Faking the Fringe

You probably didn't know that before there was a Quaintrelle Life blog, there was a Quaintrelle Life site! Blogs can be tough to brows when you are looking for a specific tutorial, how to, or feature, so I've been collecting and writing more in depth pieces over at quaintrellelife.com. Though left untouched for a while, a few months ago I gave the site a facelift ready to start updating again, and today the first new tutorial went up!

I have a long time love of Bettie bangs, i think they are just the right mix of retro sexy and retro cute. I don't however really have the hair to pull them off (they are always gappy and thin, yuck!)  and a also suffer greatly from commitment issues with hair (which you'll notice if you follow the link in a second...) So obviously I'm going to have to fake it if i want to enjoy the style! And fake it I do. It is possible to buy clip in bangs, but if you, like me have awkward colored hair, or are OCD about every tiny detail, then going DIY is the best option!

I made myself a set of clip in bangs in a Bettie page style, and now have a tutorial up on the QL website for anyone looking to do the same! making them is super easy to do, and because you'll have hair wefts left over, less expensive than buying a set pre-made (more tutorials for the left over hair weft to follow)

The clip ins are the secret of how I managed to get from this 1st style to the 2nd in 5 minutes instead of 5 months!

Try out the tutorial and start faking the fringe yourself!

Kanzashi Romance

I've been busy with kanzashi making the past few months, but trying not to spam up the blog too much with them. I love making the traditional geisha style kanzashi, and that's been building up into quite a collection! I also love the chance to do something a little more creative with designs as well.

I recently made up a batch inspired by vintage valentines cards and corsages for the shop perfect for valentines date outfits or valentines gifts. I made a decent name for myself back in the day making quirky kanzashi and loved trying some new things  out with these like making rose bouquets and pansies.

Also been adding little traditional mini monthly kanzashi for those interested in collecting a full calender of the flowers like me, without totally blowing the bank! 



Another thing I'm slowly working on is features on how to actually wear kanzashi since a lot of people seem to have fallen in love with them as objects over the years, but no-one seems to have much light to shed on how to use them! I started on the first steps to fixing that this week with some retro looking fashion plates featuring some of the kanzashi available in the shop worn in a 1930's inspired hair do.

Plans in the works for hairstyling tutorials to go with them too in the future. In the mean time if you are looking to buy some there are some rather nice (if I do say so myself ) traditional and retro designs in the Vivcore shop, and here are some kanzashi in action!

Quaintrelle Gifting

Quaintrelle do everything in style, even last minute gifting! For anyone looking for a last second holiday gift we have some new designs for patch boxes in at my online store, to go with our popular velvet flocked beauty spots. Little mirrored porcelain boxes with golden hinges just like the antique patch boxes of the 18th century. They were a popular gift in bygone days and make a lovely little gift in these modern times for vintage girls (and dandies too)

Our patches come in a selection of colors, and in a mix of shapes like  rounds, hearts, moons and stars, just like rococo court ladies, 1920's flappers and 1940s trend setters!

I'll be shipping any holiday order for these by noon tomorrow which still leaves time with priority mail.

Goldilocks

I have kinda crazy tastes, and sometimes that leads me to style awesome, and sometimes to style horror. A little obsession that's eating away at me right now that could fall either way is the 1920's bullion wig. I just can't decide if they are crazy cool or crazy bad.

I mean I remember wearing a tinsel wig in the 80's and that was decidedly crazy bad, but for special photoshoots, shows, events etc, the bullion flapper wig unusual super hit hit or terrible terrible miss?

Not sure what I'm taking about? It's these glittery beauties/beasts....

From Timeless Vixen Vintage

From Antique Dress

V&A Museum

 Sometimes referred to as wigs sometimes as cloches these unusual and distinctly 1920's headdresses are somewhere in the middle. The great Sydney Flapper on Livejournal was able to shed some light after landing both a bullion wig and article on the article from the seller! The 1922 newspaper clipping did indeed talk of them in terms of wigs so I guess wigs thy were? Made kind of like a hat with real metallic threads for hair they could actually be made from silver or gold!

I can't help but wonder though, with their style all puffed up once again (times seems to have been hard on most examples and flattened them out considerably) could they be strikingly cool and glitteringly deco and glam? I know I love them as art objects but are they equally lovable as fashion objects?

I've got a mad desire to make one, but hesitant about spending the $$$ on something that could be doomed to be a sparkle disaster from the get go, though undoubtedly the making journey would be an interesting one!

