A new look and a new name

Yes its time for a name change for the blog, to match my new Etsy shop name.


Why Kitten Vintage? Well it combines my two favourite things - kittens and vintage!


Here are our two newest additions, Sebastian and Charlie, rescued by a friend who kept their mother. Their arrival coincided with my twins birthdays, so of course we had to keep both of them!

Hopefully a bricks and mortar store is not too far away....


In the meantime, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Tumblr.....I'm enjoying making gifs from vintage films at the moment.....like this one:

Bye for now Kittens

Vintage Pattern - Knit a Coat, 1962

I have just listed this November 1962 Stitchcraft Magazine on Etsy, but I thought I would share this fabulous pattern.

I love it. And her hair is stunning as well!

Vintage Fashion - 1930s Ladies Suits

Between watching 'Upstairs Downstairs' on Netflix, and reading Jacqueline Winspear's Maise Dobbs series of books on Scribd, I have been immersed in the 1930's this week.

Upstairs Downstairs Cast, season 2

The 1930's are one of my favourite decades for fashion and design. I love the dining setting in Upstairs Downstairs (above), and of course the evening gowns are divine.  But I also love the day clothes, and I just wish there were more ladies suits featured!

Keeley Hawes as Lady Agnes, in a suit

I really can't wait to live in a slightly colder climate than tropical North Queensland so that I can get back in to wearing suits. A plain woollen suit is so versatile, especially in Spring and Autumn. On colder days you can wear a woollen jumper under the jacket, and on warmer days a little sleeveless blouse. Of course suits are not all the same - a skirt may have a long jacket or coat, a jacket with or without buttons, a self or contrasting belt, a matching or contrasting dress, wide lapels or none at all, and large feature pockets or hidden ones in a seam. Below are some examples of suits from 1935.

A range of ladies suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1935

In 1933 checks and tweeds were popular -

Ladies suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1933

The popularity of checks continued in 1934, and capes were also popular as a jacket alternative.

Ladies travel suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1934

These suits from 1936 feature a 3/4 length 'swagger' coat, as well as jackets with large shoulders.

Ladies suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1936

By 1937 skirts were a little shorter - I love the kick pleats for practicality!

Ladies suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1937

In 1939 the Gibson Girl Suit, modelled after the Gibson Girl Fashion of the late 19th and early 20th century and featuring a fitted bodice and sleeves puffed at the shoulders, was all the rage.

Ladies suits, Australian Women's Weekly July 1939

I do sew, but I am not sure if I am up to the challenge of a suit, especially given the price of wool fabric. I have found a few patterns on Etsy, but I am still not sure.

1936 Suit Pattern

I think I'd rather buy one - like this reproduction suit from 'Puttin' on the Ritz."

Weekend in the county Suit

In this fabric -

But at $440 I will be saving for a little while......

Have you ever made a suit?

Vintage Fashion - Summer 1959

It's school holidays again here, and after a week off entertaining my MIL and my eldest daughter home from college I finally have a little spare time.  I managed to find a sweet little Australian magazine from 1959 to read and thought I would share some of it this week. Today, being Monday, the fashion.  

I love the fabric of the swimsuit on the cover - I thinks she's being a mermaid tangle in the nets....

New in Store - Beautiful Beige

Beige is discreet, inviting, knowing, conveying an idea of naturalness (think raw wood and unbleached cotton) and nostalgia, with the patina of age. 

Vintage clothing has definite nostalgia! New in the Etsy shop this week are these beige beauties - 

VINTAGE 70s Peasant Style Dress 

New in Store - Pretty in Pink

Here are some of this weeks new listing available now in my Esty store!

  

  

  

For more pink vintage items, see here.

This week I am also starting to list vintage ads. They are great to frame to ad a bit of a retro feel to your home.  This one would be cute in the bathroom!

Swan soap 1942

Thrify on Tuesday - Rockin in Reds

I have finally worked out that Tuesday morning is the best day for thrift shopping (or op shopping as us Aussies call it) in my town. All the shops are actually open, and I can drop the kids at school and browse in peace....  

