Ica Bergqvist Vintage at Vintagemässan

People watching at vintage fairs is the best, as so many ladies and gents will make a real effort to get dressed up in the most period accurate outfits – and this one was no exception!  This gorgeous young lady was dressed to the nines in 1940s gear and rocked the look!

Hello my lovely, as mentioned last week I am having a few quite busy weeks at the moment, which is why our blog posts are so few and far in between!  I was just looking through photos from Vintagemässan in Stockholm last April (I can’t believe that it has been a year!) and realised that I had missed out on telling you about one fabulous shop that had their things on display there: Ica Bergqvist.

This is such a glorious necklace!!!  I love how summery it is and I think that I would wear it with a little white shift dress

Such sweet daisies – the perfect necklace for a summer party

It is time to start thinking about our summer wardrobes (this is usually my philosophy in February when the sun comes out for the first time in three months, but at least now it is April!) and the photos above of this beautiful Daisy necklace are getting me so inspired to go for a sweet and flowery style this year!  The fabulous statement necklace gets a nice contrast from the more structured yellow 1950s dress and Chanel-style handbag.

“Handmade jewellery by Elenor Bergqvist”

A lovely little golden angel playing his instrument for us, among all this beautiful jewellery! 

Vintage jewellery treasure hunting, always a favourite!

A collection of gold and brass necklaces – definitely a style that has stood the test of time  

I love visiting vintage fairs with friends because they will inevitably look at things that I wouldn’t have thought of looking at.  This time around I went with my sister, who was looking for a new handbag and so she ended up trying quite a few – and I managed to get a few photos of one of her favourites:

My sister was looking for a vintage handbag at the time, so I snuck a few paparazzi shots of her checking one out

Love the buckle!  I am quite content with my handbag collection at the moment, with a nice mix of vintage bags from grandma and my great aunt, a few beloved Mulberry bags and a glorious teal coloured leather bag that I bought in Italy a couple of years ago.  But then again, a girl can never have too many handbags…

A 1940s Swedish Diamond Bracelet

Oh I just had to share this little story with you from my workday in Burlington Arcade last week: in the Richard Ogden-shop we also have the beautiful collection from Moira Jewels on display, and so I was browsing Moira’s website, trying to find a photo of a glorious piece of jewellery to add to Instagram.  Out of all the hundreds of stunning pieces on the website I immediately fell in love with this one:

A 1940s diamond bracelet from Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden

It is a diamond bracelet mounted in platinum, with round brilliant-cut diamonds and alternating flowers with diamond borders, set with eight-cut and round brilliant-cut diamonds.  My colleagues however thought it was very funny, as apparently I had managed to pick out the one piece of jewellery that was Swedish!  Such a coincidence indeed, and I suppose that we are all influenced by our origin whether we know it or not.  This beautiful piece with its elegant lines and striking design is thought to have been made in Sweden in the 1940s.

During the 40’s lots of materials were in fact heavily rationed because of the war, and ladies’ outfits were sober in style, very much influenced by the military gear that the gents would wear.  These streamlined outfits however found their opposites in the jewellery worn, as our beautiful ladies of the time would go for rather imaginative and decorative pieces!  I find it so fascinating to see how the social situation influenced people’s style and I think that a blog post on 1940s fashion will be in place soon!

Have a lovely Wednesday dear!

Cape Town Vintage Wedding Dresses – The 1940’s chapter

Today I would like to give a very special welcome to all of our South African brides-to-be.  You might remember Jeanette’s beautiful necklaces in our earlier posts?  Well, as it turns out she also works wonders with vintage wedding dresses in Cape Town…

Cape Town Vintage wedding dresses

Here in London vintage wedding dresses are incredibly popular right now.  The extraordinary handwork and design that has gone into the making is highly sought after and I think that many of us love how vintage wedding dresses bring our thoughts back to the most exciting and romantic times in the previous century.

