Vintage (sigh) night out. Please help.

[putyourhatonsweetie]

Can anyone help a lurker?

Have been invited to a colleague (and hopefully soon to be friend)'s 40th birthday drinks. Lovely ... except she is theming it as vintage. She is quite trendy, tall etc. I will probably look like I am in fancy dress. Humph. Clues, hints and tips please. As an added complication am in Australia so needs to be shippable within a fortnight or so. Cheap would be best but up to 150 is doable if it can be worn again. Am size 12 on a good day, 5 2, and hourglass.

Cheers xx

Vintage? 50's.,60's, 70's, 80's

I think I would probably go 50s

50s is easiest. You can go glam with full skirt, petticoat, and heels. I got an amazing dress from eBay for £30, black with a slash neckline.

Or, you can go casual, with high waisted jeans, blouse/shirt, bandana in hair with pin curls. There are lots of tutorials online.

Do you mind me being cheeky and asking what size you are? It's just is happily borrow you a petticoat and dress if your a size whispers 18...

Oooops no just seen your a size 12. Never mind.

How about this? There seems to be lots of petticoats available.

Or this with high waisted jeans and a bandana?

If you watch Mad Men, Joan always inspires me. Nice figure hugging, classic clothes you could wear again. Can you tell I like this era

50s sounds like it would suit you best. eBay sell full net petticoats that you can use to add volume to a circle skirt or dress.

I like Lady V London although I'm afraid I don't know if they ship to Australia.

Ooooh love the suggestions, apologies for going awol...posted then real life got in the way, its a wonder I'm going out at all [violins]. and all in my price range. Thanks so much

Do your hair, that will be the most on-theme thing, and the cheapest too.
There are lots of really good tutorials on youtube. Look for victory rolls, pin curls, vintage hair. Get a bit of practice in in the week beforehand because it never goes right the first time, you need to practice a bit. Invest in hair spray and kirby grips.

With the right hair you could just turn up in a crisp white blouse and pedal pusher jeans with flats and you'll knock em dead!

Thanks cutteduppear, will enjoy practising.... youtube for makeup I guess as well....? any tips for achieving precision - I don't have a very steady hand and I always picture 50s as more polished than I usually pull off....

Sweetie, google SuperKawai Mama for fab tutorials and ideas, she is in melbourne and shows how to turn High St stuff into cool vintage looks. She's got good youtube tutorials. Another good vintage tutorial girl is Fleur De Guerre.

For a dress, check your bust/waist/hip dimensions carefully with a tape measure and look on Ebay for these sellers. Check the vendor size charts (buy on the dimensions that suit you, not if it's 10/12/14 whatever). I've bought dresses from them and the garments are true to the measurements on the websites:

stores.ebay.co.uk/Hourglass-dresses?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

stores.ebay.co.uk/Viva-la-Rosa?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

both vendors have a big choice of items, not just the cliched polkadot circle dresses, and despatch very fast.

Go to MAC for black flicky eyeliner in a pot, and some matte red lippie.

Job done. Enjoy the night!

Ok, so the links were crap, sorry!

stores.ebay.co.uk/Hourglass-dresses?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

stores.ebay.co.uk/Viva-la-Rosa?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

Also for hair and make up tutorials, Pinterest was invented for it. I follow/pinned a lot of 50s styles, just literally put it into google. I'm very at your night out - it'll be great once your ready!