A bit steamy..

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Who remembers the Railway Children?
One of my most vivid childhood terrors is of a steam train barrelling through a tunnel where I am hiding, or running me over whilst I am tied to the tracks.
Never mind that steam trains died out well before I was born – these fears lingered thanks to Penelope Pitstop and the like.

Now I am a vintage girl I appreciate the merits of a steam train. First and foremost of course it is a dress up opportunity.
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I chose a bit of a mash up of 1930s and 40s.. An original brown 1930s eyelet dress and brown hat with a vintage opshopped cardy, very old crochet gloves and my vanity train case.
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The Steam train in question is at Paekakariki, a little North of Wellington, and today was their open day.
Built in 1910 it is regularly taken out for excursions and its carriages are in pristine condition.

I went with my friend James. He is a vintage geek too – but for boy things, so was in seventh heaven, going on about lathes and bandsaws and all kinds of things. To be honest, I just wanted to soak in the prettiness and pretend I was catching a train to see my sweetheart.

So much geeky fun. And a cheap day out!
I am super keen to take the train to Art Deco weekend in February – this is the train that goes up.
I did mention to the lady working on it that I would have to take at least 5 suitcases – which she helpfully told me was fine – they have a luggage carriage.
Sorted then!

A Magazine Editor? Me?

So somehow, a little while ago, I became a magazine editor.
Luckily I didn’t have to bear the shock of this alone – as my two friends are in the same boat.
We have learnt many and varied things:
That you can run a magazine almost entirely over facebook, with a few face to face breakfast meetings thrown in once an issue.
That only one editor can have a nervous breakdown at a time.
That poor designers don’t respond well to 3 screeching females on the morning of a deadline.
But most importantly we have learnt how generous and resourceful a community can be.
Glory Days Vintage Lifestyle Magazine is written mostly by contributors throughout the country. All of them have an interest in some part of the vintage lifestyle and each and every one of them have put in hours of work, voluntarily, for the sake of the magazine.
We have been so lucky to find such talented writers, photographers and designers. As editors our job is easy, a bit of organisation here, some marketing there, and almost like magic each 3 months a magazine appears out of the ether.
Another thing we have learnt is that there is no shortage of stories. They just keep coming. It seems like every time you tell a person that you have a vintage lifestyle magazine, another story comes out. Somebodies grandmother was a WW2 pin up, another’s a model in the 1960’s. You find a vintage printer complete with printing press from the 1890s, or a man who makes his flatmate have dinner with complete Victorian place settings.
It is amazing that whatever you put your mind to you can manifest, and that whatever you say you are you become.
A magazine editor? Who would have thought. But I am, and I love it. It feels like I am helping fashion a community out of a wacky group of people. We have known about some of us previously but the revelation that there are a whole HEAP of us oddbods out there with a penchant for the past has been a revelation.
It’s not like a dry history lesson but more that the past comes to life through what everyone is doing.
I feel this very strongly when I am doing a vintage styling. It feels like a ghost saunters up and whispers in my ear,” a little less eyeshadow and go easy on the blush there missy.”
I’m sure that the World War Two reenactors get the same feeling when they set up their tents in a local park, and so does the Dreamstress when she is sewing up her stays.
Maybe it’s that we all want to be remembered and by remembering who and what went before we are trying to manifest this wish. Or maybe it’s that when we look to the past we see some long lost glamour and intrigue.
But regardless of why we do it, we have a story, and Glory Days is dedicated to telling that story. We will hunt that story down and not let it go until we have emptied it of all its hidden secrets.
If you have an interesting story please email me at editors@glorydaysmagazine.com
I promise we will treat it well!
www.glorydaysmagazine.com

Burlesque Babes

Showgirls are wonderful. There is nothing more beautiful than the female form artfully covered up with feathers, rhinestones and glitter.
And of course all of the above make for amazing photos.
So Jenn Hadley and myself teamed up with Miss La Belle to run a “Burlesque Babes” photoshoot.
Designed for new showgirls to practise getting their game on for the camera and to start their career with some great photos.
We turned St Andrews on the Terrace conference centre into a jewel encrusted den of iniquity. The poor toastmasters were having a meeting next door, and were quite intrigued by our door sign and screams of laughter. It was all very irreverent but oh so much fun.
The best thing about photoshoots is the mix of people. Because we aimed for new dancers we had a few girls who are not that used to getting their kit off for the camera. It is so lovely to see these girls slowly warm up, they get their hair and makeup on – confidence building as they see how beautiful they look, then they watch other women – of all shapes and sizes prance around in a few wisps of material and the odd pasty or two.
Then it is their turn in front of the camera. Enter Miss La Belle.
Grace, for those that don’t know her is one of the most inspirational people in the Burlesque scene in New Zealand. I have had the pleasure of working with her for a few years now, and I can honestly say that she tops them all. She brings something to photoshoots that is impossible to replicate.
She has a way of making women feel instantly comfortable. She finds their sexy and brings it back, coaxing them into the most unimaginably uncomfortable positions, whilst making them laugh, then look like sex kittens, then laugh again.
If you can feel comfortable with your body in front of the camera you can start to feel comfortable in your body throughout your life, this is the true magic of Burlesque.
Once you are instructed by Grace, you will never forget. Her quote for today “ When you are getting false eyelashes on look at Claire’s crotch”.
The other fantastic thing about photoshoots, particularly Burlesque ones, is that I can push my styling to its zenith – creating dramatic looks and movie star hairstyles. In the immortal words of Amy Jansen Leen “more is more”.
This is something that I am getting better at. My natural tendency is the purist vintage look, easy on the eyes, and all about the lips. But as Max Factor knew, the camera needs lots of help, so I am pushing myself to up the dramatic. To this end I am attending a class by Ellie Kat this week, how to apply drag queen makeup.

