The perfect summertime vintage style plaid sundress from Dolly & Dotty

Outfit details

1930s/1940s red straw wide brimmed hat: Frugal Frocks

1950s style blue glitter resin diamond shaped earrings: Summer Blue Jewelry

Navy blue thin knit shrug: Sears 

1950s white carnival milk glass beaded necklace: Orbsies

1940s style black cherry hued beaded brooch: Summer Blue Jewelry

1950s style red, white and navy blue plaid dress: c/o Dolly & Dotty

1940s/1950s white gloves: Unknown, had for years (possibly a gift)

C. 1950s navy blue handbag: Frugal Frocks

Nude seamed nude stockings: eBay

Red patent faux leather pumps: Payless

Lip colour: MAC Russian Red

Nail colour: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet

Photography by Tony Cangiano

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August kicks off here in Canada with a much needed civic holiday long weekend, which is akin to a bank holiday in Europe. It's a welcome spot of respite in a season that is rather devoid of nationwide festive celebrations and though technically a little shy of such, marks in a lot of ways, the halfway point of the summer.

However, with the immense amount of rain we experienced from mid-April to late July here, it has really only been in the past few days (which have been somewhat drier, though still by no means devoid of rain) that it's felt like this season has quasi-sprung to life at long last.

This is cause for celebration for sure and I knew exactly what I wanted to wear, the moment we saw a sunny Saturday. I love plaid. Love, love, lovvvvvvve plaid. It is, hands down, one of my favourite prints ever and I sport it all throughout the year.

Its connections with camping and the great outdoors, things that we not only associate with summer itself, but which are inextricably linked to Canada itself, always make it a natural choice for me come the August long weekend.

No matter what the weather has been up to, the review pieces that I received earlier this year from UK vintage inspired/repro/pinup style clothing line Dolly & Dotty have been welcome and wonderful companions, as well as a great jumping off point for multiple outfits, this summer.

This is the third Dolly & Dotty piece that I've blogged so far (see the previous two here and here) and there will be one or two more outfits featuring others coming down the pipeline still this season, which I'm really looking forward.

Like all of the Dolly & Dotty pieces that I've tried so far, this dress - which is called the May Vintage Inspired Swing Dress - is very well made, especially at its highly reasonable price point.

It's constructed from a lightweight, comfortable cotton and is lined in a thin cotton fabric as well. Yet even with the lining, is a treat to wear during the warm weeks of summer, as the two fabrics are very breathable.

This dress is sleeveless with wide, comfortable straps and boasts a becoming deep v-neck, which works well for a wide range of different figure types. The colours are crisp and the plaid, delightfully classic in its marriage of navy blue and red on a background of white.

This dress arrived, to my surprise and delight, with not one, but two different belts. One in the same fabric as the frock itself, the other the red one that you see.

Unfortunately the plaid belt is a little bit too big for me, even worn on the smallest hole, and the red one almost is as well, but I can wear it on the tiniest hole, so thankfully I was able to share it here with you today.

Much as with the previous Dolly & Dotty frock that I blogged about (in this recent post), I found the sizing to be on the smaller - but still easily wearable - side (do consider sizing up if you're ordering from D&D, especially if you're purchasing your first ever dress from them).

I really, really like this dress and want to sincerely thank the lovely team at Dolly & Dotty for sending it my way. It's a treat now for summer, but with some layering (likely including a camisole underneath), it could easily - and very prettily - work a treat for spring, fall, and even winter, too - the latter of which its colour palette would make for a perfect Christmastime look.

This time around, for mid-summer, I opted to pull on the navy and red hues for my shrug, jewelry, handbag, hat and shoe choices.

I teamed this dress with two fabulous mid-century style pieces from Etsy vintage inspired jewelry seller Summer Blue Jewelry (whose earrings are nickel-free, which means I can safely wear them - huzzah!!!). I'm a huge fan of Summer's creations and am gradually building my collection of such. She recent started putting out this year's fall and Halloween lines and I want every last item in them!

Plaid dresses are frequently vivacious and eye-catching unto themselves, so a solid coloured 1930s/40s red straw hat, a c. 1950s navy blue handbag, and a vintage appropriate pair of red pumps, as well as a mid-century pair of white gloves and a beautiful vintage white carnival glass beaded necklace round out this fun sunny weather look.

Often the marriage of navy, red and white telegraphs a nautical look, but I think that the black cherry hued 1940s style brooch helps to keep this ensemble more landlocked and tied back to the outdoors/camping associations that plaid is so connected to. Had I, however, sported a sailboat, anchor or ship's steering wheel shaped pin, I suspect this outfit would have looked a lot more ocean appropriate.

