The Little Paris Kitchen

Have you seen this cookery program yet? I bought the cook book last week after catching a couple of episodes. Its the last one tonight but you should still be able to catch them on bbc.co.uk/iplayer still for a little while.

Rachel Khoo left Croydon in the U.K for Paris six years ago where she trained as a french pastry chef. She lives in a tiny but lovely French apartment, cooking in a kitchen where she can touch all four walls from the same place! From a two ring burner and compact oven she cooks simple French food with minimal fuss and even ran a resturant from her front room!

Betty Bee  interviewed Rachel a little while ago on her blog here

Rachel is totally living my fantasy of living in Paris and cooking whilst wearing red lipstick and running about from patisserie to boloungerie in a wonderfully vintage inspired wardrobe!! She's had many outfits this series I've fawned over...unfortunately not many seem to be on the net!!

 This was my favourite dress!!!

 

Polka dots feature very heavily in Rachels wardrobe

 Classic French Mac

 Deviation from her normal dresses, Rachel in a jumper and skirt.

Apparently I'm not the only one and Easy Living has an online section, where you can 'Shop Her Look'

{Readers Question} and A guide to 1940s Jeans and what to wear with them

 

I was recently asked by a a good friend, what a 40s girl would have worn with jeans? There are really two sides to answering this question  so I'll split the post in two...

Part One If you want an authentic look...

Jeans were workwear. Predominantly the realm of men only, but WW2 meant many women were entering the workforce and were looking to wear something practical and hardwearing. Jeans were often refered to as dungerees, overalls or

If you want an authentic workwear look with these think practical - flannel or chambray shirts, woolen jumpers.

Working on the Farm 

 

 Hard Working Denim on the Farm

W.A.V.E.S. ( Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in their Denims.

Part two If you want to wear an 40s fashion look...


Ok so you have your 40s / 50s style Jeans and you're looking for something to pair with them to give you that vintage look...

Not got any jeans yet? Try....

Freddies of Pinewood

Vivien of Westwood

LilyScarlet


For tops the sky is your limit!! And don't just stick to straight jeans either....

Heres some looks I'm loving at the moment on these internet lovelies

Elegant Musings Wearing History Jeans- Short Sleeved Sweater

Sorry I don't know who this girl is butthe tie top looks great with the pedal pushers (more of a 50s look I know but so cute) And I LOVE those cherries!! *desperately trying to keep  focus on the clothes and not the lovely car behind her!!*

Finally Super Kawaii Mama  and a lovely 40s blouse under her Bernie Dexter Dungarees!


So Bunny, and everyone else who was wondering, there you go.... thats the lowdown on 1940s Jeans and what you can wear with them, hope I helped!!!

{Inspiration} Vintage Spring has sprung!!!

Wow! I hope you are getting some of this lovely spring weather at last? Its been so beautiful this week (and stark contrast from the permenant fog of last week) the flowers are blooming and , maybe, spring is at last here.

Anyway spring always cheers my mood, so off I went trawelling the old interweb for some loveliness to share with you....


Now fist of all I should explain that spring for me is when the daffs come up.......

 So todays inspiration is all daffodil inspired.....

This Lovely set was too much to resist and found its way into my trolley!!

I'm a bit taken with daffodils at the moment...

and how about hanging it on this 

Vintage 1950 Crochet Pattern Daffodil Coat hanger Cover

 Glasses

Doilie

 I nearly didn't post this next one, the clothes are gorgeous but Smile Please - its spring and we are happy!!!!

Dress

I love this outfit over at the  FranklySew blog

Now I'm off to the local fabric shop to see what I can find to try and make a spring outfit!!! I always leave it too late!!

And little miss needs an easter bonnet too!!

Hope you've enjoyed my selections, what signals spring for you?

  

The skirt I never thought I'd wear

 

We've all done it I'm sure, spotted that amazing bargain in the shop and bought it only to get home and find it hanging in the wardrobe unused and unloved for weeks or months after.

I bought this skirt, I think for the pricly sum of £1.75, a few months ago. Ooooh I squealed in the shop, a polka dot skirt, in my size I must have it! I'd seen lots of vintage and rockabilly girls wearing polkadots, it must be a wardrobe staple I thought!

Alas, when I got home, it didn't seem such a great buy, it clung to my lumps and bumps and I suddenly looked at the polkadot patter as 'cliche' and 'trying to hard'  and what on earth would I wear it with, my retro blouses are all patterened, my jumpers too plain, and wrong coloured!

It wasn't until the lazy days that lay inbetween xmas and new year that I reached for the skirt again, and decided I'd give it one last try before consigning it to the charity shop pile once more. With a quite home day ahead I slipped on the skirt and remembered a wrap cardi I had,  and ta - da,  although only a flavour of vintage, rather than full on retro I now had another outfit and a use for the skirt at last!!! Sometimes in the quest for wearing a vintage look I seem to overlook some rather nice little outfits, that are all a mile better than the Jeans I would have normally slung on this time last year!!

