Summer Essential: The Folding Fan

I've adopted a summer policy this year that I'd like to share with you, dear friend. Buy a folding fan. Keep it in your purse - at all times. It will make you happy in the most uncomfortably hot situations and will no doubt add a little flavor to your summery style.

$12 from VintagePolkaDot.com

$9 from Saltsmansoap

$60 from leikokgirl

$20 from CutchicVintage

Now go get yourself a glass of lemonade. 

Hot town. Summer in the city.

Oh, Sartorialist, how you make the streets shine. I've loved this blog for just about as long as I've been living in New York City. Just when I feel the wind has gone out of my wardrobe and the shapes and colors don't seem to fit, I stumble back upon his magic. It all comes flowing back.

I'll not reprint his photo out of extraordinary respect for his unique lens and discerning eye but let's just say this lovely vintage lady struck my fancy and I realized, my goodness, she actually is wearing vintage. 

So, here my friends we don't have a contest, just a mission to recreate this endearing look that just might keep you cool on a warm summer eve. 

What goes better with summer than a yellow crop top? Maybe a yellow crop top and an ice cream cone. 

$14 from Calliope Girl

For the slightly less daring we'll go with a nice lavender hue. 

$16 from Bad Wolf Fashion in the UK

I wouldn't wear peach shorts with a yellow top - our lovely model has the right two toned look going on - but if you are daring you could go with red. 

$26.99 from La Petit Marmoset

However, the lavender would go quite nicely with a delicate peachy bottom like this one. 

$30 from Wear it Well Vintage

I'm sorry, did you say wooden wedge? Good, 'cause that's what I found. 

$79 from kenalone

**please buy these, they are too small for me and someone great should own them

Voilá, straw purse. Almost too easy. 

$40 from Dalarnalnvandringar

Every city girl needs one of these. 

$95 from Abby in France

Now you've got the look. Stay cool out there. 

Fuchia Maxi Skirt?

Yes, please. 

Reusing space...

A couple of weekends ago a very hip friend of mine decided to have his birthday celebration at the once illegal, now condoned Mr. Sunday dance party at the Gowanus Grove. It was right out of an episode of Girls and amidst the most impossibly cool of Brooklyn twenty and thirty-somethings I realized that reuse applies to spaces as well as objects.

You see the dance party takes place every Sunday afternoon and evening on a tree-filled abandoned lot on the very toxic Gowanus Canal. With a concrete slab for a dance floor and a makeshift lot of old pieces of wood and proper picnic tables for seating, the event makes due with little new inventions and a lot of what was there. With a little bit of paint on an old factory wall and the patchwork exteriors of ancient buildings and soaring water towers acting as decoration, this place is pure old school.

It is a really beautiful scene and something to check out, if you haven't made it by. It just might up your rep in the plaid army. It certainly did a number for mine.

Vintage swimwear, does a body good...

Happy fourth of July my friends. Goodness, what a great holiday. Long forgotten are the battles that got us here and forefront in our memories are lovely summer days full of beach sand, fruity cocktails and firework displays.

We are spending our fourth of July at the beach and whenever I think of the beach I think of Marilyn and her gorgeous figure. She was just so beautiful and feminine. There will never be another like her. I, myself, am what one might call a vintage-figured lady, on my better days I think of myself as having Betty Davis curves. While bathing suit shopping I more feel like a giant humpback whale.

That's why, when at Brimfield this spring, I decided to enter the unchartered world of vintage bathing suits and was lucky enough to score a 1950's Jansen hawaiian print with the tags still attached. That's right, I'm the proud owner of a 60 year-old unworn swim suit and she's making her first beach appearance today. So before you hit the racks at JCrew and spend your cash on an elasticy vintage-inspired suit that will start giving you that lovely saggy-crotch look by next summer, check out these oh, so lovely, oldies that are sure to give you a little bit of that Marilyn mystique. 

First off, this Etsy shop's logo is a bunny. Plus number one. Plus number two is this adorable colorful polka dot from a bygone era. I'd suggest this for any body type, it will definitely pull in your waist and give you that perfect hip-curve that I know you're looking for. 

$68 @ Shop at 851

Hello two-piece. This high waist puts aside your worries about tummy rolls and love handles hanging out and puts all of the focus on your décolletage. Love the white piping detail. 

$76 from Romantic Natalie

Everyone's got to have a red polka dotted swimsuit at one point in their life. This one would be perfect for the lady with a cute mid-section and a slight concern about the hip area. Also notice the well-structured support of the top. Love it. 

$98 from Melanie Peterson

Here's an adorable suit for someone who wants to actually cover up a bit. It is still sexy and stylish but doesn't give too much away. 

$95 from Les Vintage

I kind of love this and might buy it. The skinny-strap thing is super flattering and the shape of it is just right to keep the figure in check. It also has one of those super sexy plunging backs that I'm a sucker for. 

$25 from Chat Jolie

And the crowning glory of the search. Could it get better than this? There's the obvious sex appeal, the tummy tucking waist and the adorable ruffled tush. I'm a teensy bit obsessed yet scared away by the price. Someone purchase this beauty, please.

$198 from She's a Bette Boutique

Now get out there and make Ms. Monroe proud. Get your woman on ladies, show off your curves on the beach this summer. 

DISCLAIMER: When buying a vintage bathing suit, just remember that the fabric isn't going to have as much elastic as the suits you are used to. I was worried when I got mine, but the woman I purchased from (who seems to be old enough to have swam in the ocean around the time my bathing suit was constructed) assured me that they are salt-water safe and that they won't lose their shape. Just remember to take careful care when cleaning your new old suit. Hand wash in the sink with a gentle soap and hang it to dry. 

Vignettes make decorating easier...

Whenever I'm tasked with decorating a room, I break it into pieces and think of the pieces as relatives (sometimes they are sisters or brothers, sometimes cousins and even mothers and daughters and fathers and sons). To explain this in a more technical way, I mean I think of them as being separate pieces, with different personalities, which have the same DNA. 

Maybe that is still confusing. 

Let's just say every piece of every room in my house fits together but there's little rhyme or reason save for a lot of color matching and hue coordination. 

Take for example, this 1/3 of a wall in my bedroom, this is one of my favorite vignettes. This piece of art was painted by my great grandmother and I'm lucky enough to be the current safe-keeper of it. The hats are a small piece of my wide collection which I rarely wear but love to stare at (I do wear them, but not as much as I should). The straw number doesn't even fit my head and belonged to my husband's grandmother and the other two I purchased for a combined total of $10 from an antique store in my home town. 

Pick a color scheme, separate the room into pieces and move forward piece by piece. The decoration process might take a little longer to finish (or it may never be finished) but it is much easier to manage one relative at a time than to attempt to tackle a whole family.