Old School Vs New Look

Today, to pass the time at work as it has been extremely quiet, I have been pouring through some blogs. The one that really caught my eye was that of the Finnish milliner Fiona Timantti (that’s ‘Fiona Diamond’ to all you non-finnish speakers).

 Looking at the photographs, the one thing that is striking is her impeccable style. That hair, that make-up, those clothes.. gorgeous.

Makes me wonder about my own style, though.

I think I am a bit of an 80s girl/modern minimalists myself, meaning that I like suits and clean lines. I can’t do prints, I cannot wear dresses. Don’t get me wrong – the vintage-loving me loved the idea of rocking the Dior  ‘New Look’- dresses with the flared skirts and the fitted bodices, looking like a poised and polished extra from ‘Mad Men’. But alas, that is not me. I have all my adult life worked in boyish professions, swear like a sailor, have no problems walking out the house with jeans and a hoodie – much as I may like it, I am not a girly girl at all.

 But yeah, I do like glamour, and the nice hair. Does it fight with my own feminist views, is the old-school style oppressive in any way? Let’s face it, in the olden days the job of a woman was to shut up and look pretty, as well as cook dinner and make her husband look good.

 Well, no. I think feminism has liberated people to the extent that they can damned well squeeze themselves into dresses and painstakingly maintain their old-fashioned beauty of they want to – or refuse to do so. So relax .

But back to the issue of fashion..

 The big question for me is ‘how do I adapt that into this tomboyish non-rocker-rocker look’. Can I pull of ‘vintage glamour’ without dressing like a remnant from the 1950s? Can you work a 50s face with grungey jeans, false eyelashes and red lip with leggings?

 Don’t know… I may have to find out.