Today's finds -

From shop 1, some simple t-shirts with a rockabilly vibe and a cute Scotty dog tin for my collection (total $9.50).

Vintage Fashion - Mod Men, 1960s style in England

The mod fashion of the 1960s, which I touched on recently here, was not just for women.

With WWI and WWII men's fashion, especially in England, had taken even more of a back seat than women's fashion in the first half the last century.  The wealth and relative peace of the 1960s was an opportunity for change and optimism  - a revolution was coming! The rock and roll of the 50s evolved into "Rock"  and of course "Pop", and these rock stars wanted to look good, getting rid of their working class image of frayed shirts, cloth caps and dirty fingernails.

The Beatles, 1963

The Beatles were epitome of the mod look.  Four working class lads from Liverpool in stylish suits were an inspiration for a generation.  Adolescents followed their style lavishly, and for a while it was dismissed as purely a teen fad.  Working class Englishmen, who had always had a fear of anyone who dressed too well, followed the trend, and soon every man could be part of the 'peacock strain' that had run through the aristocracy for years.

Spike Milligan gets fitted for a suit

Even comedian Spike Milligan, who once called himself, "the worst dressed man in Britain" got him self fitted out for a suit at Blade's, a hot  London salon started in 1963.

Blades' began with (James) Bond style clothing - Blade's was the name of Bonds club, and also the name given to Victorian Dandies - but soon began their own look "trying to lead fashion, not follow it."  Blade's designer Eric Joy began as a tea boy and apprentice in Saville Row in 1947, and in the early 60s he set up on his own, with backing from one of his younger, wealthier client's Rupert Lycett Greene, who also became a designer in the business. In 1965 photographer Cecil Beaton, a regular customer of Blades, stated "it's a marvellous combination of Carnaby Street Pizazz and Saville Row".

Carolyn Charles was another designer with a hot fashion house.  She left art school after two years and worked as an apprentice to a London courtier, a sales girl for Mary Quant and an assistant to a fashion photographer before setting up on her own at only 22.  Her big break came when buyers for Macy's in New York loved her designs and launched her in the US.  It would seem she had no more world's to conquer, until Ringo Starr came along.  Ringo loved his girlfriend's swinging dresses and asked Ms Charles to make him six swinging suits.  He soon married his girlfriend, hairdresser Maureen Cox, in one of those suits.

If you've designed for Ringo, word gets around, and Ms Charles, used to designing for women, including Cilla Black and Hayley Mills, then found herself making an Edwardian style midnight blue suit for Aussie Actor Peter Finch, "and he looks marvellous in it," said the designer.  Dancer Rudolph Nureyev then ordered a seal skin coat, and rolling Stones bad boy Mick Jagger a few corduroy suits.

Mick Jagger and Aussie actor Peter Finch getting fitted for suits at Carolyn Charles’ London salon, 1965

Another hot London designer, and one himself who wanted to get away for the working man image, was Glaswegian John Stephen.  He had a chain of shops stretching down Carnaby Street, off Piccadilly - 15 shops in central London by 1967 - landing him the title "The King Of Carnaby Street" and  "The £1m Mod" in the media. Stephen worked on a formula - including short runs of colored jeans and Tees, simple three button jackets and collarless shirts, loud music, attractive staff with a free- and easy approach, and bright bold exteriors - to sell men's clothes that were right in fashion, and appealing to men from teenagers wanting a cool tee to the man who wanted a fashionable suit for the races.

Pop singer Mick Rowley in red leather waistcoat

Musician Peter Martin in a cord Norfolk Jacket by John Stephen, 1965

John Michael, often called "the Mary Quant of menswear" was the other major London designer in the mid 60s. I quite like the leather jacket and hat combo, but not sure about the blue knit jacket.....

Leather coat with Prussian collar and cord hat

White reefer jacket and navy fisherman's knit jacket

Caramel double breasted reefer jacket & beige jacket with prussian collar

I don't know about you, but I would love to see more young men in suits today!

The Latest in Hats, 1952

After having yet another skin cancer removed from my face, I have decided I really, REALLY, need to wear hats more - not just to the races and at the beach. Even a hat with a little brim can help keep the sun off your scalp, one plae where it is difficult to apply sunscreen! Today some hat inspiration from the 1950s.

