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Showing posts with label #vintagestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #vintagestyle. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 March 2022

Classic Dressing - Outerwear, Recreated

Hello my lovelies!

My last post showed some retro outer wear which IMHO could stand up proudly with today’s trends. 
I challenged myself to recreate something from that 60s-80s fashion post for the today’s 20s. 

 
Challenge accepted!


#1 The Raincoat, or its trendier name, The Trenchcoat

Shapes and lengths vary over time

Now although I still have a beige trench lurking in the void under the bed (I have one of those flip-top storage  beds),  TBH I really couldn’t be bothered to hook it out and iron it solely for the purpose of this exercise.  
That’s the way I roll!
.
It’s stored away because it’s longer in length and these days I prefer a sort of car-coat length for my retired lifestyle. 
 So instead for this challenge I stuck with what I wear right now, in the 20s. 



A shorter black trench. 


This length and colour goes equally well over blue jeans or black coated jeans, and it’s a much more practical length car-wise - and “carring” is something I do lot more of in retirement. 


The trench is from @marksanspencer. 


And so is this one.  Yes I liked it so much I bought it in a hot reddy pink colour too. 
Here worn with a striped top and black jeans. 


So after 40 years the 80s raincoat/trench is still a much-used item but both length and colour have evolved to suit my taste. 


And that’s challenge #1 hopefully successfully executed.  



#2  The Rainhat 



And what about that rainhat, worn here in 1966?


No problem.  I still wear one today!


Singing the praises of the humble rainhat

A rainhat is still a practical solution for my pensioner lifestyle today, just as it was when I was sweet sixteen (🤣).

We all have a casual anorak-style raincoat that usually has a hood stashed away in the collar.  But if you don’t have an in-built hood to your posher raincoat then always have one of these practical hats folded up and shoved neatly in your coat pocket or bag.  
Yes I could carry a collapsible umbrella with me but I tend to use much smaller handbags these days when out and about, if I use a handbag at all these days, and my diminutive bags aren’t man enough to carry even the dinkiest of umbrellas.  So a rainhat is ideal.  
And don’t worry about it blowing off on a windy day.  Pulling the rainhat right down over the ears anchors it in place. 

Challenge #2, done!



So my sweets, that’s two styles that I wore in the 60s and 80s that are still wearable today, subject to the odd tweak to fit with evolving trends and lifestyle. 

Have you given though to what you wore in some of your older pics that would not look out of place today?
Would you like to recreate that same look?
Or perhaps you see similarities with what you wore then and what you’re wearing now?

Whether your answer is yes or no to these questions, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. 


A la perchoine, Mary xxx. 







Monday, 21 March 2022

Classic Dressing - Outerwear

 Well my lovelies, you’re going to have to indulge me for a while as I go down memory lane. 

These past few weeks I’ve been working on a project I’ve been putting off for a few years.  Digitalizing my photo albums, and when you get to 72 there will be many. 

It’s actually turned out to be a lovely task rather than the one I had imagined.  So many memories come flashing up as I pop the old pics into my whizzy little gadget.  And what became apparent is that what I wore back when I was a young whippersnapper could actually hold its own today, IF I had saved the items and IF I could still fit into them.  Of course, I haven’t and I couldn’t. 


So I thought it might make a nice series to show you what still works today IMHO and how it can be recreated. 


As spring is upon us here in the northern hemisphere let’s get outerwear out the way first, before it gets too hot to even look at an overcoat. 



1966

A op art style PVC Mac.
Very Mary Quant. 
(Around my neck is my first boyfriend’s old school scarf, and I still wear a rain hat like this now!)



1967

A fake fur coat.  
Still current today. 
I sewed this one myself in 1966, and wore it for many years.  It also had a matching beret. 
(Check out the saucy neck scarf too!) The dark brown fur coat was pre cut out and purchased via a girls’ magazine that sold wonderful trendy cut kits.  I made several things this way but can’t be sure which mag it was, Honey may be?


1970

A great-coat. 
This would stand up today eh.



1987, Paris

A classic trench. 



1987, Paris

A black 3/4 wool jacket, here worn with a leather skirt which I still have. 


1968

A military style coat. 

Well I say it’s military - it IS an army coat, yes, but  Salvation Army.  One of my best friends through school and later in early working life gave me this coat as I admired the style so much.  (I probably begged a bit too.  Embarrassing.)
I hacked a chunk off the length making it 60s-perfect.
I loved this coat.  Probably one of the warmest I’ve ever had. 


Ok what do you think?  Would any of these coats look grossly out of place today?  I think not.

My challenge now is to try to recreate an outfit from this little lot, that still looks ok today.  
Hmmnn, have I bitten off more than I can chew?!  
Has this series fallen at the first hurdle?

Pop back to see if I did manage to clear this first hurdle!


Now tell me, which of these looks could/would YOU recreate today?



Hugs, Mary xxx.