Rita Hayworth fans take note! The BFI in London is holding a Rita Hayworth film season next month, running from 1-30 June.

I have to admit I have seen very few Rita films, so this will be a great chance to remedy that gap. The movie schedule includes Cover Girl, Pal Joey, Angels Over Broadway, Blood and Sand, Only Angels Have Wings, You Were Never Lovelier, You’ll Never Get Rich, Separate Tables, The Lady from Shanghai, and her most iconic role of all, Gilda. The black strapless dress she wears in Gilda was named by The Independent as one of the Ten Best Fashion Moments in Film; when asked by Carol Burnett years later what had held the dress up, Rita famously replied “two things”.

Tickets for films cost £11 for adults and £8.50 for concessions. It looks as though they are already selling fast, so be quick if you want to be sure of seeing your fave!

It has been quite a while since I put any outfit photos on the blog, more recently preferring just to enjoy going out rather than trying to desperately document everything I wear (which actually most of the time is nothing special anyway). However last Saturday I made the effort to get glammed up for karaoke with friends and thought I should take a few snaps for you.
The dress has been seen on the blog before, and is my go-to frock for when I want to feel like an 80s diva. I wore it with bright pink tights, gold shoes, a cropped 80s leather jacket, and blue painted nails. I also carried an extremely fabulous purse made out of old vinyl records, created by the talented Charlotte of Tuppence Ha’Penny.
Now I have to tell you, Charlotte gave me this bag last year and every time I carry it I get a bucketload of compliments, sometimes from total strangers. I should have taken a picture of the inside too, as it is lined with a 50s style fabric that Charlotte designed her very own self – like I said, super talented. I love to carry it when I go to music events – so far it has been to the opera, Tori Amos and karaoke! You can find similar bags (each one is unique) in the Tuppence Ha’Penny online store.

Note: scroll to end of post for picture of myself trying to convey Attitude. Oh dear.

 
Last year I spent a weekend in Paris researching everything the city has to offer in the way of vintage. As is often the way of things, I came home with a camera full of photos, a bulging notebook, sore feet, and a level of such total exhaustion that I couldn’t face actually writing about any of the things I had so diligently documented.

 
Well, now that I have left things a year it is getting rather silly and I really need to share some of my vintage Paris discoveries. I am starting with the Museum of Tea at Mariage Freres, which I found completely by accident. Mariage Freres is a gourmet tea company which has been trading since 1854 and has several branches around Paris. I popped inside the store in the Marais district to browse the selection, and only then discovered that they have a small (and free) museum of tea upstairs from the shop. They also have a rather lovely tea room but sadly wouldn’t allow me to take photographs of it, so you will have to use your imagination.

 
The museum is small but perfectly formed, with displays of old tea chests, tea caddies, and tea drinking equipment from 19th century painted porcelain cups through to art deco beaten metal teapots. And did I mention free? (all too rare in this city). You won’t need much time to browse the collection but it is well worth a detour, and you can stock up on fancy scented teas in the shop afterwards.

 
The museum can be found at 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg, Paris, open 7 days a week 10:30am – 7:30pm.

 
For many years I have longed for a proper 60s teak sideboard, but living in a tiny London flat meant it was filed firmly in the ‘dreams for one day’ mental folder.  Then at the end of last year Mr D and I moved to a bigger apartment, and one of the first things we did (after the cat had calmed down and the books were reshelved) was go onto eBay and look for our very own credenza.

 
We found the above beauty almost immediately and snapped it up, loving the quirky printed panel in the centre and grey doors to the side. The details look so in keeping with the period that I was sure they were original, but on looking closely the dappled centre design is actually applied paper, and the doors are painted in grey. It has been done so stylishly though that I don’t mind at all, and love how unique it looks.

 
There has been a resurgence lately of old furniture being slapped with pastel paint then mauled about by wire brushes to create a so called ‘vintage’ look, which is (in my opinion) only vintage in as much as it was last popular in the 90s (when it was then termed ‘shabby chic’). My lovely new-old sideboard shows that you can revamp and update old furniture while still staying true to the design aesthetics of when it was produced.

 
One of the things I enjoy about selling vintage is posting parcels all around the world and imagining how they will be worn by their new owners. Most of the time all I can do is imagine, but recently I was very lucky to get a full view of how one of my pieces was worn – and by golly, my imagination could never have come up with something so incredible!

 
Drag queen Detox wore this vintage Thierry Mugler dress with sculpted neckline on US TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. It is pretty hard to upstage a Mugler, but Detox managed it with his amazing black and white photo inspired make-up. The dress was rushed to California on priority mail to get there for filming, and I was biting my nails in suspense until it arrived. Thank goodness it got there in time, because these photos of the dress in its fabulous new life absolutely made my week!