That wasn't what I was after that day however, as water wasn't factoring into the weekend's activities. Instead we married errand running with family visits and a bit of much needed R&R, and grabbed these snaps early on Saturday evening as the sun was starting to retreat behind the hills and the heat of the day had receded a touch.

I'm grateful to feel warmth again and really, really hope that the summertime weather sticks around now that it has - knock wood - returned for the time being. This coming weekend is Tony's birthday (on Saturday) and we're definitely crossing our fingers that it's a sunny one again, too.

It's awesome to be into the eighth month of the year and to know that, rain or no rain, there's still a fairly decent stretch left to go until Old Man Winter returns. Though I must say, I really do love the idea of sporting this frock during the Christmas season and could easily see myself partnering it with a red blazer or cardigan and some (perhaps navy blue) tights for a icy season look.

Not quite yet though, I want to do my best rock lounging lizard impression first and soak as much of the warmth, sunlight and carefree vibes of summer as I possibly can before we blink and we’re up to the brims of our vintage hats in snow once more.

   

Vintage Link Love: March 2014

There's always a certain sense of contradiction to ending a month of the first day of a new week, isn't there? It feels like you're pulled in two very different directions, with one foot in the past, the other in tomorrow. Today though, I feel like I'm on a pretty even keel and am looking very forward to the coming month for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is my sweet mother's birthday in two days, followed three weeks later by Easter. I also have some really, really exciting (top secret for the time being) vintage related plans in the work for later this spring, too, which have had me in a permanent smile for quite some time now (as I work diligently away at bringing them to fruition).

One of the things that really kicked March off on a positive note for me this year was winning a giveaway hosted by the immensely talented Emily from the blog Emily's Vintage Visions, who very generously offered her readers that chance to land a darling handmade apron that she created. It arrived mid-month and is so, so cute (and well constructed!). Though I wear one almost daily, I don't actually have a large collection of aprons, so Emily's wonderful gift is a big, and very much appreciated, boon to me there.

March was jumping with activity, online and off, and it wasn't hard in the slightest to find exciting, enjoyable, and/or inspiring entries to share with you here in this month's edition of Vintage Link Love. Quite the opposite actually, I have so many more from March (or that I found in March) bookmarked still that I could fill the next two such posts with them alone! I won't though, as I like to include some from the month that just wrapped up, of course, but I'm sure many of them will continue to appear here over time.

Sit back, settle in, grab your favourite early springtime nibble, if so desired, and come along as we take a peak at some great vintage related links as March embarks on its final day.

♥ Viva Las Vegas Pre-Game Tricks and Tips: With Viva Las Vegas, the largest annual gathering of vintage, rockabilly, and kustom kulture folks in the US (and one of the largest in the world) set to kick off again this year in mid-April, many bloggers who will be attending are hard at work both getting ready for the big event and sharing some of their thoughts on how to prep, pack and dress for it, including this helpful post chalked full of handy tips from Veronica Vintage, which is a great read for new and veteran attendees alike.


♥ Tin cans filled with $10 million in (vintage) gold coins found buried in California: By way of my darling husband (who first shared it with me) comes a story that sounds too unbelievably good to be true, but is in fact genuine. If it doesn't make you want to buy a metal detector and start hunting around for old, buried tin cans of your own (because, let's face, most will not be jutting out above ground a little like the one in this story), I don't know what will!


♥ 10 recipes that defined the 1960s: Though I born in the mid-1980s, what struck me about this fun post, which I discovered via The Glamorous Housewife's wonderful blog, is just how many of the ten my family was still making and serving two to four decades later. In fact, I still whip up some of these classic eats myself to this day and think that many will continue to be popular for a long, long time to come (how can you not adore things like grape jelly meatballs and fondue?).






♥ How to organize a pettiskirt collection: Whether you call them crinolines or pettiskirts, there's no difference in the amount of space these beautiful, but often very voluminous undergarments take up and the fact that storing them, especially if you have more than a couple, can quickly take up a rather hefty amount of room. Thanks to the immensely stylish Frances from the blog Polka Polish, all those who find themselves in this situation can now rejoice because she has hit upon a brilliant, super affordable way to wrangle your collection into a very small space that still allows you to see all of your petticoats at once glance. I love (underline that a hundred times) this clever idea!


♥ 7 Things Vintage Stars Can Teach Us About Body Confidence: This charming series of vintage photos, each partnered with a quote from one of yesteryear Hollywood's greatest stars, helps to succinctly remind us of how we might want to approach and deal with certain things that we almost all struggle with at one point or another when it comes to our own appearance and self-confidence levels.


