Black Vintage Beauty

 

Alek Wek, ID Magazine 2009

I read this thoughtful article in Stylist on the tube to work earlier in the year. Make-up and identity. The depiction of race and beauty. Never seeing people who look like you on TV, or magazines and never feeling pretty.

I could relate to the evolution of black makeup. In my early teens I had a makeover at Clinique (which I think were the first major high street brand to stock black foundation). The assistant insisted on making me up in what she claimed was Naomi Campbell's signature style with lips that looked like off-white tipex. I also won a gaudy set of pink eye shadows, blushers and lipsticks from one of the specialist black makeup brands that simply looked awful. 

Not that it bothered me too much.   We were the only black family in a little village in Essex. I genuinely thought my mother was the most beautiful woman in the world for great swathes of my childhood. [I am biased but she's still quite a fox now that she's in her sixties - but that's an aside].  In my teens I didn't want to look the same as anyone else. I thought it would look cool if I put eyeliner on before I went to bed so it would be messy in the morning - I ended up with an eye infection. I owned black and blue lipsticks and considered Beatrice Dalle and Robert Smith style icons. 

Its fair to say that I don't wear much make up day to day now but I've migrated to MAC and bare minerals when I do want to look a bit more polished. So what to do about wedding make up and hair?

As I've mentioned before I love old Hollywood glamour and the wedding blogs are full of elegant glamorous brides with vintagey vibes. However there are very few black women amongst them. I want to see colours against different skin tones and to find out if my hair can really hold those shapes. I want to see whether a makeup artist is experienced at styling people that look like me before I book an expensive trial... Hmmmm... The lovely Annabel from Love My Dress explained the reason that there aren't many black brides on wedding blogs is because typically there aren't many submissions from black brides. I'd never thought of that - although I should add that she's definitely keen to recieve more submissions.

I had my makeup trial yesterday with Amanda (recommended by Annabel by the way)who impressively gave me exactly the soft vintage inspired look I was after and was very calm and patient.  Once you start to look there are lots of amazing images of impossibly beautiful early 20th century black glamour. Actresses, singers, models, cotton club dancers, pinup girls, Motown girl groups.  Modern vintage interpretations too - look at the images of Alek, Joan and Naomi.  There's a whole world of sources to search through but some of my favourite sites and images are below.  Enjoy.

Black Vintage Glamour: One of the most comprehensive sites, often with interesting social commentary. 
Natural Belle: Fantastic tumblr site of the English fashion and beauty blogger with an extensive catalogue of images - lots of contemporary images and a fetish for Solange Knowles in particular.
Le Pinup Noir: Pintrest and styling tutorials from 1950's style pin up model Angelique 
Black Heritage and Waheedpix:Flicker site with hundreds of images of ordinary black Americans.  I like this as I'm actually quite interested in images of "real" people and the stories underneath them. There are amazing pictures of my mum (not to mention my dad, great uncle and aunt) from the 1960's looking incredibly sharp.
Veiled Haven: Nice overview of style icons up to the 1950s.   

 

Madeline "Sahji" Jackson





Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothea Church







Aretha Franklin

Shingai Shoniwa

 

Dorothy Cox

The Ronettes
 

Naomie Harris



 

Joan Smalls

Joan Smalls (again)



 
 
 



 
 












Gorgeous!

Suits you sir

We bought The Boyfriend's wedding suit at the weekend. I am, of course, biased but I tell you that man really does scrub up handsome.  The suit is away for alterations at the moment and he can pick up next week. In the meantime, I thought I would link to Start as they cut beautifully, the quality is amazing and the service knowledgeable and unstuffy.  Best of all the sale is on at the moment.

More soon.

Bloom



Magnolia from my mother's garden

Lily pad at Kew

Pink Azaleas at Kew

Flame Azaleas at Kew

Lily of the Valley from my mother

Alliums in Cambridge

Lavender at Ham House

Bluebells in Blake's Wood, Essex

Regents Park

Rose's at Lifehouse Spa

Phone box in Archway (sorry didn't come out well on my phone!)

So many beautiful flowers.  The Boyfriend and I visited Kew yesterday.  My mother brings us flowers from her garden when we are at work.  In April it was Magnolia.  On Friday lily of the valley.  So pretty and smells amazing.   Unfortunately we didn't make it back to Blake's Wood for the Bluebells this year, although I hear it was a particularly beautiful year because of the rain. Blake's wood is, for many reason's, one of my favourite places on earth.

