Retro Rack

Summer is ending, although you'd never know here in Nor Cal. I thought before it came to a close I'd do a little something on straw hats.


I have a number of them of all different kinds. Including a red one I am over-making right now and you will get a DIY blog on eventually. Here is a small sample.


I know, they all seem to fall in the same color pallet, don't they? Huh. Anyway, the up side of straw is that it's cool, the downside is that the can catch and mess up the hair.


So, anyway, in honor of summer I present to you this little retrospective on straw hats. I'll be off the radar, I think, until Monday, so please enjoy.

Vintage straw hats . . .









And now, I must leave you. Have wonderful weekends all, and I hope you are afforded the opportunity to don a straw hat!

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

I have this multi-strand stacked mock pearl necklace that I bought on a whim from a retro fair and wear all the flipping time.


Here's your names for the different lengths...

via antique-royals tumblr

Collar, choker, princess lengths are my favorites. I will occasionally wear a rope. The other two don't work with the Rack. Not on me, anyway.

This kind of stacking has been around a long time.

Queen Margherita of Italy via antique-royals tumblr

1840 antique-royals tumblr

1870 fawnvelveteen tumblr stacked pearls

Mine I'll wear for daytime or evening because of the style of bead.


Although in the past with real pearls it does tend to be MAJOR formal events.

Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh then Grand Duchess of Russia

After the Turn of the Century

1925  Christie’s

via sala66- Clara Bow, 1927

Christian Dior 1948 Hat, Philippe Pottier, Fashion Photography  (Source- hprints.com)

“More is More” Hilary Rhoda by Roe Ethridge for W Special Edition May 2014 via Glamorous Vintage Soul tumblr

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

I'm kinda obsessed with felted hats. Sadly, Fashionable Reader, I usually can't wear them (wool allergy). I love a vintage felted and folded cloche and I do tend to associate this kind of hat with the 1920s-1940s. Yes I am aware they hung around.

I have a couple pretty nifty ones from the 1950s.

Isn't it just fabulous?

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

I love tweed, Fashionable Reader, here I am in a tweed pencil skirt in 2013, early on in my career as a public speaking authorbeast...



Today I made a big decision and got rid of this tweed pencil skirt. I've been doing a lot of purging recently and I just wasn't wearing it enough. (I still have that shirt.) It's sad really, it was one of the last tweed items in my closet.

Symptom of begin a California girl, I suppose. Not much use for tweed.

Still in honor of its demise I though I would post a few tweed-related images:

For Prudence

Walking Dress  1893  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For Primrose

1895  The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

For Gail

Ensemble  Utility, 1942  The Victoria & Albert Museum

Suzy Parker; photo by Nina Leen, 1951

If you want to be inspired by tweed I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the movie Cold Comfort Farm. This is hands down one of my favorite movies of all time and I want every single one of her outfits.

Cold Comfort Farm

And here is a fun new bit of merch!

Teapot in an Octopus Cameo Steampunk T-Shirt

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

Hello Fashionable Reader!

Here's my most recent event outfit. I went to Borderlands for their Mass Signing 20th Birthday Celebration!

(And then stayed for the Sponsor Social.)


The funny thing about this outfit is that I was having such a hard time deciding what to wear, I had Twitter vote on it.


Here's the break down of what they chose and how I put it together.


The velvet blouse is part of a 1940s suit (the skirt is no more). Like all black velvet, it photographs poorly, but it has tons of lovely little details like buttons and cuffs. You'll just have to trust me that they are there.

The bag, gloves and shoes are all modern but I bought them 10 years ago. The bag came from a thrift store, the shoes are aerosoles, and the gloves H&M.

However, still available are...

• The leopard turban ($8)
• The red pencil trumpet skirt (c. $40)
• The obligatory necklace pen ($20)

Next to the amazing Katherine Kerr (I was a little star struck).

I'm afraid, since it was at night, the light wasn't awesome

 
Finally here I am in my special Borderlands Sponsor sweatshirt...


Take a good hard look, this is the only time you will ever see Gail Carriger IN A HOODIE.

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

1949 Venus  Christian Dior  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2013 Fall Gold

Octopus T-Shirt

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

quotes Gail likes

My book, Prudence, is currently on sale for only $4.99 (ebook USA). In honor of that, Fashionable reader, I'm posting a fun thing I used to do a lot - outfits that match the cover!


I had to put this image first, because it is such a perfect match to the colors of the cover. It's an 1870s  dress from Kerry Taylor Auctions. I'm not sure which of my characters might wear something so exotic, this period would place it during the Parasol Protectorate series. So perhaps Ivy?

And now, looking at the cover here's some more picks...

For Alexia in the Parasol Protectorate series...

Suite  1830s  Christie’s

Afternoon Dress  Charles Fredrick Worth, 1872  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For Countess Nadasdy...

1883  Musée Galleira de la Mode de la Ville de Paris

For Primrose in the Custard Protocol series...

Pingat afternoon dress ca. 1896  From the De Young Museum

1895 Cufflinks  Tiffany & Co., Sotheby’s

1890s  Augusta Auctions

For Gail...

Madame Grès, 1945  Kerry Taylor Auctions

1950s  Whitaker Auctions

2000 Gianni Versace  The Frock

2015 Katrin Langer floral brocade clutch at modaoperandi.com

2015 Nicholas Kirkwood purple suede Mary Jane

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can visit the following shopping lists: Travel Dork, My Steampunk, My Wardrobe.

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I gets a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

For the second day of Confusion I wore a few old favorites.


My favorite grey facinator (now in black and red $15ea), a vintage 1940s cream jacket (it looks better buttoned), a silky flower print purple blouse from J.C. Penny (years ago), and the skirt part of my 1950s cream knit suit, with black ballet flats (similar $15). I try to wear flats the second day of a con to give my feet a rest and because Saturday is almost always my busiest day rushing from panel to panel.


The choker was a gift from the BFF, it's made of tiny little silver roses. I've never seen anything else like it out there. Those are my favorite earrings made from fountain pen nibs. Mine are silver but I did find these brass ones for $24, and I'm sure the silver are all over Etsy.

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can visit the following shopping lists: Travel Dork, My Steampunk, My Wardrobe.

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I gets a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

There was a great display (at the International Terminal of SFO before we left for Singapore) on airline uniforms through the ages. I was particularly taken with this one:


It's the 1939 uniform for United Airlines. Isn't it adorable?

With Parasols! And look at the shoes!

Although, that said, I got mighty addlepated over the current Singapore Air hostess uniforms, because OH MY GOD. I nearly bought one for myself (you can in Little India) and then realized I am not an incredibly stunning Asian woman and it would look ridiculous on me.

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can visit the following shopping lists: Travel Dork, My Steampunk, My Wardrobe.

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I gets a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.

So for the next day at WorldCon I wore this old favorite yellow skirt with black dots. It's Max Studio and if I had to buy a new one I'd get something like this instead $20 white with black dots, high waisted. I think it'd fit better in my wardrobe. 

The shirt actually started life as a vintage 1960s black linen pencil dress and I cannibalized it into a peplum blouse. Dress looked a lot like this originally. 

I'm wearing these two pieces with steampunk earrings (similar $20), pen necklace (here $18), and flat aerosole sandals to save my feet (here $40). I also added a tilted teardrop hat. You can follow my adventure dyeing this hat here. 

I love this hat but it is hard to travel with so you don't see me in it often. Here's a bit of a sample of other tilted hats...

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can visit the following shopping lists: Travel Dork, My Steampunk, My Wardrobe.

Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I gets a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.