I’m exceedingly excited about this upcoming weekend,because for the first time, the Love Vintage Fair is coming to Melbourne!

You’ve seen a few of my eye candy posts of the Sydney Fairs, but this will be the first time I can bring you the inside scoop from Melbourne.  Over three days you’ll be able to come and enjoy the offerings of over 60 dealers from all over Australia. Clothing, textiles, jewellery and all kinds of ephemera make up just some of the treasures on offer. But that’s not all!

There’s great prizes for the Best Dressed in Vintage; (- 1st Place will win a Classic Pinup Shoot valued at $600 sponsored by the talented Helen McLean Photography) Swing Dancing demos, and of course the most marvelous vintage fashion parade put together by Circa Vintage and yes I’ll be up there too wearing some incredibly beautful pieces.  The ladies from The Lindy Charm School for Girls will also be doing vintage hair & makeup demonstrations.

I’ve been flat out these last few weeks working on a secret project for the fair and can’t wait to show you the results. You’ll find me right next to Circa Vintage and the main stage, so please do come over and say hello! I have some complimentary tickets to give away too, so just leave me a comment on this post and I’ll draw the winners at random tomorrow evening so you can get your passes for the show.

All the details

Friday 27th May  5.30pm – 9.00pm      Saturday 28th May   9.30am – 5.30pm

Sunday 29th May   10am – 4.00pm

Exhibition Hall, Melbourne Showgrounds, Epsom Road, AscotVale

Tickets at the door – Adult $14, Pensioner $10, Child $5

More information on the Love Vintage Website.

This is the perfect opportunity to bring your mum, bring your nana or even bring your kids along for an education.  In fact, I’d love to see some children dressed up for the Best Dressed in Vintage this time, so break out the bloomers and let the little darlings loose!

Can’t wait to see you at the fair!

Garterbelts & Gasoline isn’t just all cool cars and red hot bands, it was shopping too!  We’d been anticipating a big day of touring around the mountain for some time, and when we realised it would coincide with the Royal Wedding we thought it only best to add tiaras and sashes to our ensembles.

As you well know, a big day of shopping with around 32 other ladies would require some stamina, and certainly the right outfit, and so I planned to wear something cute and comfortable.  The lovely Em from Miskonduct Klothing sent me this stunning little birdy dress to wear. Handmade in the UK to a 1940′s pattern, it is simply to die for. It is one of those heavy cottons that hardly wrinkles, and is nicely lined in the bodice too; but it is the print that has me all gaga.

Birds and blossoms? Just too, too good!

I did feel a little silly posing around in the ‘bush’ in my tiara, but really, how often does one get a chance to break it out?

Anyway, once we’d finished faffing around with our spangles, we headed off to meet the ladies, get them sashed up and hit the shops!  None of those nasty party buses for us though, Miss Chrissy had organised the Mount Tambourine replica trolley to chauffeur us for the day.

.

Very regal don’t you think?

Of course, no ladies day would be complete without kicking off with a High Tea, so we stopped at Felicity’s with her rooms of retro treasures and scones. And boy was I going to need those three espresso’s!

When we got to Amanda Darling’s and Helen’s it was sighs of joy all round as the ladies whipped things off the shelves faster than you can imagine. I was waiting to see if any feathers would fly over fedoras or scratches over sequins.  Luckily, the stunning red sequinned number I was eyeing off went to my friend Bonnie, so I can crash tackle her for that another day if need be.

.

.

.

I found the cutest little posy of velvet violets to pin to my hat, but if you look closely you’ll see the tubs of tiaras that kept asking for my attention too. In fact, I have trouble shopping in groups as I’m not quite sure where to divide my attention… well that’s the excuse I gave when I put my hand up to go back and visit for a little more shopping the next day!

It was then at Kitty’s Vintage & Kitsch that I scored the most divine red, white and blue plasti-cane bag as well as had the time to try on a dress or too.

It was really the most divine day, like hanging with all your best friends on mass in your own slice of heaven.

