My wardrobe loves: Geeky vintage skirts from Seams Nostalgic

You may have gathered, especially from my Miss Cooly Rocks On posts, that I enjoy dressing to a theme. Sometimes that theme is subtle and only noticeable if you’re really looking, other days, it’s super obvious.

This outfit is one of those super obvious ones:

I first discovered Seams Nostalgic at Gold Coast Supanova at the start of the year. Abigael makes gorgeous skirts, but even better than that, she’s a nerdy/pinup loving girl who weaves both of those things into her creations. This, of course appeals greatly to me as a fellow pinup nerd! Her staple seller at the time wrap skirts with geek-themed pockets, plus some more vintage-style ones and some gorgeous, soft fluffy petticoats.

I’d been lusting after her Little Mermaid skirt from around the time I was searching for outfits for Cooly, and happily, a few months ago, I picked this beauty up.

I was really lucky to be asked to model the same skirt for her at the fashion showcase as a part of Raw Art Brisbane a couple of months ago. I had an absolute blast being done up as a mermaid for the night, but I was also lucky to get a special preview of her much-anticipated DC and Marvel “Alter Ego” skirt collections, the day before they released.

Photo by Elliot Tonks of Live Exposure

What’s most impressive about Abi’s work though, is how passionate she is about her creations. She’s put an unbelievable amount of effort into designing each and every one of her skirts, matching them to specific outfits in comics and movies, weaving the fandom element in so her skirts can be worn in the office in a sort of undercover cosplay just as easily as they can be worn to a convention as an actual cosplay. She’s made patterns, bought materials and sewn them all too. Everything is finished off beautifully, which just adds to the value of her pieces.

Photo by Elliot Tonks of Live Exposure

I’ve just started sewing properly in the last year and as I’ve taken almost a month to finish a dress that’s a bit rough inside, I’ve got a newfound appreciation for people who actually work as seamstresses for a living — and Abigael isn’t just a seamstress, she’s a designer, a patternmaker, a marketer, and administrator, a packer and all of those other things that come along with having a small business. She’s an impressive, talented lady, and I am super glad that I came across her at Supanova. I can’t wait to pick up my piece of her DC collection at this weekend’s Supanova, a Wonder Woman circle skirt (modelled in our group shot by the fabulous Cleo DeFleur).

Abigael is the one with the gorgeous pink & green hair!
Photo by Elliot Tonks of Live Exposure

The Marvel and DC collections are limited, but you can jump on her Etsy store and see what’s there, and have a chance to own your own gorgeous piece of Seams Nostaglic. If you’re going to be at Supanova this weekend, Abigael has a table so you’ll be able to meet the designer herself and pick up one of her skirts (or five or six!). Check out the Seams Nostalgic Facebook page for updates!!

My wardrobe loves: Hair wraps

Hair wraps, hair scarves, do-rags – whatever you call ‘em, I can’t get enough of them. I told myself about a year ago that I didn't need any more, but I keep pulling outfits together and scrambling through my drawer, cursing myself for not having the foresight to match every top, skirt, dress, shoes, belt or bag in my wardrobe.

Wraps are wonderful because they cover up hair mistakes, add instant vintage flair to hairstyles even when you've done nothing to it and, probably best of all, they cover your hair when it's getting too far on the dirty side to do anything with.

To tell you the truth, I have a sewing machine and could be whipping these babies up myself, but there are a couple of reasons why I don’t, namely, that I keep being introduced to amazing amazing ladies who are making a steady stream of awesome wraps so consistently, that I’ve never had the need to seek out a pattern and make my own. As a girl who runs two teeny out of home businesses, I am big into loving on and sharing small Aussie businesses too, so here are three of my most favourite places to buy hair wraps (and other things) from.

Chickabilly
For me, the majority of my scarves have been purchased as a part of Chickabilly’s famous headscarf battles. Neety makes a range of scarves in pinup/rockabilly prints. I love them because they’re reversible, so you get double the bang for your buck. Neety is one of the craftiest people around and also makes incredible hair flowers, and bags. She also makes amazing smelling perfume oils and has just started producing some gorgeous confetti Lucite earrings (I am in love with the flamingos).

Chickabilly is closing later this year, so if I were you, I’d get in and buy all her scarves before they’re gone!

Miz Smitten Kitten
I met Von, the lovely lady behind Miz Smitten Kitten, through Miss Cooly Rocks On and let me tell you, she is one fabulous, generous person. She took one look at my Avengers dress and said she’d picked up some Wonder Woman fabric that she thought I’d love, I got super excited, and a couple of weeks later, Wonder Woman was in my possession. Von’s scarves are also reversible, and she does them in complementary colours so that little bit of the other side that pops up when you tie them ties in with the other side. Mine is a do-rag — a lot thicker than the standard scarf. This is awesome because I can either use it to dress up my hair when I've set it before going out, or I can use it to hid my (often) unbrushed/unstyled hair.

Miz Von is also a very crafty creature and makes the most incredible hair flowers you’ve ever seen, hair bows, wallets, jewellery and heaps of other amazing stuff.


HoneyCub
I found HoneyCub through Pigtails and Pirates. We got to talking over Instagram and then I found myself pining after basically every scarf that Manda makes. Again, these are made reversible with complementary colours and Amanda will discuss matching fabrics with you for custom orders, or provide ones that she’s already made. As well as wraps, she makes clips, bows and hair ties with button covered bobbles (I love these).

Honey Cub’s wraps come with a wire insert which means they wrap easily around your head and stay in place without slipping, or without the need for clips. I'll admit, I've walked away from scarves with the wire insert before and wasn’t sure about these wraps before they arrived, but I do know that I seem to have very slippery hair (clean or dirty) and the wire actually worked amazingly for me. Usually, I retie my scarf every time I'm in the bathroom, but I took these pictures at the very end of the day and the wrap had not budged an inch. Consider me converted, big time.

