Adventures in Wonderland

This time of the year is always Alice-themed these days. Or so it seems, anyway.

After weeks of letting it tug vaguely at the corners of my mental to-do list, I've gone ahead and booked tickets for Alice's Adventures Underground, interactive* performance extraordinaire. (I won't use the other 'i' word, because everyone hates it and you know it.) The event isn't until tomorrow, and already I've spent days obsessing over small details - does the 'Black/Red' dress code mean red and black? Red or black? What if I change my mind and decide I want to side with another suit? Should I Eat it? Drink it? Which one will make me big, which one small? What do I want? - until I thought I was going mad. And then I thought maybe that was the point.

I never thought I liked Alice. Having been decidedly unimpressed by the Disney cartoon, cat-less smile aside, I shoved the memory of it to the back of my mind as a child, to only take it out of a dusty brain drawer when Disney's shiny-and-new live remake forced me to. I was equally unimpressed. But I had to admit, something about the Crazy-circus, Creepy-clown concept of it all appealed to me. I mulled it over and had to concede - Alice belongs to the same, dreamy-yet-terrifying-if-you-think-like-really-think-about-it category as Peter Pan.

Once I realised that, I was hooked (no pun intended).

And so last year, I decided my birthday would be Wonderland-themed.

Quite conveniently, Archway with Words festival decided to hold an Alice in Wonderland Fancy Dress Day on that very date, complete with hat-making and flamingo croquet.

     

 

(In case you're wondering, I won at flamingo croquet. Ha.)

(At least... I think I did?)

A certain mad hatter talked us into making giant card hats...

          

...And we got stuck in a house.

Top - Etam

Silk corset - Harmony

Skirt - Topshop

Vintage apron - Absolute Vintage

Cardigan - Jane Norman

Shoes - Repetto

Clock earrings - Warehouse

Clock necklace - Vintage

Scarf - gift from Jerusalem







I want to hear all about YOUR Wonderland events, parties and adventures!

A Time Tourist in Kew Gardens

After being asked multiple times throughout the day if I was a tourist in my own city (was it the camera? the odd clothes? Who knows...) it was decided by my friends that a tourist I was indeed, only of the time-travelling kind. And so I was declared a Time Tourist.

This was my first visit to Kew in a very, very long time (a Time Tourist never reveals her age). The only thing I remembered about it was the large Greenhouse by the pond, next to Victoria Gate - I wasn't disappointed.

I like to think of it as a tropical palace...

 Dancing in the Greenhouse

What I didn't remember, on the other hand, was the Other greenhouse, the one where each room amazingly reproduces an entirely different climate to the next. The sights and smells there are wonderful. Seriously, take a deep breath when you enter each room! You'd be losing so much of the experience otherwise. It's like stepping into a different country altogether.

So tropical the lens gets foggy!

Banana alien

Now, I'm not much of a romantic, but on that day we happened to walk into a small and unassuming glasshouse. The contemplative stillness of the waterlily pond took my breath away. 

~

Making friends with plants

Blouse - Vintage

Leather skirt - handmade by my grandmother!

Turquoise necklace - Oliver Bonas

Hair From Beyond #5: Do the Clara Bow

It dawned on me the other day that I'd never styled short hair. I mean, sure, I've styled long hair into faux-bobs plenty of times, but actual, real short hair? Never. Conveniently, my flatmate happens to wear her hair cropped very short and very straight. Always up for a challenge, I marched straight into her room and declared I was turning her into Clara Bow for the evening. She never knew what hit her.

Clara Bow was one of the very first silver screen icons, THE 'it' girl of the 20s. As Anne Helen Petersen writes in this fabulous post for The Hairpin, "Girls wanted to be her, boys wanted to date her, and old people thought she was a sign of the apocalypse, which obviously meant she was star material".

And so I set to work curling, teasing and spraying, until I was moderately satisfied with the results. Now, you can't have a Clara Bow without the Clara Bow eyebrows. This posed a bit of a problem, as you can't really get Clara Bow eyebrows without plucking it all away, and my flatmate/beautiful model was (understandably) really not that keen. Thus I was forced to compromise and draw them in on top of her (partly concealed) natural eyebrow, but oh well.

~

Here I'm looking for Clara Bow, but all I see is Theda Bara...

