All ratted up like a teenage jezebel

I have a dream when I close my eyes, I wish my hair was 10 feet high...

I had to stop for food while I did mine. Back-combing sure takes a while!

 

Those of you who follow me on instagram *waves*, you may have seen my hair looking a little bit... bigger than usual a few weeks back.  It was all in honour of a screening of Hairspray (1988) at the Komedia in sunny ol' Brighton which was followed by a bop for all the hair-hoppers and trashy teens (including myself, Hayley and Becca).  Well, after a few Christmas cocktails beforehand we actually managed to miss the screening (woops) but I've seen it so many times, I didn't really mind (I do love a bit of John Waters kitsch-o-rama).  The dance put on by the Big Itch boys afterwards was well worth the trip out in the rain though.  Becca and I even managed to make it into the final two couples of the dance competition - and we got to crack out the Madison!

But anyway, I'm here to write about what I wore, and of course, the hair.  When I heard that there was going to be a John Waters/Hairspray party my first dilemma was, do I go as a Drape from Cry Baby (who doesn't want to be Wanda?!) or one of the teenage jezebels from Hairspray?  Then I decided that I actually just wanted massive hair, so Hairspray it was.  I'd like to say that I had an elaborate plan with detailed setting patterns, paddings and lotions, but in truth, I just back-combed my hair and hoped for the best.  Inspired by an interview with John Waters where he said that all of the actresses' hair in the film was their own i.e. no hairpieces (although I imagine he's not including Debbie Harry's wig-bomb at the end) I decided that just using my own hair was the way to go (also, I have no hair pieces or wigs so that helped make up my mind!) 

Mid 'feathering' as Tracy would say. My arms were getting tired by this point

 So, with quite dirty hair, I set about back-combing as if my life depended on it.  I even took a photo half way through because I'd got bored as it was taking such a long time (an hour and a half from start to finish).  When I had finished creating this halo of hair, I smoothed it down into a beehive with a few curls left down - all held together with A LOT of hairspray.  And here's the finished result...



Sadly, the Christmas decoration wasn't attached

I thought the brooch looked like a suitably festive wreath

 

The back was pretty messy
but I was just shoving pins in and guessing really

 

I thought these looked pretty atomic
(they're actually for wrapping presents)

 I wore the same dress that I'd previously worn to Singing in the Rain as I thought it was just on the cusp of late fifties/early sixties, much like the film...  As the party was just before Christmas, I thought I'd be a little bit festive, so I had some foil decorations in my hair and a lovely wreath-style brooch from the '60s.  I also wore deadstock 1960s stockings and some plain white plimsolls.  I think kitten heels would've completed the look, but alas, I own none.  My makeup was a bit bolder than usual, with darker brows and frosted eyes and lips.

 

You can see my makeup and the sweater-guard a little better here

Dress - handmade early '60s

Cardigan - Zara

Brooch - '60s (a present)

Sweater-guard - made by me from some '60s jewellery 

I want to try more '60s styles in the future, especially as once I'd finished the back-combing, the style didn't take that long.  It did also have the benefit of lasting, completely intact until the next day.  Let me tell you, the brushing out was not fun!  

 

Are there any styles you think I should try or any spectacular 'dos you've had success with?

Penny and Tracy in all their glory

  

And before you ask - there are no 'roaches in my hair - this girl's a clean teen.  Well, teen might be pushing it...

Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

As happens to a fair few of us around Christmas time, I became rather languid and as such neglected my duties of reporting to you on the happenings of the vintage scene.  Well, there was homemade Turkish Delight that just had to be eaten! 

Before I became a slave to Christmas and all the wonderful food it provides, The Vintage News went to the festive edition of the Candlelight Club.

We were greeted with the warming aroma of cinnamon, cloves and other festive spices.  This, added to the candlelight, made for an intimate atmosphere, the sort of thing Bing Crosby would sing about and then hit stuff with his pipe.      Christmas trees bedecked in glistening decorations added yet more to the festive feel of the evening.

The musical entertainment of the night was provided by Albert Ball’s Flying Aces.  An amazing band, of whom we had previously been unaware, they play popular hits from the Great War on authentic instruments.

Named for the highly decorated pilot, they perform glorious renditions of ragtime, jazz, music hall, blues and polkas from across Europe.

Projected on the wall behind the bar was ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, well what would Christmas be without it?

The dancer of the evening was the impeccably dressed Josephine Shaker.  Tap-dancer extraordinaire, she regaled us with stories of the greats (of course, Astaire and Kelly) when we interviewed her.

Once again, we were fortunate enough to be able to interview with one of the organisers, Clayton Hartley. 

The room in which we conducted our interviews was glamorously dishevelled, think Sunset Boulevard.

