to Mr Bichard's presence - he is a hell of a photographer, and he always documents everything, which means I can borrow his pictures - that are "slightly" better than my iPhone photos - to my blog! So here come a few of those!

As we sat just beside the water, Mikael went fishing for a while. Some photographer from California saw him and snapped some pictures. Then he asked me if I wanted to do a little impromptu shoot with him too. I did, and we found a pretty old ship we were allowed to climb onto. He said he would send the photos to me and Mikael later, and if he does - and if they look good - I might post them here...

All photos marked with "Bichard" were taken by John Paul Bichard.

Stockholm Vintage Fair

Last weekend Stockholm Vintage Fair took place for the eighth time. As usual there were lots of people walking around between sellers from many different vintage shops, looking for treasures.

Amongst the shops represented, Kellerman Vintage and Fjaerilen were, of course, my favorites. Fanny's sister Agnes helped selling stuff for Kelleman Vintage. Here she is looking very cute in a dress made by Fanny.

I bought a hat from her, made by Magdalena Kellerman. It has dark pink flowers, a black fluffy feather, and the taxidermied hed of a mink on it.

At another shop I found a lovely green vintage 50s hat, and a scarf that matched it perfectly! The hat slopes down over the back of the head, and has two hat brooches attacked to it. The color looks a bit strange in the pictures. But in reality the satin back part of the hat is a lovely forest green.

Better late than never...

On July 12th my friends Anna and Patrik got married. Unfortunately Miss Meadows had forgotten to load the batteries in her camera, and had to wait for some pictures to arrive from the wedding photographer (my sister Christine Engström) before she could blog about it...Yesterday I got the photos though, so here we go!

For the occasion I wore a repro 50s plum colored wiggle dress from Bettie Page Clothing. I felt that the vintage lilly of the valley hat I wore at Fanny's and Michael's wedding earlier this summer was the perfect wedding hat, so it got to come along to this one too.

The bride and groom matched each other very well! Anna had sewn her dress herself, done her hair herself, made the fascinator she wore in her hair herself, and put together the bridal bouquet herself. I'm impressed!

The wedding took place in a pavilion in Vitabergsparken in Stockholm, and the weather was perfect!

After the ceremony we all mingled around in the park, eating strawberries and drinking bubbles. After that we went to the Museum of Modern Art where we enjoyed a vegetarian buffet and later a delicious wedding cake. Then the dancing begun, and continued all night long...