Our local 50's nostalgia festival, "Cooly Rocks On" is back on again, and I think I could say that it is my favourite time of year. The streets are closed and flooded with people decked out in their 50's vintage gear, beautiful vintage cars , markets filled with a fantastic selection of records and vintage goodies, and brilliant live music being played from podiums everywhere.
The festival runs for a week, and on the second last day there is a big parade displaying all the vintage cars, dancers and other vintage lovers who entered the event.
At this time of year the Queen of the festival is also selected. Vintage loving ladies are encouraged to enter by modelling two different 50's outfits, including both day wear and beach wear on a catwalk during festival week for the chance to be crowned Miss Vintage. To enter one must have three professional photographs of yourself in your best 50's fashion, including a full shot.
I was finally going to enter this year, as I had at last found myself a long awaited petticoat and found an alternative to wearing my swimmers for the beach wear section (a cute little red halterneck play-suit). Entering was also made a lot easier by the fact that the boy is a photographer! However, alas, due to personal commitments we didn't get to take the pictures in time before the competition's closing date.
I suppose there is always next year!
But on the bright side! The boy and I are hopefully going to see the parade together, and I, as I always do at this time of year, will dolly myself in my 50's gear and style my hair into my long missed victory rolls. Hopefully I will still fit my dress! You can see one of the dresses I'll be wearing here - The Black Birdie one (Though I still may opt for the cherry dress. What do you think?). He is also hoping to take some pictures with his camera, so there may be some quality photographs up on my blog for once! The next day I am visiting the festival markets with my sister, who I proudly say will also be donning herself in fashion from the decade.
You can find my sister's tumblr here. She is a dedicated lover of the stars from the Silver Screen era of Hollywood and if you love your vintage like me there is a good chance that you'll love her tumblr too. Do have a look!
Image taken from the advertisement of the "Cooly Rocks On" festival's Miss Vintage Competition.