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.  I had a bit of trouble deciding between two dresses, so in the end I wore both!  I had an emerald green pencil dress (to which I attached black velvet trim and halterneck) which I found in a charity shop.  The skirt was from a Vivien of Holloway circle dress which was folded under.  The join was ‘masked’ by more black velvet and a large silver brooch.   I had green and red flowers in my hair, to be in-keeping with the Christmas theme of course.

A lovely touch was the inclusion of a roast dinner available in the courtyard.  It smelt delectable but we had to save room for all the wonderful cocktails on offer.

My favourite cocktail of the night had to be Cherry Christmas; a delicious concoction of gin, cherry brandy, cherry bitters, rosemary tincture and cranberry juice.  The cranberry made it seem almost cleansing!  Other alcoholic offerings included the mincemeat vodka based Mince Flip, Ginger Snap with rum, advocaat, ginger wine, ginger beer and Boker’s Bitters(that could’ve been one of mine!).  Other yuletide ingredients included chestnut syrup, Frankincense bitters and nutmeg.

While the footage from this event is being edited, here is a link to the last time we went to the Candlelight Club

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJgcUgGIReE&feature=player_embedded

Oh, and you may have noticed in the latest New Sheridan club newsletter, a few pictures of myself and my fellow comrades at their Christmas bash.

 

Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once...

After seeing Father Christmas arrested (although I had my suspicions quite early on he wasn’t the Father Christmas – the area around Piccadilly Circus was saturated with hundreds of Santas all of whom seemed to have taken the ‘merry’ aspect of the character very seriously), I made my way to Fleet Street for the New Sheridan Club Christmas party. 

The shindig was at the Punch Tavern, a very elegant pub, (with a quite delightful bathroom!) situated just off Ludgate Circus.  This was my first ‘official’ engagement as the Vintage News without Kieren or Les, so I persuaded my sister into coming along for a bit.  Although Maisie could only stay for a short while, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.  She even won a skull (yes – a skull, no – thankfully not human) in the lucky dip!

The theme of this year’s do was ‘Tinker, Tailor, Dandy, Spy’ focussing particularly on the latter.  After seeing photos from the event last year, with its theme of ‘Back to the Futurists’, I was excited to see what everyone would be wearing.  If I thought about it sooner I would have gone for the full Mata Hari look, but I didn’t have enough time to make a head dress (which would be integral for any costume as the most infamous female ‘spy’).

In the end, I went for a black floor length ‘70s/80s-does-‘30s dress that belonged to my mum when she was my age.  Along with fantastic outfits (more photographs at the end), I was also looking forward to seeing what games there were.  The first game of the night was Berlin Wall Jenga (painstakingly painted by Clayton’s wife – with authentic Berlin Wall graffiti).  After a few tense rounds, a winner was announced who got to keep the magnificent customised Jenga set.

Along with Jenga, there was the apparently obligatory shooting game, this time based on the opening title sequence to many a Bond film. 

Players had two shots to knock over Sean Connery by firing through a moving ‘gun barrel’.  It was apparently a lot more difficult than it seemed! 

I interviewed the splendidly attired Artemis Scarheart, the Defence Secretary of the New Sheridan Club.  He explained that the rooms had been divided in separate zones.  The games room was the American zone (replete with signs from Checkpoint Charlie), the bar area was the Russian zone, the smoking area was the British zone and the French zone consisted of the, ahem, toilettes.

There was also a free snuff bar, with many varieties of snuff on offer to those wishing to partake.  Personally, I declined but others seemed to enjoy the wide range of flavours, (if indeed flavour is the right word).

There was a raffle, with some rather good prizes (spy based of course) but sadly I didn’t win anything.

Apart from the James Bond theme tunes creating just the right atmosphere, entertainment was provided by the magician Christian Lee.  It was a highly amusing show, with sleight of hand, mind-reading (with the help of a giant green balloon) and framing a policeman for an unknown crime...

 

The best costume prize was won by this gentleman, who was dressed as ‘Number 2’. I think these people were probably quite close in the running...

I had a wonderful evening and just hope I will soon be able to make it to one of the meetings.

On another related note, the New Sheridan Club has an associated blog; the Institute for Alcoholic Experimentation.  The latest post relates to a competition they recently ran where you had to tell them your favourite Christmas tipple.  I was lucky enough to win a copy of the How to Drink at Christmas by Victoria Moore with my cocktail, the 'Gingerbread Fan'.

Here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment.

I also recorded a short interview with the Defense Secretary, Artemis Scarheart which is now available for your viewing but shhh! don't tell anyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBmBBTNVQ1w&context=C353bd90ADOEgsToPDskLFxLI_vDlOpqZcaHpg5b8i