♥ The Manly Origins of Cheerleading: When most people (especially 21st century men) here the word "cheerleader", the first thing that pops to mind is a cute girl in a short skirt, dancing, cheering and waving a pair of pompoms around, and while that has certainly often the case in recent decades, as this engaging post examines, cheerleading actually has a longstanding history as a male centered activity (up until the 1930s in many places).




♥ Man Buys 10,000 Undeveloped Negatives At a Local Auction and Discovers One of The Most Important Street Photographers of the Mid 20th Century: Gold, it would seem, is not the only treasure that lucky folks have been unearthing lately. In a story that sounds like a dream find to me, as I'm sure it will to many vintage photography fans, a man purchases a huge number of yesteryear photography negatives (for just $380) and soon finds that he's hit upon some of the great, most appealing never before seen street photography of the 20th century all captured by a tremendously talented woman named Vivian Maier.


♥ The Toronto Vintage Society launches a blog: If you've been following Chronically Vintage for any length of time, you'll likely know that I'm A.) a Canadian living in Canada and B.) wildly passionate about anything and everything to do with vintage in this country. Unfortunately, especially in most smaller towns and cities, that's not a ton to be hand though thankfully in various corners across this great nation like-minded vintage loving folks do gather and hold events centered squarely around their passion for the past. Previously operating primarily out of Facebook and Twitter online, one such stellar group, The Toronto Vintage Society, recently launched a blog to help spread the good word about their events and vintage in Toronto in general, that is well worth following regardless of if you actually live in Ontario or anywhere in Canada yourself, as vintage truly does transcend borders.


♥ 1920s: English women in colour: This thoroughly engaging and highly beautiful collection of early vintage colour photographs (which reminds me very much of my 2012 post 20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs) has been making the rounds big time on Facebook lately, but in case you haven't seen it there or elsewhere, I simply had to share it with you here today. It's always such a special joy to see very early colour photos like this, which truly help the past seem all the more alive and easy to relate to.





♥ How to make a 1940s headscarf/bandana: A little earlier this year Emileigh of the highly enjoyable, informative blog Flashback Summer ran a great series on 1940s working women's style, of which this handy, super easy to follow tutorial was a part. If you're a fan of this classic style of headscarf, you'll want to bookmark Em's post immediately.


♥ 50 vintage inspired & retro clothing stores: Searching for the mother load list of online shops that stock vintage inspired and retro fashions all corralled into one handy-dandy spot? Look no further than this post from Vintage Dancer which houses 50 sources that are sure to appeal to vintage fans far and wide - and cause many a wishlist to swell to new, epic proportions! :)


♥Marlene Dietrich | The World's Most Glamorous Grandmother Sale: Earlier this month some of legend actresses Marlene Dietrich's personal affects (including a love letter from Ernest Hemmingway) were auctioned off, with a sneak peak of the selection appearing in this post from Shimpton Couture. Dietrich is amongst the classic Hollywood stars that I most admire, not only for her acting but for how she lived her life, and I must say, if money was no objection, I would have loved to have raised my paddle when the auction began on some of the pieces in this elegant array of vintage and antique items (such as the resplendent piano compact pictured below).





{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}

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Electricity charged thunder storms, flocks of new blooms in every garden, early season produce, the shedding of at least a layer of two of clothing in our daily attire, Easter egg hunts, there are so very many reasons to eagerly look forward to April and all that it holds in store for us. I can hardly wait and feel like I'm in such a positive, productive place in my life right now on certain fronts that it's hard to contain my joy and eagerness for what April and the coming months beyond it will hopefully deliver.



{Image source}

I sense April is going to be a beautiful month in a lot of ways and am really hoping that the weather will follow suite. March's, though differently than February's, was often lousy and rarely permitted me to do photo shoots, which is always a drag, because I do enjoy getting in as many as my health will permit when the weather is in a more cooperative mood. I've got some marvelous springtime fashions to share with all of you, so with a bit of luck - and plenty of sunny skies - I can start doing so in earnest in the month ahead.

For now though, especially because I am trying very hard to savour and live in the moment as I grow older, I'm content to slip on a sundress and light weight cardi, set my sites on April, but devote my attention to today. Then buckle down to keep working on my secret plans, which with a bit of luck, I should be able to unveil sometime in May. Very exciting! :)

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you each a sweet, jubilant, completely lovely April and hope that the month delivers scores of reasons for you to smile as well.