Thea Cadabra's Naughty Shoes...

I'm shocked it has been almost a month since my last update! I've opened my new store and spent a week in Los Angeles for training, from here I should be able to relax a little and get back to blogging! With Spring in the air I've been lusting after new shoes, these beauties from Thea Cadabra caught my eye.

This beauty is known as the "maid shoe" for good reason! That apron detail on the toe, that perfect pleather bow, those long shapely legs for the heel...I love how these toe the line between sweet and naughty. 

Ah...the "suspender shoe!" Perfect retro styling with garter strap details and gorgeous two-tone leather. These are so period perfect yet perfectly not, these are the most perfectly perfect shoes ever!

All of Thea Cadabra's shoes are made-to-order so the chances of finding some are very slim. If I ever go to England I can make it my mission to order a pair, it would just be so hard to choose which! For more shoe prettiness check out her shoe archive here. Especially those yellow palm tree ones...

Lounge like a retro goddess!

This is Jean Harlow and she lounges like a goddess.

After spending a week's vacation at home I am ready to better my loungewear game. I spent the last week in nightgowns, leggings, pajama pants, boyfriend sweaters, and Snuggies. I let my skin breathe, I cleaned house in a pony tail, and I watched more Netflix than I ever thought possible. It was great for me but not so great for Mr. Anachronistic Style who is used to a lot more primping on my part. Mid-century women excelled at the art of lounging, wouldn't I feel so much better sitting around the house in a beautiful nightgown and bed jacket with pin curls and lipstick? I spend hundreds of dollars on clothes a month yet I can't bring myself to drop a hundred dollars on a nightgown or two! I will arguably wear these lovely frocks more than anything else in my closet so maybe these lovelies would be a better investment?

How lovely is this Soma lavender nightgown ($89) with embroidery and cascading ruffles? I adore the modern cotton fabric with the retro details.

I ask for this Secrets in Lace ostrich-trim chiffon robe ($139) every birthday and Christmas but have yet to receive it. I think hubby is scared of the feathers and sees Big Bird instead of Jean Harlow!

I recently fell in love with the satin pajamas from Victoria's Secret ($69.50.) They are perfect for lounging in warm and comfortable style and come in all kinds of prints and three different lengths to fit a variety of sizes! These pajamas toe the line between sexy and demure with a strong menswear twist, what's not to love?

How frilly and fabulous and yowza is this bed jacket!? This babydoll top from Secrets in Lace ($49) is perfect for covering up from the waist up. A bed jacket is a cropped robe so that the bottom does not get ruffled while you sit in bed, or in my case on the couch with a soft blanket.

What is your favorite retro loungwear?

Style Icon: Joan Holloway

Continuing with style icon week! A style icon is a personal saint of your style world and serves many purposes--such as a starting line for a killer outfit or a persona to channel when things get tough at work. These women reveal a part of yourself and encourage you to foster other virtues. Their style is to be admired, dissected, and emulated but never copied--each should make you try to be a better version of yourself.

Joan Holloway is a natural choice for a style icon. Mad Men has been inspiring the fashion world since it started airing in 2007. Joan won me over instantly with her easy grace, classy business clothes, and complete self-possession. She's polite yet blunt, elegant and put together. Most of all she's good at her job, makes it her art and excels at everything she does. She uses her femininity like battle armor, she is very calculated in how she dresses and what she reveals to those in the office. She uses her love life to blow off steam but keeps her personal life perfectly separated from her professional career. She maintains her facade at all times and keeps other people's secrets as well as her own. She has more integrity and honesty than anyone in the office. She clothes herself in shift dresses and high-waisted pencil skirts and never shows cleavage, as a curvy girl this realization completely changed my work wardrobe. Joan taught me how to show off my curves without exposing my body--a lesson every woman should learn.

Youch!

Style it: Look for jewel tones, little sleeves, scarf-like details around the high-neck, and a pencil silhouette. I've always had good luck at Banana Republic ($150) and J.Crew ($198) for shift dresses, keep in mind that spindly models do not show off the Joan-like possibilities of such dresses!

