Attic of Mrs V moved!

It's been long overdue, but now I have my own website!

This blog will no longer update, but you can find all the old posts, and all the new ones over at

www.venusmantrap.com 

Hope to see you there!

xoxo

VenusMantrap

Flirting with Swamp Monsters

Oh Tiki dresses, how I love you... let me count the ways!

My new playsuit from Norma Jean Vintage LLC

Hello darlings!

I’m sure you have already seen a few pictures of me wearing the blue and green playsuit from Norma Jean Vintage, and it’s about time I reviewed it.

Dolly and Dotty - Mary Blackbird dress

As the weather becomes a little warmer, I am getting more and more chances to wear this dress, finally!

I like to wear a dress once or twice outside of a shoot to get a good feeling for it and see how it behaves in real life, and this one truly delivers.

It is a fully lined day dress with seriously deep pockets, side zip fastening and a very cute collar button that gives you a keyhole neckline. It also comes with a matching fabric belt.

Dolly and Dotty- Veronica Dress

Hello everyone!

It’s taken me a little while to get back on track with my reviews, in part because the weather was very unfriendly and in part because I seem to have developed a condition in my wrists which makes typing a bit difficult for long stretches of time. Since I type for my work, and classes, at the end of the day I am usually in too much discomfort to blog.

However, there are some beautiful things to cheer me up, and one of them is this stunning dress from Dolly and Dotty!  

Switchblade Cardi - Callous Crow and Andrea Skirt- Voodoo Vixen

I live in a very strange neighborhood in a very strange city. 

The old mingles with the new, and a good portion of the block is simply overgrown and abandoned. And in the midst of it all, is a small off-off-theater.  It's run by a rather eccentric neighbor, but a real sweetheart none the less. 

Callous Crow T-Shirts

I promised you this post last week, but my exams got in the way!
Now that I finally have some time for a blog post again, I am excited to tell you about the Callous Crow t-shirts.

All tied up!

Last week I promised you all something that will be not only for the ladies, but also for the gents reading my blog and… *insert drum roll* here it is!

I teamed up with Callous Crow to model some of their amazingly cool ties!

Callous Crow’s cardigans and Voodoo Vixen’s Prairie dress

How many cat print dresses are too many? Is it like cats, where one cat is enough cats? If so, I am failing most horribly, because I already have two cats, and now a second cat print dress.

This one was also part of my Black Friday haul from Voodoo Vixen, and I fell in love with not only the little kitties peeking out from it, but also the warm and rich colours of the pattern. I was a bit worried about the pattern itself, as it is rather busy, but I figured I might as well step out of my comfort zone for cats, if for nothing else.

Voodoo Vixen's Katniss Dress And Callous Crow's Skull Cardigan

Ah, the most coveted dress in the vintage circles- Voodoo Vixen's Katnis dress!
If anyone can understand it's appeal, then it's me. For one, the pattern. It's kitties! Small black kitties under umbrellas! The colour is incredibly vivid and bold, and the black trim and pattern serves as the perfect counterbalance to it.

Ticci Rockabilly- Western Style Dress

Those who follow me on Facebook or Instagram have already seen how in love I am with this Ticci Rockabilly dress.

Not only did Ticci Rockabilly make it just for me, (and by just for me I mean made to measure and I got to pick my fabric), but it’s also, quite possibly THE perfect autumn/winter dress.

Owl Dress from Rockabilly Pinup

Ah, novelty prints, one of my weaknesses. I would say my only weakness, but let's be real!
This one, however, is a bit different than the prints I am used to. A friend remarked on it best- the colours are very...vintage.
And as I looked at, it I decided that they do have a certain Chuck Jones feel to it. The slightly unusual design, the somewhat eclectic choice of colour, it all seems to point to a more vintage than pinup feel, and, at least to me, gently nudge in the later 50's than I usually wear.  It even has a somewhat 60's feel to it.

Those strange hair curlers

Even though I should totally know better by now, I am always trying out new stuff on my hair, trying to get those perfect glossy curls so many vintage gals seem to get with almost no effort. I can set semi-decent pincurls, I can do a horrible mess on my hair with rag curls, I can make a dog’s breakfast of those bendy sponge roll-things.

Velcro curlers haven’t touched my hair since I was a teenager, and when I do reach for curlers I prefer those iron ones, because I can sleep in them almost decently, and I have plenty of practice. Most of the time they even turn out just how I want them.

But wait, I said. What if... this thing?

The Belsira Bikini one

I love water. Seaside, lakes, even the pool, just plop me down next to a body of water and I’m happy. It’s a great tragedy of my life then, that I have a sun allergy and that my summers are mostly spent slathered in a very high SPF sunscreen.  This, however, doesn’t stop me from swimming every chance I get, and I’ve developed a deep and passionate love for evening and late night swims in the bay of the small fishing village I run away to in the summer.

The Medieval Sorceress

I’d totally like to say that this photoshoot is because of Halloween, but let’s face it, I dress up any chance I can!

The one with the Basset Hound

So many of these posts start with: I wanted to do X for a long time, and then X showed up wth this dress/outfit and I knew it was perfect. This is true in all cases, I am full of ideas, most of them half-formed (or half-baked), and they just need that little spark to ignite into full blown sets. This is perhaps why I vary so much in my shoots, even though I like to think of myself as primarily a vintage blogger.

Halloweeny!

Ohhh It’s almost Halloween you guys! I am still kind of keeping it together and decidedly NOT filling every available space around me with pumpkins, plastic spiders and skeletons, fake cobwebs and all other Sp00py stuff. I am, however, sneaking bits of Halloween into my everyday, and using words like Sp00py. Nope, not sorry.

40's style wrap dress by Cherise Design

If there is one thing I really love about vintage fashion, it is how so much of it used to be bespoke.

Unless you are one of those lucky few who have perfect measurements, nothing off the rack will fit perfectly, there will always be just that little bit of something that could fit better. Unless, of course, you opt for more modern fabric with more stretch in them.

Lindy Bop Tabby Dress - aka The One Where I Fly

There is a photograph by Avedon I am slightly obsessed with.  I am forever fascinated by Avedon's art and above all his approach to fashion photography. It blurs the lines between fashion and glamour and art photography, and in a way it paved the road for all those beautiful and slightly surreal fashion editorials I grew up with as a child sitting in my grandparent's tailor shop.

When Rockabilly Pinup offered me another collab and review for an essential and elegant black dress, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to pay homage to- I wanted to bring that slightly surreal and playful feel to what is otherwise a work of pure, timeless elegance.

It must have taken us a hundred tries until we got it just right, and the end result is this picture you see here, not an attempt at a copy, but a tribute.

Belsira Godet dress

As soon as someone says vintage, the first thing that pops to everybody’s mind is polka dots. This has the unfortunate side effect that wearing polka dots can make you look too costumey or like you are just trying way too hard.

This is why this Belsira dress was such a lovely and welcome surprise. It just screams pinup, without looking too much like a costume.

Even though it is more modern pin-up oriented, with a plunging neckline (well, at least as far as I am concerned) and a shorter hemline than I usually wear, I added a poofy petticoat underneath, and let it be clearly visible, for that extra cheeky and adorable look.