Vintage sewing, rescue dogs, and 1940s reenactments: getting to know blogger Rochelle from Lucky Lucille

In my experience, whereas in the offline world one is routinely introduced directly to someone new by a person they already know, this happens far less online. I'm not talking about discovering another blogger via a post on the site of a person you follow, I mean having someone specifically go out of their way to tell you, "Hey, I think you'd like so-so and because...", or, "Have you meet Ms. Blogger, I think you two would hit it off splendidly", or something to that extent.

Last winter, in her wonderfully nice comment on my post about becoming a wig wearer, Tasha of By Gum, By Golly personally recommended that, if I didn't know her already, I visit the blog of a fellow full time wig wearing, vintage adoring gal by the name of Rochelle.

Being a total wig newbie at the time, and only one of an exceedingly small number in the vintage community that I'm aware, of I was deeply touched by Tasha's suggestion and made an immediate beeline over to Rochelle's beautiful blog, Lucky Lucille. Here, not only did I discover a fellow wig wearer, but a kindred spirit with whom I shared a great many interests and similarities, from adoring the 1940s to being a pet (but not human) mama, crafting to a passion for yesteryear catalogs.

In the months since then, I've had the great pleasure of following Rochelle's blog and in turn having the honour of her following mine. We've chatted about wigs, for sure, but also many other things and it was with no small amount of joy that I welcomed her last and her blog, Lucky Lucille, as one of Chronically Vintage's new sponsors in July.

This month I interviewed Rochelle, chatting about everything from WW2 reenactment events to rescue dogs, and today I am thoroughly delighted to bring you that very interview. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about this inspiring, awesomely talented woman and her fantastic blog as much as I did.


Your blog and your sewing both embody such a tremendously lovely sense of the hardworking resourcefulness and creativity that so helped to define 1940s, what are some other things that you feel define you and your wonderful website?

One of the best compliments I ever got was about my honest and humble writing style. I'd like to think people keep coming back to my blog because they enjoy what I have to say, as well as what I'm wearing. Oh, and of course, Lucille has a fan club all her own!




What came first: your passion for vintage or your love of sewing? (Or did they spring to life around the same time?)

Well they are two passions that I kept entirely separate for a very long time. I didn't mean to, I just didn't really realize I could essential sew my own vintage until recently! (It's so nice to have a 1940's dress that I can throw in the washing machine!) I grew up in a home with a sewing machine, a plethora of black and white movies, and a Bing Crosby Christmas album playing every December, so those paths were bound to merge at some point in my life!


Are there some things you wish you’d known when you started sewing when you started out that you know now?

I wish I had a better understanding of what makes a garment fit well, and how to implement those changes for a more successful sewing project. I have SO many dresses sitting in my closet that I love as a project, but do not love as a wearable item. You live and learn!


What are some of your favourite fabrics to sew with?

Hands down it's cotton, cotton, cotton! Any kind of cotton. It's practically all I use and I'm not ashamed of that. It's such a versatile fabric and I'm convinced there's a type of cotton out there for any sewing project you could imagine. In fact, a friend and I are hosting a vintage cotton only sewalong right now.





To date, what are three of your favourite items of clothing (or accessories) that you’ve sewn or knit for your wardrobe?

Definitely my WWII era Marian Martin dress - that will always be one of my favorite dresses. I also love my self drafted swing skirt, and a pair of 40's trousers that I sadly broke the zipper on and have yet to replace. I should really get on that because I wore those pants all the time!





What would be your dream project (vintage or otherwise) to sew or knit for yourself?

Oh goodness, if I had an ounce of talent at knitting I would definitely knit a heavy duty 1940's "boyfriend" sweater, or some kind of color work project with cute animals. My dream sewing project would involve my own line of sewing patterns. ...I'm working towards that actually ;)

{Image source: Sears and Roebuck catalog, fall 1942}

Aside from sewing, knitting and blogging, what are some of your other creative pursuits and hobbies?

Well I'm a big nerd so I enjoy reading epic fantasy novels, watching period piece films, and bowling hehe! I also really love snowboarding (it cured my seasonal depression!). I've also started digitizing some of my 1940s periodicals and making them available as downloads. Some of these magazines are just too good not to share! I'm working on restoring the "War-time Manual For Housewives" now.