Now while we have a wide array of vintage wedding dresses to choose from here in the UK, I understand that the supply is a bit more limited over in Cape Town.  That is why it was such a wonderful surprise to see Jeanette’s collection of restored vintage wedding dresses:

Lace details in the back with a row of beautifully hand sown buttons

The dress that Jeanette has lent us today is a beautiful piece of history, which stems from the Fighting Forties.  An issue of Vogue in 1942 stated that wartime wedding often left little time for preparations:

“Weddings nowadays hang not on the bride’s whim, but on the decision of the grooms commanding officer. He names the day when he grants that unexpected furlough… The 1942 schedule may run something like this: engagement announcement on Monday, invitations sent out by telegraph on Wednesday, the last handful of rice and rose petals flung on Saturday.
” – Vogue 1942 (1)

1940’s vintage wedding dress, Cape Town

With WWII the world of course changed greatly in the 1940’s.  Women took up positions previously held by men, but who had now departed for the war the job still had who had now gone off to fight.  Fashion is always highly influenced by changes in society, and this was no exception.  Wedding dresses were influenced by the military silhouette and this gown is a perfect example of this with its broad shoulders and slim waist.

Materials needed for the war effort were also heavily rationed, and clothing manufacturers could only use for example a very limited amount of silk.  Funnily enough wedding gowns were exempt from these sanctions, but people were still mindful of the rationing and often turned to materials like rayon.  As a result of the war wedding dress designs became simple and understated in design and it was very common to borrow a dress for your wedding (2).

Such gorgeous lace work in the back

Lace back and buttons

Jeanette’s dress so beautifully shows us this 1940’s design, and it is in such great condition still!  I love how these dresses represent such important times in history and it just amazing that we can still learn from these pieces, and get an understanding of what life was like back then.

I hope you enjoyed this post as we have two more of Jeanette’s dresses to look at – one takes us back to Saks Fifth Avenue in the 50’s and the last one shows us a stunning piece of 1970’s wedding fashion.  If you wish to get in touch with Jeanette about the wedding dresses or necklaces,  just send me an email and I will organise it.

Sources:

(1) Bridal Guide

(2) Vintage Gown 

Silver Winter Wonderland

I love capturing the seasons as backdrops to the jewellery, as the lovely colour palettes give fabulous suggestions as to how you can wear the pieces…

1950s rhodium and marcasite brooch in the shape of a leaf

1940s silver brooch with marcasites

… so as the snow fell over London, these two vintage brooches were crying out to be photographed so that they could glitter and sparkle together with snow and icicles!

We already dress according to season so why not wear a bit of beautiful silver jewellery now that the snow is here, as the two go so beautifully together!  Fasten that scarf of yours with a brooch or why not attach one to your knitted hat?  Of course my favourite it wearing them as hair accessories.  The possibilities are endless and they make winter a little bit more enjoyable and fun!

 

Dressing up the Princess of the Midnight Ball

At the weekend I had a day of shopping with two of my lovely girlfriends, and it turned out that one of them, Miss H, needed to find some jewellery to wear to a ball.  Yes, a ball!  What could be more breathtaking than wearing a piece of vintage jewellery, which will glitter and shimmer like there is no tomorrow?!  Well fortunately I had brought along a few pieces and browsing through them she fell head over heels for a 1940s rhinestone necklace and the marcasite ring from the 60s or 70s which we have encountered before.

Let’s see how it all went down:

Miss H is wearing the ring here and our friend Lady H is being dressed up in the necklace

She will be wearing the necklace together with a silver dress, and yes I have requested some photos for us to see in a few weeks’ time!

I love how elegantly it rests on the collarbone 

Of course both the ring and the necklace arrived in Decades of Elegance gift boxes…

My favourite part about working with vintage jewellery is seeing someone try on a piece which so beautifully suits her.  Maybe I should do some more roadshows so that you can see the pieces up in person?  Let me know what you think dear.

The ring will follow on in my next post, as today is the necklace’s time to shine!