Shake, Rattle, and Roll

 

Hello again! Welcome to the first official 'Me and My Clothes' post! There have been a few changes to JuneBook, of which I will explain in a moment, but first let me explain these photos. About two weeks before Christmas (yes, they're a wee bit late to be posted, I know) I hosted a small '50s themed cocktail party. While the era of the music was less strict (with Sam Cooke, Louis Armstrong, and Mayer Hawthorne all on the record player at some stage) I policed the dress code with an iron fist, and lord behold it worked! Looking around one could easily have believed it was actualy the 1950s, which was of course my goal. We didn't manage to take any photos of the actual soiree, but these are from before everyone arrived, when two of my darling friends came over to help set up.

Dress - Nigel and Daphne

Shoes - Peachy Keen

Gloves - Secondhand Store

Pearls - Secondhand Store

While I will continue to do outfit posts like these (filed under 'Me and My Clothes'), I want this blog to start functioning more like the original June Book for young girls did. From now on there will also be regular posts featuring articles from my vast collection of Girls' Annuals (mainly old June Book editions), and some more modern sources, which will come under the following categories:

Bob's Tells You How

Sewing, crochet, craft, growing roses, riding-a-bike-in-heels-and-a-pencil-skirt, vegan baking - if it can be taught, then Bobs will tell you how it's done. She's certainly branched out from her original JuneBook feature, as a 'Girl Vet' giving petcare advice. However there are some areas that Bobs agrees should be left to the experts, even if one is exceptionally multi-talented, such as beauty and fashion advice.

Gloria the Glamour Girl

Luckily, that's where Gloria the Glamour Girl can step in. Originally Sue Day's bad-tempered-boy-crazy-bombshell of an older sister (from 'Princess' Annual), Gloria now presents us with an array of beauty and style tips, not to mention articles on the latest pop sensations, and tragically hilarious romance stories from the '70s (accompanied by rather questionable relationship advice). 

Souper Cat

 The most heart-warmingly amusing poems and comics about cats, brought to you by none other than Souper Cat himself!

From Your Grandma's Pantry

This is quite possibly the section I am most excited about, filled with the natural beauty tips of the past, and using ingredients that you could have been found in your Grandma's pantry back in the day. Not only are they chemical free, but they can be made from local (and where possible, organic) ingredients -  making them environmentally responsible and healthy alternatives to products made by corporate giants (who tend to treat workers, the environment, and animals with considerable disregard).

More sections will be coming, and I look forward to posting much more often now that I've settled into my first year of University.

Enjoy!

2012 - We're Living in the Future, Folks

Dear Readers,

With the new year comes a new layout for your JuneBook! 

I've been terribly slack as an Editor, and intend to take this opportunity to start afresh, and pay more of an homage to the original June Book (an old girls' annual I collect, that was around in the '60s to '80s). 

Expect to see more regular features including outfit posts, questionable advice from the last century, fashion articles, eco beauty tips and more !

I hope you'll all enjoy the new adventures to be had in the coming year, happy reading!

The Editor

Ball

It has been such a terribly long time since I've posted! I thought a good way to get back into semi-regular updating would be with photos of my recent school ball. I wore the same dress my Mother wore to her seventh form ball (which she bought vintage at the time), a little capelet she made me, and shoes from Peachy Keen. I really only went because a school ball is a rite of passage, and if I didn't go to at least one I would never have truly been a teenager. For me, the ball could have easily been re-classified as four hours of organised torture - as much as I love listening to blaring rap and mediocre popular music while locked in a hall with girls from school. On the bright side, the whole experience did wonders for bringing out my not-so-inner cynic, and allow my best friend and I to pretend we were in Ghost World for an extended length of time. About the time girls started taking off their heels (that's right, they went barefoot at a ball, you cannot even fathom my distress) and grinding we realised we desperately needed to get as far away form the dance floor as possible. This luckily resulted in the discovery of the tea table! Party animals, we are.

   The photos below are from before the ball, the wonderful pre-ball a friend of mine organised, and the official photography at the ball itself.

No Dull Moments or Dull Men Tolerated

 It's finally school holidays! Which means that I will hopefully be able to post more, although I still have a mountain of homework to attend to. This is being carefully avoided by watching the first season of Mad Men. I really enjoy it so far,  I daresay more for the costumes and set than the actual storyline. I do think it's good that there's a show that illustrates how advertisers manipulate people though, and how society is affected by the media. But Joan is the only character who really grabs me to be honest, and I tried to chanel her a little bit with this whole ensemble.

Wearing:

Dress - From a family friend (originally from Max)

Belt, Coat, Shoes - Borrowed from my Mother

Scarf - Made from a scrap of material

Bag - Second-hand Store

Gloves - Second hand store

It's all of a sudden gotten freezing cold, hooray for winter at last!

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

 

Nobody will ever have as much class as she did.

Rosie the Riveter - Superstud

Today we had a slightly late celebration of International Women's Day at school, which involved some of us in the human rights group coming to school dressed as inspirational women, and other students guessing who we were. It was very last minute (i.e. I found out yesterday), luckily though I just happened to have a blue jumpsuit and red and white scarf lying around home begging to be worn. I found the jumpsuit in an op-shop which is mainly filled with overpriced chainstore clothing from the '80s, and had a small heart attack, realising immediately that there was a giant 40s-style-blue-jumpsuit hole in my wardrobe, and my heart, which needed to be filled. On trying it on I found it fit perfectly, except for the fact it was roughly 4 inches too short, creating a disturbingly 'disco' effect (Images of Sam's 'Parisian night suit'  came flooding). In an observant mood for once though, my friend pointed out it had in fact been taken up a great deal, and thanks to the magic of my Mother's sewing skills it is now a perfect fit. I debated briefly how often I would in fact be able to wear a disco-infused-women-working-on-the-planes-all-in-one-number, and the answer was - as often as possible. No more than a week later was the perfect opposrtunity.As you can (hopefully) tell, I went as Rosie the Riveter -

-never once have I doubted the general knowledge of my 'peers' more. A few girls got that I was 'the woman on that poster', and a number thought I was Amelia Earhart. Although, this is quite good considering that someone at school once thought that Princess Diana was alive and living in Hamilton. Most of them just sort of looked me up and down in disbelief (my friends and some teachers did appreciate the ensemble though). I'm used to getting funny looks for what I wear to school normally (I'm going to do a post about some of those outfits soon), but today's were golden. Weird stares sort of make my day. Not as much as the lovely women who leaned out of their cars, and told me how much they loved what I was wearing while I was walking home from school though.

These photos were all taken at about 8 this morning, just before I left for school, hence the not really awake expressions. Also, please excuse the tiny bit of hair not tucked into my scarf, which I didn't notice until after I'd left.
Jumpsuit - Secondhand store
Shoes - Vintage market
Suitcase - Secondhand store (although I've had it since I was little)
Scarf - Borrowed (it's actually rather small, so my hair is in pincurls in an attempt to make it as flat as possible)

Finally, some pictures from this amazing set, of real women who worked on the planes:

The Curve of Forgotten Things

Wow. This is gorgeous - the filming, the clothes (of course, it's Rodarte), the house, the music, the wonderful'70s feel to it all. And Elle Fanning. I especially love the plaid outfit she first magically changes into, and also the beautiful blue and white dress.

La Valse d'Amélie