New Ladies and Gents Step Forward

[owlbeen]

Hello, all!

I'm owlbeen, or kiff, and I'm from California's Central Coast. I'm a semi-newb, in that I've had an account here for years and have lurked, but haven't actively posted until now. Whoops! Time to remedy that!

I've got an interest in all old things, especially machines and technology, and spend a fair amount of time poking through the local antique shops for typewriters, desk fans, and toasters. I'm the person who can spend an hour looking over an old icebox, or fiddling with a cabinet radio. Now I just need to find a job -- those gadgets don't pay for themselves!

 

[Louise Anne]

Your newish here so please intoduce yourself!

I do know there is a similar thread else where, Maybe that's a little intimidating to add too now when the forum been going so long and some who feature on it do not post any more , especially interesting for us old hands to get to know the next generation of vintage loving lades who seam to be coming onto board.

What periods do you like?,
How long have you been wearing vintage.?
What do you like and hate about vintage and retro style.?
Why do you choose to wear vintage?

Anything really you care to tell us>>>

 

[CinnamonCinders]

I'll post as I can't remember if I really introduced myself properly when I stopped lurking and actually joined. Also, I've been away from The Lounge for such a long time

I've been wearing vintage since my early teens but without the direction that I have nowadays. Back then, I used to raid my mother's wardrobe for bits that had been hiding in there since she was in her late teens.

As I started to get older I realised my love of the old films and wanted to emulate the femininity of those starlets. So the style I have today has been a very fluid transformation without an identifiable turning point.

I know that I've been wearing my current style since about 2005 as I've found tickets for clubs for which I can remember how I was dressed.

My favourite era is the 1947-1957 New Look though I am falling in love with the 30s clothes more recently. For household furniture etc., I prefer 30s and earlier. I grew up surrounded by antiques, so at least I'm pushing it one generation forward on that front.

In terms of what I like about vintage style, it's the femininity and attention to detail and the more glamourous outfits. I also like the idea of being able to take tips from the "make do and mend" days in order to make modern living easier and to free up pennies for more decadent purchases. For the household furniture, I resent spending money on things that aren't solid wood and won't last for years to come.

What don't I like? Clothes that have stains or moth holes or other signs of the wear and tear that comes with the age of the clothes. This is why I find myself making a lot of clothes for myself.

I'm also not a huge fan of vintage shoes. I find that the heels can be a little low for my taste, so I find myself mixing my vintage with modern high heels.

 

[JennieWren]

I love the look of the 20's but as a lady with hips, I just can't wear it without looking like I am all bottom (the same can unfortunately be said about pencil skirts). I adore the late 40's early 50's (and the voluminous skirts are kind to my posterior). I am not very authentic, as I tend to mish-mash clothes and accessories that I like the look of and that I am comfortable in and fit me well to pull a look together.

I have been thrifting since I started buying my own clothes in my teens (so about 18 years now), and recently (about 3 years ago) started sewing my own clothes. I tend to use a mix of vintage patterns, patterns with vintage styling, and patterns that I made by taking apart clothes that I loved that could no longer be worn because they were falling to shreds and duplicating them. I have been knitting my own clothes for about 15 years, and usually use either vintage patterns (often inherited from my Nana) or modern patterns with vintage styling.

I love that I can sometimes find a piece that is very, very well made. I have a beautiful pinafore style dress that I am guessing was made in the 50's. It looks the same when I found it years ago to this day despite being worn a lot by me, because it was so well made. Fast fashion has killed craftsmanship, and most modern clothes, I find, are shoddily constructed out of poor quality materials. Also, while I love the look of beautifully set hair I am a mum to a very active two year old, so my free time is at a premium and I don't really feel like using it to set my hair, so my hair is in an extremely un-vintage, easy to care for pixie cut. Also my little goth-grump pet peeve is that it is hard to find vintage things in one of the three colours that I will actually wear (black, white or grey), but that's just because I am too picky.
In terms of furniture I love beautiful solid wood pieces with waterfall edges...but that being said most of my things were salvaged from the curbside, so are ugly, ugly, ugly pressboard monstrosities. Some day I will have enough money to eventually replace them with lovely solid wood bookshelves, and chairs with carved walnut arms, but until that day I have ugly furniture. I do have a beautiful desk made in 1940 (manufacture date in on a sticker inside) with waterfall edges. I bought it for 12$ because one Abrahim had carved his name all over it and it had no handles. I am slowly sanding off Abrahim's legacy and restoring it to it's former beauty, and some day I will find handles that suit it (I currently have bits of string to open and close the drawers) I also have a gorgeous sewing table that I bought off of a lady who had to move and couldn't take it with her. It has queen Anne style legs, and is one of the most beautiful things I own.

I like a style that stands out which is what I think attracted me to vintage/retro in the first place. I want people looking at me to think "Wow, she really has it together! She looks so classy!"

