Monday musings (1)

Monday means a new start. A whole new week. And I will give you some recommandations for what you can do, if you find yourself in a need of a little procrastinating.

Today I will give you three nice tips.

If you live in the Copenhagen area I will definitly suggest that you go fetch your bike or a train a little up north til Gl Holtegaard Museum. At the moment they are showing a good amount of the photographer Robert Doisneaus photos. Among them my fave - dog on wheel, showing a parisian dachs with weels instead of the two back legs and a lot of other great photos of Paris in especially 1940s and 1950s. And if you you cannot go there yourself - you can also enjoy them on the good ol' web.
Read more about the exhition on the museums page.

I recently watched this documentary about Paris in the roaring twenties, and it is amazing! I like the historical facts and the context, but the best thing about is that it is in colours! They have probably also slowed down the film bits, and it makes them look very... real. I have always thought that movie bits that old looked weird and I couldn't really relate to them. But this is a totally different experience and I cannot recommend it enough.

Topvintage is webshop with repro-brands such as Bettie Page, Collectif, Stop Staring and a lot more. I think the service is excellent and there is a lot to choose from. And as a european it is great not having to bother with the taxes as with the american webshops. I have bought a few dresses from Topvintage and I have really been satisfies.

Girls with stripes and bowler hats

Let me introduce you to some very fine ladies - The Charlestonistas!
We are a little troup of charleston dancers having fun together. We have only been together for a short while, but I love it. So far we have made three performances, first time was at the Copenhagen Burlesque party in february, then again at the stage at Nytorv at The day of the dance (29.4) and a few weeks ago at the pre-lindy exchange party.

At the moment we are working on a new routine for another performance.

The watercolour dress I almost DIDN'T buy

A while ago I went to the vintage shop Prag (the one at Nørrebrogade) and tried this dress on.

I had seen it there many times, but I alwaus assume that I cannot fit into the vintage dresses, that I am too large, when I hold them up... (Although I have actually bought three dresses there in the past). I guess I have a really bad judgement of my own size. But this day I really fell for the watercolour flower print (really into flowers these days...) and took it with me into the fitting room.

And then it was too big! I didn't have a belt, so it looked a bit sacky on me. I took a photo and asked Instagram what my followers thought about it - and the reactions were very... ehm, mixed! One just said "don't buy it" others were reasonable and asked if I was sure that I would wear when the the size wasn't really me. Others again were very positive and said I should go for it and i could easily sew it... Fortunately I tried it on with a belt - and VOILA! Sold. It is still a little too big, but that's nice. I have a lot of tight dresses and sometimes it is just nice to wear something pretty AND comfy :)

1980s go 1940s

I am really not into most of the 80s fashion. Really.

But 40s clothes are very hard to find, often very expensive and for... smaller waisted women than me.

I have a (so far) sad story about a pretty 40s dress and me being incredivly stupid, but hopefully there will be a happy ending at last.

I saw this fantastic dress at a Etsy-sellers Instagram one night when I couldn't fall a sleep. Next morning I made a reservation for it and a few days later I bought. I went to London, came home and the dress had not arrived yet. It was a little odd as it was only shipping from Norway, but things can get delayed, so I continued waiting and I wrote to the seller to make sure that she did ship it. Then the easter holidays came and went, still no dress, so I contacted the seller again to see if she new anything. She didn't but she was really nice and went to the post office and asked for it. But eerything should be fine. But it didn't show up and after some time I gave up hope, but I was really frustrated and sad.

Then a few weeks ago I would buy a vintage dress pattern on etsy, and when checking out I discoreved that paypal had gone back to my old adress! !!! I then really realized that my beautyfull 40s dress had probably been sent to my old home, so I imedeately contacted the new owner of the appartment, and yes, a month sgo he received a note from the post office that there was a package for me, and he had tried to wrie to me on Facebook, but as we are not Facebook-friends his message ended up in the Other-files - which I never check.
AAARGHHHHH!

The good thing in this story is, that the package hopefully soon will end back home at the seller. And she promised to ship it again as soon as it arrives.

Well thats a whole other story. What I really wanted to talk about is my two very cheap buys from ebay!

Two dresses made in the 1980s but with a nice 40s feeling.

This dress has a cute cherry print which is a common vintage print. I like that th print is not too large. And then there is a peplum-detail. I like the peplum feature but it is not always suitable to me as it brings too much attention to the waist (or lack of so) I think. The only thing that I dislike about this dress is the lenght. It is obviosly too short and the skirts end just above my knees. I have considered putting the hem down, and I think the fabric will give me about 1 cm more to the lenght, but then again I get too lazy and think it is too much effort. So far I just enjoy the cherry print and that it is quite different from was I normally wear.

 This dress was really a bargain, it only costed me a few pounds! I fell for the flowery and exotic print, very 40s Hawaiian style! It is shirt dress which is my favorite style and what I think suits me best. The fabric is a little shiny and very cute. What I did not see on the ebay pictures was the pleads. Yuk! I hate that kind of pleads, so 70s and 80s, and maybe it is little too long for me. Anyway, when I got it onm I loved it immediately. And I think it is slimming too ;)

These too are my first real 80s-dresses in the attemt to dress vintage style. I think it have turned out rather well!

The perfect glass of bubbles

These are my new champagne glasses. Perfect french glasses from 1930s. I have wanted champagne glasses with cups for ages but in Denmark they are hard to find. I see them occasionally when I go to antique shops, but somehow they are alway wrong. The stem is always too clumsy and short and the bowl has too much crystal or other fancy features. I just wanted them plain and pretty!

Although I have been looking for them on markets for years I never really got desperate - I don't need the glasses for a special event or anything, they are just on my wish list, and it has been been sort of fun to go hunting for them everytime I went to a flea or antique market. And I am aware that these glasses are quite expensive (250 - 500 kr. pr. glass), which means that I want the perfect glasses, not just some champagne glasses.

But a few weeks ago I had a friday off and want to Ravnsborggade (Nørrebro) to hang around the antique shops there. I actually managed to find several champagne glasses with cup in the same shop, and some of them were... nice and at a reasonable price (250 kr. pr. glass). But again - not quite what I wanted. I was a little temped, and the lady in the shop were nice, but six glasses at a price of 1.500 kr. wasn't really for me afterall. It was nice to see that you actually can find some nice glasses afterall and it made me optimistic, so when I went to another shop and the man asked me if I was looking for anything in particular I first replied as always, that I was just taking a look, but then I said that actually I was looking for something but thst I was aware that it was a little hopeless because I had this very particular picture in my head of what these glasses would look like. I explained it to him and he said that he actually had that kind of champagne glasses - and picked up some very short and clumsy Holmegaard glasses which is excactly what I am NOT looking for. So I said no thanks and I would just keep searching and then he went vey rude! Talked to me like I was stupid and said that maybe I was having the image in my head of what they would look like, but that didn't mean that I would be able to find them, and if I did I should be ready to pay up to 500 kr. for them and not 50 as everybodythought.
Ehm, yeah, I am well aware of that, thank you very much.
Idiot. I wont go back to his shop again. After that I told my friend about him, and it turned out that she had been to the same shop to buy my birthday present a few months ago, and his was impolite to her as well.

Anyway! He made me in a bad mood and later that evening I found these beautyfull french glasses from 1930s on Ebay. I paid less than 350 kr. for the four of them, most of the price was for the shipping actually.

And they are perfect!