THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE – PART 4

It’s not a secret to anybody that I love the retro style. However, I’m more of a fan of the ‘retro touch’ than the full vintage retro look. I admire some of the women who are capable of wearing shoes, makeup, clothes and an updo that would fit perfectly into a picture from the 40s, 50s, or 60s but I feel very removed from that world for several reasons.

First, the updo: impossible, even if I tried my best, given that I dispose of a gracious ten minutes – shower included – in the bathroom every morning.

(Ah the shower… The degree of intimacy I get in the morning can be conveyed by the fact that I often take my shower with my four-year-old daughter right outside pressing her face and hands into the shower door like a lovely blond octopus, who thinks that one minute and three seconds is already a bit too long).

When it comes to makeup, it’s pretty much the same. How do I perfect a sharp, black cat-eye when someone is attacking me with a shark shaped toothbrush oozing with pink toothpaste?

Therefore, the outfit is invariably covered in pink toothpaste.

I’ve understood the trick now. I wear my jeans and my stripy sailor shirt (my ‘combat outfit’, as my son calls it) to drop them off to school and I pop back home to change afterwards.

It all becomes extremely funny when a passerby asks you very kindly ‘But are you the lady from the blog?’. At that moment (you think of all the pink toothpaste on your shirt, which you’ve covered up with a big coat and…) you just feel like giving her a standing ovation because this young woman managed to recognize when you actually look nothing like the photos in real life.

Anyways, I’m done ranting.

I like it when my outfits are slightly retro but not totally. I also like the idea of being from my time and yet timeless.

I love timelessness.

That being said, I always find immense pleasure when I discover or revisit the Instagram pages of fully retro women such as Dita Von Teese or Nelson Anyways, whose page I highly recommend.

I also find true pleasure in watching Grease again from time to time and whistling the tunes (proof in pictures: look at me, I’m Sandra Dee) 😉

November 2, 2017