Le Sigh…

.

You know how sometimes you look through the glass window into the cake section, fighting with yourself over “should I, shouldn’t I?”, then when you finally give in an eat those first few forks fulls, it isn’t at all the sensation you expected?  Not so with Sugadeaux. In fact, if you tried to dream up just how wonderful cake could be, it’s likely you still wouldn’t come close to how endorphin inducing these creations are.

Thanks to a chance meeting on Twitter some time ago, I discovered the delicious world of Sugadeaux, cupcake maestro.  So when I was invited to come and taste the latest range of flavours, I whipped out my cake themed skirt and raced there as fast as I could. And oh boy, were we all in for a treat with five brand new flavours about to spark our senses.

.

.

Being a food writers event, most everyone came armed with cameras, notebooks, and their tasting faces on. Me, I had my camera, fancy skirt and stupidly happy grin on.

.

Blueberry pie cupcakes, topped with an icing creation that tasted like something from The Magic Faraway Tree!

.

PB&J were the overwhelming hit of the evening with their salty sweetness, decadent smooshyness and all around groan of pleasure inducing, ways. (Yes, I’m not much on the technical jargon for food blogging, but I know what tastes amazing!)

.

The cupcake maestro herself, Jess from Sugadeaux; and me before I went into raptures of delight over my Blueberry Pie.

.

Can you tell we’re all on a brilliant sugar high?

I know seeing all this can be pure torture if you’re reading this before you’ve had lunch; but the good news is that Sugadeaux delivers!  You can actually get online to their website and place your order to be delivered to your door (with a bit of lead time).  In fact, you can even try out these exact flavours come April 21st, when they’ll be available in tasting packs.

Midweek cake fest? Yep, life is tough.

.

I did something cruel yesterday. I posted a sneaky picture to Twitter and let you know it was from an upcoming garage sale… but didn’t yet tell you where it was. This Friday the 8th April and Saturday 9th April in Melbourne, some friends are holding a fabulous vintage garage sale!

With all proceeds going towards the National Trust Costume Collection, these lovely ladies have collected donations of wonderful vintage pieces from all around the place.  There is some stunning millinery from a well known Melbourne designer, wonderful dead stock hand made shoes (if you’re extra small or extra large DO NOT miss out!), Victorian garments, 50′s, 60′s 70′s & 80′s vintage, as well as some more modern designer pieces.  And not to forget all the other things that make an outfit, gloves, bags, scarves and  boxes of patterns.  I was fortunate enough to get a bit of a sneak peak yesterday and took a few shots to whet your appetite.

.

Details

Vintage Garage Sale

Friday 8th & Saturday 9th April

Opens at 10am – 4pm each day

13 Parlington Street, Canterbury

Make sure to get in early to get the best pieces!

I couldn’t help but bring home a spectacular something from my fact finding mission. shhh..!

A Nuffnang sponsored post… in which you can WIN a personal stylist, me and $1000 spending money!!!

When I tweeted the other day that I was heading into Westfield to experience a personal styling session, a great cry went up of “Oh no, you’re not going to loose your vintage styling are you?” Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth, but I was indeed off on an adventure.

As a part of their new Personal Styling services, Westfield invited me to spend the morning with one of their top stylists and experience what they have to offer. And what fun we had!

.

.

When I met up with Jo my stylist, I’ll admit to feeling some trepidation about what awaited me. I knew that the khaki trend and I were not on friendly terms, and the leopard print body suits and I were experiencing some generation gap issues; but I was ready to put myself in her skilled hands and see what resulted.

Our first and most essential port of call was to stop for a much-needed coffee and a bit of a chat about my style.  I knew I wasn’t going to be the easiest client in the world, but that is surely one way to test out someone’s skills. Jo and I talked about my style, key elements that are important to me, my rules for ‘never’ (thigh high hems for instance), pieces that are missing from my wardrobe and trends I’d like to experiment with.  To my mind, the biggest benefit of using a personal stylist like Jo is the knowledge they can send you away with.  Not just a simple, “oh cute top!” but in teaching you about your body type, what works, what doesn’t and why.  And with that aim in mind we set out to find some cute ensembles that fit my personal style brief, but also to show you what didn’t work for me and why.

