Becoming Your Vintage Fashion Icon: A How To Guide

Becoming Your Vintage Fashion Icon: A How To Guide

My lifestyle of choice is one with an aura of vintage Hollywood glam. Imagine being the sultry temptress in a 1940s Private I movie. That is what I aspired to become. There is a very famous woman who embodies that style in our modern times, and her name is Dita von Teese. The day I realized I wanted to pull off the effortless and daily glamour of Dita, I made some fashion vows. If you follow these simple rules you too can become your fashion icon. Understand this will take dedication and self discipline: you are changing clothing and beauty habits you've formed over your lifetime! Also know that this will take time and some money (not too much money since I'm giving you my secrets) so you will need to budget for both. You can expect 4 months of effort and a couple hundred dollars in spending, but it is well worth it to feel as beautiful as those icons seem to you.

Are you feeling dedicated?

Then let's get started.

Vow to feel inspired. You need inspiration. Fashion is meant to be fun! Most likely you have some inspiration because you're already aspiring to look like Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, or, like me, Dita von Teese. What you need to do with that aspiration is turn it into an idea board. If you work in theatre or movies or television you've probably seen these before; they are used to help set a mood for the look you are creating. In my case I made my board on Pinterest. (Here's mine as an example). If you're not feeling the high tech mood board, then print out pictures and paste them onto a poster board. Trust me--you need the visual reference.

On your board you should have all the pictures of outfits you like on your fashion icon (mine is covered with Dita von Teese). Then after that you need similar images from other fashionistas. When I made my own board it ended up being filled with Dita von Teese, some Christina Aguilera, and more Kate Middleton than I expected. Those primary three made up my vintage inspired taste, along with some more randomized photos which just struck my fancy or sparked my interest. Remember: this is a fun thing, follow your fancy and your interest. They have good instincts.

After you've created your board you have made the foundation for your style. Now you're going to make one of my favorite things: a list. In order to make your list you need to notice the similarities in the photos of outfits you chose. For example mine listed "around knee length skirts, a-line or pencil", "dresses which always have sleeves and are the same build as the skirts", "short fat heels in leather (patent or otherwise)", "oxford button-down shirts", "shirts with elbow length or 3/4 length sleeves", "day suits", and "summery cotton dresses".

Your list is your road map to your new closet. Good job!

If you had a hard time making your list because the fashion vocabulary seems daunting to you it never hurts to do a little research online. Try typing in "fashion of the 1940s" and see what comes up in your search engine. Being familiar with the jargon can help you to understand what you do and don't like in a wardrobe. That's why, if you'll bear with me, I will be doing a weekly fashion lesson blog post to start you on the way to your new wardrobe.

Next go get a box. You're going to need a box.

The box is for everything you're going to throw away from your current closet (and by "throw away" I mean donate to an organization such as Goodwill Industries). Now some people can just look through their closet and make these life or death decisions for their clothes. However, in order to get an accurate picture, I pulled every article of clothing from my closet and put them into organized piles on my bedroom floor. A pile of shirts, a pile of skirts, a pile of pants, a pile of day dress, a pile of evening dresses, etc.

Vow to clean out your closet. Now throw away everything you haven't worn in the last six months. I mean everything. Don't make excuses, just put it in the box. There are very few exceptions to this rule. I can think of only two. 1. If it is a fancy evening dress you wore to a major event in the last two years it probably hasn't found its re-wear value yet. You may keep it for a later event provided it still fits you. 2. The item is a winter coat or a bathing suit and you are currently on the opposite side of the calendar.

Once you've thrown all those items into the box it's time for phase two. Throw everything into the box that you wish you hadn't worn in the last six months. If you regret wearing it last time, it's unlikely that you will like it on yourself the next time. You don't need it. Throwing it into the box is doing yourself a favor (remember I said this would take dedication).

If there is anything left that doesn't match an item on your list you need to throw it in the box. Again there are very few exceptions, exceptions are only for special occasions. I have three that come to mind: 1. A speedo one piece bathing suit because I vacation in a place with very rough waves. My vintage-style bathing suits are just not cut out for boogie boarding. 2. I keep a pair of torn up and horrible looking jeans for doing yard-work and painting around the house. 3. My parents own a night club. When I go there I want to blend in for their sake, so I keep a few night-club-looking dresses that are not vintage and are shorter than I'd like to admit.

Vow to choose to wear what suits your body. Once you've thrown everything away you need new things to wear. Building your closet around a few key items is important. First of all you need to choose your neutrals. I chose predominantly black with a large number of gray articles in the mix. This works with my complexion well and it also goes well with my red hair. If you are a brunette pick brown and khaki, black will wash you out badly: especially if you are pale skinned. If you have blond hair you can wear black very well and brown works pretty well, depending on how you like your skin tone with the color you may take your pick. Women with black hair will want to stick to mostly blacks and grays as will women with darker skin. Again, I tell you to trust your instincts as those are only general rules. There are too many types of women for me to cover them all here.

Now that you have your neutrals in mind, I will fill in everything else you could possibly want to know about your wardrobe choices over the next few weeks. Bear with me and I promise to teach you about skirts, shirts, sweaters, dresses, jackets, suits, shoes, hats, lingerie, accessories, swimsuits, fabrics, and color schemes each week until you know everything you need to know to become your vintage fashion icon! Au revoir! And happy inspiration board making!

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