A Short Break

I've decided to take a short break from blogging - I've been feeling uninspired lately and it's starting to feel like a bit of a chore to blog. So, I thought a little time away may help me gain some perspective and rediscover some inspiration. This is not an indefinite break and I will be back as soon as possible - no more than a week or so, I hope. But I thought I would let you all know instead of going AWOL. Until then, here's an outfit shot of me wearing my new dress -

Outfit details: faux pearls - North Adelaide Vintage & Fashion Fair; 1950s/60s dress - Irving Baby; stockings - stockingshq.com; shoes - Big W (remixed).

I'll see you all again very soon!

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Shopping Finds + Two Outfits

I still feel like I'm being very slack with my blog but life is so distracting right now and I've never been very good at multi-tasking. In lieu of words, which I have practically no ability to string together right now, have pictures!

I bought this late 50s/early 60s dress for 35$ at Irving Baby when I went to town on Monday. I didn't have much hope for it when I picked it up off of the rack but it looked a million times better on (and I'm a lot happier about this fact than my expression would indicate - I just have an aversion to smiling in full length shots I take of myself) and I knew I had to take it home with me for it is perfect for Autumn! I've been told it's Autumn but Summer still seems to be clinging on with dear life. It did get a bit overcast today, though...

I stopped by Big Star as they are having a 50% off sale (my friends and I have been musing on the reason - are they closing? I sure hope not) and decided to take a look through the secondhand vinyl. I'm more excited about the George Formby record than anything else, to tell the truth. There were a few others I had to put back because I couldn't quite afford them like The Hollies and the soundtrack for It's Trad, Dad!


And I got this bowtie from Midwest Trader for 20$ (it should've been 30$ but the fella there thought that was too expensive and knocked the price down for me...how lovely). I've wanted one like this for ages...ideally, I wanted a black one but I do love red. I plan on wearing it with a white blouse and a circle skirt and pretending I'm (a brunette) Doris Day.

I wore this on Wednesday to meet a friend for coffee. Although, I don't drink coffee so I had an iced chocolate instead. I usually wear this dress with the belt of the same fabric and my hair up in a ponytail but I decided I wanted it to look a little less Sandy and a bit more Pink Ladies on that occassion.

Outfit details: sunglasses - ?; necklace - from mum; dress - made by my mum; belt - gift; bracelet - Rubi Shoes; shoes - Big W.

Yesterday I met up with another friend in town for more iced chocolate-y drinks, this time from Chocolate Bean, which I highly recommend to anyone in or visiting Adelaide. There are yummy vegan goodies, too! Sometimes it's nice to wear all black but I spent a good deal of my teen years (from maybe 17 to 19 or 20) wearing mainly black so I don't like to do it too often anymore.

Outfit details: hair scarf - hand-me-down; vintage Tiki pendant - Salvo's; bracelet - Cotton On; top - Target; belt - gift; pedal pushers - Big W; shoes - Big W; sunglasses - ?.

Second day curls. And I changed my glasses.

Two things I've noticed:
1. There is nothing vintage in either of those outfits. Actually, there is the scarf and the Tiki pendant.
2. I'm very good at taking the same photo of myself over and over. Very amusing!

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

P.S. I didn't seem to have too much trouble with the words after, did I? I'd also like to say I'm trying to keep up with commenting on other blogs, replying to comments here and also answering questions on formspring but am currently failing. Apologies. At least I have an iPhone, now, and can tweet more often!

Kustom Kulture Weekender

I had grand plans, this year, of attending everything for the Kustom Kulture Weekender...however, I ended up only going to the Saturday night, which was still a lot of fun. I bought a very cute cushion cover, drooled over fab dresses I couldn't afford, listened to some very good tunes and did my best to dance to ska.

I had a hard time getting ready because I was incredibly frustrated with my hair that day. However, I managed to turn a humble ponytail into a Betty Grable-esque updo, which I wasn't 100% satisfied with but felt a lot better about it than I initially had with my ponytail.

It didn't really help that I was in one of those moods where I didn't want to wear anything but one specific dress and had to do my hair accordingly (I didn't have time to set my hair properly, so had to attack it with a very dodgy curling iron).