Your personal fashion style is so understatedly, classically beautiful and evocative of a patriotic 1940s gal, what are some of your key wardrobe musts for those looking to take your sartorial lead?

Definitely a classic 1940's shirt dress! That's a piece that is truly timeless and translates very well from vintage to modern. I don't think shirt dresses will ever, ever go out of style.





Lucille, your immensely cute rescue dog, is a key player on your blog (and of course in your life). Do you find that she influence your style and/or what you blog about?

She certainly influences me in the sense that I live by her example. Before I rescued her she lived a very sad, hard, life but you'd never know it by her attitude now. She doesn't hold a grudge against humanity when she has every right to. She LOVES people and is generally an extremely sweet, happy-go-lucky pup. Her breed also faces a fair amount of adversity but she doesn't know that. She is what she is, and I am what I am, and we're happy as such. Dogs just take life one day at a time, and always stop to smell the flowers :) We can all learn something from that attitude.


You and I both share a passion for adopting rescuing animals and the importance no-kill shelters. What are some things that you wish more people knew about shelter animals and why it’s so important to consider adopting an animal from a shelter when looking to add a new pet to one’s family?

Oh boy, I could talk all day on this subject! I went to school for Vet Tech and also worked in a shelter, so this is a subject very dear to me. A lot of people think people give up their pets because there is something "wrong" with them. But the truth is, many people give up house pets who are well loved and well trained simply because their situations change and they no longer have the means to care for them. The majority of shelter animals are not bad pets. They just got dealt some bad cards.

You should go into a shelter with an open mind and talk with the staff about the right type of pet for you. I swore up and down that I was going to rescue a male greyhound, but walked out with a little white and brindle pit bull instead. She's the dog who won me over, she's the perfect dog for me, and now I can't imagine my life without Lucille. In her case, ending up in the shelter was the best thing that ever happened to her.

When you rescue a pet, you save two lives: The life of the pet you adopted, and the life of the pet who got to take its place at the shelter. Also, when you pay adoption fees, you help save more lives by supporting the shelter and allowing them to purchase vaccines and other resources for the animals still waiting for their forever homes. There is a fine line between rescuing and hoarding though, and with 5 misfit cats and one dog (a low count of pets for me!) I'm cutting it close haha! You can't save them all, but you can definitely make a difference.




You’re a fan of 1940s reenactment events (awesome!), what are some of your tips for those who are looking to get into this fun activity for the first time?

Start going to events dressed in period clothing to get a feel for what it's like, then try to join a reenacting group! It's always more fun when you can make new friends when starting a new hobby, and joining a group gives you the perfect opportunity to do that. Not to mention, a group leader can offer you guidance when putting together your impression (which is sort of like a character). Keep in mind that not all reenacting impressions are military.

I joined a group called The Paper Dolls and we do home front impressions specifically (think Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Land Army!). Do as much research as you can, and do your best to be authentic. Reenactors honor veterans and civilians by representing them as accurately as possible. It can very disrespectful to show up at an event and not represent the time period correctly.






You’re transported back in time to 1940s for an hour with a hundred dollars (in 40s money) in hand to spend however you like. Quick! What do you buy?

Well considering there was rationing going on during the war, and you might not be able to buy whatever you wanted even if you could, I'd still try to order pretty much one of everything from the women's section of Sears and Roebuck!

{Image source: Sears and Roebuck catalog, spring 1942}

Five words that you feel describe your life right now would be?

Great new things to come :)


Thank you very much for this marvelous interview, sweet gal. I adored getting to know you ever better, as I’m sure my readers did, too.


Rochelle and Lucille can also be found across the web on the following sites:

Facebook

Flickr

Google+

Instagram

Pinterest

Twitter

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I will always be grateful to Tasha for introducing me to Rochelle, and in turn to Rochelle for helping to answer some of my wig related questions during those early days of life sans my real hair, as well as for each and every email, blog comment, and lovely social media interaction we've shared since. Wigs may have brought us together, but a great many other things have helped form a shared point into a meaningful friendship.

