I’ve been waiting for the perfect day to wear this 1940′s styled, vintage inspired dress by Trashy Diva. The Sadie dress really gets it right. A light cotton blend with a strong green background and delightful floral print, all with a waterfall of tiered ruffles across one hip. Sadly, Melbourne’s weather has not been playing ball this last month, alternating between cold and hailing then hot as hell the next; neither of which you’d want to be outside in. So yesterday, when the weather man predicted a delightful day, I made plans to meet a friend for breakfast on the streets of Melbourne and knew it was time to take Sadie on an outing.

Given the strong 1940′s style of the dress, I wanted to style the look with a more modern for the day, and so I anchored the light floaty fabric with a chunky hot pink suede wedge heel. With unstructured hair and a silver sequinned bag, it was perfect for a stroll in the morning sunlight, while the breeze carried the heady scent of chocolate brioche our way.

Outfit Details

Vintage Style Sadie Dress – by Trashy Diva and available in Australia from Miskonduct Klothing

Pink wedge shoes – Tony Bianco

Silver sequinned bag – unknown label and origin (picked it up at Camberwell market)

Beaded ring – handmade market find

Floral clay and ribbon earrings – Crystal Dollies hand made accessories

Diamonte crystal bangle – Chomel

Lip colour – “Frosty Berry” by Savvy @Priceline

Nail colour – “That’s my little secret” no.215 by Misa

* All original images by Helen McLean for Super Kawaii Mama.com – Images may be reproduced with appropriate permissions. Feel free to add to Pinterest etc.. with linking credits.* 

~Daily Outfit Inspirations~

~Sophia Loren & Guess Jeans~

When it comes to high voltage casual looks, no one does it better than the classic hollywood bombshell. And nothing captures this look better for me than the iconic Sophia Loren.  When I started thinking about what I wanted to wear for today’s date to the playground with my daughter and my girlfriend, I turned to Ms Loren for a bit of inspiration – vamping up the look with some killer cats eye makeup. It was once I’d actually dressed and looked in the mirror I was drawn by the parallel between the classic Loren look and the gorgeous Guess Jeans campaigns.  This wasn’t a tricky look to achieve by any means, and was perfectly practical for a day spent in a seaside park, eating burgers and playing on the grass.

Outfit Details

Gingham western shirt with pearl snaps – Harris Scarfe

Denim stretch capri jeans – Bernie Dexter

Lucky Horseshoe necklace – Etsy

Rope soled wedges – Target (years ago)

Carved scrimshaw style bangle – Diva

Eye makeup – Inspired by Sophia Loren and a new tutorial coming soon!! (Currently in editing)

* All original images by Helen McLean for Super Kawaii Mama.com – Images may be reproduced with appropriate permissions. Feel free to add to Pinterest etc.. with linking credits.*  

Yes this is a bit special. The story goes like this..

My lovely girlfriend Bernie Dexter, who aside from being a stunning pinup model, is also a cracking designer of vintage inspired fashion. You’ve seen me wear a number of things from her ranges before; including cute 50′s capri pants and retro dungaree jeans. But just before I took off for Thailand, she sent me this STUNNING water lilly dress from her latest range! It is made of a mid weight cotton with a rear zip and a tie up halter neck.  The bust is a gathered inset section and the print is a “water” print, in that it looks like blue ripples on a lake. The skirt of the dress is lovely and full so it is perfectly cool for hot summer days and just delightful in these tropical surrounds.

Anyway, when I knew I was heading to Thailand I promised her I’d take a few special outfits appreciation shots of this fantastic dress. Little did I know that the resort I would be staying at actually had a water lilly pond! Serendipity if you ask me.  So I paired the dress with an inexpensive pink rose clip I found at a roadside stall, and a cute pair of floral print wedges I’d bought for the trip ( super cheap at $29 from Betts). What I adore so much about Bernie’s dresses is that not only is the fit incredibly flattering on a range of figure types, you really don’t need to accessorise at all. Just pop a dress on and you’re good to go.

All of the fabrics she chooses have such interest and movement in the print, that they speak for themselves.  These are not bad mood dresses, they are not high maintenance dresses (I wash mine in a wash bag on delicate in the machine). What they represent to me is the very best of what everyday fashion is relearning from the 1950′s. That a simple cotton dress, well made with femininity in mind, is the one step solution to a glamorous day.

The good news for my Australian readers is that thanks to a little girly pow wow between friends, my lovely sponsor MisKonduct Klothing is now stocking Bernie Dexter‘s range here in Australia!! That means quick  and inexpensive shipping, easy returns and being super swanky is just a local click away.  Size wise I find that if you consult the measurement charts on Bernie’s site you should be good. As they are a cotton and have no stretch, you want to make sure that you get a friend to measure you up so you know your correct size. I always recommend having a (discreet) friend do this for you once and then write it all down for late night shopping indulgences. Make sure to measure everything, including the drop beneath your bust to your natural waist line – you never know when you’ll need the measurements. (Even more so on 50′s styled dresses where you want to be sure they sit on your natural waist and not above) I generally wear an Australian size 8-10, so the small Water Lilly dress fits me perfectly.

If you love it as much as I do and have any questions, please feel free to ask away in the comments section. After all, a gem like this is too good to keep all to one’s self.

Happy Lunar New Year! It’s Year of the Rabbit this year and Singapore is in full Chinese New Year swing!  We’ve been feasting it up, shopping for new year clothes and wallets, enjoying all sorts of customary activities and getting appropriately fat!

Given that this is one of the few days of the year that nearly all the stores are closed, we decided to save today for a family visit to the zoo. Of course there are SO many photos of that I’ll be saving that for a super sized up coming post, but for today here’s some new years wishes from me, my family and my cute bunny friends!!

Xx

If you’re wondering, today’s outfit comes courtesy of my 14 year old self.  That is… it is a dress my mother made for me when I was 14 and I’ve kept! Worn with pewter ballet flats for all the walking, a red stretch elastic belt and red roses in my hair from Bexterity.  Miss 3 and Miss 6 found their outfits at Tesco’s in Phuket as they prepared for the festivities ahead.  I don’t think we’ve ever been stopped for so many photos in our lives!! If we could have charged per picture we would have paid for the whole holiday! LOL.

And yes, that is a cuddly white rabbit in my hands. His name is ‘Carrots” and I just had to take him home with his crazy cute eyes. ^-^

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As you can probably tell from these photos, my garden is out of control. See all that grass? that’s meant to be a garden bed. There is a whole lot of cleaning up that needs to be done to start this year right, so I thought I’d get stuck in, in proper serious fashion.  Mind you, the actual outdoors work bit only tends to last about an hour or two in this sun, then it quickly becomes beer o’clock! But hey, that’s what the holidays are for really.  Taking three times as long to get anything done because you have to keep on stopping for a nap.

Outfit Details

Ruffled & Checked shirt – Route 66

Dungaree jeans - Bernie Dexter

Ballet flats – Big W

Horse shoe earrings – Collette Accessories

Lipstick – ‘Moulin Rouge” Boots No. 7

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