Style Icon: Wanda Woodward

I've been dealing with RL recently and my blog has gone forlorn and unattended. To get myself back into the posting mood I've decided to share several of my style icons with you this week. This blog is all about different inspirations and incorporating them into your personal style. Identifying your style icons is a very important process. A style icon is a personal saint of your style world and serves many purposes--such as a starting point for a killer outfit or a persona to channel when things get tough at work. These women reveal a part of yourself and encourage you to foster other virtues. Their style is to be admired, dissected, and emulated but never copied--each should make you into a better version of yourself.

My first style icon of the week is Wanda Woodward from the movie Cry-Baby (1990). Wanda is part of the title-character's gang and is a true rebel without a cause, she comes from a very normal family and should be well-adjusted. She joins the drapes (slang for greaser in Baltimore at the time the movie takes place) because she is so privileged, things came too easy for her in life so she's bored. As a very sexual character (she is played by Traci Lords, famous for creating porn while underage) Wanda is the only one from the Cry Baby gang that is single, she puts up a wall between herself and men. Her style moments are plentiful (the whole movie is a style moment, really) and she draws attention in every scene with her blonde hair and baby bangs. She makes me want a leather motorcycle jacket. When she's not wearing a pencil dress like in the scene below she sports a longer gray pencil skirt, tight black off-the-shoulder tee, saddle shoes and her red Cry-Baby scarf around her neck. She says at one point "You'd never catch me dead in a full skirt." She knows how to stand up for herself and she exudes danger and un-attainability  Be sure to check out some of the musical numbers on Youtube to get a real taste of the movie.

Isn't she fabulous?

Style It: Cry-Baby is such an obscure movie I had a conniption when I found this T-shirt at Hot Topic($23) and I channel Wanda whenever I throw on this red scarf ($10) from Vivcore.

1940s-style wedding!

So several months ago Mr. Anachronistic Style and I tied the knot after eight years. We never really had the money for a wedding and have been supporting ourselves for years so we decided to do something quick and simple. My concept was the 1940s, during wartime many couples were married in their back yards or in wedding chapels before the men shipped off to war. Weddings of this time period were simple and bittersweet affairs.

We decided not to invite anyone to our wedding except our parents. Whenever we attempted a guest list it always got out of hand so we kept it simple. We chose a local wedding chapel for its retro appeal and it was our most tasteful option in Columbus. Mr. Anachronistic Style wore his grey Mad Men for Banana Republic suit, wingtip shoes and a pink striped tie. He had to wait on me since I was fashionably late to my own wedding.

My dress was the Ava dress from pinupgirlclothing.com. The wrap style and longer length were so 1940s! My bouquet was white and pink hydrangeas (my favorite flower) and I realize now how slimming a bouquet is, I should carry one every day! My purse was a gift from my husband for my birthday last year and was made by Guess. My sunglasses are kate spade, my shoes are Madden Girl found at DSW. My rhinestone necklace was genuine vintage. My lips were Lime Crime Retrofuturist and my toes and tips were Essie Lollipop.

We make such a picturesque couple! It doesn't hurt that Mr. Anachronistic Style fills out that suit so well.

Detail shot of our shoes and my hair. I wanted victory rolls and I got them! My nude platform pumps actually had little white polka dots, I had to add my own quirkiness to such a classic retro look. After the wedding we spent some time with our photographer Stephanie Atwood and then met our parents at a swanky restaurant for dinner. The whole affair was nice and relaxed, just the way I wanted it!

Beauty on a Budget with Revlon

If you're a make-up aficionado like myself the drug store may be the last place you'd find yourself trolling for make-up. Stores like Sephora, Ulta, and the MAC counter are bright and vibrant and fun (with great sales people for all that fabulous free advice!) but Mid-century American women had no choice but to buy their cosmetics at drug stores or the occasional department store. Revlon has been around since make-up was first packaged and sold and believe it or not the same colors mid-century women chose are still available today! As soon as I saw this diagram I picked up a tube of Fire and Ice on my last grocery trip. I love knowing that I am wearing an authentic 1950s lip color with my anachronistic ensembles. So far I am very happy with the color, a pretty pinkish-red that glows on my lips. The color is moist and subtly wearable. The packaging leaves something to be desired, and I had to spend several minutes peeling off the unattractive price label. Also the lipstick has wear issues, I'm used to expensive lipsticks with high pigment content that last until lunch and leave a stain all day. I found that layering is key with the Revlon lipstick: use a liner to fill in lips, apply lipstick, press powder onto lipstick, re-apply lipstick. Repeat after lunch.

