Vegan Vintage Inspired Shoes

I think at least one person was keen on my idea to do a post about vegan vintage inspired shoes so I've decided to do that today. I can't 'review' the shoes, as such, as I do not own any of these but I've spent a bit of time scouring the internet for vegan friendly shoes which also have a bit of a vintage feel to them.

The biggest problem with having a vintage look for me has always been finding appropriate footwear as I will not wear leather - my personal belief is that, if I do not agree with eating an animal, then I most certainly should not be wearing one - so that often leaves me looking at absolutely divine shoes without being able to wear them. Luckily, attractive vegan shoes actually do exist! Hopefully this post will help some of you who are in the same boat.


Melissa Australia/Melissa Plastic Dreams

Firstly, there is Melissa - to find out a little bit about the brand go here. My personal favourites are those designed by Vivienne Westwood, like the Mary Janes pictures above, but a little look around shows that the other designers have some very cute styles, too. While clearly not an 'authentic' vintage look, I think it is fair to say that many Melissa shoes have been inspired by shoe designs of the past.

There are some very cute shoes at Alternative Outfitters, like these platform pumps by Madden Girl.



Bourgeois Boheme have nice ranges of both casual styles and dress shoes as well as stocking other accessories and cosmetics.




Vegetarian Shoes have a few styles that caught my eye, like these Leanne Shoes, which come in red and brown.

These Ariane shoes are coming soon! Aren't they adorable?

Vegan Chic is another site that has a great range of shoes and accessories. I personally adore these wingtip style heels.


These 'Agatha Christie' shoes are from veganline.com

Vegan Wares offers some very nice styles, such as the Estelle and Ava pictured below.



These sandals from Moo Shoes remind me very much of a pair I saw Lauren Bacall wearing in a photo, once!



Ethical Wares also have some great styles, including vegan creepers! There is also a list of sites carrying vegan and vegetarian shoes, which can be found here. I should note that many of these sites carry men's shoes as well as women's.

I also spend a good deal of time in discount shoe stores as their products are very rarely made of leather, so far as is indicated and have bought almost all of my shoes from such stores, or department stores like K-Mart. I should probably add that I, myself, am vegetarian not vegan but I'm quite strict about it still.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Style Icons {Dolly Parton}

I’ve decided to make a little change to Silver Screen Sundays. Instead of a weekly post I thought I would do one every other week and then, on the weeks that I don’t do a Silver Screen Sunday, I would post about one of my style icons. I think it would make it a lot easier for me and adds a bit more variety, too, but I’d really appreciate your feedback on this, dear blog readers! The style icon posts will probably be more about people (mainly women) who inspire me in general and whose style I also admire, more than someone whose style I wish to emulate.

For the first one, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my love of Dolly Parton. I wouldn’t call myself her biggest fan – I don’t have all of her albums, I haven’t seen all of her films, etc. – but I can honestly say that I think she is one of the most amazing, talented and inspirational people to have graced this earth.

Her story is, really, a 'rags to riches' tale - she has described her family as being 'dirt poor' and she explored this theme in the song Coat of Many Colors. Today she is one of the most successful women - business women, really - in the world but to try to summarise her career in one post would just be crazy as so much would go overlooked. So, I'm just going to tell you why I admire her so much.

First of all, she modelled her look on the town tramp - "My look came from a very serious place: a country girl's idea of glamour. I would see pictures of women in magazines, what they called the town tramp, but I thought they were beautiful."

This may not seem a particularly admirable thing to some but, to me, it's just one instance that shows her candour and that she makes absolutely no apologies about who she is.

She has one of the prettiest voices I've ever heard (singing and spoken)...

She's also such a talented musician (one of the things I love about country music is that seeing a woman playing an instrument is far more commonplace than it is in pop music), songwriter, actress and has an outrageous sense of style, which I adore. She's also innovative - for instance, she played her acrylic nails as 'percussion' in the track 9 to 5 when she realised they sounded similar to a typewriter.

She's a very generous woman and supports many charitable efforts, especially in the area of literacy, which is such an important thing, I believe.

Dolly is a very positive role model not only because she has achieved so much and is a truly remarkable person but because she's true to herself and, as I already mentioned, makes no apologies about who she is. I think everyone has days when they feel a bit down about who they are and wishes they could just blend in with the rest of the crowd - whenever I have a day like that I think about Dolly and I feel better. She is one of the people who have inspired me to strive to not worry about what others think of me and live up to my own expectations, not the expectations of anyone else.

I'll leave you with a couple more of my favourite songs (I couldn't pick just one to leave you with) and truly hope that you have enjoyed this post -

Wikipedia, of course, has a rather extensive article about her, for those who would like to read a bit more - it includes a filmography and discography.