Believe me when I say, you are bound to adore her Rochelle's fantastic blog. It is chalked full of awesome how-tos and patterns, finished sewing and knitting projects, old school images, endlessly adorable photographs of Lucille, and myriad other things, amongst which, we can all find something in common with this creative, beautiful vintage loving lady.

Smiling in the snow at Skaha

Outfit details

1950s black and red hat: eBay
1980s does 1940s red and white floral print dress: etsy seller Superelder Vintage
Grey shrug: Fairweather
Vintage silver toned rose brooch: etsy seller Miss Farfalla
White skinny belt: eBay
Bangle bracelets: various sources
Red vintage purse: etsy seller I Love Vintage Stuff
Black vintage gloves: Gift from a dear vintage loving friend
Nude black seamed stockings: eBay
Black shoes: Thrifted (from Salvation Army)
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red

Photography by Antonio Cangiano

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There's a scene towards the end of the 1960 movie version of the classic story Swiss Family Robinson in which the family, marooned on the island for quite some time now, have to fend off a group of pirates that have come ashore and are up to no good.

In it the family continually fights off the villainous pirates, only to have them spring back to life as if they hadn't just had a boulder hurdled at them or some such. As children, my little brother and I found this scene to be incredibly funny, as it seemed no matter what the Robinsons did, the pirates just would not die. As a result of the enjoyment we got out of this scene, we came to use the term "like the pirates" throughout our youth when something lasted for a comically and/or otherwise unexpectedly long time before running out or dying.

To this day, when something continues to keep going strong far longer than it was excepted to, I crack a smile and think back to those resilient Disney pirates. Over the course of 2012, the battery (technically, batteries, as he uses a grip that houses two batteries) in Tony's Canon DSL did just that. Time and time again we'd whip it out for a shot and they'd still be going strong, despite often shooting a hundred or two image per outing time and time again. It was handy indeed, and while we of course had no qualms with charging the batteries again before they reached the end of their current charge, we were both more than a little curious to see how just how long they would last for.

The answer to that question was delivered last month on Boxing Day when stopped to take a few snaps at Skaha Beach on the south end of town. After just a couple of minutes, the batteries (which, to be fair, had been showing an ever-decreasing amount of charge for a couple of months now) finally gave up their last ounce of life for the day. We were just taking pictures for fun and as this wasn't a particularly important shoot, we didn't mind and had a good laugh over the fact that they'd finally been defeated - or at least in need of another charging.

To grab a couple more photos, Tony whipped out his iPhone, and so two of the photos today were shot with that, whereas the rest were with the Canon. The batteries were charged up again shortly after we got home and it will be fun to see just how many months they give us again this year before they need to be charged once more (neither of us can seem to remember just when they were charged last prior to this, but we estimate eight to twelve months ago).

Throughout 2012 I introduced you to Okanagan Lake (in posts such as this one about the S.S. Sicamous), the larger of the two lakes between which our town in sandwiched, and discussed the smaller one, Skaha Lake, in this post, but I haven't shown it to you before today. Skaha is the first thing that greets visitors as they drive (or fly) into Penticton from southern destinations in the province, and while it pales in size to Okanagan, it is still a very respectable lake in its own right.

During the warmer months, just as Okanagan Lake is, Skaha (which means dog in a local First Nations dialect - so hence the original name given to it by early French explorers of the area, Lac Du Chien) is a massive tourist attraction, as well as a familiar haunt for many locals. Then, as now, when I was growing up, my family tended to spend more time at Okanagan, as it was closer to our home, but I've certainly swam at many of the beaches around its perimeters over the years, too.

As with most beaches the world over, Skaha doesn't see too much action during the colder months, which is part of the reason I love spending time there during the fall, winter and early spring. Though the waters are too cold to dunk your toes into (unless you're keen on doing polar bear dips!), there is an unmistakable serenity to the watching the water lap at the toast hued sands, tall (often - as in these photos - snow covered) mountains surrounding you on either side, and few other visitors to interrupt moments of peaceful thought and contemplation.

On this day, there was light snow and an icy wind blowing all around us, and I was very, very careful to watch my footing as I carefully made my way out towards the end of the little boat dock down near the marina, lest I take a tumble and end actually end up doing an unintentional polar bear swim! Thankfully such was not the case, but the exposed skin on my forearms was still mighty chilly, let me tell you!

