A Creative Thaw.

I haven't written in a while, the combination of the dullness and coldness of Winter left me feeling uncreative and unproductive in all aspects of my life. So, I took time away from blogging or doing anything creative.  Getting out of an uncreative slump is a bit rough especially with dreary weather. But , not doing anything isn't fun either.

I've been picking up some fantastic vintage and thrifted pieces in the past couple of months and I can't wait to feature them here soon.

This Thursday I shot with Chris Crois Photography (Instagram: Crois6) and I finally got to show off one of my coolest finds, a Lilli Ann Cape.

The cape is so mod and it was an awesome thrift find but it is too cold to sport it now.  Luckily, we were in a studio and I got to feel like a superhero in front of the city scape. I can't wait to post more about this cape, it is visually stunning!

The hat is one of four vintage hats I received recently. This one had a dramatic birdcage veil and it looked so neat against the cloud background.

Lastly, I just set up an instagram account to share vintage outfit photos (and cat photos). Temporarily, my username is: megansteigerwalt
I plan on changing it soon.

This outfit is made up of half vintage pieces and the other half are new pieces. The pants and sweater aren't vintage but the vest and fur coat are. It was freezing the day I wore this outfit but my outfits have been so bland lately due to the cold and I wanted to wear something flash.


I can't wait to share more of my vintage pieces with all of you soon.

Burger Time with Chris Crois Photography

Sunday night I met Chris at a 50s style McDonalds for our third shoot together. I believe that this was one of the most entertaining shoots I've done, there are some interesting people out at 10pm.  Since we were close to the street and next to a stop sign there were people hanging out of their cars taking photos of up with their phones. We have fans!

Half way through the shoot two couples got out of their car and walked in the McDonalds and a couple of minutes later one of the men walked out and asked for a photo with me. The rest of his group came out and started narrating my every move, It was really hard for me not to crack up.

The workers at McDonalds were extremely nice and allowed us to take photos inside, the inside is like stepping back into the 1950s. 

It was a fun night for sure! There are more photos from this shoot, to see the rest of them visit my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/obf0908 and make sure to "like" Chris Crois Photography's page https://www.facebook.com/crois6

My Turn as a Blonde

I have been busy, I love my blog, but I've had so many things to do this summer and it's been difficult to do everything I want to do. I always have so many things I want to accomplish in the day but my mind is making plans for 10 people, I over plan myself every day.

I had the pleasure of working with Thomas P. Woodward (http://tpwstudios.co/) again at the beginning of the month. I had my first shoot with him in April of this year and posted about it in my post "A Day in the Life"

I love modeling and acting since it gives me the privilege to step outside of myself. In my latest shoot with Thomas P. Woodward we decided to go with a Marilyn Monroe, blonde bombshell theme.

My Mommom's gold dress got a chance to be showcased at this photoshoot. It's one of my favorite 50s dresses

I am looking forward to the photo shoot we have planned for this week. To see more photos from this photo shoot visit my facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/obf0908

Movie Spotlight: Pleasantville

Have you ever wished you could beam yourself into a T.V. family? I did this a lot when I was little, I watched a lot of T.V. especially classic shows. My all time favorites were The Munsters and The Golden Girls, I always wanted to live with The Munsters since they were such an awesome family, everyone thought they were so weird but they were so loving.

Part of the reason I love the movie "Pleasantville" so much is the main characters actually get beamed into a T.V. family.

"Pleasantville" came out in 1998, my parents got it when it came out on VHS. I watched it and instantly fell in love with it, I notice new things every time I watch it and I understand it a lot more now than I did when I was eight years old. 

I'm sure that "Pleasantville" helped to spark my love for vintage, I really wanted a lot of the clothes in the movie. 

 Reese Witherspoon's character complains about wearing her 1950s bra, she said "I could, like, kill a guy with these things." Personally, I love the "bullet" bra look. 

 The mother, Betty, wears a lot of smart suits in the movie. I would love to raid her closet.

Look at those fantastic glasses

I could watch Pleasantville over and over again and not get tired of it. The movie is visually stunning and the plot is very thought provoking. People often think of the 50s as a perfect decade but it wasn't the paradise people make it out to be when they get an attack of nostalgia. 

So, what are your thoughts on Pleasantville?

Bunny Yeager

Years ago I dreamed of being a pin-up girl. I saw photos of Bettie Page, specifically those taken by Bunny Yeager, and was hooked.

