After months of posting on YouTube and Instagram and shamefully neglecting my blog – I’m back, and with a very exiting project to show you. Going full 1940s had not been on my bingo-card for this year, but here we are!
Flirted so hard he flew 3000 miles to see me and I started dressing as a whole new era
It all started back in February, when I randomly met an man on Instagram, and soon our text conversation was surprisingly deep and branched out over several different subjects. David, also known as @that40skid is basically a full-time vintage dresser, and loves a bit of ww2 reenactment, specifically 8th army airforce, also has his own reenactment account. We got along extremely well, but there was one draw-back: he’s from Pennsylvania and I’m based in greater London. Not exactly close together. But after our first FaceTime call he decided to come visit me so we could meet in person, and, come April, he managed to get some time off work to make it happen.
So what you see here are the preparations for some quite intense vintage dressing that would follow over the 10 days we had together. (And we did hit it off as you can probably tell if you’ve been watching my Instagram lately).
So first things first – we needed a 1940s dress, and since I’m never happier than when there’s an opportunity to sew something new – I went to work researching 1940s dress styles on Pinterest.
I also needed to make a 1940s hat – which I did using wool fabric scraps and cardboard, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. I added a veil clip to the inside to keep it in place.
The dress
We have an inside joke about a particular shade of pink we call Metropolitan-line pink (after the London underground) but which is in reality a little brighter and less purple. It’s one of my favourite colours to wear, and needless to say the dress had to be this particular shade, so I went on a side-quest to the London West End to get the fabric. And then some 🙂
I love shirt dresses, and I felt really drawn to the pointy bodice style that was popular in the 40s. Puffed sleeves were a must, and since fabric was rationed at the time, the skirt itself needed to be quite plain, too many gathers were seen as unpatriotic.
I also tried doing my hair in pincurls for the first time a few days before our first meeting to practice, and on the day we met happened to also be the day that I wore a genuinely vintage outfit including period-accurate base-layers, something I try to do with Victorian and Edwardian, but had not yet attempted with wartime fashion. It’s quite comfortable to wear, but it does take some getting used to in the beginning. In the end it’s actually even more comfortable than modern, but I still need to get more practice with the hairstyles of the period.
Pro-tip: if vintage reproduction shoes are too pricey try Latin dance shoes – vintage style while being the most comfortable heels you’ll ever wear (see recommendations)
I feel like this story needs a sequel, and anyhow, I have been neglecting this blog too long, so stay tuned for some more vintage shenanigans, photos, etc. I have since sewn another 1940s style dress, and still have to edit that footage, as well as about half a dozen big and small projects, including the impulsive production of 2 1940s-inspired half-hats when I really meant to tidy up my space.
Both are available on Etsy at the moment, click on the images for more info!