Red Roar!

 

Red is the colour of ROAR!!!

 

I must be a tiger on the inside, as this is the second red 1950s dress I've bought in as many weeks.

I was thrilled to find this one, a true shelf bust wiggle dress, in my exact size.

I've had this fabulous rhinestone necklace stashed away for far too long, hoping to find the pieces it needs for repair. It's too lovely not to show off...and wearing beautiful red things always makes us feel more beautiful, doesn't it?

Why not make your weekend a special one? Go on, wear one of your treasures and make yourself feel beautiful.

1950s dress- ebay
Shoes- old, 90s
Jewellery- from the stash

Ta-Dah!...New Stuff For Me!

Remember that motherlode of costume jewellery last week?

Well, the above necklace is the one I kept. Best of all, it was gifted to me by the people handling the sale for being the best and fairest dealer that they sold to.

Also from the same estate, the most fabulous red typewriter EVER! I'm not even sure why I'm so desperately keeping this...I just AM.

 

This too was a gift, this time from Katherine of theoldboathouse. She knows I'm mad for little 50s dishes with the black 'hairpin legs' and kept this unusual one aside for me. Thanks so much for remembering and thinking of me Katherine!

For those that don't know I'm a fiend for anything black and white and 50s. This polka dot pottery was made in England by H.G. Woods in 1957 and features raised polka dots. Similar was made by Australian pottery Diana around the same time. Sue found this boomerang dish for me which is a welcome addition to my collection.

And the biggest ta-dah! of all, my first gravel art!! I spied this on the stall opposite ours at Greazfest the other week, and ran for it.

Of course it doesn't match anything in my house right now, but hey, since when did that stop me?!

What glorious finds have you dragged home this week?

New Frocks!! New Frocks!!

After the sad departure of our fabulous Helga! on Friday, what better to cheer myself up with, than a few new frocks.

We've been busy working on restocking the racks since G&G a few weeks ago, as a result both Sue and I have our own wardrobes temporarily overstuffed and the stockroom is looking full again. (Lucky Helga! and Desiree, they both got a full in-person preview when they were here at my house on Friday).

Ther are many many more to prepare, in the meantime, here are a few that will be heading up to the Tamborine shop with me on Friday.

Fantastic 50s party dress, light acetate print with inbuilt stiffened lining.

I was a bit keen on this one until I tried it and it didn't fit :( So off to the shop it goes.

One for lovers of plaid and bows, 100% cotton boat neck 50s dress.

This cute 50s nylon dress comes with it's own matching mauve slip.

 

As usual my bodyform Astrid does it little justice, when I tried it on it fit perfectly and really gives the 'shelf bust' effect.

Quite a few lurex numbers are coming our way too!

Lovely little early 60s nylon, hard to get the colours right in a photo but it's a true pale lemon. Super-perfect condition and fully cotton lined, yum!

Another for the vintage print fans, this one and the lemon one above wash so well a good steaming made no difference, there were simply no wrinkles at all.

50s/60s lurex wiggle dress, another easy-care cocktail dress to wear anywhere. Fabulous Desiree tried this one on when she was here on Friday and it looked stunning (not that we're surprised, are we?!)

Lurex and animal print together....need I say more??

 

This early 60s beaded wool dress is by American designer Lilly Rubin. A lovely fine wool, it's fully lined and super-comfortable, not often I'd say that about wool but I tried it on and gave it the firm thumbs up.

Close-up of the beading.

Garterbelts and Gasoline Rockabilly Festival 2012...The Penultimate Post

Were you there??

Sue, Lisa Enright of Atomic Martini Vintage and the foxie Stitchin Bitch herself, Chelsea Farrell

Chelsea Farrel, Lila Luxx and Evelyn Ellenor popped in for some afternoon chats and a stiff drink before our Friday night fashion parades

Miss Chrissy of the Lindy Charm School For Girls thought she popped in to the shop for some actual shopping on Friday, but we had other ideas!

Here's me with Chrissy and Evelyn on Saturday during the vintage shopping tour

Yes, Chrissy really *was* almost stuck in this 40s crepe dress, LOL! Here's Sue coming to the rescue...

I'm not *totally* sure what was going on here!

Candice deVille of SuperKawaiiMama was Mitzi Valenzuela's official MUAH artist for the festival. Here she is hard at work on Sues verandah. Don't you just *love* her weeny leopard print apron??

If there ever can be such a thing as perfection I think Candice is it, non? This was her second year visiting the Mountain and again she loved every minute of it...we can't wait to see her back again. After watching her work in detail this year I'm definitely going to ask her to make me over next time.

And if you haven't heard of Mitzi Valenzuela.....she's a fabulous American photographer, who specialises in pinup. Not only is she a major sponsor of the Garterbelts and Gasoline festival, she works all over the world and publishes her own magazine called Retro Lovely. The photos she's taken on this, her first Australian tour, will be shown in a special Australian edition of Retro Lovely, due out in approx. 2-3 months' time. Below is an 'action shot' taken by me.