As absolutely amazing as this dress is, I've only worn it once before! I think it suits having my hair down better than up...what do you all think?

Here are some photos of people who are not me! Gasp! There were so many well dressed people there but I was only brave enough to photograph those I knew a little.

This is my friend Kate, who I went with. That's not a tattoo on her arm - it's the stamp we got at the door.
I decided to include the 'silly' pose photo as well as this one. She made the very cute skirt she's wearing.
This is Lou, who I met for the first time that night. She's a very lovely lady who I've been friends with on Facebook (although I was so flustered at talking to someone I didn't know - I'm a very shy person by nature - that I hadn't realised when we started talking) and she also makes some amazing hats.

This is Molly who is always impeccably dressed with her hair perfectly coiffed.

And this is Evelyn, who I've never seen look less than amazing (she was sporting some killer heels) - I met her at a Lucky Seven show last year, some time. I think it may have been at their Tiki Show, actually.

I'm glad that I finally have photos of others to share with you all - only, I feel rotten that I don't have photos of anything else. Ah well, there's always next year!

And, as I mentioned I tried my best at dancing to ska (not so easy in a pencil dress, wearing wedge heels - especially when you're ska dancing skills aren't quite that great to start with!) here's one of my favourite tunes that has a pretty nifty video.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

P.S. Thanks to everyone for the lovely comments on the post about my mum. She was super chuffed!

Style Icons {My Mum}

Today is my mum's birthday so I thought I would do my style icon post on her. As I mentioned when I started this series, these aren't necessarily posts about people I want to look or dress like but those who inspire me nonetheless (although, I do wish Mum had kept some of her clothes!). My mum has always encouraged and supported me - and I know she's proud of me and who I am and loves the way I dress - and been a positive force throughout my life - I often turn to her for advice, sartorial or otherwise, and even if I don't always take it, it's always appreciated.

Here are some (vintage) photos of my fabulous mum, dating from the 60s to the 70s. Some are better quality than others, depending on who did the scanning - most of the colour images are scanned straight from slides, the others are all scanned from prints of photographs.

Mum's 21st, 1970








Mum on her honeymoon in 1967.

I'm not very good at expressing my feelings and delving into what I call 'mushy' territory but Happy Birthday, Mum! Thank-you for being awesome. I love you.


Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Op-Shopping Spoils and an Outfit

Just a brief post to show off some things I found whilst op-shopping the other day as well as last night's outfit. Firstly, the op-shopping goodies:

My favourite knitting patterns are from the 1960s and 1970s because of the cheesy photographs on them!

I found the vintage, fully fashioned stockings (right) for 1$!

I'm incredibly excited to finally have my own copy of Interview With the Vampire as well as having a book of Wilfred Owen's poems - he's one of my favourite poets.

A while ago I started collecting 1950s/60s hardback novels with nifty cover art and I still have to pick them up whenever I see them in an op-shop. The one on the left is my favourite - it's smaller than the others I have and I think it might be older, too, but there is a page missing which I think may have had the publishing date on it.

Not pictured are a pink gingham blouse and a yellow cardigan because I forgot about them. Oops!

I've mainly just been re-wearing outfits lately and not thinking up new ones - last night I wore this dress, again, to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (not in 3D). I wasn't overly impressed by the film but I had good company and was wearing what I think may be one of my favourite dresses.

It does need to have the hem taken down just a smidge, though. It looks OK at this length but I prefer my knees to be completely hidden by my hemline!

Tonight I am off to the Kustom Kulture Weekend, which I'm certain will be a grand old time. Hopefully, I'll take some half decent photos this time.

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

Outfit Roundup - Three Fringe Shows

What I wore to see Drags Aloud At the Movies, last Wednesday.

Outfit details: hair flower - Diva; gloves - gift; belt - gift; 1940s crepe dress - Gilles Street Market; seamed stay-ups - Jonathan Aston; vintage heels - Salvo's.

I got quite a few compliments on my hair that night (one of them being from one of the drag queens I saw later - I can't remember her name for the life of me, though), which made me happy because I just threw the style together, as it were, at the last minute as I didn't set my hair that day.