Overall I am happy with my purchase and plan on collecting all the colors in the chart above to achieve a retro lipstick collection. At $5 a tube I really can't pass these up even if they do need a little more work to last. After this little experiment I am more interested in trying Besame cosmetics...if I can get the same authentic retro colors with a higher pigment content, more durability and that gorgeous golden lipstick bullet? I'd happily pay the $22. In the meantime enjoy some matching nails and tips ads from Revlon featuring some of the colors above for inspiration.

Etsy Find: Rococo Vintage

My current favorite Etsy shop is Rococo Vintage. All the dresses are beautifully photographed and carefully curated, I love zooming in on the details on some of the best 1950s dresses I've ever seen. Every piece listed is worth scrutinizing and I like to check back often for new listings. Below is a few delicacies in the current selection but I definitely recommend favorite-ing this delicious little shop.

Check out more Rococo Vintage here!

Thursday's Movie Review: The Seven Year Itch (1955)

The thing that I love about old movies is realizing that the pastoral, picturesque ideas that our grandparents paint of their day are completely fictional. Who knew The Seven Year Itch (1955) is actually a movie about infidelity, seduction, and fantasizing? Richard Sherman is a book editor whose wife and son goes to Maine for the summer while he stays in the city to work. A model moves in upstairs (played by Marilyn Monroe) and begins Richard's summer of unresolved sexual tension.  The comedy of the movie lies in Richard's absurd fantasies involving the girl upstairs, his wife, and multiple other women in his life. His mental condition spirals downwards throughout the movie until he becomes the personification of cognitive dissonance. The only thing keeping Richard's libido in check is the model's sweetness and innocence, in the end she proves that she has more character than Richard. The movie is best known for the white dress billowing over the subway grate scene, which never actually appears in the movie in all it's glory.

Get the look: The white dress defines not only the movie but Marilyn Monroe herself and is probably one of the most recognizable dresses in all of movie history. Every anachronistic fashionista needs one so head on over to  Trashy Diva's Dottie dress ($163) and pick one up. Wear it all summer.

Summer in Style with L'Wren Scott

Now that I've got my new job, new apartment, new husband and new car situation ironed out (Whew!) I should be able to get back to my regular posting schedule. I'm in love with L'Wren Scott's first resort collection. Resort collections are my favorite since the clothes are always wearable. The cuts are 1940s style with cheeky prints and bright colors. I love the shoes and bags in the matching print but I would lose the strange military hats.

I've been devoting myself to my Pinterest account, hop on over for some inspiration!

Dita Von Teese: How She Became the Most Famous Stripper in America

LA Weekly did an amazing interview and photo-shoot of my favorite ambassador of glamour. Read the interview by Gendy Alimurung here! The fabulous technicolor photo set is by Star Foreman.

The interview gives us a peek into the very little-known parts of her career, when her persona was in it's infancy.

"There is a difference, Dita Von Teese has learned, between getting naked onstage and "in real life." Onstage she controls everything: From the lights illuminating her pale breasts, to the layers of body makeup smoothing over her thighs, to the Swarovski crystal and feathers, many "special tricks" go into creating the illusion of otherworldly perfection."

Do you know the one rule of burlesque? No pink. That's how you keep it classy.

"I'm probably overcoming my feelings of being very average-looking. Which made me want to create glamour and paint myself and do my makeup and hair well, and become something that I wasn't originally."

Retro Education: How to put on fully fashioned stockings

Thanks to the people at Secrets in Lace here's a great tutorial on how to wear a garter belt and stockings.

The perfect travel companion!

The perfect retro vacation is a road trip down Route 66 and what better companion than this old-school trailer? Travel in style like The Fancy Farmgirl and customize your own little piece of retro-refinery. Tie your hair up in a scarf, put on your Franca sunglasses, and grab your luggage for the ultimate glamorous road trip! With a trailer this cute I might be able to forgo indoor plumbing. Maybe.