Updon’t

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014Leave a comment

My hair being worn in any way other than down is a rare sight. If I’m being honest, I don’t much like the way I look with my hair up, but that feeling flip-flops. When I had short hair I didn’t mind having an exposed neck, and quite often when I was growing it out I would just throw my hair into a top-knot and go about my day (the top-knot was way better than the weird length it was at). But now that my hair is long it has become a pseudo-invisibility cloak of sorts. It hides all the things I am a bit self-conscious about (forehead, ears…), silly things really, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way sometimes. The other reason that my hair often stays down (or in a side braid) is that my hair is thick. When I’m at dance rehearsals I won’t even bother trying to put my hair up and out of my face because inevitably it will fall out after 2 minutes of moving around. The only way to ensure my hair will stay put in a bun or pony tail is a whole lot of hairspray and bobby pins galore. So what’s with the low bun in these photos then?! Well, sometimes after I take photos I realize my hair was covering some interesting and pretty details of my outfit. I really didn’t want that to be the case with this cardigan. I’ve been wanting to photograph this vintage dream for awhile and I originally thought I wouldn’t do so until around Christmas time…but well it’s close enough now, and there is no rule saying I can’t dress it up with a fancier holiday-inspired outfit later on like I intended. I’m still unsure how I feel about this low bun – although it’s still sort of on the safe side since it’s covering the things I always try to hide – I doubt it will become a go-to hairstyle for me, but I’m really glad my giant mane was not in the way of getting some nice photographs of the beautiful bead-work on this 1950s mohair cardigan.

*photos by Ryan

Cardigan: vintage via Carousel Antiques
Blouse: thrifted
Skirt: vintage
Coat: Vintage via Gisela and Zoe Vintage
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Scarf: H&M
Purse: vintage via Public Butter
Tights: old ballet tights

Assuming An Identity

November 24, 20144 Comments

When I put this outfit on I thought to myself “Okay, you’ve become a librarian or a Sunday School teacher, or both. Maybe you’re a librarian during the work week and Sunday School teacher on…Sundays. Either way, you look like someone with a seemingly stuffy and boring profession.” Not really a fair judgement of either occupation – singing songs with children on Sundays is probably a lot of fun and being surrounded by books all day would also be awesome – but you get what I mean. All this to say, the way I dress now seems incredibly reserved to the way I used to dress as a teenager. I like thinking about how we as humans are always changing and evolving. Some people do it a rapid rate, others seemingly stay the same way for a long time as if they have been certain of themselves all along. I’ve always been a person of change. My appearance and dressing myself has always felt like art to me, and as soon as I grow tired of the art I’m producing I change it up, taking on a new aesthetic. I think thats why I love vintage so much. There is always something new to learn about how people used to present themselves. We can take cues from the past and present them in a modern way or we can just downright look like we teleported from “insert your favourite era”. Either way, it feels like a mindful way of getting dressed. Instead of just allowing present trends to dictate the things we wear, we can assume identity through a myriad of pieces that no longer fall under a category.

Blouse & skirt: thrifted vintage
Cardigan: Larkspur Vintage
Hat: Shop Ruche
Purse: vintage via Public Butter
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Bow tie: handmade

Sur Ma Tête / The Susie

November 4, 2014November 11, 20147 Comments

I thought it would be fun if I started a mini series about my vintage hat collection. You’ve seen a few of them on here already, but some of them don’t get seen often, and well, vintage hats!, I love them and thought they deserve a spotlight on this blog. My collection is not nearly as extensive as one might think, but I can show you what I do have and then hopefully just continue adding to this series as I get more, because one can never have too many vintage hats.

This gal here – I have named her Susie (I also thought it would be fun to name all my hats for this series) – hailing from the 1950s, is a pillbox hat with a veil and a sweet lil’ bow. I got Susie at one of my favourite vintage shops, Public Butter. I think she was actually the first vintage hat I ever purchased for myself, and thus, very special to me.

Name: Susie
Age: 60-65yrs (1950s)
Talents: is pink, has a bow, has a veil, makes you feel really cute, makes you think of candy, the fun-loving quirky girl of the hat world

Do you guys love vintage hats? Tell me about your favourites.

Hat: vintage via Public Butter
Blouse: vintage via Common Sort
Lipstick: So Chaud by Mac
Nail polish: 5th Avenue by Essie

With A Little Help From My Friends

November 3, 2014November 11, 20143 Comments

No, sadly, this is not my home. But it is Meaghan and Nick’s new apartment! Gorgeous, right!? (and of course my blogger brain immediately sees a nice place and thinks of all the photos I could take inside it). On Saturday morning I headed over to check out their new, beautiful digs and drink coffee with Meg. I’m sure some of you out there are like, “ya, whatever, it’s an apartment…you should see MY apartment.” But what you don’t know – unless you live in Toronto – is that finding a place like this, is not easy. The rent is either horrifying, or it gets snatched up within seconds or they just never become available because no one is giving that shit up. But, what we have found is word of mouth is the best way to find a nice place in Toronto. The good places are usually rented to a friend if the current tenant is leaving, which makes sense. When I was leaving the Everglades I had lots of people interested in taking my apartment. Good places just never get listed because there will absolutely be someone you know who wants to snatch it from you. Anyways, that’s my piece of advice for the day. Wanna find a nice place? Tell the internet/fb/instagram/whatever.

This has sort of been my go-to outfit for the last little while – a button up blouse of some sort, and a wool tartan skirt. The cold weather rolls in, and I’m always giving off 60s librarian vibes. I think I said at one point that I prefer dressing for Summer (that was probably when Winter lasted forever and I was hating everything), but I lied. I like this much, much better. Once it got cold, and I started pulling out all my Fall/Winter clothes, I sort of felt like myself again.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was actually really great – one of those weekends where you get a lot accomplished, but also had time for friends and relaxation. I have the day off today, but I’ve got lots of photo taking to do, so I should get to that. Bye for now you lil’ freaks.

*photos by Meaghan

Blouse: thrifted
Skirt: vintage Pendleton via Public Butter
Belt: thrifted

All Hallows’ Eve

October 31, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Happy Halloween dear friends! I had some left over exposures on a roll of film in my Pentax back from the summer and thought it was due time I do a little shoot to finish off the roll. I had never shot in the dark, so Ryan and I were just kind of crossing our fingers hoping these would turn out. But that’s what I love about analog. Experimentation and not really knowing the outcome is all part of the fun with film.

I thought I’d go in a bit of a different direction with a Halloween post. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Halloween costume planned for today – I’ll likely throw something together last minute if we end up going out – so I couldn’t really do your standard Halloween costume photo shoot. I did however have this cape on hand, and this velvet dress that was dying to be worn, so I thought I’d just be a spooky little red riding hood/vampire/witch/scared/i dunno girl in the woods. Well, whatever I was, I think I succeeded with a bit of spooky vibes. I hope you enjoy!

All you gals and ghouls better have a terrorific Halloween.

*photos by Ryan