 

[Laura Hunt]

I love anything from the late 30s to the early 60s. I love historical fashion in general XP When I first started wearing vintage I was really into the 50s but for the past little while I've found myself really drawn to the 40s. Maybe it's because lately I've been on a 1940s movie kick. There's something just so classic and quaint and endearing about the 40s styles.

I started wearing vintage about three years ago but I'd like to think I'm much more streamlined in my style than when I first began! A lot of the time one simply can't wear it, of course, but I try to almost always keep the vintage makeup & hair; and most of my modern clothing gravitates towards classic or vintage inspired styles. Of course as a teenager and little kid I loved the old movies for their wonderful clothes but I didn't actually realize people were/could still wear them until I stumbled on a few vintage blogs several years ago. That opened up a whole new realm of possibilities! I had just begun doing living history and sewing for the historical eras and I mourned the fact that it wasn't exactly practical to wear such lovely dresses all the time. Then I found vintage and my problems were solved, hehe.

I love the fact that I feel pretty and glamorous and classy when I wear vintage. It makes me feel like a film star, even when I'm grubbing about in overalls! I think the feeling is what keeps drawing me back to it. I love the fact that the ladies back then didn't shirk on their appearance, even with a war on. They took the time to fix their hair and put on lipstick to go work in a factory making airplanes! Can you imagine people doing that today? They don't even get dressed to go to the grocery store.

And I also love the individuality of it. I don't like wearing what everyone else wears; I prefer to stick out! I was never into goth or steampunk like some of you ladies but I tried my best to be individualistic in my own fashion. So for me, it's a bit distressing that vintage is "popular" right now because I hate wearing stuff that's "popular" (now I sound like a hipster); but I also like it because it makes it easier to find clothes that I like to wear! And I'm not going to quit wearing vintage just because it's a bit in the mainstream either; that would be silly. I wear it because I love it and I love the way it makes me feel. Like a princess. XD

 

[Holo]

Hi all, I'm new here. I've been lurking for about a year and finally decided to join recently.

I admit my knowledge of vintage fashion is limited; I have some vintage-inspired pieces but I've never dressed in a fully period accurate outfit before. My style however is very feminine, and I only wear skirts and dresses, so my fashion isn't typically modern either.

I'm interested in becoming more acquainted with vintage fashion, though! My main interests are in the music of the past, from the turn of the century to about 1935, as well as silent films and early talkies, so naturally I've fallen in love with the fashions as well. I love the 20's the most but I couldn't pull it off as my shape better suits, say, the 50's. I do also really love the transitional fashions between the 1910's and 1920's and could perhaps pull off some of those; I'll have to see. I'm not overweight but I could stand to lose a few pounds and that also might brighten my prospects.

What really attracted me to this place is the beauty forum. I love learning about hair care, skin care, and makeup products and techniques throughout the ages and adapting pertinent methods into my routine.

I have a lot to learn and unfortunately not much to contribute but glad to be here anyway!

 

[Louise Anne]

Hi Holo,
Welcome here , every one starts off feeling they have nothing to add, strangle we all do have and that's part of what makes the powder room such fun.

 

[Dawna]

I'm new! My name is Dawn and I just found the Lounge about a week ago when I was searching for a way to make setting lotion at home, and all the links I found kept directing me to a thread here - I'm so glad they did I'm a university student and I'm from Toronto, Canada but I live in Sweden with my boyfriend. I've always been into "old stuff", since I was a kid when I would read my grandmother's old McCalls magazines and pour over old photo albums, trying to figure out how exactly they dressed ‘like that’!

I don't always dress in vintage but I sew a lot of my clothes and I use almost only vintage patterns, so my wardrobe keeps getting more and more vintage-y, combined with certain modern items, in particular a weakness for wearing boy’s jogging pants around the house. It's like that with my apartment, too, because whenever I need something new I try to find it second-hand, and preferably "of a certain age" so I'm gradually getting a nice, "vintage" look to my place. On the other hand, I never really think of the scale in my kitchen, the cookbook I'm using, or the sewing pattern I'm working from as being "old" or being special because of their age - to me they just seem normal. I also have a weekly show on the student radio station where I play music from the 40s-60s, but again, it’s just ‘normal’ music to me!

My favourite decades must be the 40s through the mid-60s. I just love everything about them – the style, the machines, the cars (my greatest failure as a would-be environmentalist is my incurable fondness for those two-ton old cars), the books, the magazines – just everything! But I also love the internet sometimes, especially when it comes to forums such as this one!

 

[loosebolts]

Loosebolts also known as Dan, 27 Northern California.
I got into this era when i stumbled upon a local swing club and have been listening to the golden era music ever since. I love to dress in old bomber jackets, button up shirts and tie and look different from the norm. collector of old things that usually need fixing that are made out of bakelite.

 

[loosebolts]

Loosebolts also known as Dan, 27 Northern California.
I got into this era when i stumbled upon a local swing club and have been listening to the golden era music ever since. I love to dress in old bomber jackets, button up shirts and tie and look different from the norm. collector of old things that usually need fixing that are made out of bakelite.

 

[nice hat dude!]