This coat, whilst being utterly gorgeous, presented somewhat of a conundrum for me. You see, it has a real fur collar and I always swore I would never wear real fur. However, it's vintage (I actually picked it up at a Salvos for a steal) which means that, not only am I not actually supporting the fur industry, I'm also recycling. I still don't like fur (the feel of it near my skin is rather repulsive) but I love this coat so I'll keep it for now. If you do buy fur, please only buy vintage or second-hand fur because, as horrible as it is that any article of clothing used to be a living creature, at least it hasn't been killed recently and no money is going to the current fur industry.

Conundrum aside, I had a wonderful night! The show was fantastic as, of course, were the costumes.

The next show was Rich Fulcher's An Evening With Eleanore The Tour Whore. I didn't get a full length shot (I wore this dress) but I took a couple of photos when my friend Stef and myself went into Amococo, which was a lovely experience.

Then, last but certainly not least, Saturday night I went to see Uni and Her Ukulele at the Electric Light Hotel. I am a terrible blogger and did not take any photos but here is photographic evidence (from left to right in that picture: Uni, myself, my friends Kate and Stef) that I was actually there. Uni was excellent as was Meredith Axelrod who also played...and, of course, Radio Spectacular! Phebe and I were doing the same course at TAFE (she is in her third and final year, now) but I had never seen a Radio Spectacular gig until Saturday night - it was definitely a fantastic show. Oh. And this is what I wore -

Outfit details: vintage tiki pendant - Salvo's; top - op-shopped; bracelet - etsy; skirt - Goodwill; stockings - Love Kylie; shoes - K-Mart.

I was going to write a little more but I am terribly exhausted after a day of somewhat successful op-shopping so I shall say good evening to you all and until next time!

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

P.S. Just noticed how miserable I look in the first few pictures - blimey!

Silver Screen Sunday {The Blue Dahlia}

I know it's not Sunday but it seems that it's becoming a habit of mine to post these late! Apologies, yet again, but as I mentioned the other day I've been rather distracted of late. The distractions have all been rather good but distracting nonetheless.


Today, I've decided to look at George Marshall's The Blue Dahlia, from 1946. With a screenplay by Raymond Chandler it has some very slick dialogue and was actually nominated for an oscar for best writing, original screenplay in 1947. The film stars Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd - it was the the third of four films they made together - and centres around the story of Navy pilot Lieutenant Commander Johnny Morrison, who returns home to find his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) paryting and living it up with night-club owner Eddie Harwood (Howard de Silva). Johnny walks out on Dorothy later in the night and ends up hitching a ride with Joyce (Lake), who happens to be Harwood's estranged wife. When Helen is found murdered, Johnny is the number one suspect and seeks to clear his name with a little help from Joyce along the way. For a more detailed (as in there are those horrible, nasty things I destest: spoilers) plot description go here.

Now, on to the pictures! Firstly, who could go past the loveliness of Veronica Lake's understated style? (Her costumes were designed by Edith Head).

I can just picture her wearing a coat like this one, found here on etsy.

I simply adore 1940s evening gowns. This one was found here on etsy.

Even though I'm more than a little bit in love with Miss Lake's hair my absolute favourite style in this film is the one sported by Doris Dowling as Helen Morrison:

Isn't it divine? I've been wanting to get my hair cut (I love it this length but there's just so much hair to contend with!) but the only thing holding me back is that I won't be able to braid my hair and pin it up on my hair if I do. What's a girl to do? (At least my hair grows fairly quickly).

Of course, I was a little bit distracted by the men as they are very well dressed...

My favourite things from the above pictures: Alan Ladd wearing his hat pushed back (it's too adorable!) and Tom Powers and William Bendix with no jackets on because it shows one wearing braces, the other with a belt. It's the little things that get to me!

Last, but not least, here is a shot of Alan Ladd walking in the rain - how very noir!


Actually, two more things:

1. It seems you can watch the film on youtube. Here's a link to some playlists as more than one person has uploaded the film.
2. A trailer:

Love,
Andi B. Goode
x

P.S. I put some screencaps up on flickr.