The 1940s White Christmas Ball part 1: What we wore

These photos are almost two months old but they're too fun not to share anyway! You may remember that back in June 2012, The Mister and I attended the 1940s WWII Ball (part 1 is here, part 2 is here).

Then in August, some friends joined us and we went to the 1940s and 50s Voodoo Island Tiki Ball, put on by the same organization that does the other party.

 

The organization puts on a third event called the 1940s White Christmas Ball, and since we'd had such a great time at the other two parties, The Mister and I decided to go! The dress for this event was formal or dressy 1940s attire, which to me means one thing: SPARKLES! I was only too happy to pick through my collection of vintage rhinestone jewelry to find some sparkles to wear.

While it would have been wonderful to wear a long evening gown, finding something authentic 1940s in my size is pretty near impossible and even if I had gotten lucky, it would have been crazy expensive. I ended up wearing this dress that The Mister actually picked out for me months before--it's by Stop Staring, a company that makes beautiful retro-style dresses.

It has a 1940s-style sweetheart neckline and a cute little faux peplum around the waist. Since it's not really an evening dress, I had to make it fancier with my accessories. I added a big, sparkly brooch with long rhinestone dangles to the bodice.

The brooch is a (thrifted) vintage Kandell &Marcus NY and it's gorgeous! It's over 4" long and makes quite the statement so for this occasion it was perfect.

SPARKLES!! I wore a pair of long black evening gloves, a wide rhinestone bracelet, beautiful rhinestone clip earrings, and the star-shaped brooch was pinned in my hair. I carried the black beaded bag, a sentimental treasure that I bought way back on my study abroad to London in 1998.

I also wore nude back-seam stockings with a black Cuban heel and a pair of low-heeled black pumps. Finding authentic 1940s shoes in my size is even more unlikely than finding a dress, so I did my best to find shoes that had the right silhouette (rounded toe, mid-height slightly curvy heel) and ended up with these Clarks. They were okay in a pinch, but I really wish I'd been able to find the black suede version in my size because they would have looked dressier.

For my hair this time, I decided not to do Victory rolls and instead to go for an old-Hollywood starlet kind of style. When I found this photo of Scarlett Johansson, I knew it was exactly the look I was going for!

For makeup, I did pretty much the same colors as I used for the summer 1940s WWII ball, with the iconic 1940s dark eyebrow and red lips to match my dress. And fake eyelashes, of course!

The Mister decided to go full-out Humphrey Bogart and rented a white dinner jacket and tuxedo pants.

Of course we had to add a red carnation in his lapel! He even had the perfect cufflinks for the occasion:

They're hard to see unless you click the picture to enlarge, but they commemorate the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime intelligence agency that was the precursor to the CIA. I don't mind telling you that The Mister looked HOT!

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of us at the actual event!

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!

The 1940s WWII Ball--Part Two: What we did

Once victory rolls were pinned and sprayed and we were dressed up, we hit the road to Boulder (in case you missed the post about our outfits, it's here). Boulder is normally a bit less than an hour's drive, so we planned to arrive at the party a bit after 6:00 pm. However, the location of the ball had precisely one road in and one road out, and that little road was dotted with stoplights every block or so. You can imagine how well that went--we sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for a good 30-40 minutes, all to travel the distance of about a mile.  I do believe they plan to hire somebody to direct traffic next year.

Once we got there and out of the car, we got our first glimpses of the fantastic costumes that our fellow partygoers were wearing! The sweet older gentleman who parked next to us was wearing his own white Navy sailor uniform and told us that this was the second year he had flown in for the Ball. He was on his own, but later in the evening I saw him dancing with more than one pretty young girl, so I guess he found himself some company! :)

Because we wasted so much time stuck in traffic, unfortunately we missed the first big events of the evening: swing dance lessons, a swing dance performance, and then a USO-style show featuring impersonators of Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters, and more performers. Bummer!

