Monday's school outfit

I'm finally back from my little secret vintage mission trip to Rouen! In the meantime I have posted comments to my pre-programmed posts from my iPod. The problem with that is that the screen on that phone is so sensible, so two times I have accidentally pressed "delete", when I meant to press "publish". So if someones comment doesn't appear in the comments area I'm really sorry! I tried to find out how to find and publish deleted posts, but it doesn't seem possible. Think I'm going to write to Google blogs and complain about that!...But I always read the comments before I publish them - because I treasure them too much to risk not having read them if something goes wrong with the publishing...Now I'm back with my computer though...

But now for this weeks school outfit! 

This dress I made after a vintage pattern from the 40s. 

When I saw this fabric I thought it kind of reminded me about sinews, but I had to get it anyway!

The dress has little pleats around the neckline, and buttons down part of the front. The belt I made out of the same fabric. Vintage dresses usually has matching belts I've noticed. 

It's cold here in Sweden now. But it doesn't feel cold enough to put on the winter coat yet. So for this "in between" time, I just threw this lovely vintage fur cape over one of my not too warm fall coats. The coat used to be my moms. She bought it in the 70s. It looks a lot older than that though, and I love it! The fur stole I bought during mine and Fanny's trip to Rouen. But more of that tomorrow...

Monday's school outfit

The "Monday's school outfit" post is becoming mandatory here on my little bloggywogg. So of course I can't wear jeans to my PR-class. That wouldn't be so interesting to read about, would it?! And why would I want to wear jeans anyway?...This is what I threw on this Monday:

The blouse comes from "Bettie Page Clothing". The belt is H&M, and the skirt I have sewn myself, after a pattern from the 50s.

I hope you all see how precisely I'm imitating the pose the girl on the pattern envelope is showing. I practiced a lot for this...

It's getting cold outside, and then you need a nice coat. Like this one for example! It's vintage, from the 60s, and I bought it very cheaply from my friend Charlotta. It comes from H&M, but I was a bit surprised when I found this tag on the inside of the coat:

Luhta for H&M. And I thought the collaborations between H&M and other designers was something pretty new. Well, well...

The raccoon fur I'm wearing around my neck is made out of real polyester. Fancy, right?! It has a clip on the inside at one of the ends, so it's easy to fasten around the "tail". There was a little note attached to it when I bought it, showing how you should fasten it around your neck. Beside the around-the-neck picture, there was another illustration, showing that you can also wear it around your head...

I'm not so sure about this placement though. I think I'll just stick to wearing it around my neck...

Monday's school outfit

Yet again Monday arrived - what a surprise - and off to the PR-course I went! This time wearing a dark green dress I've made myself. The pattern I used is from 1949, just after Christian Dior had introduced the "New Look" with wider, longer skirts. The fabric is quite heavy, which gives it a nice flow.

The peplum is attached to the belt, and can be removed. Black, transparent gloves from "Cheap Monday".

The diamond shaped hole below the collar is fastened with a hook and eye. But it easily opens up by itself, so I usually ad a brooch there to keep it closed. This is the one I like to chose. I think the dark read stones go well with the dark green of the dress. Brooch is vintage.

On my head I'm wearing the "Dreadful Hat", by Magdalena Kellerman. I earlier wrote about it here.

As I've said before, I'm ok with wearing fur if it's vintage, and the taxidermy animals Magdalena uses when making her hats all died a long time ago! Some might think this hat - and the one I bought at the Vintage Fair, also by Magdalena - are a bit morbid. Well, maybe they are, but I love them!

The Shatter Dress

Once upon a full moonlit October night in Stockholm I happened to meet a very nice boy from New York. It turned out he is an artist, and since I love art I of course had to do some researching. Found his art page easily on the net. I simply had to google his name - Marc Boutges - and there it was! Do I have to say I liked his art?! It was especially one of his works that caught my eye. It is called "Shatter 1", and it was almost scary to see how well it reflected my mental state for the last 6,5 years, after I lost the love of my life - dancing - and dealing with the pain demon that's been living in my body ever since (he's not that mean anymore though).

