Vintage snow day!

{Come the freezing cold days of winter, which we're all very well acquainted with by now (in the Western Hemisphere), one of my favourite ways to keep my ears nice and warm (or at least not entirely frostbitten!) is by employee the classic use of a headscarf like this 1960s red, white and green charmer. Neutral hues are fine, but an extra jolt of colour always helps to brighten my mood and serve a reminder that even the longest winter has to end sometime! Vintage scarf measures 20 inches/50.8 cm on all sides. $14.00 from Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{Headscarves not your thing or not particularly well suited to a specific outfit you have in mind? How about this delightfully cool pair of deadstock band-less mid-century vintage earmuffs instead? $12.00 from Stag Vintage Goods.}




{I have three pair of snowflake earrings and wear them practically to death during the winter! They're sweet, fun, festive and great way to dress with the season. This absolutely charming vintage screw back pair included pale blue rhinestones and would be especially awesome for your next ski trip (while you're relaxing in the lodge at least! :)). $18.00 from Blue Sparrow Vintage.}




{You might as well put lip chap on the food pyramid for me come winter. I have dry lips (and skin) all year round, but in the winter it's a 24/7 battle for me to keep my lips from cracking and bleeding, so I always have a tube (or five!) of high quality lip balm at the ready. I haven't tried the offerings from this particular brand, but given their all-natural formula, they sound like one that I'd have good luck with - plus the name of this particular product, Snowflakes Vanilla Mint Lip Balm, really appeals to me. $4.00 for a 0.15 ounce tube from Lippincott Soap Co.}




{It doesn't get much more classic than this on the winter scarf front! Red and black combine to create a timeless tartan pattern on this wool blend 1950s scarf that will never, ever go out of style or fail to help keep you warm. 58" scarf, $20.00 from Transmigration.}




{How on earth I managed to list this delightfully classic red and black 1960s sweater and not tuck it away in my wardrobe the moment I found it, is beyond me! :) I have indeed recently listed it though and now you can bring it home with you, if you’d like. Fits up to a 36" bust/28" waist (unstretched). $30.00 from Chronically Vintage on Etsy.}




{Fancy yourself quite the skiing expert? Love lounging in the lodge with a steaming cup of cocoa? Just want to sport a darling winter sport themed pin? Whatever the case, this uber cute, very reasonably priced vintage ski bunny brooch is for you! $10.95 from Granny Bean's Boutique.}




{It's scarcely a secret that I'm wild for dresses and skirts, but sometimes, especially when the mercury plummets, pants are the first thing I reach for in the morning. I own three pairs of Heyday's fantastic swing trousers and they all see wear during this icicle bedecked time of the year. I really like that Heyday offers a variety of colours and fabrics, so that you can coordinate them with your favourite winter coats, sweaters and jackets. A great pair to start with (or add to) your own collection is Black Swing Trousers (available, at the time of writing, in UK ladies sizes 10 to 20) that will serve you awesomely as the bottom half of countless cold and warm weather ensembles alike. £55.00 from Heyday.}




{Classic, sturdy, and easy to style in an array of directions (vintage, punk, goth, contemporary, etc), these Finejo brand women's black lace up faux leather boots are sure to help make getting through the long months of winter more bearable. Plus, they're a massive bargain to - fittingly - boot! :) Available in modern ladies sizes 6 to 11. $21.99 from Amazon.}

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At the start of this week Penticton was hit by a snowstorm that resulted in the single largest snowfall this town has seen in decades. Coupled with the abundance of flakes that had already fallen on the weekend, come Tuesday morning, there was well over a foot of the white stuff everywhere the eye could see.

A snow warning was in effect and very rarely for Canada, a snow day was even issued schools in the area. Looking back to my own years as a student, I can only remember two times when that ever happened. Snow is a fact of life in this country and needs to be pretty serious and substantial before schools shut their doors.

It wasn't just classrooms that were empty though, the streets, slicked with immensely dangerous black ice, were near ghost towns and sadly many who did venture out found themselves either getting stuck or slowly colliding on their sides into one another as if they were playing a citywide game of bumper cars.

Tony and I didn't risk going out on Monday and I had to move one of my routine doctor's appointments up a few days because of it. For all the trouble such weather can cause (and goodness knows, things can always be worse on the blizzard front - as far as I heard, the power didn't even go down here in town because of it), there is also a certain resplendent beauty to it that will always speak to my winter serenity loving soul.

While I have been yearning for a solid snow cover to take some vintage outfit photos in, it's rather tricky (and certainly not very safe) do so in the midst of a snow storm, so this week the camera stayed in its padded bag and instead I decided to deck out this month's stylish Vintage Friday Fashionista in the kind of garb one needs when faced with such a snowy environment.

While my own hunt for a matching two-piece (or one-piece zip up) vintage ski or snow suit still continues, living in the northerly nation that I do, I do have numerous cold weather and fun winter themed items (such as the snowflake shaped earrings I mentioned above) that I wear frequently from October/November through to March or April, just depending on when Old Man Winter decides to vacate the premise. Many of which are similar those featured here today.

Though things have slowed down on the snowfall front as the week progressed, we're still up to our eyebrows in ski hill perfect powder and it's safe to say that we'll be reaching for the winter boats, extra heavy scarves, and wool garments long after Monday's official snow day (this being Canada after all!!!).

I hope that you're all staying warm and safe, and enjoying a fantastic start of January, my dear friends!

Every now and then...

