Tag Archive for 'vintage'

Living in a dream (Photo shoot pt. 4)

Published on August 6, 2010 in Ensemble. 3 Comments Tags: , .

The grande finale / tour de force of our photoshoot with Christie Pham. Whew! Just putting together this post was exhausting. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to indulge myself with these photos. What an amazing day to partake in living out my childhood dream of dressing up and romping through old towns, forests, cafes and fairs. I finally got to wear the incredible vintage furs that I inherited from Mark’s grandmother – I was told my 3/4 length coat is mink and the fur stole that Liz is wearing is fox. Not sure when I will ever get another chance to dress in such luxuriousness since Hawaii hardly has the climate to get away with it. Thanks to Liz and Aaron for joining in on the fun and to the out-of-this-world talented Christie and her husband Matt for offering this chance.

Here’s to wishing every gal gets to dress up like (their own version of) a princess soon!

vintage furs – inherited from Mark’s grandmother, originally purchased in the 1960′s from Nakamura Fur in Ginza Tokyo, Japan
dress –  from Ross
peep toe slingbacks – Marc Fisher from Macy’s
necklace – vintage
headband – jcrew
On Mark:  shirt – Ben Sherman, slacks – Kenneth Cole, tie – borrowed from Aaron, Chucks & Tag
On Liz: top, necklaces – Club Monaco, skirt – from Japan, headband – Aldo, shoes – Cole Haan
On Aaron: not sure…

Sunshine & Polka Dots (Photo shoot pt. 1)

Published on July 21, 2010 in Ensemble and Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I am so so so sooo excited to be able to show off photos from my one year anniversary shoot with the best wedding photographer ever!  The lovely and talented Christie Pham (I feel like I always refer to her as that – maybe that should just become her full name – LATCP for short) took these photos of my husband Mark (I think this post may be the first time I’ve used my hubby’s name) and I a couple of weeks ago. We chose fun locations and just went for it – changing clothes, hair and accessories in the car along the way.  It was such a fun day and I was also so excited to show off some vintage pieces that I have been hoarding for a while.

Among those vintage pieces was this blue polka dot silk top.  It was one of the treasures that belonged to Mark’s  grandmother.  In it’s original state, it was rather large, but I sewed in the seams and voila! Perfect fit!  Also worn for the first time were my $5 vintage, thrifted tiger fur wedge heels.  I don’t have any close ups of them, but believe me they are fabulous.  You can see detail photos from a previous post here.  And finally, another first was this lacquered coral and gold chain that I also thrifted.

I have 3 more looks to go so get ready for a bombardment of photos from this crazy shoot!

blue polka dot silk top – vintage
high-waisted shorts & belt – Forever21
tiger fur wedges – vintage
necklace – thrifted
sunglasses – max mara
On Mark – J.Crew polo and shorts, Chucks, Versace sunglasses, Tag Heuer Carrera watch

Time for Tea

Published on July 8, 2010 in Ensemble and Shop. 1 Comment Tags: , .

This was the hat I purchased at the vintage trunk sale last week.  I wore it to work and all day long I felt like I should be going to drink tea in the afternoon.  I received some strange looks, but mostly people around my office are used to my styling antics.  I did get one reaction that said I looked like I was going to church. Mind you, that is the last place I would be headed.  Instead, I went to a bar; devotion in a different form…

When I bought the hat, my hubby said the flowers looked like they were wilting – a tough feat for silk flowers.  But, I did agree with him.  I do love the fact that this hat is supposedly original from the 1940′s, but I might have to play around with the flowers or another kind of embellishment soon.  I planning to keep to the navy and cream color scheme, but we’ll see.  In the end, I am thrilled with my purchase and will try very hard not to wear it with everything.

hat – vintage from Catherine’s Closet in downtown Honolulu
dress – from Fashionista’s Market
tights – j.crew
wedges – Paolo
belt – vintage
cameo earrings – Forever21

Sneak Preview

Published on June 28, 2010 in Ensemble and Morphed. 5 Comments Tags: , .

Yesterday was a dream come true for me.  The hubby and I spent the whole day playing dress up and running around the island taking photos with our favorite photographer, Christie Pham.  It was her idea to do a one-year anniversary photo shoot and since we always have so much fun with her and her husband, Matt, we jumped at the opportunity to hang out.  We invited some friends and the 6 of us bounced around the island posing and doing frantic wardrobe changes in our cars. It was amazing!

I can’t wait to see Christie’s photos.  She is so talented, I know they will be wonderful (hopefully in spite of the post-wedding weight gain for the hubs and I). She will be processing the photos in the next few weeks, but I wanted to show a little sneak preview in the meantime.  All of the photos below were taken on my husband’s new iPhone 4. (We have some funny videos as well).  BTW, the iPhone 4 is brilliant!

The top photo was taken on my poor iPhone 3GS with an app called “Shake It”. Christie told us about it and it’s great.  The app simulates an old polaroid camera complete with the sound effects and wait time.  The photo itself is of my little sewing area right on the coffee table.  I was rushing to finish altering some of the outfits for the photo shoot right before we met.  Glad I woke up at 6am on Sunday to get them done!

Here I am trying to blend into the wall.  We were waiting for the actual shoot to take place – our friends were on the other side of the building, thankfully in nice contrasting colors.  But, I am already thinking of outfits that will work here for future blog posts.

I was extremely excited to finally wear some of the vintage items that I inherited from the hubby’s grandmother.  Among those was this polka dot, silk top (one of the alteration pieces from the morning) and the amazing mink fur coat.

I’ll save the ensemble details for later.

Strum the strings of my heart

Published on June 17, 2010 in Ensemble. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Take a gander at my new (but old) hand-sewn vintage top. I found it a couple of weeks ago at a thrift store. I can honestly picture my grandmother having a blouse just like this that she made from scrap cotton material. It’s so lovely with the tiny floral print, bell sleeves and peter pan/bow tie collar.

The guitar is my husband’s and I cannot play a single thing.  But, it was on the ground and provided a nice contrast with it’s warm honey hues so there it went right into the photos.  I believe he’s had it since middle school and it’s survived quite a number of years and storage fiascos.  Aside from a short-lived stretch of piano lessons when I was a kid, I’ve never tried to learn an instrument.  That’s definitely one of my quarter-life regrets.  Maybe one day I’ll get around to taking lessons.

What are your ‘wish I had learned to do that’ regrets?

top – handmade and thrifted
jeans – 7ForAllMankind
belt – a hand-me-down
earrings – Forever21
wedges – Paolo
guitar – CF Martin