How do you guys feel about the bullion wig!? Bring it back or let go?

Michelle Harper

Rococo Pants

Vintage fashion, antique fashion, there have been so many things done so well over the course of fashion history. I find a lot of the time when I think about fashion history, there are things I love about each and every era, and there are some periods that just did things better than others!


For me when it comes to silhouette I love the 18th century. It was so stylized, blown up and just plain magnificent. A total over the top caricature of femininity. I love the high heaving bosoms, the massive wide hips and exaggerated round bottoms. It was a silhouette that was impractical, imposing and really kinda sexy! Of course what was spectacular on the outside was a little heavy handed underneath. Not without charm, but not quite as tactile and seductive as we think of lingerie today. Of course however it was these foundations that made the shape so great!

When it comes to underwear I have to tip my hat to the Edwardians. There was some hardcore foundations going on there, but the pallet and treatments really made them look so dainty and delicate, no mater how much strain and coutille was in action.  Edwardian society was where beauty in the boudoir really came into it's own. Having fancy drawers went from being indecent temptation to a moral obligation! To be so darn seductive your man would never want to stray! Obvious social flaws and insults aside there, I thank them for the laces pastels ribbons and roses under our dresses.

And that is why I'm always unapologetically anachronistic.

My every day is mid century fem, but I love to play with historical styles and clothes. I've got quite the personal collection of stays, hoops, rumps and naughty garters, and these days the odd client who loves them too!

I recently finished off some panniers for a great customer and friend who'd commissioned some updated stays a while back, and recently ordered some hoops to match through the custom service run through the Vivcore shop . 

latest commission

complete silk trousseau with embroidery and handmade flowers

show ensemble

My very first set from 2007

Obviously these aren't so much daily wear items. For everyday I wear my various girdles, crinolines and relativly plain silk corsets that keep sleek under clothes. I do love making this kind of things for shows, photoshoots and other foundation enthusiasts though when ever I get the chance. I'd love to work more with burlesque performers and photographers looking to do something rather grand, and brides who are looking to make a real splash with a matching trousseau of foundations, gown and accessories. I just love an excuse to cut up some steel and hand set some rhinestones!

Wig Curious

I've been wig curious for a while as a great way to get over a few of my hair hang ups (up keep of red, permanence of black, thin hair and commitment issues). I was however a little apprehensive about finding the right one, and feeling confident all wigged out in public.

My biggest hang up was looking too "costumey". I really didn't want a nice outfit to be ruined by a Halloween looking wig, so I started scouring reviews and sites to find something that fit the following criteria...

1. A nice natural looking fiber, nothing too shiny
2. Retro style or styleable
3. Blended colors
4. Cute colors!!
5. Ideally a nice natural looking top
6. Not to pricey since I wasn't sure me and wigs were going to be BFF's or not
7. No crimping. Some wigs have backcombed hair between wefts, I feel it makes my head look big

Amazingly enough I actually found a wig that met these criteria, and then some. The Eowyn wig from Arda. Now it might seem odd to some that when trying to avoid costumey, I went with a wig from a company specializing in cosplay, but the great thing about the top cosplay wig company is that, 1: Serious coslayers don't want to look Haloween costumey either, and 2: Cosplayers want to muck about with everything to get the details just right, and that means styling their wigs too!


The wig I bought is a maroon red, in a hyperlon fiber which has a little shine in a natural looking way, a nice feel and is heat stylable. It also has a large skin top so you can create a realistic looking center or side part. The fibers are a mix of rich wine red a few kind of browny, blondy colors which I think adds a kind of natural dimension that a flat single color wig just doesn't have.

Right out the bag I was really happy, but it wasn't quite pin up ready yet. Using some hair cutting scissors I cut in shorter, slightly U shaped bangs, then going with a center part cut the rest of the hair into a vintage appropriate U shape from the sides to the back. Set the hair with my large and medium hot rollers, and voila! A retro pin up style wig was revealed!

The extra bonus of these wigs by the way, is that apparently they can be dyed with Rit fabric dye, so you can mix up your own colors, or create some fun dip dye effects etc.

It took a while for me to wear it for it's first outing. The wig is quite bit larger and fuller than my real hair (one of the reasons I wanted it), and I wondered what separates the super star looking wig wearer from the awkward looking wig wearer? The conclusion, simply swagger! If you walk out like you own it people will notice your glamorous style.

I recently placed an order for a 2nd one in dark purple. I'm definitely a wig convert!