As you can see from the photos we had so much fun. It was like a big girly pajama party, with lots of opportunities to ham it up in front of the camera.
If you are interested in our next shoot please contact us at book@jennhadleyphotography.co.nz

Living The Dream

A somewhat tongue in cheek title, as living the dream is mostly figuring out how to survive on baked beans and how to capture at least 10 minutes downtime per day.
But I am doing it… I am a self employed vintage stylist.
Slash magazine editor
Slash distributor and owner of a skincare brand.

Granted, if it wasn’t for my few nursing shifts per fortnight I wouldn’t even be eating baked beans, and living the dream would entail a cardboard box under a bridge, but I am hoping to be able to scale those shifts down in the not so distant future.
So my self employed life….
Is a little bit mad, a little bit frantic and a whole lot of fun.
Take last weekend for instance.
Wellington was hit by a terrible storm on Thursday, and the tail end of it meant freezing temperatures and torrential downpours.
Cue me, getting up at 7 am to set up stall at a local market (luckily in a covered carpark) with freshly set hair.
Strangely enough there were people around, and I had lots of fun trying makeup on people and swapping lipstick for fingerless gloves. At one point there was some coffee for whiskey trades going on also..
I put the call out for warm socks and two knights in shining armour arrived bearing socks, bananas and a dog to keep me company.
I did decide that it is much easier to be a vintage girl in the summer, but it did build a feeling of community amongst the freezing stall holders.

Straight after the market I headed to a styling session for Miss La Belle’s Frolic lounge girls.
What a bunch of lovely, beautiful ladies. Particularly inspiring was LaFemme Fantail – who described through her burlesque routine her fight with cancer. She required a hairdo that would sit under her chemo hat and look wonderful when it was pulled off – revealing LaFemme in all her 30’s inspired glamour.

This is what Miss La Belles’ Burlesque is all about – women finding their power and beauty in the face of adversity and celebrating all of it.
To finish off the day I threw on a pair of heels, a killer 60s dress, fashioned a 5 minute beehive and headed off to an engagement party.
I remembered that apart from a banana I had not eaten since 8 am, which meant of course good old dirty Maccas.
In my car, on the waterfront in high winds, wearing elbow length gloves as it was too cold to take them off and spilling sauce all down the front of my fur coat.
I’m all class.

Not that Austin Powers was complaining.

Rain Rain Go Away..I just set my hair today

Wellington had a storm last week, it was wild, and the tail end of it meant torrential downpours and high winds.

Now I know some people had roofs missing, and banks of dirt falling on their car, but I had problems too.

I had to run around in the rain with my newly set hair. I am a straight haired girl, so just a hint of damp and my curls give up the ghost.

I was woefully unprepared as usual, all my lovely warm winter coats are hoodless, and I can never find an umbrella when I need one, my solution was a plastic bag over my head.

With my mothers words about dying of suffocation I fashioned a crude rain bonnet out of a plastic bag and ran the gauntlet of the points and stares.

That is vintage dedication for you.

So I thought I would contemplate a vintage girls options for dry hair and outfits..

First the good old raincoat..

All well and good if you dont care about style, I was thinking more along the lines of..

Matching gloves, umbrella and hat, so stylish.

However it doesnt solve the hair issue so well, especially seeing as an umbrella in Wellington is not the best of ideas, unless you have flying lessons.

So I think this is the best solution..
Good old fashioned rain bonnets – just like my nana used to keep in her pocket.

There is a fantastic company in the UK – http://www.bubblebetty.com that seem to be single handedly bringing back the rain bonnet.
I think I may invest in this pretty little number.
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What is your secret to keeping your set dry?

Will the real Queenie May please stand up?

After a few months of persistent sleuth work my mother has chipped away at the mystery of the real Queenie May.

At first she was more interested in the fact our family used to own a pub and other such trivialities, but I have convinced her that our wayward great aunt makes much better copy!

Queenie’s grandson got in touch with mum a while ago saying he had a photo to send. I tried not to get my hopes up, thinking it would be one of those awful grumpy looking family portraits, but no..

My showpony aunt didnt let me down! This amazing saucy picture arrived, along with one of her sister Daisy.

But the plot thickens.. it turns out that her stage name was in fact  May Fansette.

It also turns out there are skeletons in her closet – her husband was also in showbusiness and they left their son to be brought up by family.

Needless to say mum and I will be doing some more detective work so I can compile a proper biography of sorts.

I will keep you posted!

