New Ladies and Gents Step Forward

[PipeRain]

Hello Ladies, Gentlemen....

I found this site trolling about looking for... (Wait for it.....) fedoras!

I suppose I should start at the beginning. "I was born at a very young age..." OK, probably not that far back. I am not a person with a thing for a bygone era per se, there's just certain elements of it I thoroughly enjoy. I wish my generation dressed better, acted with at least a modicum of civility and decorum, respected others (If not themselves) and just generally acted like decent persons. I wish folks still dressed nice to leave the house. I wish men acted like Gentlemen and opened doors for women. I wish women acted like Ladies and let them. So, for reasons like that there are certain elements of those halcyon days that I wish were still around, but I have no desire to re-enact them. That being said, some of my favorite movies are The William Powell / Myrna Loy "Thin Man" movies and of course Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon etc.

I smoke a pipe, hence my nick. "I smoke a pipe and live in Oregon, where it rains...". For a living I manage a wine & cigar shop in my hometown, and try to add a little class, and some of the aforementioned elements to the establishment. My success in that venture is still up in the air. Way up. I do enjoy certain elements of the past, but I also thoroughly enjoy my modern amenities, such as electric guitars and firearms and I tinker a bit with HAM radio. I have a serious "Thing" for watches, especially skeleton watches, fountain pens and cufflinks.

So there you have it.

 

[John in Covina]

The Fedora Lounge Queen Mary Event May 14-16, 2010 Long Beach CA

So! If you can swing a trip to Southern California or you happen to be nearby, we have got the dates for the next Fedora Lounge Queen Mary Event with Friday thru Sunday May 14-16, 2010. It's a fun time and if you can come you'll get to meet a really great crew of FL people that will make you feel welcome. Ususally we post some earlier stuff too that are pre-event warm ups for those that come early.

We are working out the details and one thing is that if you can only come by for a little while, we suggest you come on down and join us for drinks at the Observation Bar or one of the inevitable side trips to local fun places.

This is one event that worth giving a hard consideration especially if you've got a desire to visit Southern California. The event is in the Events sections up by the top as a sticky to make it stand out. Please post there if you think you can make it! :eusa_clap


Hope to see you there.

 

[John Steed]

Hello all, I hail from the other side of the pond, and I was shown this forum by an acquaintance from another board. Like you, I share a penchant for clothes from a more stylish era, and many of my suits and outfits, although modern in manufacture, owe their inspiration and style to eras past. My tastes are primarily for the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, although many of my clothes are more 1930s-1940s inspired. My real name is Steve, and I took my username from one of the most stylish icons of British TV, Mr. John Steed of The Avengers. I look forward to speaking with you all!

 

[jlee562]

Never gave myself a proper introduction, but better late than never.

Hello Fedora Loungers!

My hat fascination started off on a whim, actually. I had, in my younger years, worn caps on and off through most of high school, but then kinda did away with head wear. On a trip to Disneyland, I picked up a Dorfman Pacific wool felt Indiana Jones hat, because why not? Then I started looking for a "real" Indy hat, which led me to a Christy's Adventurer. From then it just kinda snow balled. I've now got the Christy's still, an Akubra Fed IV (carbon grey) which is my go-to rain hat and works well with a dark suit, for those rare occasions where I wear one. I've ordered one of Steve Delk's Adventurebilt Indy hats so I can have the real deal. Picked up a Stetson Temple as a travel hat when I went over seas, and finally just received a custom fedora from The Penman Hat co.

 

[Little One]

Hello!

Hello there ladies! It's nice to meet you all! I must say, when I found this wonderful little forum I was absolutely overjoyed. I've always been into history, but I think that the 1930s and 40s are my absolte favorites. I am very interested in wartime fashion, and am always impressed when I see how beautiful he women on the home front could be when they had so little at their disposal. Anyways, it's great to meet you all, and I hope to see more of you in the future! Xox

 

[khalamorgan]

Hi ladies, I've been admiring the wonderful hairstyles on this site for a while, and finally decided that I should join! I'm a wedding dress seamstress from Ottawa, ON and I'm working on starting up my own line. I look forward to possibly helping everyone, as they've helped me!

 

[RoadScholarSK]

New Member

Dear Gentle Reader,

My name is Mrs. Hildreth, please call me Mary. I am a middle aged retro housewife, who was truly a retro housewife before retro was even a style, it was just a decision to stay at home with our children, and my own personal career choice.