 Cardi - ebay, Skirt - thrifted, Necklace - scarlet vintage, 

Bracelet - thrifted, Lippy - Rockalily (roulette red)

What are your everyday round the house outfits?

{Inspiration} Tuesday Dance Night - Are you Swinging?

If you're one of my followers over on facebook you'll know Tuesdays are Dance Nights for me and the hubby!!

We signed up a few weeks back for Lindy Hop dance classes with Hoppin Mad in Bath. We've really enjoyed our first few classes, not to mention dressing up for them! To begin with I'd been wearing a skirt and blouse combo in various guises....

Last week though, it seems as though a few of us had had a silent memo to switch to trousers!! Quite a few of the ladies had gone from dresses and skirts to swing pants so here's some inspiration for swing inspired outfits...

 Lets Start with the shoes....

As you can see from the piccy above, I'm a bit partial to the two tone variety!!!

Saddle Shoes

If you're a beginner dancer, flats might be a more sensible option...

WingTip Mary Janes

 Lady K Loves

HeyDay

 These suspender pants are very tempting!

I love these tie tops with the trousers, but just for the next few months I'd go for a jumper instead

Rocket Originals

And actually, to get me out of the house on those cold January nights, I'd be awfully pleased if Santa brought me a pair of these wool ones!!

Wool Swing Trousers

I really can't to wait to buy a nice swing dress for the spring, but until them I think Swing trousers should do just fine! 

What about you? What do you like to go dancing in?

*edited to add - we found our classes through the website Are You Dancing if you are in the UK you can search by area for classes and dances near you!

Lovely Tweedyness and An Evening of Chap Hop!!!

Did you ever notice that as soon as you stop looking, everything eventualy comes to you? This week has kinda been one of those!!

After the end of 'the season' and a little lull in our vintage activities this weekend was cram packed full of lovely goodness! To break up a potentially picture heavy post, I'll break it up into two posts!

Part One {Saturday}

First off we found a couple of lovely things in the shop in the village, a scarf for hubby and a 'can bung it on to keep me warm on the school run - without the kids getting too embarrassed' hat for me!!

 Luckily these both suited our outfit requirements for the evening as we had tickets to see the rather dapper Mr B Gentleman Rhymer performing in  his rather brilliant style of Chap Hop.

For those not in the know,  Wiki describes Chap Hop as ' a variety of music originating from England that mixes the hip hop genre with elements from the steampunk subculture and stereotypical English obsessions such as cricket, tea and the weather.'  but it is oh so much more than that!!  

The invite proclaimed .....

On a one-man mission to introduce Hip-Hop to the Queen's English, Mr. B is delighted to present Chap-Hop.

Having spent the best part of a decade bringing some manners back to popular culture, this dopest of fellows will entertain and amuse you with his ingenious stylings.Aiming to dazzle with dignity, Mr. B takes to the stage with his Banjolele and stiff upper lip to perform ditties of pipe-smoking, high society, Cricket and sexual misadventure, as well as some more well-known pieces from the world of Hip-Hop, re-worked in true Chap-Hop fashion.

A side note of  Tweed jackets/flat caps and false moustaches welcome, we donned our tweed and headed to Frome!!!

Gosh, you really don't want to know how many outfits I tried on before I chose this one!!!


The night itself was absolutely fantastic! And it wasn't just the man himself we were also treated to some super support acts, Frome's finest poet "Muriel Lavender", and some of our favourite Burlesque girls Dulcie Demure and Lola Pinch! As well as a rather spiffing new band from Frome, Indigo Children.


Thinking we'd seen the last of him for the evening we had a rather nice surprise of Mr B as Dulcie's 'Diet Coke Break' Bloke!!!

Luckily I think he's in both Bristol and Swindon soon, so we shan't have to wait too long to see him again!!!

Pip Pip!!

Plaid Dresses and PanAm

Or how PanAm has inspired my wardrobe!!!

I had wanted a plaid dress for a while now, I'd kinda imagined when I found it , it would a 50s one, possibly  the form of a shirt dress.....

 

ConsettasCloset 

Tziporit

I didn't realise just how much my viewing habits had influenced me...

 

Pan Am 

For the past few weeks I've been totally addicted to Pan Am (set in the early 60s), posts about it have run right through the vintage blogs and I've loved every one.  However it has never, ever entered my head to include any 60s style dresses in my wardrobe, the thought had never even entered my head!

Until I spotted this dress on the redressing website and suddenly I came out of the 40s and into the 60s for the night!!

 

Whoops a bit dark!

 

 This one shows it better!

 Love the colour of the stripe (thought it was blue online but its a gorgeous turquoise!)

I was quite pleased with my hair too - even if my friend did ask " is that your real hair?" 

me - what? course it blooming is!!