Choose a hat to suit your face shape

Hats are dead accessory items for some as the act of choosing a hat to suit your face shape can be too difficult.

For me, I love hats and I always find myself looking at them thinking "Why can't there be more reasons to wear hats?" I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but with the occasional hat lover who comes my way I'd like to think I am not alone.

Hats are a traditional fashion form that seem to have been forgotten in modern silhouettes and styles. It is a shame really that such a fashion statement; a true expression of art, personality and craftsmanship is reserved for either the race carnival season or a high-brow wedding.

Hats have become much more about sun protection than style. We choose large-brimmed raffia numbers in favour of pill-boxes or cloches. Traditional hat styles don’t offer much of a barrier to the harsh sunlight, so I can appreciate the choice is almost taken out of our hands. But, what about special occasions: dinners, birthdays, parties and cocktail hour?

I guess the biggest issue is how do you wear them? It’s not as though you can add a turban to a jeans and tee look and pull it off without some serious turned heads and starring. You really need to build a look around a chosen hat. The trick is not to let the hat wear you, but that it is a natural extension of your outfit and your personality. I think the goal with hats is to be amusing.

Long Face

Hat Style: Medium crowns, medium-to-wide brims. Crisp, clean lines worn straight forward.

Hair: Full, wide looks teased or soft.

Icon e.g: Sigrid Thornton, Julia Roberts, Marg Downey, Rowena Wallace. 

Oval Face

Hat Style: Low insert crowns with medium sharp line brims, either with turned-up backs or swept-up side or sides.

Hair: Swept-back style such as the French roll.

Icon e.g: Princess Caroline, Jeanne Little, Jane Turner, Rebecca Gibney and Madonna.

Square Face 

Hat Style: Large line brim framing the hair and face, worn on an angle or straight forward.

Hair: Full and soft, pulled around to the cheeks.

Icon: Bette Midler, Kate Fitzpatrick, Gina Riley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Noni Hazelhurst.

Wide Face

Hat Style: Only off-the-face styles, worn towards the back: for example, Bretons, sombreros and pillboxes.

Hair: Fringes with sculptured hair to middle of neck.

Icon e.g: Kate Cebrano, Barbara Streisand, Louise Anton.

Round Face 

Hat Style: Medium to small crowns and brims won stylishly forward or slanted.

Hair: Straight, sharp lines cut to cheek level. If longer, worn in front of ears.

Icon e.g: Jenny Kee, Alyssa-Jane Cook, Magda Szubanski, Joan Sydney.

Heart Face

Hat Style: Small brims, low crowns, one-sided hat or decor hair combs.

Hair: One side straight, swept to full other side.

Icon e.g: Marcia Hines, Annie Jones, Elizabeth Taylor.

Enjoy the fun!

Love La Rubia

www.garbedge.com.au 

It's all relative in terms of silhouettes

I can admit, even if no-one else wants to join me, that things have changed. Change, like a lot of things, is inevitable. It is not always for the better and sometimes the advantages are debatable.

Fashion is one thing that has witnessed constant change. Whether it was fabric inventions, modes of garment production or pop culture influence it was reflected in the garb and silhouettes of the time.

Earlier decades saw women reaching for drop waists, sleeveless cocktail gowns before switching to shin-length, full-flared prom dresses. Women's silhouettes were celebrated in fitted capri pants, pencil skirts and waisted maxi dresses.

As the decades moved on and changed, so did the silhouettes. In and out, up and down the shapes and styles of women's clothing represented movements in female strength, solidarity and individualism.

Certainly some decades represent femininity better than others and particular eras portray that eternal style amidst the fading fast fashions of modern times.

The most interesting thing, I think, will be how they will change in the future.


Love La Rubia
www.garbedge.com.au

Redesign your vintage

Vintage clothing continues to be a fashion favourite amongst many. I can forgive people for thinking of costumey 50’s cocktail dresses worn with barrel curls and pinnies when someone mentions dressing in vintage. However, the real appeal of vintage fashion comes from the ability to modernise the quality designs and silhouettes. But that may be easier said than done – what about the ideas?

Here are some ways you can transform vintage fashion into more modern items. Think denim hot pants, pussy bow blouses, denim vests, cotton shirt dresses and jersey maxes dresses. They are all great styles that can be worn by many body shapes and ages.

1.Bling

There are many uber cool designs from the 70s and 80s that could be brought to 21^st century with a little sparkle.

Get yourself a glue gun, some rhinestones, diamantes or anything with sparkle. Mix it up with some colour as well as white. The best way to get them attached is to hot glue on the garment first and then attach the sparkle with a tooth pick or cotton tip to avoid getting glue everywhere. Bling is the aim but try to aim for the garment instead of the table, floor or your fav t-shirt.

Try not to get carried away with the bling as it’s about adding to and not going crazy with...

2.Tie-dye

Inject some seasonal colour into the vintage piece you found at a local op-shop, in your mum’s closet or at the markets.

