The vintage 1920s dress and victory rolls

As the end of summer approaches, I’m trying to ease my way into an autumnal wardrobe. I have a few trusty transitional pieces for those not hot, but not cold days. I’m finding moving from brights to muted tones is helping me find that transitional style, and rust is set to be a big AW18 trend. I’m a huge fan of vintage fashion, and I can’t wait for some autumnal vintage finds.

On Bank Holiday Monday, we headed down to the harbour in Padstow, a little fishing village in Cornwall. I love the little town, with its quaint cobbled streets and little seaside shops selling shells and souvenirs without it being overly touristy.

It was a relatively busy day for Padstow, mostly because it was the bank holiday, but also because world-famous chef Rick Stein was in town doing a book signing. Stein has almost single-handedly boosted Padstow’s local economy so much so that it’s been coined Padstein.

As soon as we arrived we headed straight to Chips Ahoy chippy for some food. It’s one of the cheaper chip shops by the harbour, but it’s amazing. Jake and I fuelled up on cheesy chips, onion rings and chicken nuggets before heading to an angling shop.

Every year we either go to Padstow or St Ives and go crabbing off the harbour. I don’t think any of us have matured enough to not laugh at the phrase ‘I’ve caught crabs’ just yet. Maybe one year, ay?

The final item on the Padstow agenda (and arguably the most important) was icecream. A must-have for any mildly sunny day by the sea. I got Vanilla Clotted Cream and White Chocolate and Raspberry with a flake – I could have died and gone to heaven.

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Outfit Details

Dress – New Look – £11

Bag – River Island

Shoes – Converse

Earrings – Primark

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Anyway, the outfit is what I’m really here for.

I first saw this cute, rust dress on Kaye Ford (aka Fordtography). She said it was the perfect dress for photographing summer weddings in, and I nearly made it my wedding photography dress too. I didn’t end up buying it until I saw it in the New Look online sale a few weeks later. I quickly added one of the few remaining size 8’s into my basket. After a little browse on the homeware sale, I clicked checkout and alas, the dress had vanished from my basket and was now sold out online. I could have actually cried.

I rang around all of the local stores to find and reserve one, and mum went and grabbed it for me the next day.

The dress has a vintage 1920s vibe, in both cut and colour. I feel as though I look like I’ve just waved my husbad off to war. It comes in slightly at the waist and gently floats into a tea dress. The little v-neck collar has that ‘workers’ look, like when the women went to work in factories during the war.

To compliment that style, I rolled my hair into a victory roll. To do this, I sectioned off a piece of my fringe and backcombed it. I then smoothed over the top to create a quiff. Starting from the bottom, I rolled the hair anti-clockwise up into a roll and secured it with bobby pins and a lot of hairspray.