Shatter 1

I said to Marc I wished I could print this painting on fabric and make a dress out of it, so I could wear this feeling on the outside, instead of on the inside. He thought it was a good idea, and sent me part of this work he had done in the 3D program Maya. It was the white edged shards you can see against the black background.

When I received this file I sent it to Spoonflower, who had it digitally printed on fabric for me. The only color they had problems printing was black. It becomes charcoal grey on the fabric. I chose a cotton sateen which has a bit of a shiny finnish, and when I received the fabric I was actually glad it wasn't completely black. It looks very elegant with the slightly shiny dark grey. The pattern I used was one from Simplicity, from the 50s. I was crawling around on the floor for quite some time, trying to get the shatters placed right on the different pieces, but in the end it turned out quite well. If I may say so myself. And with a black fluffy petticoat from Bettie Page Clothing, to give it some volume, I now have a dress I really love - not just because it's a pretty dress, but also for how it came to be and the meaning it has for me.

My photographing sister, Christine Engström, did a photo shoot with me wearing the dress. For this I put on my point shoes for the first time in six years! I felt a bit like Bambi on ice at first, but it was a wonderful feeling being up there again!

Anna's bachelorette party

Yesterday I rose at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am. Usually this is not ok according to me. But this day was special - it was time to kidnap Anna Boberg for her bachelorette party! We had all decided to wear 40s - 50s style outfits, with emphasis on film noir. Since this is what I usually wear, this fitted me perfectly! Although not many of us took the film noir theme so seriously, I wanted to envisage it on myself as best as I could. With this in mind I threw on a little black dress I had stitched together myself after a pattern from the 40s, over a vintage slip. I also felt this was the perfect time to bring out my black vintage pancake hat with a full veil.

After abducting Anna, we went to Johan's place, where we got a lesson in coffee. We got to try a few different kinds of this lovely beverage, amongst which one was the most expensive coffee in the world! This coffee was literary shit! It's called "Kopi luwak" or "civet coffee". The civet cat eats the coffee berries. After going through the cat's intestines the coffee bean then comes out through the other end of the cat - completely intact. These beans are then washed, dried and roasted so they then can be brewed into very costly coffee. And yes - it tasted like coffee, not shit. In the picture below Anna sips a cup of cat poo.

After this we brought the bride to be to Mosebacke, where we enjoyed a jazz brunch.

Then we went on to Långholmen for some bubbles and strawberries, before the croquet began. The rules of this game was slightly altered for the day - we were three people in each team, and we all had to hook up to each other while shooting. A girl from a nearby picnic actually came up to us asking us what we were doing...

When the croquet was over, we all relaxed for a moment while Tove read aloud from the Agatha Christie crime novel "Death on the Nile".

Then it was time to move on to the next destination, which was the Scandic Sjöfartshotel. There we ate dinner while going through one of their murder mystery nights. We all got assigned different characters we were about to play out during the dinner while trying to figure out who the murder was. My character was the aristocratic kleptomaniac Tratten von Finkel. One of the things I had to do during the night was to steal things (that belonged to the game) and sell them to the woman who was in charge of everything. I managed to get my hands on so many of the other participant's things and sell them I actually won a price for having the most money at the end of the game. I'm proud of myself!

When the murderer was finally revealed, and dessert had been eaten some of us went home. Others - including me - continued to Marios Gastro Dinner - a 50s style bar/bowling place - where we bowled, drank drinks/milkshakes and danced our butts off. I even bowled myself! Didn't make it all the way to the bowling cones though...Then the place closed and we all went home after a long, fun and tiering day...Well. All except Jacob, who went on to a bachelor party...

Yummy!!!!

Anna and Tove - girs with balls!

Jacob and Quaryn rocks the casbah

Johan, Anna, Tove, Jenny, Jacob