Breaking News: Vintage Elle THE SHOP!

Psst... word on the street is that Vintage Elle is powering ahead next week and giving their lucky fans a first glimpse of their fabulous new shop stock tomorrow. Eek!

Sorry that our online shop opening is a little bit behind schedule, but I have been really busy lately styling a Jane Austen shoot as part of the BBC's Pride and Prejudice 200 year anniversay celebrations. Exciting times! (I'll be revealing lots of images of that over Easter.) However, now we are full steam ahead with our shop. We have been stocking up and have lots of gorgeous, quality vintage items to show you. I can't wait to get the pictures online. I hope you love all the pretty dresses as much as I do <3

I'll be uploading it all to our Facebook page first, so make sure you 'like' us at https://www.facebook.com/VintageElle. When we reach 150 Facebook fans I will be hosting a giveaway to get one of our items for absolutely FREE so make sure you keep an eye out for that.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all the lovely Vintage Elle fans <3 How will you be wearing your vintage green?

Costume Design Oscar Nominations 2013

It's that time of year again- Oscar nominations!

And the nominees for Best Costume Design are-

Anna Karenina by Jacqueline Durran

Les Misérables by Paco Delgado

Lincoln by Joanna Johnston

Mirror Mirror by Eiko Ishioka

Snow White and the Huntsman by Colleen Atwood

All the designs this year are so fantastic, it's bound to be really tough choosing a winner. I feel like I want Les Misérables to win as I absolutely adored the film, but I don't think the costumes were the best from this year. I think that Anna Karenina deserves the Oscar this year as the designs were so stylish and beautiful. Jacqueline Durran was blessed however with having to design for Keira Knightly- she could be dressed in a bin liner and make it look Oscar worthy!

Who do you think designed the best costumes this year?

Inspiration - Street Art in Barcelona

Good news photos are working again, so here's a long awaited post!

Last August I went on a summer holiday to Barcelona. They've been a long time coming, but finally here are the photos!

I completely fell in love with the Spanish city and ended up becoming a little bit obsessed with all the fantastic street art. Everyone in Barcelona seems to be so fantastically artistic and everywhere you go there is something fascinating to look at. The graffiti is incredible and there are brilliant street performances to watch everywhere. Place all this amongst fantastic buildings by Gaudi and you are on to a winner! I even stumbled across loads of antique markets and vintage shops. Besides London, this is the one other city that I could imagine myself living in.

I took absolutely thousands of photos, but here is a roundup of my favourite pictures of Barcelona's street art. I hope you enjoy them and feel inspired to go there yourself. I definitely recommend it.

New Year Freebie!

So, the Vintage Elle Blog team are still having some technical difficulties with posting pictures. :-( We have lots of great posts planned and will hopefully be up and running again asap!

 

For now here is a new year present for you all. These 2 images below are my 2 favourite wallpaper tiles. They line up perfectly to create fabulous vintage backgrounds to the size you want. I use these all the time as wallpaper, for scrapbooking, scaled models, backgrounds for websites and to mount pictures on. You can even change the colours in Photoshop to give you even more versatility.

I'd love to see what fun things you use these for. Comment with a link or email to amy(at)amycartwright(dot)co(dot)uk :-)

 

Christmas Trip to Whitby, The Land of Dracula.



I'm so sorry about my lack of posting over the past few weeks. It's been a really crazy Christmas! Tristan and I just got a new car and we have ended up pretty much driving around the whole of Britain in it to visit family.

I am having some massive problems with uploading photos, so for now here are a few pics from our trip to Whitby, Yorkshire. You wouldn't actually be able to guess how long it's taken me to put this post together!

I had so much fun in Whitby. We went for dinner at the Magpie Cafe, which is meant to have the best fish and chips in the country, and went Vampire hunting in the Whitby Abbey ruins. Unfortunately, lots of the shops were closed, but I still managed to find some Christmas presents and a new 1970s teaset for myself for £4.95. It's gorgeous and a bargain!

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers!

Here at the Vintage Elle Studio we are kind of obsessed with the Ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz (and when I say obsessed I mean majorly obsessed!) They are probably the most famous shoes that have ever exsisted. That is why, when creating our latest collection of sparkly shoes they were the first thing we thought of.

 

As they were such a major part of the Wizard of Oz several pairs of Ruby Slippers were made. 5 pairs are known to exist but there possibly were even more. In the original book 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy's shoes were originally silver. Legend has it that the film producers wanted to take full advantage of the new technicolor technology and decided to make them red... and thank goodness they did! I really don't feel that Dorothy clicking her boring silver heels saying, "there's no place like home" would have had quite the same effect.

 

Aren't they pretty!

It is well known that during the Hollywood Golden Age, Film studios were really careless with their props and costumes. Staff often took advantage of this and took many souveniers home to build up their own collections. In 1970 a costumer called Kent Warner was rummaging around in the MGM basement finding bits of costume to auction off. He came across the stash of Ruby Slippers, which had just been forgotten about. He auctioned them off, keeping the best pair for himself. Lady Gaga even owns a pair now...

...And Debbie Reynolds owns the pointy toed witch version.

It is now believed that Judy Garland only actually wore one of the pairs and they can be found on display at the National Museum of American History. One of the copies is currently on display at the Hollywood Costume Exhibition at the V&A in London and I can't wait to get to see them! Out of all the fabulous costumes that have ever been designed, they were chosen to go on the official book cover! (My boyfriend just gaeme this book as an early Christmas present and I definitely recommend it)

I for one absolutely love this style of shoe. They are so elegant and ladylike, without having a crippling 4 inch heel. This is why we were so inspired to add our own pair to the Vintage Elle upcycled shoe collection. If you take a visit to our Etsy store you could own your very own pair of Ruby Slippers for a lot less than the originals which last sold for $666,000. How exciting! https://www.etsy.com/listing/118121324/ruby-slippers-size-5-handmade

Vintage Elle - Now selling on Etsy!

So I did have an amazing post lined up today on 1920s fashion, but I became a bit side tracked by setting up Vintage Elle's first Etsy store. It's early days yet and it will take me a while to photograph everything, but at least it is now up and running! At the moment I have listed some limited edition prints of some of my drawings and a couple of original canvas paintings. Exciting stuff! You can find my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/VintageElleStudio.

Here's a sneaky peak of what's on offer. Limited Edition prints of my costume designs for Cinderella. Signed, numbered and dated by myself.

The original artwork for these paintings (Although it will be very difficult for me to let them go!)

 AND I am introducing a new illustration entitled 'Vanity'

I will be uploading many more handmade, vintage inspired wares over the next month, so keep your eye on it. New products also include my new line of upcycled vintage glitter shoes! Once I've got photos. Lets just say that taking photos yourself, of shoes that are on your own feet, is proving pretty tricky. Here's a quick preview.

 

Let me know if there is anything in particular that you'd like to see in my shop.

 

...And rest assured that the really exciting post on 1920s fashion will still happen within the next week!