C.late 1930s/early 1940s red straw hat: Frugal Frocks
Pearl stud earrings: eBay or Claire's
C. 1940s triple-strand pearl necklace with sterling clasp: Thrifted (this necklace is a touch longer, but I wanted a choker length one to pair with this keyhole neckline dress so I simply used a hair elastic to temporarily shorten the length in the back, which was then hidden by my hair - this is a great way to get more millage out of many styles and types of necklaces)
Black and pine green 1940s swing style dress: Hell Bunny (purchased from Blame Betty's bricks and mortar shop in Calgary, AB)
Black cropped cardigan: Fairweather
Gold toned metal bangle bracelet: Payless
Vintage strawberry brooch: Either eBay or thrifted
(Awesome!) 1940s/1950s cream gloves: Gift from a dear vintage loving friend ♥
Mid-century vintage red faux leather handbag: I Love Vintage Stuff
Black seamed nude stockings: eBay
Red vintage style "Strawberry Fox" heels : Born Bad Betty
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red
Photography by Tony Cangiano
♥ ♥ ♥
First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank everyone for your empathetic, caring comments on Sunday's post about unexpected having to do my business taxes at breakneck speed last week. To all those facing similar situations or simply having to do your taxes in general this year, believe me, I feel you pain and am always here if you need someone to vent to during the process. By Sunday evening I had essentially completed and submitted everything and was officially as spent as a quarter at a slot machine!
I have to say though, continually operating on almost no sleep (not joking at all) and being so stressed last week because of my taxes, really did a number on me. I debated taking this week off from all forms of work actually, but for a multitude of reasons, that isn't possible. Instead, too drained to even lift my laptop (zero exaggeration there), I spent Sunday night and all of Monday either sleeping or kicking back with a marathon of the really enjoyable travel show Departures on Netflix. Though I'm still massively beat, things will gradually be returning to their usual pace workflow wise from today onward and hopefully next week they'll be completely back on track and my energy levels (microscopic at the best of times) will have also been recharged a bit, too.
Now, if I can stop yawning, on with the show! Before you think I'm being OTT a tad with the title of today's post, I need raise a point that I've touched on many times here over the past (nearly) six years and that is the fact that I have hard to fit feet (crazy high arches) that tend to fall somewhere between average and wide widths, depending on the brand (I swear, if there was a size between those two standard sizes, an "average and a quarter shoe", if you will, that would be my size), and as a result, I can often try on 100 - 200+ pairs of shoes before I find one that even remotely comes close to being comfortable/fitting me properly.
As such, my choice of footwear has often been a matter of what fits, with, if I've been extra lucky, some prettiness thrown into the mix. Having had such poor shoe luck over the years, I've as good as given up ordering pairs online, where an endless see of gorgeous/cute/alluring/vintage appropriate/you-name-it options exist at nearly every price point. I've been burned there too many times with shoes that didn't fit a lick and which due to Canada Post's high shipping charges, I usually couldn't send back, instead reselling or gifting them to friends or relatives.
Thus, knowing that there are no guarantees when it comes to me and shoes, when a footwear company approaches me about doing a product review, I always tread (pun intended :)) very, very lightly. I've kindly turned down many offers when the shoes weren't bracingly mid-century and/or rockabilly/pinup appropriate, in fact this is only the second time I've ever worked with a company in this capacity.
The absolutely darling red faux suede, fabric strawberry adorned shoes that I'm sporting in these photos (which we shot the weekend before last here in town near the River Channel on a chilly late Saturday afternoon when the sun was shining meekly and frost dotted the ground) were very kindly sent my way by way of the terrific British vintage inspired footwear and handbag company Born Bad Betty.
The fine folks there were gracious enough to let me select any pair from their current offerings - which was no easy choice, let me tell you, as all of their styles are smashing and very vintage appropriate - and then promptly sent them to me for review. Their customer service was top-notch every step of the way and in addition to today's post, later this month I'm going to be teaming up with Born Bad Betty again for an exciting giveaway where one lucky winner will win the BBB pair of shoes of their choice.