We have made a start with our own little garden with masses of help from our parents, who have given us lots of cuttings from their own gardens and bought us some lovely plants. There's still lots to do and we plan to run errands over the bank holiday. I think it is shaping up nicely.

I'm getting my wedding flowers done by the Urban Flower Company although I'm also doing some of myself too. I just want something very simple for decoration's and I think doing it myself will be fun.  Although you might remember that I did also think about making my wedding cake a while back. I have conveniently forgotten that I ever though that that was a good idea! 

In other news, I started back at work after my secondment about a month ago.  I have found it more difficult than I expected.  People have generally been lovely, from the security guards who remember my name, to the head of the organisation stopping by my desk to say hello, to people I barely remember suggesting we go for coffee. However my confidence has suffered a bit and it feels like so much has changed.  But I think I'm starting to get my mojo back. I think.

February

Where should I begin? I've not been around much again having said how much I was looking forward to blogging again last month. Well with the best placed plans of mice and men and all that...

We moved home. Finally! After a year of property searching, one purchase falling through and two particularly involved sales of our own flats The Boyfriend and I finally moved last week. Yippee!

We were bracing ourselves for something to go wrong at the last minute but moving day was unusually smooth.  We were assisted by a fantastic removal team run by Danny who exudes grace and calm even after a 10 hour stretch of hard physical work and also happens to work as a life coach.  

Even though we were exhausted by the end of the move day, our flat instantly felt like home. As our chairs, bed, sofas and tables came out of the removal van they just seemed to find their place and feel right. The last week has been a whirl of unpacking, taking in deliveries, handy men and electricians.  Our spare bedroom remains packed from floor to ceiling and we have cardboard boxes instead of curtains in our bedroom. But it still feels exciting to come home every time we step outside the flat.  

And...

... I've been thinking about changing career for some time.  I'm coming to the end of a 2 year secondment in a different sector. It was an easy option at the time. It was offered unexpectedly over coffee and it took me away from my old job.  I enjoyed the secondment to begin with and I was offered a permanent job pretty much immediately but I've known in my my heart that it wasn't for me.  I am aware that it sounds spoilt to be fussing about career changes when the job market is so difficult for lots of people at the moment.  However I reckon I have at least another 30 years before I get retire altogether so I need to be doing something I find worthwhile. 

The secondment has given me a different perspective and helped me think more fundamentally about what I want to do. I applied for a new job in a completely different field in February but I didn't get it. Apparently I came second to someone to who is an internationally recognised expert in the field (!) so can't feel too bad about not getting the job. I'm due to go back to my old organisation in a few weeks time but I'm a now bit clearer about what I want to go to, rather just what I want to run away from.  I'm also planning to check out this course at The School of Life.   

And...

The Boyfriend proposed last summer with a beautiful ring from Alex Monroe, my favourite jewellery designer (natch - The Boyfriend is very very good). However we always planned to chose a diamond together. With the move out of the way, last week we bought a lovely classic, sparkly ring. Its being resized at the moment so I can't show the pictures. 

We celebrated our engagement (again) with spaghetti and champagne the Cow in Westbourne Park.  The bread and butter pudding we ate for dessert was sensational. Apart from being almost the size of my head, which is a valuable quality in itself.  I think bread and butter pudding at The Cow may have overtaken the Albion's hot chocolate mousse in my affections.    

I'm so filled with pride and love.  I really can't wait to get married.  I doesn't make any sense but with everything going on all of a sudden I feel very grown up.  And I like it. 

x
      

Weddings and Movie Stars

Its been a quieter more snuggly weekend after a busy week. So I've enjoyed looking through a bit of this coffee table book Weddings and Movie Stars which came out earlier in the year.

As you might remember I have a bit of a thing about old hollywood weddings.  The weddings are obviously glamourous and the dresses are beautiful but there also tends to be something quite simple too about how they celebrated.  There often seem to be smaller numbers of friends and family and many of the weddings take place in registrary offices or city halls. 

I love the book's cover photo of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Apparently when they were pronouced married Lauren clapped her hands and said "Oh goody!"