 
Deanna Durbin, star of the silver screen in the 30s and 40s, passed away last week at the grand old age of 91. It seems lately that every time a famous actress from times past dies, people say ‘she was the last of the great stars’ or some similar line. I personally don’t think is ever true, because the world will always have stars, and as time inevitably passes by own sense of nostalgia imbues celebrities of old with a sense of mystery and glamour that we don’t afford to those we see in the press every day.

The name Deanna Durbin hasn’t stayed as famous in recent years as that of other actresses, but during the 30s and 40s she was one of the biggest, and most highly paid, people in Hollywood. Deanna made her first film when she was 15 years old, starring with Judy Garland in ‘Every Sunday’.  She went on to make a name for herself in musical comedies, and was as famous for her records as she was for her films. After starring in 22 movies she  retired from acting in 1949 at the age of 27, and spent the rest of her life with her third husband in Paris.

Deanna later confessed that she did not like the Hollywood studio system, and felt no connection to the persona that had been created for her. In a 1958 letter she said: ”The character I was forced into had little or nothing in common with myself – or with other youth of my generation, for that matter.”

 
Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl portrait is one of the most popular and iconic images of the 50s, and still holds pride of place in vintage homes all over the world. The BBC this week interviewed Monika Pon-su-san, the original sitter for the portrait. I thought what she had to say about Tretchikoff and what she thought of the portrait was so interesting that I have transcribed it in full below, but you can also see more images of Monika in the 50s on the original article.

One day in 1950, a curly-haired stranger walked into my uncle’s laundry in Cape Town, where I worked.

He stood there as I served a customer, his eyes fixed on me the whole time. He only spoke when we were alone together in the shop.

“Hello!” he said. “I’m Tretchikoff. I’d love to paint you.”

At that time Vladimir Tretchikoff wasn’t very famous but by chance I had read about him in a newspaper just the Saturday before.

So I was a bit nervous, but I said yes. He picked me up after work and took me back home.

I was given his wife’s gown to put on. It was silk chiffon – beautiful, beautiful stuff. It wasn’t yellow like in the painting – that was his own invention.

A lot of people ask me: “What is that stern look you had on your face? What were you thinking about?” And I always say: “Well you know, one gets tired sitting and just looking.”

All the time I was thinking about Tretchikoff’s life. Because he had had a miserable life – during the war he’d been on a boat for three weeks without food, after his ship was bombed. Then he was imprisoned by the Japanese.

He had lost contact with his wife and daughter. Thinking they were dead he took a lover, but they weren’t dead, and as fate would have it they went to Cape Town, which is where he ended up too. So they got back together again.

I liked him very much. He was a funny man – we always laughed a lot. In all, I was paid six pounds and five shillings for the work.

He had a class of about 20 pupils. All the time I was sitting for him they could see me but I was never allowed to see the painting – it always had its back to me.

I would nag him: “What are you going to call it?” He said that a name would come to him later on. It was only at the end of the six or 10 weeks – I can’t remember exactly how long it took – on the night his exhibition opened that he said it was called Chinese Girl. I thought that was very ordinary.

And when I saw the painting I was so shocked. I thought I looked like a monster from a horror film. I pulled an ugly face and said: “Ugh – green face!”

Right away people started to recognise me. I remember going to a supermarket and a woman shouted: “Look at this girl! She looks just like the painting!”

I decided I had to buy a print. By the time I went to him Tretchikoff had run out, so he gave me one he had used in London when he was on tour. I’ve got it in my lounge.

 There was a block of flats in Cape Town, filled with artists. The man on the ground floor was a sculptor and one day he asked Tretchikoff: “Can I borrow your model?” He wanted to cast a bronze of my face. But Tretchikoff said: “Certainly not!”

I had so many modelling offers but – stupid me – I went and got married and had children, so that was that. I didn’t socialise much, with five children to look after, so I was hidden away from Cape Town’s artists. The offers stopped coming.

I was so disappointed to miss the auction recently. My daughters said to me: “The painting’s sold! The painting’s sold!” And when I found out it had gone for £1m, I jumped up and down, up and down!

Everybody’s fascinated by that painting. I don’t know what it is about it really.

One of my daughters – the second youngest, who is supposed to look like me – said: “I wish I had a lot of money and then I would buy that painting and keep it forever in my own house.”

When I was asked by a journalist if I would let another artist paint me at this moment in time, I said: “No… but if Tretchikoff were alive, I would let him paint me again.”

 
My goodness, hasn’t it been a long time since I’ve written anything to you all! Quite simply, I started a new job two months ago, and with the extra energy it always takes to settle into a new position I just didn’t have the willpower to blog when I got home in the evenings. I will tell you about my new job (which I am hugely enjoying) in another post, but really wanted to first of all share some pictures from Watt’s Gallery, which I visited in January with friends.

