For those who don’t know what my full time job is, I am a lawyer.
Yes, a real lawyer. One that gives legal advice and goes to court. That kind of lawyer.
Not everyone has believed that I am a “real lawyer”. I think it’s because I have a positive and bubbly personality, and I love all things pink and girlie. I suppose that I don’t fit the standard “lawyer” persona.
Some girls love wearing dresses or skirts, while others prefer pants and shorts. I’m definitely more of a dress and skirt girl. You can probably tell that from my previous outfit posts – it’s actually rare that you see me in jeans or shorts!
But when it cools down, I do resort to pants as it keeps me warm. During autumn and spring I like to wear cropped pants. I love cropped pants because they have the retro and vintage feel to them. Add a button down blouse and a neck scarf and you have an effortless vintage look, just like my recent outfit during autumn.
Clueless is one of my favourite 90’s movies. In particular I loved Cher’s style, wardrobe and her futuristic outfit generator technology. Considering the movie was over 20 years ago, and considering how far we’ve come with technology, you would have thought that there would be something like this available for us in the present day…
Well we are in luck – there is an app called Stylebook which is bringing that dream to life!
Being a small city, Canberra often misses out on big fashion related events. Melbourne Spring Fashion Week and Sydney has Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, and they are fabulous events, often star studden and full of glamour.
So you wouldn’t expect Canberra to have anything like this, right?
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t shy away from a theme – I’ll take any excuse to get dressed up! And I definitely love any period theme, especially because it’s super easy to grab something out of my every day wardrobe to wear.
Earlier this year I went to the ACT Young Lawyers Ball which was themed “Casablanca” for their 2016 event. For those who are unfamiliar with the movie Casablanca, it is an iconic vintage movie set in the 1940s. So I was very excited to get dressed up in 1940s style fashion.
Even though I stopped working at Forever New for 9 months, I still love shopping there. They always have lots of great clothes for all year round, but I especially love the jeans and coats in winter. I still love shopping at Forever New as there are so many great items that are stylish yet affordable.
Now that spring is here in Australia, wedding season has begun. You might remember my post from last year where I explained what to wear to a wedding (and what not to wear!)
Click here for original post on what to wear to a wedding
I’ve decided it might be useful to give some ideas on what to wear to weddings based on the location or type of wedding. Obviously every wedding is different, and thus sometimes what you would wear to one wedding, you wouldn’t always wear to another wedding.
The key is to check the dress code on the invitation. If it is formal, be careful about wearing a cocktail dress. If it is cocktail, a long dress is not necessary. Also check the location of the wedding, and think about the time of the year the wedding will be held. You might have a perfect outfit but what about keeping warm in the cooler months?
For some people, thinking about all of these factors is enough to make their head explode. So to take the pain out of deciding, and hopefulyy to give you a decent guide, here’s some of my outfit combinations and ideas based on various wedding locations.
If the wedding is held within the confines of a resort, like in a tropical location, it will most likely be warm. So you want something that is going to keep you cool but is still ‘formal’ enough for the special occasion. You can easily pull off a maxi dress with some loose curls or waves in your hair. Add a cute clutch and shell detail jewellery to dress it up without being over the top.
If you are invited to an alternative style wedding for a boho or hippie couple, you might find that you are going to a more casual wedding, possibly surrounded by nature. This is not a reason to slack off in dressing nicely! A tribal print maxi dress keeps the look casual, but it can easily be dressed up with chunky wooden heels and boho inspired accessories. I particularly love this belt – so classy whilst perfectly going with a boho theme.
If you are asked to wear something vintage inspired, or the event is in an older style venue, then this outfit would be a great choice. The dress comes in at the waist and has a full skirt, similar to the styles of dresses in the 50s. The length makes it great for weddings, and the style means you can use all different types of accessories.
Pearl jewellery is the best choice and if the event calls for it, maybe even a pretty fascinator or hat could top of the look. Closed toe shoes work great with this style, especially if they are Mary-Jane style heels.
Wineries or vineyards are popular places for weddings, and it will often be one of the prettiest weddings you will attend. It’s romantic but classy. This is the time when you want to wear a cocktail inspired dress (of appropriate length), as longer dresses can sometimes become dirty in the grass and dirt of the vineyard. A pretty lace number would be recommended for this kind of wedding, as it will reflect nicely in photos. Easily accessorize a lace cocktail dress with dainty earrings and accessories.
Thicker heeled shoes would be best so you don’t sink into the ground. You may wish to invest in some heel stoppers if you are wearing skinnier heeled shoes – they generally don’t look the best but they will keep your heels from being ruined.
A lot of wedding invitations ask for guests to dress in formal wear, but many people are not as “formal” as they probably should be. But if it says “black tie” then it means guys must be in tuxes and ladies must be in floor length dresses. Chiffon dresses full length dresses are the best option that are readily available in many shops and very much in fashion. Forever New is my favourite place for this style of dress.
A black tie event may also call for gloves to be worn by ladies, which makes your outfit especially formal. Make sure your accessories properly match such as having silver jewellery, shoes and clutch.
When you think of a garden wedding you think of springtime, flowers and sunshine. Most garden weddings will be during the warmer months, and they are normally a little less formal than other weddings. You might even be invited to a backyard garden wedding. This calls for a pretty cocktail dress, and a floral print is perfect for a garden wedding.