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All of these ladies are exceptional when it comes to customer service; they’re friendly, reliable, excellent crafts people who I will continue to support for a long time and would totally encourage you to check them out as well.

My wardrobe loves: Wearing Black Milk Clothing (and still looking a bit vintage)

I’m pretty well aware that in general, Black Milk Clothing and shiny nylon is about as far from pinup and retro as you can get. In the past, when people said Black Milk, I got a picture of super gorgeous modern girls in tight, shiny clothes. They looked gorgeous, but that wasn't for me.

Or so I thought until I went on the hunt for some leggings that wouldn’t sheer out around the butt when I went to pilates. I started doing the bend test at department stores and ended in the most expensive gymwear stores, all of them producing that disappointing sheer butt. I’d heard from some of my nerdy friends that the quality of Black Milk leggings was so good that even the whitest of leggings didn’t sheer out. I’d spent a lot of time on their website after the release of their TARDIS leggings, but was wary of the cult-like fervour of the girls who loved the brand, so had stayed away. But lured by the promise of quality leggings, I took the plunge and bought a pair of their matte navy legs.

And basically, as soon as I opened the black parcel two days later, I became a fully indoctrinated Black Milk Sharkie (so named because the girls nom so hard on release days that the old site used to crash!). There’s just something about the comfort and quality of these legs that make you go from interested fence-sitter to complete devotee in a really short amount of time. I was also really happy that I actually looked and felt good in them, despite being 5kgs heavier than I am now!

I don’t like how pants, jeans, capris sit on my body, even the vintage ones, so I love my Black Milk legs as an alternative to trousers. Which means yes, I do wear leggings as pants. Depending on the piece and how you style the rest of your outfit, you can still get a pinup look wearing leggings. One of my fellow Cooly Rocks On contestants, Miss Brydie, is a gorgeous sharkie babe and I know that there are lots of other girls who love vintage glamour who also have a penchant for shiny BMC legs.

Here are a couple of ideas for how you can get a vintage look in your leggings:

My navy mattes are getting a bit old and baggy around the ankles now, so I quite often roll them to my calf and pair them with a cute top like this Collectif red gingham Dolores top, a big barrel rolled updo and a coloured hair flower. You could wear some nice pointed heels to dress this up, but leggings are usually my comfy, dress-down outfit so I usually go with my favourite soft brown oxfords.

You'll have to take my word for it, but I am wearing leggings here!

Currently getting a huge work out are my new(ish) yellow plaid leggings. I originally bought the skirt in this print because it’s a 90s Clueless inspired piece and who doesn't want to be Cher? But a few weeks later, I couldn't stop thinking about being a cute golfer-girl in the legs, so I ordered them too.

These are the easiest legs to style vintage and, even with the bright yellow colour, are super easy to match. I’ve worn purple, red, green and blue tops and cardigans with them. I made them warm and cosy with my black Doc Martens when I was in Tassie recently, and cool and casual with a short sleeved blue knit jumper and slip on shoes when I got back to Brisbane.

All that being said, sometimes I just want to wear my leggings without styling them pinup at all, and I have pieces that I haven’t quite managed to wear (like these gorgeous purple foil legs) in yet, but I’d definitely encourage anyone who likes comfy legs to check out Black Milk, no matter your style (or shape, or size).

My wardrobe loves: Coloured tights

One of my essential wardrobe items is tights in as many colours as possible. I’ve always had a love for coloured tights, and had my first pair of bright blue ones about ten years ago, back before you could get away with wearing them in a Brisbane winter without raising eyebrows. Back then, my love for coloured tights exceeded my love for clothes and I was fond of just wearing them with whatever outfit, without paying attention to making them a part of the outfit, which probably gleaned me more weird looks as well.

These days, I’ve got a better eye for what looks good and how an outfit comes together, so I can wear them without getting so many raised eyebrows. I also have a lot more confidence, which I think is one of the key things when making bold outfit choices. I’ve also discovered a haven for coloured tights, an American online retailer called We Love Colors. I don't, however, have a great place for taking full length selfies, so all I've got to share with you at the moment are leg shots!

We Love Colors sells tights, leggings, dancewear, socks and a plethora of other things in a rainbow of over 50 colours. My favourite product are their Nylon/Microfibre coloured tights because they’re quite thick and warm for a girl like me who doesn’t wear jeans or pants.

The great thing about We Love Colors is that, while shipping doesn’t cost much, every year when it starts to get cold and I start thinking about whatever colour it is that I don’t have in my wardrobe, they offer a discount code for free Australia and New Zealand shipping. It’s nice that they don’t forget about us! There’s currently a discount code running for us now, and until the end of the month, on orders over $50, Australians and New Zealanders can get free shipping using the code: WeLoveAUSNZ2014. I can usually easily spend the $50, but I also combine with friends so I don’t go overboard!

The other amazing thing about We Love Colors is that they have a brilliant style blog. They keep up-to-date with all the fashion bloggers around the world who are wearing their tights, share their pictures on their blog and tag them by colour. This means, if you’ve got it in your head that you need bright yellow tights, but don’t know how to wear them, you can enter ‘Yellow’ into the search box and you’ll get entries like this one featuring Sami from Poor and Pretty, wearing bright yellow tights and looking gorgeous. Or, if you’re after vintage looks with coloured tights, then search for vintage and get a whole list of retro-babes in their coloured tights. This is particularly good for those of you reading this post who aren't quite convinced by looking at my legs and shoes without outfit context.