The Voodoo Island 1950s Tiki Exotica Ball

Some of you may remember my posts about the 1940s WWII Ball that The Mister and I attended back in June.

The 1940s WWII Ball and the 1940s White Christmas Ball are so popular that the organizers decided to throw a 1950s Voodoo Island Tiki Exotica Ball for the first time this year. The event was held the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and after I told my friends how much fun we'd had at the WWII Ball, they all signed up themselves and their husbands for the Tiki Ball!

Ever since I threw my Tiki Party last summer (which I sadly have NO pictures from but here's my Pinterest planning board), I've been very intrigued by tiki culture. I checked out every book on the subject I could get my hands on and read up on Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic and all of the rest, so the idea of a 1950s Tiki Exotica Ball was right up my alley! Of course, I needed an appropriate vintage frock.

I didn't have time to run to the local vintage clothing stores searching so when I found this repro 1950s dress in a pattern of bright florals, I grabbed it! The colors are actually perfect for my red hair, and since it's a new dress instead of vintage, it was sized for modern women. I'd hoped to try faux bangs but couldn't get them to work out so I just curled my hair with a curling iron. I spent an hour straightening my hair and then another hour on the curls but they were basically straight by the time we left the house! Ironic that my hair wouldn't hold a curl, since it's naturally curly in the first place.

For makeup, I did dark brows, cat-eye liner, fake lashes and wore my Revlon Fire & Ice lipstick, a shade that was first introduced in 1952 so it was period-correct! It's a very orangey-red so it was perfect with the coral shades in the flowers on my dress. I accessorized with a vintage seashell box purse with bamboo handles, a new but vintage-style coral bead necklace, vintage cat-eye sunglasses, and a fantastic set of vintage rhinestone bracelet and clip earrings that matched the dress perfectly.

My girlfriends their husbands all dressed up too, and it was so fun to see everybody's outfits. I think we looked smashing!

The guys had it easy--aloha shirts and khakis all around. The Mister wore a pair of vintage Ray-Ban Wayfarers--his pair were made in the 1980s, but the original Wayfarers came out in 1956.

The event itself was held in the beautiful outdoor courtyard of a hotel about an hour north of where we live. It really was a perfect location and they brought in palm trees, tiki torches, and colored lanterns to really make it feel tropical and festive. There was even a giant smoke-spewing tiki statue!

There was an artist carving tiki statues out of tree trunks with a chainsaw,

vintage cars on display, several tiki bars serving up fancy drinks, a mermaid in the pool, a pin-up swimsuit contest, and a limbo contest emcee'd by Carmen Miranda. The highlight of the evening was a performance by a Polynesian music and dance group, which included fire dancers!

The evening itself was just beautiful and the setting was really lovely, but sharing it with our friends was the best part! We're already making plans to go to the 1940s White Christmas party in December--time to start looking for a dress!