I'd already been suspecting as much, but once I saw these photos uploaded on the computer, I knew for sure (as I touched on in two posts earlier this month) that I needed to trim the bangs on this wig. For some reason - most likely the hat pushing the whole wig further down on my head - the bands just look comically long (and full) here, so later that night at home I ultra carefully gave them a trim, and now like them a million times more (thus in all future posts featuring this wig, the bangs will be a bit shorter and you can see my eyebrows properly again).

I've never been big on spending Boxing Day out shopping (especially since most stores now have Boxing Week sales, which means you've got ample time to bargain hunt, if you're so inclined), instead I prefer tranquil post-Christmas days like this, spent outdoors or perhaps inside hunkered down in front of a warm fire, holiday feast leftovers and hot cocoa at the ready.

While my arms, ok, all of me, was a bit cold, I was also very happy and content, and didn't mind at all when the camera battery died. It just meant the setting became even more serene without the sound of clicking to interrupt the peacefulness of this little slice of Okanagan winter heaven (with nary a pirate anywhere in sight).

The great wig unveiling!

Outfit details

1940s black felt hat with red and light pink bands: eBay
Silver hop earrings: dollar store in Kelowna
Black turtleneck sweater: Thrifted (Salvation Army)
Vintage silver tone arrow rose brooch: eBay 1940s style grey a-line skirt: Thrifted (Value Village)
Red bangle bracelet: Forever 21
Black carved bangle bracelet: Ten Thousand Villages
Leopard cuff black velvet gloves: eBay
Red vintage purse: etsy seller I Love Vintage Stuff
Black opaque tights: (probably) Arden
Black 1940s style shoes: Thrifted (Salvation Army)
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red
Photography by Antonio Cangiano    
                 

                              ♥ ♥ ♥

In many respects, the title of this post assumes that you read last week's post here, in which I discussed the fact that, due to many years of ongoing hair loss, I've recently started wearing a wig for the first time in my life. If you didn't get a chance to check out that post, you may want to do so quickly, and then scurry back here, as it really goes into far greater detail on the subject that I'll be delving into in today's post.

The photos here were the first that we took of me in this wig after I received it, and stand as my favourite prior to when I trimmed the bangs. As mentioned in my recent intro-to-the-wig post, after three shoots, the last of which the length of the bags bugged me the most, I trimmed them a bit and am so, so glad that I did!

There wasn't anything overly wrong with them as they were, but I don't have a very large face over all compared to many other adult women, so the bangs sat pretty low down on my forehead before I cut them, nearly obscuring my eyebrows. If I was going for a Zooey Deschanel/Katy Perry/Olivia Wilde/Taylor Swift kind of look, this would have been perfect, but I'm not. As much a pre-styled wig will permit, I'm trying to keep my hair looking as vintage appropriate as I can, so I'd much rather my bangs channelled someone like, say, Bettie Page, and that's who I kept squarely in mind as I (super carefully - wig hair, after all, doesn't grow back if you cut too much off!) trimmed my wig bangs a few days ago.

Autumn lingered on, rather delightfully, well into November here in Penticton. Even after the leaves had lost their golden luster and the hours of daylight dwindled, the temperatures were kind enough to remain above freezing. In early December though, as is so often the case, all that changed and winter really and properly showed up, brining scads of snow in tow with it as it did.

Naturally, as many of us who regularly take outfit photos know, snow can make grabbing snaps outdoors a bit tricky sometimes, but unless you're dealing with gale force winds and/or blinding snow, it doesn't have to be a deal breaker entirely. On the damp afternoon when Tony and I popped down to a stretch of land beside the marina at Okanagan Lake to take these photos, both the wind and the snow were howling, but amidst the flakes, we were able to get in quite a few photos (albeit quick ones!), many of which we were really happy with once they were uploaded.

Turtlenecks are an interesting garment to me. I've always enjoyed wearing them, appreciate their warmth, and doubt I've ever gone a whole winter without sporting one, but I'm also the first to admit, that they aren't always the most flattering item of clothing on many people. They tend to swallow up your neck, give you the an additional chin or two, and can also snag on longer length earrings. Nevertheless, they're a winter wardrobe must for most folks, myself included, so I figured it was high time I busted out my trusty black one and sported a turtleneck on camera.

