MAY | 2019 by @rachel_valentine

Well I’ve certainly not kept up with my monthly blog goal I made myself earlier this year but hopefully this latest Blog post, Eternal Sunshine, will make up for it and bring you some inspiration for styling your #vintage summer wardrobe. ALL images captured beautifully by CHLOE SIDEY PHOTO.

Featuring THE dress of my dreams which I’ve had for about 5 years now and have no intention to re-home anytime soon - I love wearing this dress and always get asked about it when I’m wearing it. The beading is so beautiful in an almost sunburst mandala style and is very Art Deco influenced - sadly there are more beads missing than I’d like to accept but I know I can/should make an effort to give it the TLC repair it deserves real soon. I openly admit to being a little rough with my clothing; I’m not bothered by a snag or a tear in the most gorgeous vintage dress, this does not take away from it for me and if anything adds to the charm I think? I am certainly not polished and dress pretty bohemian and casual most days so I like to have a ‘just throw it on and work it’ kinda attitude. I usually wear this dress with just my trusty leather Allsaints Bonny Cuban boots (I’m on to my 4th pair now but I think they have been discontinued *sob), stacks of jewellery, a vintage bag and a big hat to give it a relaxed, less girly kinda look.

“Every cool girl is half tomboy”

THE INSPIRATION

This look/outfit and blogpost has always been inspired by the most incredible Freepeople dress I have lusted over for years and years. It was limited edition and rightly so as this beauty will be an addition to some lucky babes vintage wardrobe. It is exquisite and while I adore my dress - it’s no real contender. Check the blog out here It’s All In The Detail: Free People Limited Edition Dresses

ALL IN THE DETAILS

I’m so happy with how these images turned out as always, working with Chloe was so fun and she absolutely nailed it again. I showed Chloe these images of the above Freepeople example to help us work with a style that we could put our special twist on and of course do something we hope is equally as inspiring. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone in the UK to work with Chloe if you want to achieve a unique, professional look to your photos. She is so good at capturing personalities I feel, so much so that my close friend Shiv chose Chloe to capture her wedding day this week when she wed her man Patrick - so much love, congratulations again guys! This dark brown wide brim hat is glued to my head! It’s from H&M and I got it so cheap in the sale a few years ago but I like that it’s made form pure wool and the structured shape reminds me of the Lack Of Color styles which lets face it, are one of the leaders in the hat game but I just can’t afford. My bag is a vintage jewelled peacock purse that I bought on eBay for about £25 a couple of years ago. It’s missing a few stones now and isn’t very big so I don’t use it often but I used to wear a couple of bags at a time from day to day, not only for practicality but also to accent the eclectic look; one was for all my crap; a long leather satchel or a backpack usually, and the other a pretty one for my phone, keys etc but it turned out I don’t have the attention span to be responsible to carry more than one thing at a time and lost a few so I stopped doing this haha. Also if you hadn’t yet noticed the blog title is paying homage to one of my favourite movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s real gid so go watch it now!

SUNGLASSES : My faves from ZARA that are really overdue a substitute pair now but I just love the octagonal shape and brown 70s tone lenses. Here’s a similar pair in stock now! Also, how terrible is Zara’s website!? The navigation is so bad and difficult to use, I find it a serious turn off from shopping on their site.

Just me being an awkward human being as usual ahah. I find the fit of this dress a little awkward on actually which is kinda alright on me as I’m quite tall and slim but the drop waist fit and not so mini length can be quite unforgiving on some shapes. I wouldn’t say its my most flattering dress but I can let that go for the amazing beads and that V-back detail. It’s just a beaut! I’ve wore this dress to barn festival gigs, weddings, fancy dinners out and day to night kinda looks at work. I feel it’s dead versatile but also don’t give a fuck if people think I’m overdressed or inappropriately dressed for any occasion. Just wing it and your confidence will make any outfit look effortless and 100% cooler. Also how blonde is my hair right now!? Loving it, I hadn’t had a full set of foils for so long until recently when girls Meg + Lauren at The Wildside brightened it up last month and it made me feel so good and radiant again :) Having light hair now means my condition isn’t the best it had been but I’m super careful with avoiding breakage and comb it meticulously, trying to treat it like a delicate vintage piece of lace. The Olsen twins are style, beauty and hair goals for me and let’s face it, theirs is bleached out and beachy with breakage so I am down for that!

The secret…

Pssst…here’s the secret that so many of you have asked me and I’m feeling generous so I will reveal. “Where is that dress from?” It is VINTAGE but it’s from ASOS of all places (I know, right!?). It could be a genuine 70s sun worshipper dress or a 1920s flapper girl treasure. ALL of this clearly very heavy on the design team agenda for this gorgeous one but it was made in this century and I got it second hand from another vintage shop about 5 years ago now. So best of luck if you can track one down, I’m sure there’s a few more still out there but I’ve certainly never crossed paths with another - the ultimate cringe when you see someone wearing the exact same dress as you but you just gotta high five them then stand at opposites sides of the bar. However, by wearing true vintage to most “occasions” this rarely happens to me. Last night I wore a gorgeous olive green 70s halter maxi dress to my friends birthday evening out for cocktails and I felt so good wearing and knowing I wasn’t in the latest ZARA ‘It dress’ and wouldn’t see another chick wearing it too. So #shopvintage, shop sustainable and be unique! Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog if you have got this far, thank yaaaaa for reading :) I’m not a great writer but I’m writing what I wanna say and in my voice so I’m cool with that…anyone who wants to be wanky about spelling or punctuation can take a hike and bore off. I’m a happy go lucky ray of fucking sunshine!

[ ALL images of myself featured are taken and edited by Chloe Sidey and filtered using Instasize T1, T2, T3 filters which are my fave’s ]

ray of fucking sunshine!