We started out at Forever New, which is full of leopard print, nudes and super soft knits this season. I always fall in love with their advertising images and the overall look of the store, but falter when I see the hemlines. Still, we decided to see what creative combinations we could come up with. And this was the winning Forever New ensemble.

.

.

I’d found this lovely nude beaded dress with a strong 1920’s vibe, but it was cut a good 6 inches above my knee! It was also far too straight up and down for my figure, so we made a few key additions. Finding another ribbon trimmed skirt, we added that underneath, crinoline style, to give it length and volume. Then we used a wide beaded belt to give the dress more waist definition. Topped of with a cropped and beaded angora cardigan, it all came together to create a look that was more elegant princess than tall slender flapper (which I clearly am not). We liked the look, but knew it wasn’t quite on the money, so the adventure continued.

As we wandered around a few more stores, Jo and I decided we would show you just what it is a stylist does for you.  It isn’t just taking you to a random bunch of stores and finding pretty things, (you can do that yourself), but it is in finding out the science of shape, colour and finish that make pieces work for you; or not.   So I decided to be brave and take some shots of the Sad outfit as well as the Happy outfits and what the difference was.

.

.

I’ve never worn a lace dress (being scared by Madonna in the 80’s), but wanted to try out this one in Cue.  But as you can see, some very small details make very big differences. The pic on the left has the sleeves sitting right on top of the shoulder, not at all flattering for my broad shoulders but the pic on the right has them spread out to make a little cap.  Although the difference is actually about 2cm in reality, the overall effect is very different.

But it wasn’t just the sleeves that made a huge difference; let’s see what happens when we add a belt to define the waist.

.

.

I happen to have a long torso, as Jo quickly picked up seeing me in this dress. And as I love the hourglass shape I want to make sure my waist is always defined, but can you see what a difference is made by where I wore the belt?

.

.

It isn’t just where you wear the belt, it’s the width as well.  This plaid dress came off the rack with the belt on the left.  It does nothing for me and nothing for the dress, but switch it out for a wider version and yes!  (Excuse the dishevelled hair, lots of change room shenanigans here..)

Thinking beyond the way something comes off the hanger opens up a world of possibilities. I really liked this plaid taffeta dress, but look what happened when we undid the zip a bit and pinned the neckline differently.

.

Total win!

But what about colour? Most of us think we know what suits us and often won’t go near other colours. Sometimes we put something on and think it’s all wrong, but is it the shape that’s the problem or the colour?

.

.

Both cute looks, but the punchy colour on the left is infinitely better on me. Jo knew we could make this even better by taking that same winning colour and picking another shape.

.

.

This was my absolute favourite outfit of the day. The colour, the shape, the balance… and all still very much a ‘me’ look.

Having access to your very own personal style fairy godmother at Westfield, is something that you can use if you’re brand new to the fashion game or even if you have a strong personal sense of style. It isn’t about changing what you love to fit in with the crowd, but to find the secrets of unlocking the best versions of the looks you love- just for you.

You can get a taste of what a Westfield stylist can offer you right now with a complimentary 15 minute session in any of the Westfield fashion centres; but that’s just the beginning. Here’s the brilliant news…. You could win a Personal Styling Session with both your Westfield stylist and me! And not only that, but you’ll also win $1000 to spend on your big day out Could it possibly get any better than that?!

All you have to do is tell me Why you need a Westfield Personal Styling Session for your chance to win the lot!

The winner will be the best entry as chosen by me, so make sure you tell me your story.

Entries are open from Tuesday March 29 – Tuesday 12th April. The conest is open anywhere in Australia, but you must be in Melbourne or able to make your own way here to redeem your prze.

Full terms and conditions can be found here.

So don’t waste a second getting stylish and tell me why YOU need a Westfield Style Session now!!