As I mentioned, any feedback on this new idea is very much appreciated! Let me know if you think there should be more or less: info, pictures, my thoughts, etc.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

When Op-Shopping Pays Off and an Outfit

I spend a lot of time complaining about how I never find any great clothes in op-shops, anymore, but in the past week I've had two great finds on two separate occasions.

The first was another addition to my collection of sunglasses -


They only cost me 3$, too! Not sure of the era but they're fabulous, regardless. If anyone is interested, this is the rest of my collection:

I also found this lovely home-made early '60s dress at a Goodwill store, yesterday, for 12.50$.


Forgive the lacklustre photo - by this point I had already sprayed myself in the face with perfume, got mascara on my arm (I dropped the wand) and got hairspray in my eye and then I didn't even end up being able to go out. But at least I got a photo of my cute new dress to share with you all.

Detail of the bow.

Today I hung out with some friends, eating apple pie that I had made, pizza and watching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (one of my all-time favourite movies). I was going to wear a dress but I was looking at some pictures of 1930s/40s leisure wear before I got dressed and decided to go for something a bit more casual -


Outfit details: ribbon - ?; earrings - Diva; blouse - Salvo's; 1940s trousers - Red Ruby Vintage; shoes - Big W.

Here's a detail of the blouse because people have thought it was pink in other photographs. It's not - it's a very small check.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x


P.S. Something I forgot to mention, the other day, when I wrote a little bit about Cadillac Records - for those of you who aren't aware, Mos Def plays Chuck Berry. That was definitely another highlight of the film for me - I think I have a wee bit of a crush on Mos Def.

Musical Interlude {Little Walter}

The other night I hired Cadillac Records which, whilst not my first introduction to the musicians of Chess Records (I watched a series a couple of years back on the history of soul music in America), was my first introduction to Little Walter. I still don't know very much about him, except for what was portrayed in the film, but I do know one thing: I am obsessed with the song My Babe, which was written by Willie Dixon. It was released in 1955 on Checker records, which was a subsidiary of Chess records, and was the only Dixon-penned tune to become a #1 R&B single. You can read a little bit more about the song here.

Little Walter was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 which, apparently, makes him the only artist to have been inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player. He was one of the first to amplify his harmonica, reportedly because he was frustrated by being drowned out by guitars, not only for the added volume but he purposefully pushed his amplifiers beyond their limitations which was pretty much the first time anyone had experimented with distortion, so I believe. As I mentioned, I know very little about him at the moment, but I have listened to that song 23 times in a row!



I also have to add that I found Columbus Short rather attractive (a bit of an understatement, actually) playing Little Walter in the film, especially when he was singing this song. Good golly! (Before you watch the clip, I will warn that there is a little bit of swearing, as it contains other bits of the film as well as the song, so if that kind of language offends you...don't watch it)

I highly recommend Cadillac Records - it's a gorgeous film and a nice introduction for someone like me who doesn't know a lot about Chess records and its musicians. Plus, there are loads of great costumes and very well dressed (and handsome) fellas!

Little Walter Biography Site.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Lazy Summer Days

I thought I had best do my 'lazy Summer vintage' post before the season comes to its official end. I'm not the kind of girl who thrives in hot weather, in fact you could say I get downright pathetic about it! I whinge and I'm the first to admit that (I'll also admit that I cannot stand cold weather, either - I like it mild) but I also don't want to have to set my hair or wear stockings, etc. And with temperatures reaching up to, and sometimes over, 40 Celsius/104 Fahrenheit can you really blame me?

So, what do I do to keep my 'vintage' look when it seems like far too much effort on a sweltering day to do anything at all?

Let's start with hair - my staples for summer are plaits and ponytails.

Plaits are probably my favourite 'lazy' hair because they're so versatile. I like wearing them up on my head, as in the picture above (there may be one or two closer images here, and I once did a post on vintagehair, which you can see here), which is super easy to do - once you've got your hair in the two plaits just pull one up on top of your hair and pin it, then repeat with the other side. They're also fun to just wear down with ribbons in them.

Also, before I go on, many have asked how I do my bangs - I can't offer you any better source on how to do them than Fleur's tutorial. I've directed many a person to this tutorial because I couldn't explain it better myself.

Now, onto the ponytail, which is such a classic and also versatile look. My preference for ponytails is to always start with the faux bangs and I'll also quite often tuck the length of my ponytail under, as well, which I think makes a slightly more 'grown-up' (for lack of a better term) look. You can see it a little bit in this picture:

And one of my favourite ponytail gals of the past (I couldn't mention ponytails without sharing a picture of her!) -

Image sourced here.

