A Style Post – Tropical Print Dress and two-strap shoes.

Hi All,

S/S’12 and all those great new trends and colours we’re yet to wear! I wear black and navy blue so often that I long for bright colour pops when spring comes around.

Trend-wise I love the Tropicana prints at Stella McCartney, Salvatore Ferragamo and Dior. Tropical prints featuring palm trees, parrots, surfers and even mermaids (Versace), in shades of bluem green, colablt and teal.

Colour-wise, I love the  shades of rich blues and greens; I presume that when Spring / Summer colours are presented each year very often they’re pale pastel shades so as not to alarm us? Pretty but also pretty plain. I prefer the bold strong colours that filter through as the season progresses.

And boy am I getting ready to wear them. The dress is vintage, it was knee-length and I chopped and hemmed it to mini-skirt perfectios, the pockets are awesome, more pockets in dresses please! – to anyone who’s listening…

Now I’m of the nearest Tiki bar for a piña colada, while I wait for some tropical sunshine.

Dress & Bag, ORVintage

Shoes, Zara

Yours, 

Whisty Xx

A Style Post – of sorts

OR: I’m a blogger and I gots to get paid.

Hey All,

How the dickens are you? It’s been a while, but I have returned from an impromptu sabbatical that involved a little vintage expedition. he role of ‘blogger’ is very often used with a slash. As in, she’s a DJ / actress / blogger. More recently the trend of the slash list is more along the lines of she’s a vintage seller / blogger.

It makes sense really especially if the blogger in question is a vintage fan and has a pretty large stock of vintage pieces… You can see where I am going with this right? So yes Whsity has embarked on a teeny tiny vintage project with a company called Once Removed, ‘launching’ a range of vintage pieces, called Once Removed Vintage.

Here’s a few of the pieces on-line:

Suits

Vintage 80’s Floral Suit

Vintage 80’s Thistle Print Suit

Maxi Dresses

Vintage 70’s Maxi Dress with Matching Cape

Vintage 70’s Tapestry Print Maxi Dress

Shirts & Skirts

Vintage 80’s Check Print, Roll Sleeve Top

Vintage 80’s ruffle-neck shirt & Vintage 80’s Leather Pencil Skirt

Vintage 70’s Paisley Jacket & Vintage 80’s Pleated Midi Skirt

Dresses

Vintage 80’s Denim ‘Rah-Rah’ Dress

Vintage 80’s ‘Laura Ashley’ Cocktail dress

Vintage 70’s Pink Secretary Dress

And a couple of pieces I may just have half-inched for my own wardrobe…

Vintage 80’s striped shirt & Vintage 80’s reworked pleated skirt

Vintage 80’s Leopard Print Blazer.

Yours,

Whisty Xx

‘Like’ the Facebook page HERE.

Shop the collection on Asos Marketplace HERE and Etsy HERE.

Lucy in Disguise in Dublin

Hey All,

If you watched any of Channel 4‘s Riches to Rags documentary you’ll know that Lily Allen and her sister, Sarah Owen worked together to create high-end vintage collection, ‘Lucy in Disguise‘ which culminated in the opening of a flagship store in Covent Garden, central London.

This weekend the two company founders were in Dublin to launch their pre-fall collection of vintage-inspired fashions in Brown Thomas Dublin and BT2 Dundrum. The collection takes inspiration from various past eras and each piece is named after a place or time from a different decade. Like, ‘Altamont’, ‘The Roxy’, ‘Goldrush’, ‘Capone’, and ‘Zanzibar’. It’s a clever way of describing each piece; without even seeing the collection you immediately imagine a  collection of romantic yet edgy pieces.

Lily wears, the short ‘Honky Tonk’ dress €130; Sarah Wears the Silk ‘South Kensington’ Maxi dress, €320. This one is undoubtedly my favourite.

More examples from the collection:Pink chiffon maxi-dress, €355; Black lace maxi-dress, €475.

Pink chiffon dress, €355

Red jersey jumpsuit, €230; Silk sequinned dress, €475

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It’s a brave collection, with so many Maxi-dresses and jumpsuits that are both notoriously tricky retail-wise. With original vintage dresses, they are very often made of heavy polyester so the design team behind Lucy in Disguise have been clever to use lighter, floaty fabrics for their vintage-inspired designs. I think I’d still prefer the real thing, but then with those prices I have no choice!

Yours,

Whisty Xx

Photography Focus: A Romance Antithesis

Hey All,

I trust you’re getting suitably amorous in the knowledge that the cheesiest day of the year is upon us…

If, however, you’re anything like me, you couldn’t care less about Feb 14th. Indulge yourself instead in some positively non-romantic photography from James McLoughlin.

The Dublin based photographer got the cover of Totally Dublin magazine this month. He photographed three Skinheads on Ha’Penny Bridge… in the snow. I’ve posted about skins as a fashion & music-related subculture before – here, so it is great to see the subculture in Dublin.

If Skinhead subculture is not your thing, then this shoot James McLoughlin did for 9Crow Street, Vintage store in Temple Bar might be more up your street.

Yours,

Whisty Xx

As Seen in: RTÉ’s RedRadar Blog

Hey All,

It seems the extraordinarily in-the-know people at RTÉ have embraced Irish bloggers with gusto and asked us to contribute to their new alternative fashion and music blog, RedRadar.

Today, Whisty joined the list of great bloggers, Angela Scanlon, Blaubushka, A Chick Named Hermia and The Style Strutter by contributing a few words.

TRANSCRIPTION:

It used to be, that buying from charity shops was an absolute no-no. But now-a-days most in-the-know shoppers wouldn’t dream of passing a charity shop without popping in for a browse. The same goes for vintage boutiques; both offer a chance to find unique and fabulous second-hand pieces. The main difference is simply price.

Charity shops are cheaper, but you often have to go on the hunt to find the vintage pieces. Not all charity shops sell vintage, so you really have to know what you’re looking for. However, it is becoming more common to see specifically dedicated rails to all that is chic from a bygone era.

Vintage boutiques on the other hand, display everything with detailed descriptions including make, style, fabric and most importantly what era it’s from.

TOP TIPS

• TRY IT ON: Sizing has changed a lot over the years. If you are a size 10 in today’s shops, you might find that size 12 fits better in vintage.
• ACCESSORISE: If you’re unsure about buying from charity shops, think accessories. Jewellery, scarves and hats are a great place to start and you can easily incorporate them into your current wardrobe.

The photo is me and one or two of my better vintage finds:

I’m posting this photo from the HerApparel post because you can just see my new Carvela for KG shoes (from BT‘s).

Yours,

Whisty Xx

A look with a view – a style post

Hey All,

I thought I would get to work on managing this new palette. I’ve since discovered that  when wearing leather in trench coat form, chocolate-brown is pretty much the only colour you can get away with. Black is a bit Goth and grey is a bit Schindler’s List… Also, showing a slightly unhinged obsessive personality trait, I went to 4 Topshops before I finally managed to get this hat.

This coat was actually my Da’s when he was, quite evidently, a ‘cool-cat’ a long time before I was born…

All other outfit details on HerApparel.

Yours,

Whisty Xx