What we did get there in time to do was wander around the grounds, people-watching and looking at the displays. Because it was the airport, there were some beautiful old airplanes on display.

I forgot to note which kind of aircraft this was, but I do remember that this next one is an Avenger, which is the kind of Navy bomber that was flown by George H.W. Bush. They let us climb up on the wing for photos!

I am not actually taller than the Mister--he was standing down-wing of me. Something to remember for next year!

There was also a Sopwith Camel, which you may remember as the plane that Snoopy flies. :) Even though it is technically a WWI plane, the one on display was beautifully restored and made for a great photo backdrop!

 In addition to the airplanes there were also displays of old Army equipment scattered over the grounds,

like this old bicycle, tents, Jeeps, and this table set up like a field desk.

The Coke bottles were not era-correct! I could have brought some from my own collection to fix that. :)

Really, the best thing to do was check out people and the incredible outfits they were wearing! It was amazing to me that nearly everybody dressed up! Some were in true vintage, some were in reproduction vintage clothing, some in a modern interpretation of 1940s style, some in vintage of other eras (1950s-60s), and some were just dressed up for a party--but everyone was dressed up! Nobody just showed up in jeans and a t-shirt.

It was also fun to see the different ways that people interpreted 1940s style. This couple came dressed as farmers complete. with "Dig for Victory" pins on their overalls

This woman was dressed as a sexy cigarette girl

These girls looked fantastic

There were a few nurses, even a few complete with vintage nurses' capes

And this girl was one of my favorites. Name that movie!

We saw people in military uniforms (USA, Vichy French and German), some in Hawaiian shirts,  a 'reporter' in a seersucker suit and straw Panama hat with a "Press" card in the band. There was an Uncle Sam (from the I WANT YOU poster), Navy Seabees in their sailor hats, white shirts, denim shirts with sleeves rolled up and dungarees, a couple of vintage baseball uniforms, pilots, men in zoot suits, girls in everything from day dresses to evening gowns and men in suspenders and fedoras.

I personally got quite a few compliments on my dress, which tickled me! One woman told me that out of all the dresses she'd seen that night, mine was her favorite--and there were a lot of amazing dresses there, so that was high praise indeed!

For entertainment, there was a really fantastic swing band playing music and some very crowded dance floors. One other neat thing that I wasn't able to photograph because of the crowds was that they had a large empty aircraft hanger that was open on one side and the inside was decorated to look like Rick's Cafe Americain from the movie "Casablanca". They had a vendor inside selling Middle Eastern food (which smelled amazing!), a piano on a stage, a bar, and even a roulette table where you could play to win raffle prizes. They'd even constructed a lighted sign for the Cafe just like in the movie, and had the movie playing on a screen throughout the night.

 Scheduled for later in the night (after we'd left) they had a re-enactment planned and 'Sam' was to play "As Time Goes By", and the famous good-bye scene at the plane with 'Rick' and 'Ilsa'. Later that night they also had a radio announcement that the War was over, complete with a balloon drop and a celebratory Conga line.

Even though we had to leave early to get back to the babysitter, we had SUCH a wonderful evening! The setting and weather were perfect, the music delightful, the costumes a feast for the eyes--my vintage nerd-o-meter was totally redlining. :) We definitely plan to go again next year, and may have recruited some friends to go with us. Now I have a whole year to find the perfect dress and get my victory roll technique perfected!

The 1940s WWII Ball--Part One: What we wore

Saturday night was simply magical! Last summer a friend told me about a local event called the 1940s WWII Ball. It's held at a tiny airport about an hour north of here and we weren't able to go last year but the photos made it look like so much fun that I vowed we'd attend this year. I'm so glad we did--it was fantastic!

I knew from last year's photos that everyone goes in 1940s attire, so I started searching Etsy for something to wear. Soon there just wasn't time to order anything and I wasn't able to go out searching the local vintage clothing stores with two kids in tow, so I decided to wear the only 1940s dress I own, a dress that I purchased last summer. Because the ball has a WWII theme, I added a pretty vintage patriotic rhinestone pin to the collar.