Within the past two years I have discovered and embraced the retro movement, at first out of the comfort of familiar things from my own childhood, and later because I truly wish to bring back the respect and ethics and lifestyle that I enjoyed growing up.

My era's of interest range from Wartime 40's all the way to early 60's. I cannot pick an era and simply stick to it, as the mood I am in when I wake in the morning sets the tone of the day, but there really are no huge changes, if you do recall that the housewives of the early 60's were raised in the 40's.

I happen to be lucky enough to live in a very small, rural Alabama town that is truly stuck in the 1950s. I moved here from a very large Alabama town several years ago and was livid with the differences, but now I truly appreciate them. Unfortunately I live in the one new subdivision here, but because it is a rural town my other choice would be out somewhere. One small instance of vintage lifestyle is my grocery store. This is our store, other than Wal Mart, the only other store in town, and although they now have groceries, many don't shop there. Let me tell you about our grocery store.

Piggly Wiggly. There are no automatic doors. You open the door when you go in. There is a bell. There are two registers without moving conveyer belts. No bar codes. There is a bag boy, but usually the owner bags and takes them to your car. He also delivers to your house and manages house charges. Imagine that in this day and age. He doesn't run any kind of credit check. When I set up my house charge, I offered the usual info. He said 'No no Mrs Hildreth, I just need your address and phone number and about the time of each month you want to pay your bill". Amazing yes? if you order groceries they bring them in the afternoon, either a bag boy or the owner. They will also put them away. I tip them two dollars for this service and that is right about the norm, which I found out from a good friend of mine who is a cashier there.

Our police officers know everybody and they actually do things that police in other cities won't do. An example of this is that a few months ago my dogs got out. I had two Siberian Huskies. Now, everybody in town knows everybody else and what's in their yard etc, it's that small. As I was saying, when my dogs got out and didn't come back within an hour, I called the Police and asked if they could watch for them. About an hour later this very nice boy, Shane, one of our Police, rang my bell. He had my dogs in his car. He brought them in, had a coke, we discussed the other loose dogs in the area and such and we both asked about each others families etc, and he left. In the large city I lived in before, my dogs would have gone to the pound. We truly have no crime. I had a house key when we moved here, but I have since lost it, and we never lock our doors. No one I know locks them.

I did not mean to run on for so long. However, as I get deeper and deeper into vintage lifestyle, I have more and more questions about where can I find this or that, and do other vintage lovers do this or that. I have joined this forum just to discuss these last questions, because even though I live in a town with vintage lifestyle, vintage style itself is rare in the under 60 set.

Sincerely,
Mary

 

[stitchywitch]

Hi all! I'm so glad to have found my way here. My name is Jessica. I've always been a vintage lover, and lately I'm starting to get really into dressing more vintage on a daily basis. My latest endeavor is sewing from vintage patterns, and maybe use some of the vintage knit patterns I've bought over the years! I've learned a lot lurking here, looking forward to joining the discussion!

 

[Berlin]

Welcome everbody!

 

[Miss 1929]

Dear Gentle Reader,

My name is Mrs. Hildreth, please call me Mary. I am a middle aged retro housewife, who was truly a retro housewife before retro was even a style, it was just a decision to stay at home with our children, and my own personal career choice.

Within the past two years I have discovered and embraced the retro movement, at first out of the comfort of familiar things from my own childhood, and later because I truly wish to bring back the respect and ethics and lifestyle that I enjoyed growing up.

My era's of interest range from Wartime 40's all the way to early 60's. I cannot pick an era and simply stick to it, as the mood I am in when I wake in the morning sets the tone of the day, but there really are no huge changes, if you do recall that the housewives of the early 60's were raised in the 40's.

I happen to be lucky enough to live in a very small, rural Alabama town that is truly stuck in the 1950s. I moved here from a very large Alabama town several years ago and was livid with the differences, but now I truly appreciate them. Unfortunately I live in the one new subdivision here, but because it is a rural town my other choice would be out somewhere. One small instance of vintage lifestyle is my grocery store. This is our store, other than Wal Mart, the only other store in town, and although they now have groceries, many don't shop there. Let me tell you about our grocery store.

Piggly Wiggly. There are no automatic doors. You open the door when you go in. There is a bell. There are two registers without moving conveyer belts. No bar codes. There is a bag boy, but usually the owner bags and takes them to your car. He also delivers to your house and manages house charges. Imagine that in this day and age. He doesn't run any kind of credit check. When I set up my house charge, I offered the usual info. He said 'No no Mrs Hildreth, I just need your address and phone number and about the time of each month you want to pay your bill". Amazing yes? if you order groceries they bring them in the afternoon, either a bag boy or the owner. They will also put them away. I tip them two dollars for this service and that is right about the norm, which I found out from a good friend of mine who is a cashier there.