I love my new wig!

Japanese Retro

中原淳一 Junichi Nakahara

I started digging out an old favorite of mine from my closet this week. Tsumami kanzashi. These are pretty widely known these days, but back when I first got started with them there used to be only around 3 pages of google images if you searched in English. In fact, after I taught myself how to make them back in 2002, they were actually the first things I sold, and how my entire clothing label got it's start!

For those who don't know much about them, tsumami kanzashi are a traditional Japanese style of hair ornament made from folded silk. Some big, some small, all lovely! I actually have a pretty big collection of these pins, and found that vintage hair styles work really well with the them (especially 1940's hair)  these silk flowers are also a wonderful alternative to the regular flower clip we all love so much!


Even if you're faithful in your love of regular pin up flowers clips, you can bring in a little of that tsumami magic by matching your hair flowers to the ones you see blooming in the current season. Apprentice geisha pick theirs based on a calender of appropriate motifs for each month. Coordinating with the environment like this makes you look as fresh and precious as the flowers themselves.

Although I haven't sold kanzashi in a good few years, it's still possible to hunt them down, I especially love the ones made with fine silks and rice starch over the sewn ones a lot of crafters make these days. They are labor intensive to make, and certainly not cheap to buy, but certainly another option for true hair flower enthusiasts!

My kanzashi collection site Kanzashi❤core (in need of updating) has a ton of photos of this type of hair ornament, as well as a tutorial on how to make your own! I'm looking to get back into making them again and finishing off my seasonal kanzashi collection/calender. Dusting off these pretty old pins is giving me just the inspiration to do that!

Brooch Bouffant

If you collect vintage jewelry, you probably have more than a few vintage brooches constantly on hand> Now sure, the obvious place to put them is on a nice  frock, jacket or cardigan, but why not get a little more exciting and use them to decorate your vintage hairstyle too! A popular early 60's look, just perch it front of your bouffant or up do to add a little extra glitter a la Betty Draper in Rome.

The sparkle of a tiara and keeping retro without having to go all out princess!

You can just pin the brooch to the ponytail elastic, or you can follow this basic tutorial and turn your brooch into a hair ornament in it's own right!

(If you lack brooches there are some in the Vivcore shop)

Perfumed Court

If there is one place on earth synonymous with elegance and decadence, it's Versailles! So perhaps when looking for a perfume that exudes these things you can't go far wrong with the perfumes the players of versailles themselves would have worn!

The good people at Perfums des Beaux Arts have made this perfectly possible for us courtly pretenders with their "Perfumed Court" collection. Most of the fragrances are now sadly discontinued, but some gems still linger!

The scents are a little heavier than todays more modern fruity fragrances, but for the quaintrelle out of time, that can only really be a plus?

Eau de Trianon is the lightests of the bunch currently available. Created back in the day for Marie Antoinette when she was spending her days around her favorite little palace, you really feel like you should be skipping through the grounds of her favorite the Petit Trianon when you wear it. I have a small bottle of this one and it's a great way to play make believe just like she did! It's has a touch of innocence and a whole lot of queen!

Eau de Coquette is a rather sensual, but not overly heavy scent originally created for the infamous Madame DuBarry. Like her it's rather sexy, a little playful bu pure decadence. I love to dab this one on when I'm running around on an evening dripping in diamonds real or faked, just like my favorite face from the Versailles roster!

Quick Pin Up Fix!

This time of year is about as hectic as it get's for me, working in the wonderful world of handmade retail over the holiday season means I pretty much eat, drink tea, work, and sleep from Thanksgiving through Xmas. On top of that we've had a lot of travel the past few months making a busy time even crazier!

A girl can get tired of looking at her worn out face in the mirror at times like these, and that's when you need a nice fast easy glamour fix that won't eat into your work time! For me that fix is the good old faux bumper bang. It takes seconds, looks pin up fab, and requires very little prep!

To get the look all you need is:

• 3 bobby pins
• A splash of water
• Hair spray
• 1 min extra time before bed!

The Styling:

1. The night before separate out a small section in the front you want to curl into your bangs.
2. Dampen the section with a bit of water
3. Put the section in 3 (maybe more if you're blessed with thick hair) standing pin curls.
4. A fast way to do these is to roll your hair around a smooth tube (I use a Besame lip gloss) slip the "tube" out and pin with a bobby pin so it sits as if it had a roller in it.
5. Wake up!
6. Take out the bobby pins
7. Gently brush the curls over your hand and roll up under itself
8. Arrange the bangs to suit your face
9. Spray with liberal amounts of hair spray

Leave the rest of your hair down, throw it in a ponytail, do whatever! The whole thing including setting your hair the evening before takes less than 5 minutes, but you'll look like you had time dress up even if you didn't!