We finally had our new back deck laid *just* in time, what a stress that was with all the rain the Mountain gets. We were so determined to be able to display our newly-powdercoated sets of 50s outdoor furniture on this festival weekend, both our customers and Mitzi were thrilled.

If you're in Brisbane and want to check out these sets in person, there is currently one at our WAC shop.

Have I collected enough retro umbrellas??  Umm, 7 at last count actually. I've had these stashed away for the last few months, nice to finally bring them out and have them all on show at once.

More Mitzi, this time on Sue's back verandah. Mitzi chose our shop/Sues house as her preferred location for the first three days of her four-day shoot, yay!

Oh, and we did two fashion parades too! I think this is one of my absolute favourite shots of the whole weekend. That ham in the 40s Catalina swimsuit...I think you'll recognise her, non? If you don't, it's none other than the fabulous fearless fashionista Desiree of Pull Yours Socks Up. With her is our stunning house model Erin, aka Evelyn Ellenor, not only a fab model and pinup but also an awesome milliner. You can see her website here.


Below, a few backstage shots.

Who wouldn't want to lick the legs of this fabulous woman?!

Fabulous Rebecca was a last-minute ring-in for a model who cancelled, and what a star she was! More pics of her below.

Ellie, a regular model of ours, and always one of my favourite little hams. More pics below.

Butter wouldn't melt, right?!

See those noets Miss Chrissy is holding?? As our parade compere, she had to know what she was talking about as each outfit was shown. Those notes took me a good many hours to write, compile and print. When it came to the moment of truth, the lights were so bright in Chrissys face she couldn't see them...*facepalm*

Lucky Chrissy is an experienced compere and a great ad-libber!

Check out Sues hair!! A job well done by the awesome Lisa Enright :)

Rawr!!

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

Pic by Mitzi Valenzuela

The ball on Saturday night saw a fab pinup comp held, the first one I've ever attended. Below is the fabulous Lila Luxx, a professional burlesque dancer and teacher at the Bombshell Burlesque and Beauty Academy. We love her so much we're going to sponsor some of her future performances, so exciting...I can't wait to dress this fabulous woman!!

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

There were nine entrants in the comp this year, in fact they were all finalists selected from nearly 200 entrants.

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

This lady was the winner, she wore this gorgeous Hawaiian type 50s swimsuit and did a truly awe-inspiring hula hoop routine.

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

This cutie, above and below, is lovely Emma, of Miss Rockabilly fame. This creative lass designs and makes her original range of pinup and rockabilly inspired hair acessories and jewellery...every tiem I see her she has a new range out, see her goodies here. Oh, and this is a dress she bought from us, I love how she's paired it with the purple petticoat.

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

Pic by Robert Adomaitis

Lots of lovely Brisbane girls were out partying....

Mae and Sara by Robert Adomaitis

Laura Price and friend, by Robert Adomaitis

Lisa Enright, Evelyn Ellenor and me closing my eyes, by Robert Adomaitis

and yes, some schmoozing was done!! By Robert Adomaitis

Madge, below, got busy most of the weekend out front, pulling in the punters. Pity the matching purple car was just visiting. Also a pity that Madge got stolen on Saturday night, my fault for leaving her out *grimaces*

Of course, we had a shop to run too! Below, a few of my fave pics of our newest retro pieces.

Sunday was another big day, with a car show, all day bands on two stages, a junior beauty pageant, a huge market day and a kustom kulture art show. While we were busy in the shop, I managed to scurry away and have a quick look around while Sue minded the shop. All car pics below are by Robert Adomaitis, a keen rockabilly boy and freelance photographer. You can see all his latest pics on his Facebook page here.

This is Rob's wife Vicky Shield, not only a fab stylist for vintage hair but she is really a hairdresser as well, and always the expert I seek out. She runs small group tutorials from her salon and will be on duty again this year at Cooly Rocks on.

Monday morning saw us slowing down somewhat, it was the last day of the festival but still a big day. A champagne brunch and full breakfast was had at Mt Tamborine Brewery, interspersed by two fashion parades by Bonnie Rose Vintage, visiting from Melbourne.

Candice deVille was a vision of loveliness as always

Even my little VB was on hand to enjoy the show. Moment of the day was when she stood up on her chair to clap one of the models and shouted "Oh YEAH, well DONE!!", she had the whole room in stitches. Go VB!

Bonnie Rose modelling in her own parade, photo by Sue

This pic sums up the whole weekend!! Lisa and Chelsea late night pic in their onesies, how could I resist snapping this, too cute for words!!!



THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Her Holy Hotness Helga! will be HERE in less than 2 days, holy hotnana pants Batman coz I'm almost peeing my little self with excitement!!!