Christmas in the 1930’s

The 1930’s were an exciting time for christmas.. even though it was the depression it appears that a lot of what we come to know as our favourite christmas traditions had their beginnings in this decade.

Starting with the christmas tree –

 Wikipedia states that “Americans were  enamored with the floor to ceiling tree. Tree farms grew during this decade and live trees gained in popularity. In order to revive the feather tree, they were now sold in a variety of colors, including pink, blue, purple, and orange.”

“In the 1930’s , common Christmas tree decorations included bells, balls, and tinsel, and with a beautiful golden haired angel at the top. Commercial Christmas ornaments took off in America when F.W. Woolworth, of five-and-dime store fame reluctantly began selling German glass ornaments and they sold out in two days. That convinced him and he began his buying trips to Germany. Translucent plastic shapes, honeycomb paper angels, and glow-in-the-dark icicles became popular items.”

However at the same time the practise of using real candles on the tree became a safety hazard and people were warned against them – or other flammable ornaments.

Be careful little boy!

Two christmas songs that we love so much were written in 1934:

“Santa Claus is coming to town” and “Winter Wonderland”.

And the great time honoured tradition of leaving cookies out for santa began in this decade also.

AND..  Santa still smoked cigarettes.

Those were the days.

 

My new babies..all grown up

I have not been on here for a little while.

Because my life has been engulfed by the conception, development and birth of these babies..

Seriously it is just like having children.

Firstly you have the bright idea – it all seems so simple, so straightforward.

You gather together all that you need. Start off all optimistic.

Then it hits you.. This is going to be a LOT more work than I thought, things go a little wrong, you work through those things, more things happen.

Then one day.. there they are, all grown up.

You have to let them out into the world. But what if someone doesnt like them? what if they fail? What if they bring shame to your name?

But you have to let them go anyway.

But it’s all worth it, you know you have done the best you can.

So enough of the analogy’s (can you tell I have a teenager soon to leave home??)

Check out my babies at www.queeniemay.com

They are good old fashioned skincare products – Cold Cream and Vanishing Cream, but 100% natural and made in little old New Zealand, to a recipe from the 1930’s.

The Western Hero

Western movies are my new addiction.

It started when my son and I needed a new weekly fix – to share together.

I get the vintage, he gets the shoot em up action.

I have worked my way through John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, James Stewart (actually he deserves his very own blog post) and then I discovered Audie Murphy. The ridiculously handsome understated Audie Murphy.

Needless to say I developed a bit of a crush. There is just something unusual about his demeanour. He was not the same cut as the manly, rough diamond types such as John and Clint.

As I  do when I have a crush I decided to find out a little bit more about this cowboy.

I was astounded to discover that Audie was a remarkable man, I would even go so far as to say he was maybe the most remarkable man ever to grace the Hollywood screen.

So here is the Audie Murphy lifestory..

Audie was born in 1924, one of 9 children.

His father abandoned the family when he was 12, at which point he left school to work in the cottonfields to support his family. His mother dies just before his 16th birthday, and faced with the prospect of not being able to support his siblings he had to place them in an orphanage.

At the same time Pearl Harbour was bombed and Audie tried to sign up. After being turned down initially for being underage undetered he lied on his application and applied again.

This time he was succesful and was quickly sent overseas into combat.

To say he was a good soldier would be a huge understatement. He was (and still is) the most decorated soldier in the United States.  His military excapades read like some Steven Spielberg movie. Case in point..

His best friend was killed in action in a “machine gun nest”. Audie jumped up and wiped out the entire German machine gun crew singlehandedly then used the guns to destroy nearby enemy postions.

He  was awarded 33 U.S. decorations and medals, five medals from France, and one from Belgium.He received every U.S. decoration for valor available to Army ground personnel at the time.  He earned the Silver Star twice in three days, two Bronze Star Medals, three Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Medal of Honor.

Needless to say he earned a place on the cover of Life magazine.

It did help that he was as I said previously ridiculously handsome!

This magazine caught the eye of James Cagney. He obviously saw the cowboy potential of our young hero and invited him to Hollywood.

Audie was a slow burner in the Hollywood scene but he did end up earning some critical acclaim and lots of money.  He was best known for his cowboy movies, and the biographical movie “To Hell and Back”.

He was my hero however because he became a spokesperson for mental health issues. He suffered severe post traumatic stress disorder and was outspoken in his bid for mental health support for returned servicemen.

He married had two children and also managed somehow to be a country and western songwriter.

Just to flesh out the interest factor – he was a chronic gambler and wasted most of his fortune and was charged with intent to commit murder for his part in a backyard brawl.

Very sadly Audie died way to young.

Aged 46 he was killed when the private plane he was on crashed.

Audie Murphy.. For many different reasons you were an amazing man, even though I am a committed pacifist and I wish that the world and your children had had you a little longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My very first styling video!

Setting Pattern for Vintage Hairstyles

This is The Vanity Case’s very first vintage styling video!

“Setting Pattern for Vintage Hairstyles”

I apologise for the lack of finesse  – I am on a steeeeeeeeep techie learning curve but have no doubt that i can only get better from here!

If you have any requests or helpful suggestions please speak up!