Wedges are a great alternative to stilettos, as they keep you comfortable and stop you from sinking your heels in the ground.Keep the accessories in neutral tones if you have a floral dress, as this will keep the look romantic and dainty – perfect for a garden wedding.
Similar to the resort wedding, summer beach weddings are always romantic and pretty, but the casual nature of the location often makes it hard to decide on what to wear. To keep it more formal, a maxi dress would be the best option. Add some large embellished jewellery such as a necklace or earrings.
I would also recommend wearing pretty sandals during the beach ceremony and you can always change into heels for the reception. Or the casual nature of the event may call for you to stay in your pretty sandals. And don’t forget to pack the sunglasses in your clutch!
Many wedding ceremonies are still in churches, and guests should be particularly considerate of being respectful when in a church or a place of worship. Churches usually mean that the dresses should be more conservative and a cover up such as a shawl should be worn inside the church during the ceremony.
In summer this may mean a nice silk shawl, or in winter a faux fur shawl. These are both classy and stylish ways of staying conservative – and remember you can always ditch the shawl at the reception… or use it afterwards when it is cool outside!
What do you think of my outfit ideas? Do you have links to pictures of outfits you have worn to weddings? Share your thoughts and links in the comments!
Bye for now,
Vintage Barbie xoxo
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post
See you in the Social Media Atmosphere:
Instagram: @vintagebarbie17 | Facebook: Adventures of Vintage Barbie – Blog | Twitter: @vintage_barbie1 | Polyvore: vintagebarbie17 | Pinterest: @vintagebarbie17
I bought this dress off eBay for work, and I have since realised it is so versatile. Every woman should have a black work dress that can be worn for other events as well, such as dinners and special events.
The thing I love about this dress is that it’s a little bit vintage. The dress follows the earlies fifties sillohuette of sinching in at the waist and having a full circle skirt. It is also an appropriate length by covering my knees.
Pairing it with these shows also gives it that vintage vibe. I love these shoes and I wish more stores had shoes like this!
Anyway, here are the pics:
I love the invention of hair donuts. It has made my life so much easier – it looks like I take 30 minutes to do my hair but it actually takes around 5 minutes each morning. Therefore I can look professional, get a good first impression, and get to sleep in for 25 minutes longer each morning – now that’s what I call #winning
This look is essentially by court room look (wel, if I had my blazer then it would be the complete look): it is professional yet subtly shows my vintage style, without making me look gaudy or stand out for the wrong reasons.
Dress: eBay (also available on Rosegal.com) | Shoes: FSW Shoes | Bag: Bluebird | Hair Flowers: Forever New | Pearls: gift from my Great Nan 🙂
If you want to purchase this dress, click here
Bye for now,
Vintage Barbie
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post
See you in the Social Media Atmosphere:
Instagram: @vintagebarbie17 | Facebook: Adventures of Vintage Barbie – Blog | Twitter: @vintage_barbie1 | Polyvore: vintagebarbie17 | Pinterest: @vintagebarbie17
I fell in love with a green boho inspired dress on www.showpo.com …It was one of those dresses that looked amazing on the model but I was unsure if it would look nice on me. Sometimes I feel so frumpy when wearing clothes that you have seen on a model…
This specific dress had 3/4 sleeves which can button up at the end. It also has buttons from bust to about knees, then it was a split straight down the front. At first I wasn’t sure about this, but when I got the dress I was so so happy with how it looked on me! I knew I had to snap some photos of me in this dress cos it was just so pretty on!
I was super sad when five minutes into wearing it/taking photos, I realised it was faulty: it had loose stitching around the hemlines. I’m not sure if it was just this dress or if other dresses would be the same, but to be quite honest, I didn’t want to risk returning it and getting back another one that was the same. I know that this could be probably be easily fixed but I honestly don’t have the time to mend my clothes at the moment. So I reluctantly took off the dress and sadly returned it to Showpo.
I have to say that Showpo has really great customer service and happily took my return. They were great with their email correspondence and fairly quick with responding. The customer service representative made me feel valued as a customer and I find that so very important in any customer related experience.
Because of their fantastic service, I bought a pair of jeans and a new top the next day – post to come on that too!
But for now, I want to share the pics of the pretty long sleev dress I bought, called Natural Force.
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Details: Dress – Showpo | Belt – ICE (old) | Snake Ring – unsure | Gold rings – eBay | Boots – ICE (old) | Flower Crown – My own DIY
What do you think of this dress? Have you bought anything from Showpo? Be sure to leave your comments!
Vintage Barbie xoxo
All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post.
See you in the Social Media Atmosphere:
Instagram: @vintagebarbie17 | Facebook: Adventures of Vintage Barbie – Blog | Twitter: @vintage_barbie1
I had lots of fun doing my photo shoot in Vintage Barbie’s signature outfit.
Even though it was freezing cold outside and the wind didn’t always agree with my clothing or hair, it was still nice to get out and do a shoot in a dress I have loved since I first saw it.
I thought that it would be very appropriate to share some black and white photos of this shoot as well – it really makes me feel like I’m stepping back in time!
For all the details on my outfit, go to my She’s a Lady post.
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