Our police officers know everybody and they actually do things that police in other cities won't do. An example of this is that a few months ago my dogs got out. I had two Siberian Huskies. Now, everybody in town knows everybody else and what's in their yard etc, it's that small. As I was saying, when my dogs got out and didn't come back within an hour, I called the Police and asked if they could watch for them. About an hour later this very nice boy, Shane, one of our Police, rang my bell. He had my dogs in his car. He brought them in, had a coke, we discussed the other loose dogs in the area and such and we both asked about each others families etc, and he left. In the large city I lived in before, my dogs would have gone to the pound. We truly have no crime. I had a house key when we moved here, but I have since lost it, and we never lock our doors. No one I know locks them.

I did not mean to run on for so long. However, as I get deeper and deeper into vintage lifestyle, I have more and more questions about where can I find this or that, and do other vintage lovers do this or that. I have joined this forum just to discuss these last questions, because even though I live in a town with vintage lifestyle, vintage style itself is rare in the under 60 set.

Sincerely,
Mary

Wow! You really live in the past! Lucky you! Welcome to the Lounge, I can tell you're going to love it here, Mary.

 

[shutterbug]

Hello all!!

My name is Melanie and I'm brand spanking new to the Fedora Lounge! I am so, so glad to have found this place. A blog that I follow recommended it and I must say, I love what I've seen so far.

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the east coast on Canada. I am a semi pro photographer (I am in college right now, finishing up the second year of a photography program). I specialize in pin up, tattoo portraiture and music promo.

I have always been very much into the music and styles of the 1950's but only recently have "had the nerve" to really jump into it, full force. You get a lot of strange looks dressing vintage in a small city...I'm sure some of you can relate.

Anyhow, thanks for having me!

 

[Pilot99]

Hey everyone. The name is Michael, I live in the Chicagoland area of Illinois. I am 22 years old. The main reason I joined these forums are as the title implies..Fedora's lol. I am one of those people who started liking fedora's from a very common source...Indiana Jones. The lid on Harrison Ford's head was one of the most prominent reasons for my journey. I have two fedora's so far, one from Optimo Hats in Chicago, and another from Penman Hats. Both are wonderful hats and just the beginning. As far as myself, the other vice I have are cigars. I have a friend who is a cigar fiend, so mainly I just smoke what he recommends. Frankly I am more interested in fedora's and just smoke cigars on the side. As far as personal life I am in my final semester of college and hopefully will be a future Air Traffic Controller at Chicago Center, so most of you frequent fliers will probably be controlled by me in the near future. I hope to get to know many of you and mainly...learn more about fedora's because just reading your posts makes my brain hurt from lack of knowledge. Oh well, have to start somewhere. Once again, nice to meet you all.

 

[VintageLove]

Why, hello there. My name is Samantha and I'm a new member, though I've been creeping around this forum for over a year now. I've learned a lot of great things and can't wait to get involved in discussions! Personally, I favor wartime and post-war 40's style for everyday wear, as well as the occasional 50's get-up for car shows and concerts (for formal occasions though, I love the more glamorous 30's look). I just really love the simplicity of the 30's and 40's; the nostalgia of an era where women were true ladies and regarded as such. It's all so beautiful. Being a woman was about feminine charm and elegance rather than garish exhibition(though I'll willingly admit to my strong feminist tendencies, hehe) Any who, I thought I'd formally introduce myself. See you around!

 

[SugarKitten]

Hi folks, I've never posted before - though I've read along for ages. I'm Kat, and I've been into vintage/second-hand/hand-me-down my whole life mostly because I prefer used to new.

My style is a total mix and match, though I have the utmost respect for the period purists. I'm also singularly obsessed with foundation garments. Vintage cuts and sizing fit me better than contemporary, which just feeds my love.

I'm 27, single, and work in a creative-but-corporate culture office (so, high school, all over again). Someday I'll master doing my hair, and I'll stop fighting with my sewing machine, but neither do seem imminent.

Nice to finally post! look forward to swamping you all with questions!

 

[Seamstress]

Hi Ladies,
New to the neighborhood....looking forward to meeting you! I am a seamstress and illustrator in my spare time, and an enthusiast of the past! I grew up in the 50-60's and am enjoying learning more about elegant times from 40's-60's. I hope to learn from all the knowledgable ladies out there! Hope I can help out where I can too!