These gorgeous photos of Bettie were taken by Bunny Yeager. Bettie is an inspiration to me, she was such a beautiful and fearless model. 

The wonderful photographer and pin-up model died Sunday at 85 years old. She had a knack for modeling as well. 

She made this daisy bikini. 

Bunny and Bettie

It's sad to see someone with so much talent, on both sides of the camera, go. The photos she took were beautiful, classy and sensuous. She was stunning as a model and was a classic beauty. I imagine being a female photographer in the 50s and 60s was a bit hard especially when sexuality was so repressed but thankfully she created lasting art so everyone, even people that weren't around in those decades, can enjoy it.

Are you a Bunny Yeager fan? Do you prefer her modeling work or her photography? 

Dating vintage.

This topic has been discussed to death in the vintage community but I feel the need to write yet another post about dating vintage. I've been trying to learn all I can about vintage clothing and since I mainly collect dresses those are going to be the examples in this post.

Some people think garments get the vintage seal of approval after 20 years and some people think 30. I'm going to stick with 30. The 1990s should not be considered vintage yet, I don't want to think I'm that old.

Being able to identify what decade a garment comes from is a good skill to have. I've gone into thrift stores, this usually only works in locally owned shops, where the seller is trying to pass off an 80s dress as authentic 40s and it's possible to negotiate a discount. Once I was in a store and the owner tried to sell me a cute polyester mini dress that screamed mid to late 60s, the owner was thoroughly convinced it was from the 50s. Sometimes mislabeling a garment seriously changes the price so it's essential for the vintage connoisseur to have a keen eye.

It's nice when you have a vintage piece that you know the history of. My Mommom gave me this 1950s gold dress 3 years ago and she told me that it was from the 50s and it was one of her favorites. Since I know when it's from I'll use that as an example.

Since there is no label one would assume that it was hand made but my Mommom did not make it. A label isn't the only clue you can use.

The zipper can tell you a lot. This dress has a metal zipper down the back. Metal zippers were phased out in the mid 60s. The sleeves are also an indicator, this dress has 3/4 sleeves which was a popular style in the 50s according to the Vintage Fashion Guild

From zippers we move to labels. Remember to look for the union label when looking for vintage. My favorite dress for the summer is this floral dress. When I went to look for the union label I noticed it was from Canada and I no nothing about Canadian union labels. So I checked The Vintage Fashion Guild again and the label I have was put in use in 1968

Remember to look everywhere for the union label. Modern clothes have all the tags in the same spot. Vintage garments may have tags in many different spots. This pink wool dress appeared to only have one label, but when I looked inside near the bottom of the dress I found the union label.

Fabric is another good clue for dating vintage. When you think 70s you think polyester, right? I have tons of vintage polyester, my closet is a fire hazard. This Bobbie Brooks dress dates from the late 60s to the very early 70s. It can't be from after 1971 since tags had to have garment care instructions from then on.

I hope this has been informative. I'm still learning how to be an expert when it comes to dating vintage clothing, I'm sorry there was only dresses in the post but that is the majority of my collection.  If anyone has anything to add or any corrections I'd love to hear them.

Vintage Surrealism

Last week I had the pleasure to work with Chris Crois Photography (https://www.facebook.com/crois6) the concept was surreal vintage. Chris, the photographer, is full of great ideas. Please visit and like his page to see more awesome photos. For those of you that have a Model Mayhem account visit his page, http://www.modelmayhem.com/3050171

He set up this fantastic set. That's my Mommom's rotary phone

Those are milk glass lamps. 

Yes, that is a real (dead) scorpion, I really love this shot, the gold paper reminds me of gold bars. 

I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of surrealism before writing this post so I consulted Wikipedia (of course). Like the Spanish Inquisition one of the key elements of surrealism is surprise. Surrealism
allowed artists to paint or photograph strange dream like images.

One of my favorite surrealist photographers other than Chris Crois Photography is Man Ray.

I love how she's posed. 

I love photographers that tell a story with their photos and have a surreal slant. Working with Chhris Crois Photography was a lot of fun, it it wasn't for this shoot I would have never gotten to play with a dehydrated scorpion. Chris also loves vintage clothing and antiques so we spent some time talking about our shared interest. A lot of his antique furniture can be seen in the photos, like the milk glass lamps. To see more photos from our shoot you can go to my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/obf0908)