For spring and summer the colour palettes du jour are favouring pastels over primary and neon over neutrals. Places like spotlight and lincraft have super products to get those colours running. Grab yourself a bucket, newspaper and gloves. Be careful here as just like the sparkles the aim is to get the colour onto the garment rather than onto your carpet, walls or your dog.

The more the merrier here with the colour. Be sure to keep it in the same hue as much as possible to avoid looking like a bowl of skittles. But hey if you like colour then get to it. 

Overall the more creative you can be with your ideas the better result you will get. Fashion is there to have fun with and just because you are seeking out fashion from decades ago does not mean you can’t create stylish, modern and in-season looks with it.

Love La Rubia

www.garbedge.com.au 

Hello again from hot vintage damsels

It has been a bit more than a wee while since the last post from The Damsel and how things have changed. Not only has Damsel Vintage moved out into the interweb at http://www.damselvintage.com.au where the creme de la crop of vintage pieces are showcased for lovers and buyers of vintage. It is a place to view heavenly original vintage dresses, skirts, blouses and the like. There is even a sold folder to wile away the hours of vintage deliciousness.

Below are some highlights:

Damsel has also teamed up with two equally vintage loving maidens: Julia and Brooke. They are lovers, searchers and curators of beautiful vintage from across the globe and it should be a hoot and a half having the two of them adding their taste and style to the Damsel Vintage collection.

Julia is a vintage extraordinaire wearing the look from head to toe keeping femininity and playfulness at heart. She is true to the vintage style putting fashion victims to complete shame with her old-world beauty and charm. She is artistic, intelligent and to top it all off she sings like a musical theatre star for 'Black Tie Band'. Julia will be posting her vintage related thoughts here as 'Jewels' check back here to see her musings.

Brooke is a freelancer who works in fashion styling, visual merchandising and fashion journalism, she is a Fashionsmith if you will. So many fashion pies, so few fingers. Her style encapsulates vintage pieces refreshed with modern trends, crochet, lace and leather are her fashion frenzies. She is creative and passionate, blogging about her adventures on her blog GarbEdge and has a budding interest in fashion design. Brooke will be blogging here as 'La Rubia' so keep your eyes out for this fashionable blonde.

Put Damsel back on your bloglovin list to keep up to date with her fashion fancies. Look forward to keeping up to date with vintage love and gorgeous vintage finds from across the world to enliven your spirit and wardrobe. We will all look forward to bringing you irresistible vintage.

Love Damsel

the vision.

So, hey. I've been told I'm apparently the slackest blogger in the world, and I think it's not far off the mark. The thing is I like blogging, and I like reading blogs, yet I have done neither of those things of late. It's just that the last few months have carried with them an overriding feeling of being utterly overwhelmed. In every aspect of life. I won't bore with details, I'm sure you have felt it too. It's neither a wholly negative nor positive emotion, but it doesn't lend itself much to clarity of thought, and it certainly isn't conducive to writing anything fit for the public domain.

But after finally undertaking the painstaking task of writing all the overwhelming things down (an exercise I highly recommend) and slowly ticking them off one at a time, the fog is starting to clear. For instance (a more shallow example), Zumba used to be my bitch - I owned Zumba. Dude, I could Merengue March to your grandma's place. But following months of dropping all exercise because I was convinced I didn't have time, I recently started again after realising that if I never exercise then the overall timeline of this busy life is likely to get even shorter, and then I really won't have time for anything. Short meaning = exercise is vital for longevity. Cue overwhelming feeling of being embarrassingly unfit and fears of dying of a heart attack before 30 while doing Zumba. Write it down, notice what a ridiculous notion this is when on paper. Accept that I am now Zumba's bitch. Keep at it, the tables will turn again, but for the time being I am content with my place in this relationship.

The second change happened just the other day, when I had my first photoshoot with my fab new model and friend Kristy. Now there's still tweaking to be done with the lighting and camera settings and I need to buy some fresh accessories, but overall there's something I love about these pics. The style is starting to match the image in my mind, there's a softness and romanticism that really appeals to me. I feel inspired, for the first time in a while. Something has clicked again with me and Damsel - I know what I want, I can see it, and I will make it happen.

(BTW can you believe Kristy has never done this before? One might called it amazeballs, if one was crude. These items, and a couple more, will be up for sale on Facebook this Sunday night.)

my favourite vintage salt & pepper shakers in the whole world...

Cute huh? But wait for it...

Hehehehehehehe.

on flea markets and the 'Vintage Glaze'.

The flea market experience differs greatly to the op-shop experience, which incidentally (or not) you can read about in my post here. It's less distilled, in the clothing-for-sale ratio sense. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say I actually prefer markets. Wellllll, you know it's kind of a love/hate relationship because I worked at markets for years (not selling vintage btw) and market stallholder politics can be... er... interesting? Educational? Full of complete nutjobs? But as a customer, finding an awesome market, well hey there's just nothing quite like it.