 
The gallery itself is filled with paintings by the Victorian artist GF Watts. I will be honest and say I didn’t particularly like them; I was feeling a bit out of sorts that day and the hazy, allegorical, and fairly melancholic nature of the paintings didn’t help my grumpy mood. I much preferred the temporary exhibition they still have on, of Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale. However. Further along the road is a little chapel, designed and built by Mary Watts, which was an utter delight.

 
Watt’s Chapel is detailed on the exterior with the most beautiful Celtic and Medieval inspired tiles in a rich red terracotta. That is beautiful enough, but when you step into the tiny space inside, it is completely covered with glazed tiles of green, red and gold, making up pictures of swirling leaves and art nouveau maidens. I tried to take pictures but it is something you really need to step inside yourself to fully appreciate. Outside, the graveyard is surrounded by trees and rolling countryside. Many of the headstones are made in the same red terracotta as the chapel, and covered in damp green moss. The day we went there was mist on the hills and snowdrops growing in clumps, and it was all extremely atmospheric and lovely.

 
The chapel is one of the most unique buildings I have seen in the UK, and well worth making the journey to the slightly out of the way location. From Guildford station you can drive, take the bus, or catch a taxi.

 
Watts Chapel is open Monday to Sunday: 9am – 5pm

Watts Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday: 11am – 5pm, Sunday: 1pm – 5pm

 
A few weeks ago my brother came to visit, and we decided to use his time in London to check out some of the smaller museums around town. I had long been interested in visiting The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeoloogy, so we moseyed on down to Bloomsbury to take a look. Apologies in advance for the blurry photographs which were taken on my phone, having left my camera at home.

 
Now I shall not tell a lie: The Petrie Museum is for proper, dedicated Egyptian history nerds. It is a University museum so doesn’t have the huge funding of a more popular attraction, and it is very obvious that it is there for academic purposes rather than ‘oooh look!’ purposes. Labelling is uninformative in the extreme (see photographs for reference). In fact many of the labels appear to have been typewritten in the 70s and are still in the same dark and dusty cabinet they first appeared in – which to me rather adds to the charm rather than lessening it.

 
What I did find extremely interesting though, were the artefacts relating to Egyptian fashion and beauty. Many of the implements on display were thousands of years old, and not so very different from the beauty devices we still use today. In fact I am pretty sure I could find replicas of most of the necklaces any day of the week down at Camden markets! Much of the time we think of Egyptian history as being a kind of exotic past filled with strange carved hieroglyphics and painted sarcophagi and looming pyramids. But what I found most touching were the little examples of everyday life which in many ways was not so different to how we live now – sticks and paint pots for applying kohl, games boards, combs, hand mirrors, earrings, tweezers, hair pins, and opium measures for the more decadent individuals. In particular I was taken with the metal hair curlers, which, decorations aside, are the exact same shape as the hair clips we still use to set our hair in place today.

 
They also had two long gowns, still intact after 4000 years. Now that really IS vintage! It made me realise how timeless the practice of decorating ourself is, and that whatever specific trends come and go, our desire for self-decoration will always remain.

 
The Petrie Museum is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday 13.00 – 17.00, at Malet Place in Bloomsbury, London.

 
Several weeks ago I visited Watts Gallery in Surrey (which will appear soon in another post). It was a very cold, damp and foggy day, so the perfect weather to show off my new coat from Heyday. I was super lucky to nab one of these coats, as they were made in a very limited run and sold out quickly. Apparently they proved popular enough that there will be more colours coming out next winter;  it is going to be hard resisting another!

 
The coat is in a late 40s/early 50s style, with a nipped waist, flared skirt, and huge collar which can be worn open (as I have it here) or buttoned up to the neck in a princess style. The wide sleeves means it fits very comfortable over knitwear (often I find coats too tight at the arms), and the turned up cuffs add extra cosiness in blocking out the cold air. It is also made of a brushed felt, which feels wonderful to snuggle into. The part I love the most is the fitted waist and flared skirt – coats so often feel like nothing more than a kind of sausage casing, simply keeping all the woollies underneath from bursting out. But this actually gives me a shape; in fact I plan on moving the buttons in even further to accentuate the waist.

 
Other outfit details include my trusty Leather Satchel Co bag, leather gloves from Aspinal of London, orange beanie from Topshop, orange jumper from Benetton (by way of charity shop), lace-up boots from Clarks, and a sweet dog brooch made from felt which I found in a little gift store on my recent visit to the village of Shere. It was attached to a bag of mints which had been marked down after Christmas – I cared nothing for the mints, but fell in love with the little spotty dog. Woof!