With this dress I have previously worn a pair of cherry red patent heels--pretty, but not so great for walking around in. I decided instead to go with a pair of red and cream wedges that I've always thought had a bit of 1940s flair. They're comfortable and I love them and I think they looked great with the dress!

As it turned out, much of the event was held in a field complete with weeds and poky thistles, so I was even happier that I decided to ditch the heels for the sensible wedges.

For earrings, I chose a pair of vintage blue moonglow Lucite screw-back buttons that I bought at a garage sale with a matching necklace a few summers ago. They were the perfect shade of blue and I think they were very authentic in style!

The next hurdle was hair and makeup. For a 1940s event, Victory rolls are a must! I've never tried them on my hair because I have naturally curly hair, but for this party I was determined to be authentic. The first step was to spend an hour with my flat iron, straightening my hair. Next, I watched this YouTube video several times.

I practiced once on Maren but I didn't get my rolls tight enough and she ended up looking like the child bride of some freaky polygamist from Southern Utah.

I know that traditionally victory rolls start with a pin curl or hot roller set, but since my hair will curl if it's wet and and I haven't had to use hot rollers in 20 years and therefore don't own any, I had to to the best I could with my little curling iron. I managed to get it all wrestled and pinned and am happy with how it all turned out.

For makeup, I used an auburn-colored eyebrow pencil to match my new red hair, watched yet more YouTube videos on how to do 1940s eyeliner (still haven't mastered that skill) and even went for the gusto with false eyelashes! And of course, red lipstick with my lips drawn to match the 1940s full style.

The Mister did some research on men's fashions in the 1940s and ended up wearing a pair of navy pinstriped trousers and matching vest, with a white shirt and beautiful red tie. He looked handsome!

And now that we were all fancied up, we were ready to party....more on that tomorrow!

My new vintage dress

The Mister had Friday off of work, so we took Porter and headed an hour north to Boulder so he could visit a bike shop in preparation for the Ironman race he's doing in November. The day was lovely and definitely felt of Autumn--cool air, and warm sunshine. It was a fun day to be out walking with Porter in the stroller and reminded me of a long time ago, when we had only one little almost-two-year old child.

It's been quite a while since I last visited Boulder--years, probably. Back in September of 2007 I went there for the day and happened upon a cute little consignment store with great prices and new & antique merchandise. I'd hoped to visit it again, but I couldn't remember exactly where it had been. I walked around looking for it, but if it's still there I didn't find it. Rats! I did stumble upon the Buffalo Exchange, a clothing consignment chain store that I've always wanted to visit because I know someone who has found great vintage stuff there. So there I was in uber-liberal-hippie Boulder, Colorado, in the Buffalo Exchange, looking for vintage clothing, while Bjork blared loudly over the PA--it was quite the Hipster moment! I did find a really neato ruffled leather belt and this darling leopard-print swing coat

which was only $11 and is in perfect condition! It will be so fun with a pair of black pants for this Fall.

After lunch we stopped into another vintage clothing store, where I found a really fabulous dress. It was pricey--about three times what I paid for this vintage dress--but it fit like a dream and it was too wonderful to pass up!

After I took these photos, I tried it on with my petticoat, which helped to really show off the full skirt.

 I love the V on the back. I think the back of the neck & shoulders is such a lovely feminine part of the body and I love to find clothing that shows that off, without being a plunging V.

Here's a (somewhat blurry) closeup of the pattern. It's a bright almost coral pink, lighter pink, ivory and black.

And these are my cute new shoes that match perfectly! They're the Hover by Nina Bandolino, and I picked them up when we went to Washington D.C. back in the end of July. I love them because they have a bit of vintage flair. The bows on the fronts of mine are much perkier! I also love that they don't have a huge platform. I'm SO OVER the platform trend in heels right now. Surely I can't be the only one that feels that way, right?