The best markets are outdoors, preferably on some kind of sports oval to lend a scent of competitive anticipation to the air. Grass is necessary. They start early, the air is fresh and crisp, vicious antique dealers hungrily scan with their torches before daybreak, digging rudely through peoples boxes before they've even unpacked (dealers are never looking for clothes - ha, fools I tells ya!). There's generally a hot shirtless guy selling plants. There's some dodgy dude ready to physically fight anyone, including me, over the authenticity of his $70 Louis Vuitton. The canteen has hotdogs and those bizarre 90s soft drinks like Pasito and Creaming Soda and all the Golden Valley ones - does anyone actually buy those anywhere other than markets and community swimming pools?

Mum and I developed the perfect procedure for market hunting. There's the initial scan - fast-paced, pinpointing the most interesting stalls, mentally categorising the order in which to peruse them (sudden memory: Caboolture markets circa 1996, a lady selling all her pristine clothes for $1 each. Crazed women grabbing at clothes and 'accidentally' scratching each other in the process. Scored wide-leg tencel jeans, white cropped knit Country Road singlet with big wood buttons, crushed velvet green singlet. Might have socked a middle-aged woman in the jaw. Pretty much 90s heaven). Then after honing in on the must-visit locales there's the second round, slower and more in-depth to search for unexpected treasures that can spring from the most unlikely places. A gorgeous faux-fur belted coat for $4, black with a white collar, ruined years later by Woodford Folk Festival mud. Strapless 80s party dress with ladybugs print. Ladybugs! A scrolling leaves goldtone 70s necklace, gifted later to a friend who fell in love with it. 1950s cotton circle skirt with dancing African ladies all around it. And this was years before I had even dreamed of selling vintage. I don't even want to think about the pieces I dismissed back then, when $10 was a lot to pay for a vintage coat. Ah, hindsight. You evil wise bastard.

My favourite piece was this... jacket. Sigh. This beautiful tailored softest chocolate suede blazer with rounded lapels. Solid brass snap buttons. Jewel toffee satin lining. Bought for $25 in 1997 from this gorgeous stylish little old lady who had owned it since the 1960s. It was so perfectly fitted, like it was made for me. She seemed kind of sad yet happy to sell it to me, and I loved it for years. Felt just a little bit Stevie Nicks whenever I wore it. Then my sister borrowed it and left it in a pub, and someone took it. And I hope whoever has it now gets what's coming to them. Ahh, there are many sad stories that begin with 'then my sister borrowed it'.

But my favourite market experience was probably technically not a market, it was more one of those gigantic collectables swap meets that happen every now and then, but it was on a sports oval and had a canteen with Pasito so I'm letting it pass. It was raining like nobodies business, and everyone had huddled to the stalls that were inside the pavilion. These poor stallholders out on the field were braving it with barely a soul in sight. I decided to give it a shot, sludged through the mud in thongs, and was rounding the final aisle when I saw this stall with vintage dresses hanging off it. Only a few though and a bit pricey and early 60s polyester gross. I asked the grumpy stallholder if she had any others, to which she replied, "nothin decent, there's some in the boot, they're not really vintage though but you can go through them if you want". (See that's where old-school vintage sellers and the new generation differ. They don't see 70s and 80s pieces as vintage, just old clothes. I'm currently experiencing that mental struggle with 90s "vintage". 90s clothing is 90% crap and I 90% hate all of it.) Aaaaanywho, within these boxes of 'not really vintage' was the most AMAZING collection of delicate pieces: lace maxis, gorgeous Bali cutwork dresses, embroidered gauze smock tops, beaded purses....

I believe I experienced my first episode of what I later termed the 'Vintage Glaze'. This is when a vintage enthusiast is confronted with such an sudden overwhelming assault of amazing affordable vintage that their eyes literally glaze over and they become incapable of communication beyond quiet whimpers and incomprehensible mutterings. Other symptoms include rapid heart-rate, sweating palms, and violent possessiveness over clothes inanimate objects. This was back when I first started selling vintage, circa 2005, when I had to scrounge op-shops for one or two half-decent 80s dresses, so you can understand it was a particularly severe episode.

$75 later I floated over the mud with my giant bag of goodies, eyes still glazed, feeling like I had saved a litter of puppies from being thrown in a garbage disposal or something. Well, I had saved beautiful clothes from a life of neglect and eventual mould, anyhow. So that is something.

I feel like markets like that don't exist any more. I know they probably do, somewhere, but weekends are now spent actually tending to the rest of my life outside of Damsel, so who has the time? I guess it's all relative. I can't even comprehend the amazing markets my mum went to in the 70s, when she owned a collectibles stall and sold 1920s flapper dresses and Victorian costume jewellery. 1950s clothing was barely considered vintage then. I'll tell you some of her stories another day. But I suppose it's time to accept the reality of the markets of the future, where gems like my 'not really vintage' collection will be a distant memory or like $300 a piece, and the 90s cast-offs I gave to Lifeline in '02 will become hot property for some enterprising young lass. Urgh. Maybe I should get back out and enjoy them while the 'Glaze' is still possible for me.