 

[Harpy]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking here a little while, I was so excited to find this place and wanted to read everything (ok, a lot) before diving in to posting. I am from Canberra, Australia and I love the aesthetic of the period from the 20s Bauhaus through to late 50s and early 60s before the Mod look really hit it big. I also love Victorian Gothic, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau. My favourite is the early 50s though. I used to wear a lot of Victorian styled clothes and collect Victorian style homewares but in the end had to make an aesthetic decision over what was practical and affordable! Also I find the full-skirted 50s fashions flatter my body shape more than other eras. I am about to find a hairdresser, armed with the Ivan Anderson middy diagram and a 1951 book by Alfred Morris, and get a haircut that will make it easier to do my curl sets. The "Italian boy" hairdo is very cute but I prefer longer styles. I had a Bettie Page style done at Nina's parlour when I was in London a few months ago (and it was superbly done!) and just want to add a few layers as my hair really doesn't hold curl so well even with all the tricks in the book. I did buy an old bonnet hairdryer for $10 from a junk shop and that helped enormously with drying out pincurls however!

I love sewing and pretty much every craft (you name it, I've tried it and have a box full of the supplies for it in my cupboard...) and am in the process of making myself a nice new 50s wardrobe. I wear large sizes so I have given up ever finding anything original vintage in my size! I am also slowly redecorating our apartment with post-war and mid-century modern pieces, largely scavenged from op shops and dumpsters, as I'm trying to be thrifty.

Canberra was only built from about 1927 onwards and the first house I lived in here was a lovely 1927 bungalow with original pink tiled bathroom! There was also a big building boom in the 50s and 60s and whenever we can afford a house I would love to buy a 50s-60s small house (hopefully with the old kitchen intact!) and NOT knock it down and build a McMansion as has happened with so many older houses here.

Anyway, I have rambled enough, now to post something constructive!

 

[Mojito]

Hallo to all the lovely new ladies!

Harpy, great to see another Aussie here. I lived in Canberra years ago for eight months, and we spent our first month there in a late 20s cottage in Ainslie, just down from the War Memorial. The elderly couple that had owned it had just moved to a retirement village, and had maintained a beautiful cottage style garden - we still have some of the violets we grew from theirs thriving here in Sydney. The house itself had hardly been altered, and had so many original fittings.

Love your sense of style - I do enjoy Victorian, Victorian Gothic, Arts and Crafts (and the pre-Raphaelite links there) and Art Nouveau.

 

[Atomic]

Hello everyone,
My name is Anthony, I'm 26 and I found this site while looking for art deco themed items. I have to admit, I don't own a fedora, the one in my avatar is one that belongs to an ex lady of mine. However, there are lots of great thread that I'd seen concerning WWII style and items, art deco stuff, and clothing. All very fun stuff that I enjoy.

I'm a student currently going to school in Klamath Falls, but my home is back in Seattle. I ride motorcycles, rock climb, play guitar, shoot guns, and do a whole lot of random things. I also like getting midcentury stuff, mostly kitchen items and industrial stuff, and repairing or collecting them. Here is a link to a blog I haven't updated in forever that I post on about stuff I work on and collect:

http://revivingtheoldstuff.blogspot.com/

Thanks for having me, I look forward to exploring more of these pages and hopefully contributing something worthwhile.

 

[Liquidbombshell]

Greetings from California

I have been crawling the site for a while now, but never really had time to post. For the 5 years I have been working a full-time job teaching and working on finishing up studies to become a medical anthropologist. When you are flying back and forth to China and trying to complete a thesis, surfing the internet can be a major setback! I have bee I am 35 years old, and a former member of the deathrock scene (although I always dressed in black film noir style, hats with veils, 40's dresses, and seamed stockings). In the late 80's there really were very many places to go that were accessible, to gals that had this style, if you were under 18. I have been buying and selling vintage clothing for years and (1 year ago) started my own website selling new reproduction dresses to support my vintage habit. The last time I was out and about was at Maxwell's at the Argyle. I was recently invited to attend the Air Raid event with an old friend and it reminded me that I need to slow down and relax a bit. So, I will be enjoying getting back into browsing through the forums and reading all of the wonderful posts from the ladies. I love film noir fashion and 40's culture. I probably should have been born in a different era. Luckily I have a job that allows me to dress like that everyday.

 

[Vintage Vi]

Hello all! I"m back after losing my account because I forgot yahoo wasn't allowed :eusa_clap glad to be back! Welcome to all the new ladies!