Busy Bee and Knicker Talk

Apologies May has been a slightly quieter month than planned on the blog. It's been all go with styling work and photography projects so time has been flying past, but it's all exciting stuff so I'm not complaining.

The Missy Vintage Stylist website is coming along nicely, thanks to Ms. Chick Media for taking my ideas and creating something I can continue to build on. One thing I need to get better at is taking more photos of my styling work (yes I do get the irony giving that I do photography too!) I tend to style and then let my clients go jump around to get ready to go out or go hang out with their friends, so my new thing to work on is taking a quick pic before they leave the chair! 

The other thing of course is that some people simply don't want their heads and faces, or weddings on the internet, which is absolutely fine, so if you are styled by Missy Vintage, rest assured that it doesn't mean you have to have the final result on the internet! Anyway if you fancy popping over to my stylist website, please feel free to click here and take a perusal. 

Photo by Antony Kelly

One of the photoshoots I worked on recently was with Joe Black Photography. The idea was sparked by my thoughts on Facebook that I'd like to style and shoot a picture inspired by Mario Testino. I was planning on photographing it myself, but Joe offered and as I like his work, I thought it would be nice to collaborate and make it a team effort, and what a day we had! 

Here's the Mario Testino shot that sparked the idea. Goegeous non?  If you love fashion photography, Testino's work is both amazing and inspiring. Here's a link to his official website

Picture: Mario Testino

Aren't those 'big' knickers just so sexy? It could be the fact that I'm now getting older, but I think that these 'Bridget Jones knickers' are pretty damn hot!

For our shoot I used heated rollers and some back combing to create a bit of a sixties sex kitten vibe. The makeup was smoky eyes using colours from the Urban Decay Naked and Crown Brush palettes  and a slightly darker than nude pink lip, very lightly applied for just a hint of colour  (I used the Besame Dusty Rose) 

Note the essential cup of coffee nestled amongst the kit!

Photo by Joe Black

Photo by Joe Black

Not content with just shooting in the kitchen we decided to dodge the showers and headed out into some local woods....I'll always try and get some behind the scenes shots on photoshoots............

Joe hasn't released all the pictures yet, so we'll have to wait and see the rest, but having looked through them on his camera, I'm very excited. You can visit his Facebook page and see his shots from the day so far. If you follow me on Instagram though you may have seen a pic from the day, which looked amazing - can't wait to see what the final shots look like. For these final shots we vamped up the makeup up changing to a Besame red balm (review of this coming soon)

So back to the big knickers debate, sexy yes or sexy no?! If they make you feel more confident then you'll feel sexier, yes? And they do have that vintage appeal to them too.

If you are in any doubt and fancy investigating some new big knickerage yourselves, then here's what the high street and the internet has to offer..... 

What Katie Did £27.50

BHS £15

BHS £16

Debenhams £18

Debenhams £24

Matalan £2.50

If you won the lottery at the weekend and have decided to treat yourself to some new knickers then these monochrome ones are rather gorgeous and if you're a millionaire then I suppose paying just under £400 for a pair of knickers isn't such a splurge..... or maybe it is.... pretty though, I think you'll agree. 

Carine Gilson at Net- A - Porter £390

Of course if you won the lottery at the weekend and are feeling generous, then feel free to buy me a pair of these too ;)

Bringing the Auction Room to Your Armchair

I’ve never been to an auction before, not in real life. I hold my hands up to being one of these people that can happily search away on the big online auction site (you know the one) and just browse all manner of things, but what that site isn’t so useful for, is actually researching items. We’ve all seen clothes and bits for the home marked as vintage but you know they are less than 5 years old!

When I was asked if I’d like to check out an auction site I’d never heard of before called Barnebys, I was quite curious, but part of me did think, another auction site? Fortunately, my curiosity won the day, and for several hours, I actually found myself popping back to the website to follow certain items and was happily jumping from description to description on all sorts of things from china and jewellery to furniture, art and dresses. Even motorbikes – which I actually have no interest in really, but the stories and the history of them really caught my attention.

This site helps you find items that are listed with auction houses and salesrooms from all over the world (including Sotheby’s). Whether you want to spend some serious cash, or are just looking for something interesting, there are thousands of items to look through.

Sadly, with a guide price of £4,000-£6000 this William Klein print is out of my price range, but as a lover of Klein, it was still a bit of a thrill to see it!

You can also sort the results by price too – which starts to make using this site to find items that bit more affordable, really rather tempting…….

1920sbag with a guide price of £15 - £25

Hermes satchel with a guide price of £40 

1950scompacts with a guide price of £20-30, what amazing gifts these would make! 

I’ve mentioned this site to a few people now, including some who really are experts at buying at auction, and they thought it was a great idea, which is high praise indeed. For me it’s made buying at a ‘real’ auction, seem more of a realistic option. If you’d like to browse through the site, I recommend making a big pot of tea and sitting in a comfy chair….because you may be there a while!  www.barnebys.co.uk

*Written in collaboration with Barnebys