Out on the Town

 Last night, my husband went out for a night out on the town. We started out with dinner at a nice restaurant. We'd never been there before but the food was great and the decor was lovely. The food had kind of a Mediterranean flair but the walls in the part of the restaurant we were in were covered in beautiful embroidered and beaded fabrics with and Indian feel. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of them. So pretty!

This is what I wore. I decided on Tuesday that I really wanted to make something to wear from my stash. So I pulled out this pretty blue floral quilting fabric that I had originally bought with Colette Pattern's Ceylon in mind but I didn't get enough. So circle skirt it was. I used Casey's tutorial again but instead of a zipper I used four blue buttons as a closure. And on Friday, I made the genius decision to hand sew the hem......It took forever but I got it done.

I also wore my vintage fur coat, new snood and newest Belle Blossom. I wasn't sure what shoes to pair with this ensemble but I went with huge heals since I decided to make a longer skirt. High heals can take a long skirt from dowdy to sexy.

My some miracle I got my hair to do victory rolls. They always give me such trouble and I'm not sure why I decided to try them last night but it worked. Alas, the only picture I got where you could kind of see them was the one that come out really crappy. Sorry. We forgot the nice camera and I only had the old point and shoot to work with.

The show we went to see was Jersey Boys. I'd heard some good stuff about it and while I'm not a Four Seasons fanatic, I do enjoy their music. The singers were great! And the female actresses were amazing! Three girls played all of the female rolls in the show. I was super impressed. It's hard enough to be one character without having to switch in and out of different people all night.

Unfortunately, when there wasn't singing, there was cussing. And more cussing. And more cussing. I know cussing doesn't bother some people but it bothers me. I don't go see films rated R for language and I don't even usually see movies rated PG-13 for language. It even took a lot of pushing to get me to see The King's Speech. So I wasn't exactly a happy camper. During intermission, my husband told me that there had been a profanity warning but that the show had been rated appropriate for ages 12+ due to "authentic language".

I'm sorry but over 100 cuss words with f bombs dropping everywhere is not appropriate for ages 12+. Had I known that there was that much cussing, I would not have gone refunded tickets or no refunded tickets.

So, sewing-win. hair-win. dinner-win. Jersey Boys-fail. Just get the sound track.

Fashion and Film: Holiday Inn

White Christmas is my all time favorite old Christmas movie, but I also adore Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn (1942) stars Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Marjorie Reynolds. Jim (Crosby) is an entertainer who is fed up with always having to work on the holidays so he decides to become a farmer so he can take all of the holidays off. Needless to say, that idea doesn't last long. Instead, he opens the Holiday Inn which is only open on the holidays (The Holiday Inn hotel chain is named after this movie). Astaire stars as Ted, Jim's dancing friend and Reynolds is Linda, the blonde beauty they both fall for. Filled with holiday festivities, music and, of course, dancing, Holiday Inn is a fun film for any holiday. This is also the first film to feature the song "White Christmas", which was the #1 best selling music single until 1997.

 

Look at these lovely evening gowns!

What a cute Valentine's outfit.

 

 Easter!

 What a dazzling gold gown!

Fred's fancy feet.

There is a black face number, so if that bothers you, catch this film on tv as they cut it out. This movie is definitely not as P.C. with respect to race as a modern audience would expect.

Fashion and Film: Oklahoma!

I adore musicals! I'm not entirely sure why. My mom loathes them. My dad enjoyed some classic musicals but about all mom could stand was White Christmas and a Muppet Christmas Carol once a year. I do remember my first real experience with musicals. My 3rd grade class watched Oklahoma! and The King and I back to back in music class. Needless to say, I love Rodgers and Hammerstein! (Which you probably now if you saw my State Fair review). I don't actually own any R&H films but Oklahoma was on tv today.

Now you may be wondering what sort of fashion inspiration I can get out of this film being that it is a) set in a time period I don't care for and b) a Western, which is something I ordinarily can't stand. But a while ago, I read on a historical costuming blog (sorry, can't remember which one) that often times hair, makeup and even costumes (to some extent) reflect the values of the period the movie was made in, rather than set in, which makes sense as beauty standards change over time and many practices would be ridiculous to modern viewers. So being that this film is from 1955, we can glean some tidbits of 50s fabulousness.

Gingham is always adorable! I could totally see this as a 50s day dress just shorter and with a few more crinolines!

I'm always on the lookout for hats and this film was no disappointment.

More gingham, more hats!

This white party number was dreamy.

The guys sported some fab plaids too!

Plus the music is pretty great too!