I'm going to be talking a lot more about the company then, but now let me begin by saying that they're a fairly newcomer on the old school inspired footwear scene who are quickly gaining an avid following their home country of the UK and further afield, too. The brand's offerings are not only cute and creative (think dangling charms and delightful motifs), but I can attest to the fact that they're very comfortable.
Though I wouldn't say the fit of the pair I received was absolutely 100% perfect, that is an incredibly hard thing for me to find with any brand and unlike most shoes, much to my delight, these fit me quite well and I had zero issues wearing them and walking around for several hours on the day when these photos were taken (that's the first time I've worn them outside of the house).
Naturally you can imagine my happiness and surprise that the fit turned out as well as it did! I opted for the Strawberry Fox pair of heels from Born Bad Betty because strawberries are not only one of my favourite fruits ever, but also a design on clothing or accessories that I've always been wild for (chalk that up in no small part to spending some of the earliest years of my life in a town that had a big annual strawberry festival).
Another factor in my decision making process was definitely the fact that I own so few cute shoes. I stand by the title of this post, these are hands down the cutest high heels I've ever owned and I'm tickled pink (or would that be strawberry red) to have these wonderful shoes in my wardrobe now. They're comfortable, sturdy, well made, and very, very pretty. I would note that the found the soles to be a touch slippery at first, but even just walking around on pavement for a few minutes seemed to have helped scuff the bottoms a touch and create some grip, so I didn't take a tumble or even come close to it at any point during our outing.
I truly appreciate that Born Bad Betty sent me these uber darling strawberry heels and want to extend my sincere thanks their way for doing so.
On the day these snaps were taken, I'd had plans for an entirely different outfit with a vintage garment that recently I'd purchased online, however it quite literally started to fall apart on me as I put it on for the first time (a story I may devote a whole post here to at some point - it remains to be seen how things turn out there), so with daylight fading fast, I had to think on my (cute high heel adorned) feet quickly and toss this ensemble together in under five minutes. Tony actually said that he liked it more than the originally planned look and I liked the two equally, so while I wasn't happy about my new purchase being a serious bust, I was glad that this outfit was able to come together so nicely on the fly.
This charming 1940s style green and black dress, the only peephole dress I own actually, was the first piece I ever purchased (back in 2013) from Hell Bunny. It was love at first wearing with this frock and I've been a firm fan of the brand ever since, adding several more of their garments to my closet in the time since then. I'm petite framed (5’2”) and not overly well endowed (average, but not exactly giving Dolly Parton a run for her money, if you know what I mean), and I do always like to maintain a degree of modest with my outfits, so I don't usually wear keyhole style dresses (which tend to dip down waaaaay too far on me for my tastes), but this one is the exception to the rule and I'm almost shocked it took me this long to share it on camera.
As we're ever-so-slowly starting to emerge from winter, it felt like a good choice to usher the upcoming season in with, as did this marvelously fun circa early 1940s red straw hat, a recent buy from my go-to vintage shop in the Okanagan, Frugal Frocks located nearly two hours north of us in the small town of Armstrong, B.C. (and whom I blogged about here last year). I'm a massive fan of wide brimmed vintage hats like this and had wanted a red one for ages, so hitting upon this gem so close to home was an exciting score to say the least.
I opted to sport it that day because I'm a big fan of matching one's hat to their shoes sometimes and when you're wearing red heels like these fun Born Bad Betty beauties, it seems all the more fitting to do so with a newly acquired crimson chapeau like this.
If you haven't checked out Born Bad Betty's offerings yet, I highly suggest doing so. At present, a lot of their merchandise is heavily on sale, which is a boon for all customers, but especially those (like myself) who are located outside of the United Kingdom and may be dealing with weaker currencies than the British pound.
With spring and then summer just around the corner and scores of sunny days to come, you can bet that I'll be prancing around town in these sweet, sassy, mid-century appropriate strawberry heels from now until Old Man Winter comes calling again - especially since it certainly isn't everyday I get a cute pair of shoes that actually fit me and which suit my vintage wardrobe so wonderfully. Thank you again, Born Bad Betty for making that happen!