Theda Bara

~

Model: Betty. Hair, make-up and photography by moi.

A little silk blouse...

This morning I found a forgotten gem at the back of my closet, a little silk blouse inherited from my great-aunt. I have no idea what period it's from - possibly 40s? any ideas, do leave a comment! - but I have been watching much too much Mr Selfridge lately and thought I would incorporate it into a Belle Epoque-inspired outfit.

Blouse - Vintage

Skirt - H&M

Shoes - Primark

Southbank Vintage Car Boot Sale

Last weekend I was at the Classic Car Boot Sale on the South Bank. I'd gone to the very first one last year (more below!), but this time it got extended to a week-end long event, due to popular demand. Talk about popular! The queue was much longer than last year, but the weather was lovely, so we queued in the sun with a cold refreshing beer (sadly the Southbank Center bar stall wouldn't let us carry a pitcher of Pimm's away...). We were treated to entertainment (in the form of an Everly Brothers-style duo of vintage suit-clad boys playing acoustic renditions of Johnny Be Goode, and impromptu 'dance rehearsal' performances) while we planned and schemed about the most effective way to go around seeing everything.

Any attempt to be logical and responsible in our trawling of the market was promptly abandoned when stall after stall caught our eye and we zoned in on vintage pieces with wonderment. Everywhere we looked, fashion, homeware and classic cars, all at a reasonable price! Most items were mid-century, although I did get my hands on a Regency reproduction coat (which, sadly, didn't fit), and with a little rummaging it was possible to find older pieces.

Dress - 1950s vintage (Peggy Lane, thrifted in Amsterdam)

Cardigan - Vivienne Westwood

Shoes - Primark

Bag - Thrifted (Absolute Vintage)

After a few hours, my friends decided that they 'had lost their rummaging spirit' and simply couldn't take any more of it, so we made a beeline for the food shacks (Ok, so I stopped once. That 50s ball gown just HAD to be tried on. I got stuck in it.) and had the best sautéed  mushrooms on toast ever made.

Somewhere along the way I appear to have decided on a theme for the day's shopping, and ended up with a full 'explorer' outfit - think Indiana Jones, female version. I'll do another post about that vintage haul!


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Last year's Classic Car Boot Sale:

Dress - 1940s vintage (Absolute Vintage)

Hat - bought on site!

So soft!

Sadly, he wouldn't buy it.

Sexy leather trousers

And a few film shots, courtesy of Elisabetta:

 Last year, I walked away with a vintage deerstalker (see pictures), a Victorian black silk apron, and the most beautiful 60s satin gown I have ever seen.

The award for Find of the Day, though, goes to my boyfriend who managed to get his hands on a perfectly tailored, hand-finished original 1930s tailcoat.

Outfits from Outer Space #3: Halloween

Better late than never, right?

Leaving you to ponder this for too long is potentially dangerous, so here's a distracting compilation of all my Halloween 2013 costumes.

1. Pop Art

This was put together very last-minute for MCM Comic Con, inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's art. Mostly it just involved orange face paint and a LOT of eyeliner. Drawing on those dots took fucking forever.

A very confused Castiel discovers pop art.

2. 50s movie character

After reading this inspiring blogpost, I decided to go greyscale for Halloween and aimed for a 50s-inspired look.

Top - Collectif

Skirt - Coast

Behind the scenes:

Originally, we were meant to go as a greyscale couple, but he flipped out when I brought out the eyeliner and wouldn't let me paint the rest of his face..

3. Last-minute Cruella De Vil

I got invited to a Disney pub crawl in Shoreditch, and was too lazy to go home and change, so I concocted this with what little clothes I had at my boyfriend's... Fun fact: I've owned this faux fur jacket since I was 6 years old and my cousin's bridesmaid. It's served me well.

People kept complimenting me on my 'white face makeup'... I wasn't wearing any. Sob.

4. Creepy nondescript Tim Burton character

Inspired by Emma Pickles' makeup tutorial, I wore this for Voodoo Rock Night. 

Corset - Primark

Skirt - Topshop

Armwarmers - Claire's

Annoyingly, it turned out to be one of those cases where everything looked better during the makeup test than on the actual night.

My eyebrows just wouldn't disappear!

5. ...And a minion

...What did YOU dress up as on Halloween?