It's also a pretty fun way to play with bangs without having to make the commitment of cutting them in.

Usually it comes out much fuller, but the day you set up to take photos is always the day things fall a little flat.

Don't Fear The (hair) Reaper

If there is one thing the vintage community loves, it's hairstyling. I know I probably spend more time thinking about how I'll style my hair each day than what clothes I'm going to wear! Part of the reason is because a new hair style is free, and always on hand, so if I ever feel bored, all it takes is a few bobby pins to make something new!

As a result a I sometimes fear that less length means less options. The constant pull on the other side of that is when I see just how many of my favorite classic film stars and models were sporting short locks (even Veronica Lake cut off her famous long tresses)

I recently went in the shorter hair direction, and am having so much more fun with it! So for any girls (or guys) out there who have been tempted by a drastic change here's a post to help you take the plunge!

last week I had a good 5" cut off, and took my hair from long middle of my back length, to just sitting at my shoulders length. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do as much with it any more, but turns out it's been no problem at all. I can still do a nice set of victory rolls and bumper bangs (my favorite vintage elements), and so many new things I couldn't before. In fact I haven't lost single style from my repertoire, only gained new ones!

I made a small list of things to think about before doing something a little drastic...

1. Hair will grow back. After a few months you'll be back where you started any way.
2. What do you really like doing with your hair right now, and could you do that if it were shorter?
3. What would you like to do with your hair you can't now but could after a cut?
4. If you are already unhappy with your hair, and end up not exactly in love with the new one your still in the same situation! Nothing to lose!
5. Would it requite a lot of maintenance? Try keeping up with any curl sets etc beforehand to see if it will be too much upkeep to maintain the style you want.

I know it's a real girl cliche, but a bad hair day (or period) can bring down your mood, but just as easy a hair change can be a real boost. It's like seeing a whole new you looking back.

So if you're thinking about bangs, going shorter etc but just feeling a little to scared, I hope this helps take away some of the worry and that you too might find yourself enjoying a brand new style! ( Lisa Freemont Street recently went shorter too, so hopefully there'll be lots of hairstyling tips coming from her for shorter hair)

Here are some of my shorter hairspiration favorites...

 

Sunday Best: Bouffant Zoo

Today's Sunday best is once again brought to you by my early 60's style hair piece adventures. I think I got a little closer to that Mad Men Joan Holloway hair, but still haven't had chance to actually set my hair in curls to really do it justice.

Outfit Rundown:
Dress: Day Trip Sundress
Shoes: Miu Miu Teacup Shoes
Accessories: Society Pearls in coral and white, and my favorite handmade elastic belt!
Hair: soft wave hair piece turned under into a bouffant ponytail, and blended with curled rolls (tutorial to follow on how I get all my rolls and curls in my stick straight hair without a single hot iron or roller set!)

Sunday Best: Classic Curls

Started experimenting more with different hairstyles lately. This one was actually a rush job using my new hair piece! I'll hopefully have time to do something a bit more sleek and stylish next time, but still loving this thing!

Outfit Rundown:

point of style: Curls!
Dress: Sage Green Pinstripe shirtwaist
Jewelry: vintage pearls, vintage mink brooch
Shoes: Kurt Geiger
Hair: new hair piece and simple rolls to blend
Lipstick: Besame Coral

Big Hair Hopes

I'm a very fine haired girl with big hair dreams! For so long now I have lusted after Joan Holloway hair, and whilst I'm not ready to go red head yet (so much up keep!) I did want to go big!

Now the good news for my fellow fine haired girls is that back in the early 60's the volume was often helped along with the addition of extra hair, rats and falls. Browsing the web the other day I ran into a neat 60's hair piece and was inspired to make my own for that Holloway hair!

60's Hair Piece

A few years ago I made a couple of falls out of human hair to get some nice big puffy pigtails, and this week I re-dyed one and styled it up to hopefully match the 60's originals.

From the photos it looks pretty close. To wear the plan is to put a little bit of my hair up in a bun and pin the piece over the top, then curl the rest of my hair and bobby pin the curls up around my little pre-prepared pouf!

