Happy Holidays!

Got a thermos of tea brewed, so I'm packing my dresses and lipsticks, saying farewell to my cats and we're heading out to my in laws for the holidays!

I hope every one has a great Christmas, and a happy New Year!

See you all again in January!!!!

All a Flutter

Queen Victoria's Jenny Lind Fan

We all know the teasing beauty of the Sally Rand fan, huge drooping feathers that hide and reveal at the whim of the burlesque star! But before a fan of feathers received this ladies name, a fan of "feathers" received the name of a mid nineteenth century ladies name!

Named after the famous mind nineteenth century opera singer Jenny Lind (the Swedish nightingale) the Jenny Lind fan is made up of "feathers" sometimes real, more often of silk which form a smooth flat leaf over the sticks. It's always been one of my favorite styles because it's so unusual, and I love the way the uniform shapes open up like a rockettes kick line!


My Jenny Lind is somewhat larger than the originals, kind of an 1860's meets the 1900's, but to me that gives it something of the charm of the originals, with the added impact of later fans. There's over 2000 sequins hand embroidered on to it and it flutters like a dream!

Today we tend to think of hand fans as being small, about 8" long when closed, but for the 18th century, and much of the late 19th-early 20th century they were big! The point was display so they were the kind of size that made an impact, about 10-13" long when closed. I love a nice big fan, the movements always look more elegant and deliberate, and they have that great "hide and reveal" aspect of the Sally Rand to some degree that adds a little bit of mystery to them too.

Today I'm opening up a custom salon in the atelier section of Candy Violet! We're now taking orders for custom clothing, accessories, and of course fans! I'd love to get some fans into the wardrobes and hands of today's coquettes and quaintrelle. We'll be designing and making custom fans to fit any style, era, even costume or dress, special to each individual order.

I'd love to collaborate with any performers and pin ups and bring a real variety of fan to the scene today as well as costume and accessories, so please pass on our name if you can think of anyone who might be interested!

For right now though I leave you with the lovely Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind....

Lipstick Holder!

In my current search for all things vanity lately, I ran into the concept of the lipstick holder! These pretty little vanity table pieces come in all shapes, sizes and materials, and are a great way for a gal to organize her lipstick collection (and what quaintrelle doesn't need a bit of that?)

I' had been looking around to see what kind of styles they came in, and was just about sold on a gold bar affair with cupids on it (understated I know) when an even more unusual one turned up in the shape of a tulip. I put it on the back-burner looking for what else might be out there when along came a second one, this time a little shinier than the 1st. I opened the page and found this super glitzy tulip lipstick holder used to belong to non other than Hollywood legend Lana Turner! I'll admit I wasn't quite ready to drop the $130 for the Lana Turner estate lipstick holder, but did get lucky enough to snag one exactly the same, just showing it's age a little more, for a song.

The 2nd one I jumped on is currently sitting on my vanity with my favorite 3 lipsticks in it for easy use! I love the style and it really is a great way to keep those tubes in check! Plus it's kinda nice to know that once upon a time a Hollywood great was pulling her lipsticks out of a holder just like it.

I'm still looking to add a few more to my vanity collection, so I'm sure there'll be more on here later. The thing I love about this one though is that the tulips are kind of flexible, so they can hold the newer larger lipsticks as well as the good old fashioned Besame style smalls these things were originally designed to hold. I'll let you know how any future holders take to my bigger lipsticks when I get them!

A Love/Hate Affair

Have you ever noticed when you pick up a new album there are a few songs you love instantly, and a couple you either hate, or just think are a bit "eh", but then after time end up loving the most and loving them forever? I find myself the same way with style periods. I used to think the "romantic era" was dumbest period of fashion EVER! But something happened and now it's one of my favorites.

The same thing with vintage fashion. My personal rule is once hats and gloves cease being the norm, then it's all just too modern for me. Out of the "styles before gloves vanished" I used to kinda find the late 50's/early 60's styles borderline to disliked till recently...

I don't know why but lately I've been loving a bit of late 50's/early 60's style (maybe Madmen madness has struck me too?) I kinda like how everything is a little bigger, brighter and super feminine. It all seems really playful, still smart and a formal, but with a little bit of girlyness.

Over the weekend I took my silver brocade cocktail dress out for a spin with a full parure of paste gems, and big up swept hair. It felt great to wear and very "me" somehow. I don't know maybe as much as I love the serious 40's styles and admire those elegant 1930's sylphs I was just born to be a bouffant and bright pink lips kinda girl? We shall see!

One thing for sure, I'm on the hunt for some polka dot gloves and bigger lashes in the mean time! ♥

What about you guys? Do you always stay faithful to one particular period or like to play around? Are there styles you used to hate but came to love? I'd love to read more about every one elses love affairs with fashion of the past!

8 Year Anniversary

Yesterday was Dusty's and my 8 year wedding anniversary! Every year we try go out for one crazy meal to celebrate, and this year he took me out to Cityzen at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington DC, We got a nice quiet table, and spent a whole evening being brought tiny but insanely delicious food, including a 3 course dessert! I always feel lucky that we're both just as excited this day of the year as the day we got married.

It was nice being a December bride, because each anniversary we can look to the new year together  and hope that it will continue to be even better than the last one.

Vintage In My Supermarket!

Red is the color we most often associate with vintage fashion, but sometimes it's nice to shake it up with something a bit different. I find a good orange or pink a fun departure from fire engine red when it's time for a change. The other day I struck lucky on all color counts, and at the grocery store of all places!

I was out food shopping, and got stopped in my tracks by a rather bright vintage looking Jessica Biel, mimicking a 1952 photo of Dorian Leigh just next to her. Kinda like a magpie I was drawn right in (food stuffs be damned!)

It was the display for Revlon's re-launch of it's Fire and Ice red color which was super popular in the 50's along with 3 other retrorific shades! The collection has 4 lipsticks and 4 nail polishes. To add a little extra vintage charm they even went back to the old 50's script for the branding on the cases!


I picked up a couple of the nail polishes. Since I already have a few great reds, and a lovely muted pink (seen in an earlier post), I just got the Siren (orangy color) and Temptress (fuchsia) colors.  The bottles look super cute on my vintage style vanity, and the colors are a nice cream finish which is perfect for a retro manicure!

So far I haven't caved in on the lipsticks because the nail polishes go great with my Besame lipsticks in Carmine and Exotic Pink (now discontinued but we still have a few over at Candy Violet). I'm something of a Besame devote so it would take a lot to tear me away from them.

The Fire and Ice relaunch was a  few weeks back, but since I'm not a big cosmetics shopper it was news to me!