I suppose I'm resisting winter's chill in a way, because, so far, I've been dressing a touch more like it was still October then December or (now) January. I love winter, I truly do, but as I discussed in this post last fall, my warm weather clothes far outnumber my cold weather ones at the moment, so I've not got as many snow appropriate garments to turn to as I do ones to, for example, wear to a picnic in June.

To partner with this black turtleneck, I opted for notes of silver, grey, and red. I've always loved this colour combo, and find I reach for it most often during the coldest months of the year. Long after the last Christmas decoration comes down, there's just something about red that makes it seem so very well suited to winter, if you ask me. Perhaps it calls to mind thoughts of flames dancing in a fireplace on a bitterly cold eve, or of rose hips poking out of the snow in the garden, and of course, there's always the abundance of crimson that Valentine's Day entails come February. Whatever the case, I love love to enliven winter's palette with red, and opted to do so with this outfit in the form of the purse, one of the bangles, and as an accent colour on my vintage hat (on top of my usual vibrant red lipstick, that is).

Though, admittedly, it can be a wee bit bone-chilling indeed, I actually love shooting outfit photos in the snow. The cool palette of icy whites, greys, bleached browns, and delicate, almost melancholic blues can make for a fantastic backdrop against which to highlight the true colours of your ensemble. They can also be very flattering to one's skin tone. If you've been on the fence about taking outfit photos in the snow, I highly recommend it to one and all - just make sure you wear sturdy footwear with good tread/grip on the soles, as you don't want to risk injuring yourself in the name of fashion by slipping on the ice or snow.

I was thoroughly impressed with how well this wig stayed put that day (just as it's continued to do each time I've worn it since). We got hit with a few mighty big blasts of powerful wind, and it really didn't budge an inch (I should note, I'm not wearing any wig glue or tape underneath, the wig is merely resting on my scalp). That hat wasn't holding it down either, if you were thinking as much, it was just gingerly resting on top, and would have been far more likely to have blown off than than the wig itself, I think (luckily neither happened).

Suddenly wearing a wig fulltime is a change for sure, but not an unpleasant one at all, and - especially once I trimmed the bags - I'm continuing to be very happy with this cute, inexpensive topper. I sincerely appreciate all of the thoughtful, caring, supportive comments that I received on my post about the wig last week, they really meant a lot to me as I adjust to life sans natural hair.

This is a fun, exciting journey and development to my personal style, and one which I'm eager to share with all of you throughout the brand new year that lies ahead of us - and beyond.

New hair for the New Year

Early last January I wrote a post detailing four fun goals that I hoped to accomplish throughout the year, one of which was to do something about my hair. Though I did get a pretty good cut shortly thereafter, that was, at best, a slight improvement over what was already a fairly dismal situation.

You see, as I mentioned in that post and have occasionally touched on elsewhere in on this blog, my hair had problems. Big problems. The main issue, without a doubt, was the fact that it was thinning. This wasn't a recent problem. I first distinctly noticed my hair beginning to thin when I was fourteen and a half, and though I consulted many doctors about it, had a batter of tests done, changed my diet at times to see if that did anything (it didn't), tried taking numerous vitamins and supplements, used (from my late teens onward) only ultra pure, gentle, natural hair products; stopped colouring it (for a while, which didn't help, so I went back to colouring, as darker hues actually helped a bit in terms of hiding the overall thinning), and myriad other things, nothing helped.

Nor could the doctors definitely tell me why my hair was thinning at such a young age (even though I've been tested many times and never - to date - diagnosed with a thyroid condition, I am personally convinced that my thyroid is playing a roll here, as I lost the second half of my eyebrows in my teen years, too, and that is something that is seen almost exclusively in individuals with thyroid issues, and also because numerous relatives, including my mom, on both sides of my family, have serious thyroid problems).

Now, I didn't start out life with ultra thick hair to begin with, but as far as bone-straight locks go, it was a totally acceptable amount of hair until it started thinning. At first, in my teen years, things weren't so bad and I kept a small flame of hope burning that perhaps this problem would stop once I hit adulthood, but as my twenties rolled on, the issue persisted (again, I sought medical help and was never given a definite answer as to what was causing the thinning).