My hair helper

I used to love using things like this because it not only helps with hair envy and finally being able to get the looks i want, but also because they are typically a snap to use! The hair style always looks like it took hours, but in fact it usually only takes 5 minutes or so to complete since the heavy lifting is done ahead of time.

I'm looking forward to practicing a few styles with this fella, and hope to be able to write up a tutorial on how to make and use them for any one else out there interested in early 60's hair, or just pumping up their fine hair.

In the meantime I'm going to get back to work, but more on this topic soon!

Brassed Off!

Yellow blond before, cool blond after.

I stay on top of my hair color pretty well, so I've never had a good way to photograph one of my favorite hair products before until now. I know a lot of blonds can have a hard time keeping their platinum tresses from turning to brass, so here's my little secret! Aveda's Blue Malva.

It's a colored conditioner with a pretty potent purple pigment in it. Kind of like Manic Panic's Virgin Snow dye the lilac toned neutralize the brassy yellows for a nice cool blonde. I've used a few different conditioners like this one such as John Freda's, but liked this best because it made my hair softer, and seems to have quite a bit more pigment in it.

I was originally put off by it because it is a little pricey, but the nice thing I found is because it's so strong I don't need to use it every day, in fact I tend to only use it once or maybe twice a week tops, usually if I'm taking a long shower, so one bottle usually lasts me about 2 months or there about.

Yesterday I pulled out some old hair pieces I made a while back, and used the Blue Malva to tone one of the pieces to match my current hair (or a bit closer, the wefts I used were darker than my current hair), so you can see the difference! (both pieces are from the same weft only one hasn't been conditioned, the other has) I don't do a lot of product reviews but after seeing my 2 hair pieces side by side I thought it might be useful for any other blondes out the fighting the brass!

So there you go, for all the people who have asked in the past how i get my hair the color it usually is, that's how!

We Can Do It!

My Hair is feeling a little sorry for itself lately, so I'm trying to lay off the hot rollers for a while, which for me of course means either dead straight hair or the wet set.

Curlers are a big faux pas, we all know it, pin curls are something of a faux pas too whilst they are setting, but sometimes a girl just needs a nice wet set, and has things to do!


Today I decided to take a desperate plunge before heading out to the fabric store and post office and Rosied up hair so I could get the job done and still have bouncy curls for tonight and the weekend.


I figured the best way to go was to really sell it as a fashion statement! With a scrubbed face it was all too Nora Batty, but I figured perhaps with a comfy period appropriate day dress and some red lips and eyeliner maybe I could sell it as a bold style choice, and get my work done nice and easy. I mean it worked in the 40's right?


The result... compliments for the ladies at the store! Might not be a look I'd rock if I was going out to lunch with ladies who do that but for a day on the job followed by a glamorous evening, grandma knew best! Sunday Best worthy? Not so much, but it might be a way to get those wet sets setting when we've got things to do.

I'm sure it'll all be worth it when the pin curls come out!

Adventures in Perfume Pt2

Continuing on my adventures in quaintrelle worthy perfumes I thought I should give a big nod to one of my favorite perfumers based out of good old San Fransisco! A while back I splashed out on a sample set off all the fragrances created by La Bouquetiere (about 23 in all) I'd been drawn in by the companies beautiful artwork and the vintagey sound of a lot of their fragrances. Their perfumes are nice and "uncluttered" smelling, and again no strange synthetic smells hiding in the ones I've tried.

My favorite 3 so fave have been...

1. "Muguet" a lovely clean lily if the valley perfume which honestly smells just like spring to me. 
2. "Embrasse Moi" which is ultra feminine and full of roses, this one really appeals to the vintage girl in me, I always feel like a 1930's socialite in it! 
3. "Violette de Paris" is my other stand out love from the bunch. it's based on an old 15th century recipe and is a nice violet scent that isn't at all cloying like others can be

So far I've tried the body creams (the form the sample set came in) and the roll on perfume which I adore. Sprays can be really unpredictable to me, one morning you get a quick spritz and smell subtle and alluring, the next day it comes out like a geyser and so strong you nearly knock yourself out with it! The roll on I've found easy to control, the other upside is it's relatively affordable and small enough that you can hope to get through it before it dies, and still have room for a few other fragrances to play with at the same time! Next time I'm feeling saucy I really want to try the rice powder with the 1900's powder puff, it looks absolute boudoir perfection!!!

I'm excited to see what I'm able to dig up next on the perfume adventure.