Playing Vintage

I had no idea what I was going to blog about today, but then suddenly... I did

One of my close friends is having a 'Gatsby' themed birthday party for her 17th birthday today, and when I told my Mother about it, she suggested I go over to my Great Aunt's house to see if I could wear one of her mothers (my Great Grandmothers) hats. When I had gone over she said she would locate them and then have me come over to view them; when I got a phone call from her this morning, she told me that she had also found one of my Great Grandmothers dresses, and some pearls of hers! 

She told me to go up into the back bedroom and in the closet was where the hat boxes were. So I went up and as I pulled the Hats out of the boxes and began looking through them I began to think about my Great Grandmother.

The above picture is some of the hats that I found, she actually made most of her own hats which I think is absolutely fabulous and makes wearing one all the more special. 

Here I am Playing dress up with a fedora and vintage camera that were on the dresser in the back bedroom while hat hunting          :)

 My Great Grandmothers name was Lenora. I think that name is absolutely beautiful. My dad and aunt Melissa always tell how they use to say "Momo is a snob" (we grand- and great granchildren called her Momo). Which she could have been but I believe it was because she was a proper LADY, and they were not raised as she was. One of my favorite parts about Lenora is that she was a flapper ;) Yes, she really was! I wish I had the picture to show you but in the picture she has her hair in a bob, long pearls on, and a flapper dress, she actually WORE those dresses and it just blows my mind.    She was, I believe, 101 or 102 when she passed away, I was very very young when she died but I do remember some things about her.                                       Something that is really special to me is that I absolutely love the Roarin 20's and thirties, and if I could pick any time period I would want to live in that time period. I know it was much more difficult than the times today, but what makes it amazing is that Lenora lived through it all, the Great Depression, both world wars, Vietnam, she had seen so much and I think thats why I am so drawn to her.                              When I came downstairs with the hat I picked out to wear with the blue dress of Lenora's, I told my Aunt that someday I would love to inherit all of Momo's hats, and she said she didn't see why not! So someday I will have a beautiful hat collection of vintage hats to show you all. 

I really feel honored to be able to wear Lenora's dress, hat and pearls to the party tonight! When I put the dress on to make sure it fit... it fit perfectly, gliding smoothly and oh its so simple but its so beautiful in its simplicity. When I was completely dressed up and standing in the mirror I thought about how much I really do love vintage items and that they belonged to my Great Grandmother made them even more special to me. And I am sure my Great Aunt thought it was wonderful that I was wearing them too, I feel as if Lenora is smiling down at me:) She was such a amazing woman.

Here I am dressed up, I took the picture with my phone and edited it to Sepia because back in the 20's it would not of been in color. I don't know if they had Sepia yet but I liked it in the Sepia. 

For the party I am going to put my hair in hot rollers, and tuck my long layers underneath to make it shorter as if I had bobbed it! For my makeup I am not sure yet but I am going to do some reasearch about looks from the 20's. 

I am probably going to do a follow up post about this within the next couple of days once I am completely dressed up and such. I can't wait to see how it turns out! 

I hope you enjoyed this post!

XOXO

Property of these photographs belongs to hellosimpleme (Kelsey Mader) 2013.