By about age 25 (perhaps even earlier) I made total peace with the fact that I could tell, unless the problem stopped completely, I was destined to one day wear a wig. This point didn't really phase me at all. Many people the world over wear wigs either by necessity or choice, and in some ways the prospect exited me. Still, I did want to hold onto my natural hair for as long as it looked even moderately acceptable.

Now, everyone will likely define "moderately acceptable" a little bit differently, but for me, as 2012 wore on, the moderately acceptable line was crossed. Though I tried very, very hard to hid the thinning (which was worst in the front, crown and sides, but present across my whole scalp) with different hairstyles, a fairly dark hair colour, headbands, hair accessories, and hats (don't get me wrong, I'd wear hats even if I was blessed with the most incredible head of hair ever), the bald (or nearly bald) patches were getting worse.

I began to say that it was just smoke, mirrors and hairspray that were keeping me from revealing to the world how bad the issue was. Though I never (and would never) doctored (Photoshopped, etc) my hair to make it look better in snaps, I did often have to leave photos on the editing room floor, so to speak, because they showed (in my opinion) how bad the issue was. I wasn't ashamed, but I didn't feel that such shots added to the posts I might have included them in.

Throughout much of the last summer and fall, I wore hats and large hair accessories (flower clips, wide headbands, head scarves, etc) to hide the issue, but as fall wore on and it was getting trickier and trickier to make even a sparse faux bang roll or teeny Victory Rolls (let alone hide the especially noticeable thinning spots), I knew that the time had come to say good-bye to my natural hair.

And so I set about to buy a wig. Now, I should mention that I had zero firsthand experience with wigs prior to this year (I'd never even worn a cheap-o Halloween type of wig), though I had begun researching the general topic a couple of years back. I knew that a good quality real hair wig wasn't in my budget at the moment, and so set about to find a synthetic hair wig that I liked and thought would work well for me.

This was not the easiest of tasks, especially since there are no local wig shops here in our town (and I don't know anyone in person who wear a wig), so I had to turn to the web to source wigs from. The first wig I bought was a high end, fairly expensive synthetic one. Though the colour (a blend of warm golden blonds) was gorgeous, I was shocked by how little hair (not length, thickness) it had and how it was almost impossible for me to style without it showing the wig cap (as the wig, in its natural state itself was modern looking that didn't work well for my vintage style unfortunately), so sadly that wig is most likely a write-off (I may try cutting it or, more likely, I'll sell try to sell it).

I supposed - perhaps both naively and optimistically - that most wigs would be akin to Barbie doll hair in the sense that you'd be able to style them in a wide range of ways without the scalp (wig cap) showing through. I've sense learned, the hard way, that such is not the case and that one usually has to buy a custom made "thick" wig if want to get anything even close to this effect (the ability to style it in a wide range of ways without the cap showing through, I mean). Having just such a wig is now my long term goal (ideally a human hair one, but a thick custom heat resistant synthetic wig would probably do the tricky quite well, too), but as that's unlikely to happen anytime soon, I really needed something in the meantime.

In no small part this is because I had, when I got my first wig (the lovely coloured one that didn't pan out) made the choice to shave my head. One morning Tony (who's no stranger to shaving his own head due to hair loss) and I shaved my head completely. It wasn't nervous at all, in fact, I'd say that a zen-like calm filled my soul as the eclectic razor whizzed across my scalp.

I was sick and tired of the handfuls of hair I lost each time I showered, of the years and years of picking dozens (or more) hairs off my clothes every day, and of the continuous task of trying to hide how bad the problem was (wanna know a secret? If, in an outfit photo you saw the front of my hair, you were likely seeing all of it, by this I mean, if I draped hair over my shoulders, there was little to nothing in the back, and vice versa). It was time, it felt right, and even things have been a bit tricky on the wig front, I haven't regretted this move for a split second.

Though I will always hold out the hope that perhaps one day something could be done to help stop and, better yet, perhaps even revert some of my hair loss, as such solutions have been anything but forthcoming, for now I'm going to continue to keep shaving my head and wearing a wig.

Ok, so the first wig didn't pan out. This only really bugged me because of what I paid for it, but chalk that up to a learning experience. Then I set about looking for a wig that looked (or would be easy to style) vintage (aka, like a 1940s or 50s hairstyle).