In 1952 French designers  liked grey and white for daytime wear, and this included hats.  Dior had a grey straw hat swathed in matching grey silk.

Dior's grey straw and silk cap

Feeling blue? Put on your trench coat...

I love these blue suits from 1965, and in particular, the pale blue trench coat.  I don't have much use for coats here in North Queensland, but I think a pale blue cotton trench would see some use....

Vintage Fashion - Mod Fashions still Rockin'

Sixty five years ago, straight from London, the look was MOD.

It's hard to believe it was half a century ago, as Mod fashion are still as MODern looking today.  Just take a look at Christian Dior Spring 2015 Couture Collection -

Vintage Fashion - The year of the mini, 1965

Yesterday I watched the rather wonderful "We'll take Manhattan", a 2012 movie which looked at the love affair between 1960s supermodel Jean Shrimpton and photographer David Bailey, played beautifully by Karen Gillan and Aneurin Barnard. Set in 1962, before the Beatles, the fashions were interesting, some fabulous (including a green Mary Quant dress) some horrible, but the movie was fabulous. I watched it with my teenage daughter and we both loved it - here's the trailer. 

1962 was before the mini-skirt took over the world.  By 1968 it was everywhere, and according to this article (3 February 1965, Australian Women's Weekly), it really began in 1964 - just like the Beatles. Mary Quant said she "only put one or two short skirts in my last collection, as I thought knee length just right...what happended? The girls hitched them up?" By 1965 minis were taking off....

Obviously the trend didn't really take hold in Melbourne, or with any one over 30, quite so soon. Later that year Jean Shrimpton caused a stir when she wore a mini to Derby Day, the major horse race before the Melbourne Cup.

Jean Shrimpton, 1965

The mini has been in and out of fashion ever since, and is set to be big again, fifty years after it's big break. Louis Vuitton's Spring/summer collection for 2015 has a 60s retro-futuristic look to it -

Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2015 collection

Mary Quant is turning 81 next week, I wonder what she thinks of this latest collection?

Mary Quant in her lab in Chelsea, London, measuring the length of a mini skirt, 1965

Vintage Fashion - A capsule Wardrobe 1942 style

I have capsule wardrobes on my mind!

Here is a nice little article from January 1942 ( Australian Women's Weekly), with a seven piece wardrobe in oatmeal linen, and over-checked linen with navy, blue, red and aqua. Perhaps like this colour scheme -

I don't know about wearing the same blouse every day - may if there were two? Of course this would have been wartime, so fabric would have been rationed - maybe the oatmeal linen was from actual linen feed bags?!

Hmmm....

Vintage Fashion - Velvet for Between Seasons

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I had two velvet dresses.  Both navy, one short with puffy organza sleeves, and the other long with a deep neck and long sleeves.  In fact I think I still have them somewhere....My favourite fashion accessory at the time was a big black velvet bow. It was on a large hair clip (barette) that you could use to make a flat sort of low pony-tail.  I also had one with a hair net underneath - very vintage!  I was reminded of them recently when I spied this article (Australian Women's' Weekly, August 1952) - 'Velvet for Between Seasons'.

 

Oh, I love that red dress!

Traditionally velvet was made from silk or cotton, but now synthetic versions are available. I don't think I'll even try fitting into my old dresses at present, but I would love another bow.  There are a few around at the moment, but this one at Just Peachy on Etsy is lovely, handmade, and such a great price - only $5.50.  

Not worth making your own really for that price! Although all you need is a scrap of velvet (great if you've made your own dress) and a metal barette clip - Sew a small rectangle the size you want your bow, turn the right way and stitch the seam, then sew on the barette.  I have made a bow tie this way too - much better than using ribbon.

Or for something really vintage, what about a cute little 1950s velvet cocktail hat - only $22 from Nat Kat Studio on Etsy.

And I love the velvet gloves in the first illustration.  I have also found some similar on Etsy, like these from Paisley Babylon.

What about you. Do you love velvet?

Did you know, the word velvet derives from the Middle French velu, “shaggy.”

Read more about velvet here.