Tales of Retro-modern housewife also has a couple of nifty ideas for a quick vintage do that starts with a ponytail!

The great thing about these two types of hairstyles is that I still feel able to wear a lot of my summer wardrobe without feeling less 'vintage'.

This still from The Pajama Game is a great inspiration for a Summer outfit - what's better than a pretty, light-coloured dress and a ponytail? (Go here for my Silver Screen Sunday post on this film.)
For something even more casual you could take a leaf out of Jean Peters' look in Niagara. (Go here for my Silver Screen Sunday post on this film.)

Shoes and socks are great for Summer, though I will admit there are some days when I couldn't bear to wear them, and especially great for dancing.

Many have asked me how I can wear long dresses like the one pictured below in the hot weather but, to be honest, I find long dresses in a light material much cooler than shorter clothing that may cling to you:

Of course, there's always another alternative - the playsuit. Huzzah! And these two ladies are wearing their hair in plaits, too.

I can't remember where I found this image. Oops.

Playsuits are so much fun - they can be dressed up or down, too. Wear shoes and socks to dress it down or some wedges for something fancier. Vintage ones don't seem to be all that easy to come by (remember my excitement when I found this?) but Screen Siren put together a post about some very cute contemporary playsuits/rompers. And there are many cute repro rompers out there, these days.

I hope this was helpful or, at least, enjoyable. Summer, for me, is not an easy time to dress for - I much prefer Autumn and Spring. I shall leave you with a song that perfectly captures, I believe, the lazy feeling summer often brings.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Back to blogging.

What ho, blogosphere! As you can see, I did not expire from a week of swing dancing - in fact, I had a simply smashing time. I'm a lot more confident with my dancing now and was very glad of the chance to be taught by some really great dancers, like Steven Mitchell, Evita Arce, Manu Smith, Mike Roberts and Laura Glaess, Max Pitruzella and Annie Trudeau (I found this website but it's all in French)...if you're interested in seeing any of them in action I'm fairly certain youtube will provide you with some videos to watch! I'm still relatively new to swing dancing so those names meant nothing to me before (and, to be entirely honest, I still don't know if the names mean anything to a lot of people but I'm certain they have to mean something to someone).

I was going to dedicate this entire post to Swing Camp Oz but I didn't take any pictures so it would be a very dull entry indeed. Instead, I shall just reiterate that it was an amazing experience and that it has helped my dancing very much - for one thing, I can now do a Shorty George after struggling with them for a while - and if anyone reading this has been wanting to take up swing dancing but can't find the courage then I urge you to just do it. I've been dancing for about six months now and, despite still being a little nervous at some of the social nights, I've never had so much fun in my life and almost everyone I've met has been super friendly and lovely.

All right, enough gushing from me. I also wanted to share some pictures of my finds from yesterday's inaugural North Adelaide Vintage & Fashion Fair.

This darling hat looks good with its brim up as well as down.

When I got home I realised there were two prices inside and I think I got it cheaper than I was meant to (4$ instead of 10$. Ssshh!)

1930s/40s handbag. I have a few vintage glo-mesh clutches (which are getting quite expensive but I've found authentic glo-mesh for only 4$ before and refuse to pay more than 20$ for one) but this is the oldest handbag I own, now.

The stockings in the pink box are incredibly sheer - I'm a little scared to wear them but they're beautiful. I like this little insert that came in the box -







Mum bought these for me because I was a little upset I had to sacrifice them in order to purchase the handbag.

Thanks once again for all of the suggestions on this post. I think it's going to take me a few days to get back into the swing of things (pardon the pun) after last week but I've got a few ideas for blog posts, I just need to set them in order in my mind.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Silver Screen Sunday {Groovy Movie}

I'm afraid to say there is no 'proper' Silver Screen Sunday, today. I'm about to embark on Swing Camp Oz, an entire week of swing dancing and what-not. I'm more than a little bit nervous and also quite a bit intimidated by the thought of so much physical exercise. I can assure you my 'exercise regime' generally consists of walking to the television to turn it on and back to the couch. So, hopefully I survive this week. If not, send flowers!

As I mentioned, I haven't the time for a proper Silver Screen Sunday. Instead, I shall leave you with this short from 1944 entitled Groovie Movie, a spoof on instructional dance videos and also efforts to find high culture in the dance. It's rather corny but I think it's fun and more than a bit cute. I like the overuse of slang. There's a little bit written about it here, although this page says it was filmed in 1942.

If I do manage to survive, I shall see you all in about a week's time.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x