Outfit details

Black felt beret: eBay  Gun metal and clear rhinestone bow earrings: Payless
Sterling Silver Hearts Name Necklace: Onecklace
Red button front shirt: Smart Set
Black fitted vest: Reitmans
1940s style grey swing trousers: Heyday
Plastic angle bracelets: Assorted sources
Light pink cross body faux leather bag: eBay
Red socks: Walmart
1940s style black oxford shoes: Thrifted (Salvation Army)
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red


Photography by Tony Cangiano

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As a lifelong self-professed girly-girl who (outside of the dog park and more rugged pursuits in the wilds of nature) rarely wears pants, in no small part because most styles look as disastrous on me as a train wreck along side a forest fire with a swarm of killer bees rushing out of it, it's certainly not everyday that my style veers in a distinctly menswear inspired direction.
 
Yet, much like my uber stylish friend Sara of Lilies and Remains recently talked about, I've suddenly been feeling drawn towards trousers a lot more in the last few weeks. Odd, perhaps, given that they don't suit the incredibly warm (case in point, we were sitting at a roasty toasty 42C a few days ago) weather here as of late, but yet also understandable because pants often have a casual air to them that suits the hot-as-an-over weather that comes part and parcel with the dog days of summer so strikingly well.
 
Over the years I've purchased my fair share of pants, including offerings sourced online from a few different repro and/or rockabilly brands. Most, despite buying the so-called right size, didn't end up doing my short, curvy figure the slightest hint of a favour and were either returned, sold, or given away. Though they're a touch too big for me (I am forever running into pants either being just a little too big or too small), I couldn't bring myself do part with some Heyday trousers I bought about 2.5 years ago, as I am quite fond of them.
 
One day I may splurge and bring them to a seamstress to have the waist taken in a touch and the hems increased (I'm barely 5'2" and without pining these in the back, the cuffs on them drag on the ground for me even when worn with heels), but for now, I just use a handy-dandy safety pin to help prevent unwanted gaping at the back and they're good to go.
 
The sizing issues pertain to my body shape and aren't a reflection on Heyday in the slightest. I sometimes wonder, if I ordered pants from them again, would I go down a size? Assuming my weight was about the same, I really don't know. They'd be perfect in the waist in all likelihood, but would they then be too tight for this style of trouser in the thighs or otherwise not look quite right? It's impossible to say for sure without trying a smaller size on, so I might just purchase the same size again but factor a trip to the seamstress into my budget if I did. Time will tell!

The three pairs of 1940s style swing trousers (grey, seen here, dark green, and a sandy beige hue) that I have from them are, along with my beloved Freddies jeans, my only vintage reproduction pants these days, so when the mood for trousers does strike, they're where I turn (and would you believe it, in more than five years of blogging, this is the first time I've worn trousers, not denim jeans or capris, on camera? It's true!).
 
I woke up one day recently in a distinctly menswear inspired state of mind. Perhaps it was the heat, maybe I just wanted a change of pace, or it could have had to do with the colour palette that I wanted to create to showcase this beautiful custom ordered sterling silver Onecklace that I recently received as a review gift from the company.
 
I get my fair share of emails from jewelry companies eager to partner with Chronically Vintage, however due to my nickel allergy, common in so many of the metals used by said companies, I almost always have to turn them down on the product review front, even if I adore their offerings. Not so, I'm delighted to say, with Onecklace, who offer many customizable monogram, name, initial, love, and mother necklace is sterling silver, 14K gold, 24K gold, and 14K white gold.
 
I knew instantly that I wanted a sterling silver name necklace, but that instead of opting for my first name, I thought it would be really cool to get the word "vintage" instead. I don vintage clothing all the time, but never before this beautiful necklace had I worn the actual word.
 
Onecklace was a sincere pleasure to work with. My ordered arrived all the way from Israel quite quickly, was excellently packaged, complete with a branded box and gift bag, and was just as I'd placed it. Though I do wish there was a wee bit more space between the first two letters (they end up looking a bit like a "W" to me), I truly have only the utmost of positive things to say about this necklace, very much including the fact that I can safely wear it without it troubling my sensitive skin.
 
If I was going to purchase the Sterling Silver Hearts Name Necklace, which is the style I opted for, it would cost $39.95, which I think is very reasonable price for a custom order piece like this. In fact, all of Onecklace's offerings - which have expanded further since I selected my review necklace - are well priced and attractive, plus many of them use timeless fonts that are a cinch to weave into vintage, repro, or vintage inspired ensembles such as the one I'm wearing in this photos.
 
I very much appreciate this beautiful necklace, which I've been sporting often since it arrived (it's light as a feather and goes with countless outfits), and also that Onecklace kindly provided my readers with a discount coupon code. If you'd like to purchase from Onecklace yourself, please use the coupon code FASHION at checkout to save 10% on all orders.
 
The glistening, almost bronze hued sun was beginning to set on the recent evening when Tony and I grabbed these quick photos in downtown Penticton (on Front Street to be exact), and as a result, we had to up the ISO quite a bit. I like the subtle grittiness that doing so added to these images, it completes this outfit well, don’t you think? As I was standing there, I suddenly wished I had a vintage newspaper or notebook to hold, as this borrowed from the boys look struck me as something a hard hitting female journalist might have sported back in the day.
 
I may not wear pants that often, and distinctly menswear inspired looks even less so, but that doesn't mean I don't love both, because I certainly do. Sometimes, as I'm particularly keen on saying, it's great to shake up your usual routine and step, in my case in Heyday trouser swaddled legs, out of your fashion comfort zone - which is precisely what I did here.