The book has lots of weddings from the 1920s to the present day, including stills from films as well as real weddings. Its got my favourite shots of Elisabeth Taylor's wedding to Richard Burton, but there others too.

I like this photo from Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi's wedding.  The story goes that Anna was revealed to be from a Welsh shipping village after claiming to be an Indian princess.    

Love this picture of Frank Sinatra and Ava Garner... 



...And this one of Mick and Biance Jagger leaving Marylebone Town Hall

All in all a gorgeous book and lots of wedding inspiration. We think we may have found our wedding venue - although I'm trying not to jinx it by talking about it yet. I am thinking of starting a regular posting on novice wedding planning though.  I'll be back soon. x

Baking Hot in Finsbury Park

It was our friend Andy's birthday party yesterday and we started off the afternoon in Finsbury Park. The grass was covered in beautiful red and brown autumn leaves.  The sun was strong and golden at an unseasonable 30 degrees in London. One of those gorgeous afternoons catching up with an extended circle of friends and drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cake in the park. The only thing was we were able to do this in October rather than August!

I made chocolate Guinness cupcakes based on a Nigella Lawson recipe. I was originally worried that the cake mixture was too runny as all the ingredients are melted together on the stove before they are cooked and I hadn't made cake this way before.  But I shouldn't have worried the cakes turned out really moist and chocolatey with an undertone of spice from the Guinness.

The picture above is from Nigella's website.  And my cakes are below!  I made cupcakes and a few special cakes in little heart shaped moulds.  The Boyfriend argued against the use of strawberries but I thought it was a nice accompaniment and the cakes went down very well with everyone at the picnic.  

I mentioned before that I want to get some practice baking as I'm thinking of making my own wedding cake when The Boyfriend and I get married next year.  I've not baked much in the past at all and I really enjoyed the practice.  I've also discovered that one of my favourite bloggers is going to do a series on baking classic cakes.  I may try to bake along with the blog. All advice very welcome.

The Boyfriend Loves Me More Than Queens Park Rangers...

... and he's at Loftus Road watching QPR play Aston Villa this afternoon. But he did like reading about the pretty unfootbally wedding of QPR sub Rob Hulse earlier in the week.


Oh dear I just checked the score and it looks like Villa have scored in extra time...  A good job I love him so much x

Postscript: Ended up 1 - 1.  The Boyfriend is cursing the referee.

Wedding Caking

I knew from the start that I wanted to make something for our wedding. A few people tell me I'm insane for even considering it, but I would really like to make our wedding cake. I love cooking and it doesn't feel like its too big a job.  After all my mum did most of the cooking for her wedding herself.  She and my dad even cleared up the church hall with friends after their reception.

I've found some very yummy-looking recipes.  I really like the look of this chocolate cherry cake.  There is also this fantastic video tutorial on decorating wedding cakes.  

I'm quite tubby at the moment, having spent most of our holiday eating, so I've not practiced anything yet.  But will post up some results once I do start baking. 

Is anyone else thinking about making their own wedding cake? Let me know how it goes, or if you have any advice, links or good ideas!

A Tenuous Link... Between the British Museum and Elisabeth Taylor

... Now I apologise for such a very tenuous link but an afternoon at the British museum looking at Egyptology made me think of Elisabeth Taylor in Cleopatra... 

... Which is where she met Richard Burton. Who she married (for the first time) in 1964. I love the daffodil yellow chiffon dress, the emerald brooch and the tiny white flowers in her hair. I'm not sure I could pull this off, but doesn't she look incredibly wonderful?

Another beautiful image and fabulous hair. Definitely one for the wedding inspiration folder.

 

PS. I think I read somewhere that this photo was part of the same wedding as the one above (although there is every chance that I have got this wrong so please correct me if you know better). 

Glamour of the Gods

The third day of our holiday and The Boyfriend and I went to the Glamour of the Gods exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  It's quite a small exhibition but utterly beautiful and there are some well researched anecdotes.  The grainy images and the overall aesthetic really appeal.

I couldn't help myself and bought the catalogue.  Here are some sneaky pictures.

Old Hollywood is a motif we've been toying with for the wedding next year.  It's more of an inspiration, I think, rather than a direct theme.  I know it didn't end well but I've always loved this picture of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller on their wedding day in 1956.  Don't they look happy?

I'll say more about the wedding as our plans develop.  For now good night and god bless.

Charlotte