Well let me tell you, my sweet dears, there are not many of them out there, especially if you're trying to avoid the obvious costume styles (such as Marilyn Monroe and Lucile Ball costume wigs). I scoured the web, looked at dozens of wig websites around the world, and in terms of pre-styled synthetic wigs that were within my budget, the best option I found was one called Pin Up by the brand Jon Renau.




{My new wig, Pin up by Jon Renau, pictured here in, I believe, a colour called Chocolate Soufflé. I'll be sporting Cherry Cobbler myself. Image source.}



This brand makes a wide range of realistic and more costume oriented wigs, however unlike their realistic (aka, modern style) wigs, Pin Up was not offered in many non-costumey colours. Of the more realistic hair hues there was platinum blond, very dark brown, and a warm auburn called Cherry Cobbler, the latter of which I opted for.

Cherry Cobbler (isn't that name adorable?) must be one of the best sellers in this wig, because it was sold out on several sites, but I was able to find it from a website called Max Wigs. The wig took its sweet time to arrive (though the site charged me more than enough to send the wig via USPS Priority Mail, it was sent through First Class, and took a little over three weeks to arrive to my house here in B.C.), and I was growing a touch anxious because there I was with a shaved wig, a wig that didn't really work for (issues above aside, it turned out to be something of an unflattering wig for my face shape - though could do in a pinch), and no idea exactly when "Pin Up" was arriving (First Class mail to Canada doesn't include a true tracking number, just a customs number).

Alas though, after many restless days, my wig arrived and I loved it. Is it perfect? No, that would likely be far to much to ask from a synthetic wig in that price range, but it's a heck of a lot better than my other wig which was more than five times the price. The bangs weren't cut that straight and I think they fall a little to low on my forehead, so after wearing it for a while I cut them (the first three outfit posts you see of me in this wig have the ever-so-slightly longer bangs, after that, they're a touch shorter and more to my liking). The curl isn't perfectly even (or tight) on both sides and I can already see it dropping a tad, the more I wear it, but over all I quite like this wig. (Perhaps my greatest qualm, so to speak, with it is that I worry it makes my face look rounder in a way that might make me look heavier than I really am - but I'll let you guys decide if such is the case or if it's just my imagination.)

The colour is great, it's comfier (by a long shot!) than the first wig I bought, and it looks relatively vintage-ish (it’s quite similar to Bettie Page’s iconic hairstyle). I can't fashion it in a million ways, but I can pull the sides back, do small rolls, tuck it into a snood, and am continuing to experiment with other styles.

This wig isn't meant to last me forever by any means, and it certainly won't (I'll be impressed if it holds its curl and looks presentable until spring arrives), but it's a good compromise right now I think, as I begin to slowly save up for a thick, very good quality custom wig. In the interim, I'll most likely purchase other inexpensive wigs, especially if they have a vintage hairstyle vibe to them, but Pin Up is my "hair" for the moment.

Though I've certainly learned more about wigs in the past couple of months than I ever have before, I'm by no means a wig expert (perhaps one day), and I hope that you'll enjoy learning alongside me in the months and years to come, as I continue to broaden my knowledge on the topic, try other wigs, and live life without my natural hair.

I realize that this was a bit of a long post, but I really wanted to delve into the subject of my hair loss and recent experience with wigs before unveiling photos of me sporting my Jon Renau Pin Up. I have an outfit post slatted for next Tuesdays (the 8th), and will unveil my new hair there - so be sure to tuned for that!

These past couple of months have been interesting ones on the hair front for sure, but like any big change, there's almost always going to be ups and downs, curve balls, mistakes, and successes. I'm truly happy that I made the decision to start wearing a wig, because it has relieved me of the constant problems and stresses associated with half a lifetime of continual (albeit gradual) hair loss.

If you happen to know of any good sources for vintage (1940s or 50s styled) wigs and/or have have any great wig tips/personal stories/etc that you'd like to share with me, I would be truly grateful for your knowledge and suggestions.

Thank you very much for letting me share this experience with all of you. Here's to starting of the New Year with brand new hair and all the fun and excitement that such a change entails!