I happened onto the site due to looking for info online about fedoras.Since that time I've come across many interesting topics,folks here seem to be genuinely polite.Thought I'd just drop a line cause I looked up the date I
joined and never realized until just now that the date was 10/11/12,maybe I'll go buy a lottery ticket

 

[Flashheart]

Hello all, and thanks for accepting me on the forum.

I've been interested in the 'Chap' movement for a while, along with some Steampunk / Dieselpunk stuff, and my Google searches for information have often brought me to these forums.

 

[-Max-]

This seems to be the place, so I'll do the seemly thing and introduce myself. First post and all that.

My name is Max, pleased to meet you. I ended up here because I was trying to figure out if it's acceptable to wear pinstripe jackets with solid pants, then I came back trying to learn the difference between pomade and hair dressing.

I wanted to know these things for a number of reasons, but chiefly I want to look nice and don't exactly know how. My father is old enough that I grew up with a valet stand in the house, but since a set of military Class A's was what lived on them all I really learned in the 'how to look like a gentleman' department was shining shoes. Which I am damned good at, and not ashamed to brag about. I can ask the Old Man questions, and understandably this is my first preference, but the more I look into this sort of thing the more I realize that I wouldn't even have thought of some of the questions I should ask in the first place! I would rather have said, "can I borrow your brush?" instead of "how in the hell am I supposed to get this hat clean?"

Cheers!

 

[JoshD]

Well. Just wanted to say "Hi".

Joined mainly for the fedoras. Stayed for everything else.

American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!!

I am a Veteran of the Iraq war. Still serve my State and Country.

I have always loved fedoras. My wife nearly dispises them.

I am currently looking for a new one to buy. (I have a couple of older ones that I bought new. They need a little tweaking on the size to fit right)

I would like to buy it from a brick and mortar store so I can go in and try a few on. (Consider me old fashion. But I like to so business that way)

Nice place y'all have here. Hope to see y'all around.

Josh

 

[skelly]

Hi all.
I'm new here, I made a couple of posts but only just seen this bit so thought I'd introduce myself properly.
I suppose my main interest here is shaggy old flying jackets of which I have a few and will try to post some photos.
Its great to look at other peoples jackets and the amount of info on here is mind blowing.
Anyhow, I'm an engineer/ race engine builder by trade, I drive a 1943 jeep, I race motorcycles and I'm helping to restore an old tank.
I have a cheese plant called Robert.
Skel..

 

[NickyTea]

Hello Fedora Lounge!
My name is Nick, I'm a long-time lurker, and I decided it was time to start posting now that I've finished a short film noir (link in the "Moving Picture" film festival thread) in which a fedora plays as much a role as any of the actors!

Great to be here, and looking forward to participating in the community.

 

[KalokiMallow]

Technically I'm not new to the lounge, I was here a good few years ago. A lot has changed in that time. Including the nickname I use online.

Since I was last on the lounge I have got married and had a baby. Unfortunately I have also developed quite severe mobility problems. So with all of the things going on I've been less inclined to wear vintage. Especially as my weight shot up. I stilll adore it though.

I was doing a dressmaking and tailoring course, until I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. So hopefully that will get better soon and I can get back to it.

 

[DiverAdam]

I thought it might be a good time to put out an Introduction.

I have been lurking around for a while, and have been wanting to purchase a fedora for quite some time. I am expecting a special box from VillageHatShop.com tomorrow. Jaxon Detroit, technically a trilby, but they look better on my head.

Also stumbled upon a cloth fedora at an antique shop this weekend and it fit, after a good washing i think it will work out great for a 'knock-around' hat.

Some other little tidbits about myself; I have been a firefighter for 10years, avid 'motorcycle enthusiast', enjoy summer SCUBA diving especially the Lake Michigan shipwrecks, also do a lot of work with local fundraisers

 

[BigBoiBrady]

Evening folks,

I am BigBoiBrady, a fairly new Golden Era enthusiast interested in immersing himself in the culture. The basic rundown about me that I am a 23 year old male currently living in Los Angeles trying to shape my destiny to the best of my abilities right now. The main aspects of the Golden Era I enjoy so far are swing/jazz/blues music, three-piece suits, pomade, deviled eggs, and most of all how beautiful the women looked back then. I'll post pictures of myself a little later as the few I have of me in Golden Era attire are pretty dreadful at the moment.

 

[Fastuni]

An all-around Hello to the Ladys and Gentlemen at the FLounge,

To introduce me in nuce, I am a 23 year old student in Munich, enjoying since some time the passion for 1930's-40's menswear.
I am an avid collector of vintage clothing and occasional amateur-tailor (emphasis on amateur) for my own needs.

I spend much of my time scavenging through second-hand/thrift shops and flea markets always on the hunt for vintage clothing or fabrics.

Mario and Flat Foot Flooey will know me. Have been a lurker here for some months... but was finally convinced to be more active here by Mario.

Well... so far so good.

Best Regards,
"Fastuni" (the Persian nomer for a sturdy suiting cloth, probably derived from "fustian").