20th Century, What I wear

The Frumpy Dress gets a proper outing

I made  the Frumpy Dress  well over two years now, and I wear it all the time, and I’ve never really gotten proper pictures of me wearing it.

But Yay for Art Deco Weekend!  The perfect excuse for an early 30s dress.

My only regret is that I didn’t wear it with bright red lipstick.  It’s so pretty with bright red lipstick.

Instead, I wore it with my Neo oxford pumps, my marcasite and cameo necklace, and a vintage tan leather handbag which I found in an op-shop three days before the Art Deco festival, and was ridiculously delighted with because I think matching shoes and bag is so important for the vintage look.

I started out the day in a little blue hat that I bought from Claire  (and which she immediately borrowed back to wear with her dress!), and finished it with a big grey blue and cream sunhat (perfect for the dress, very late 20s/early 30s, but dreadful for photographs and seeing where you are going!).

17 Comments

  1. I think this dress needs a new name. It’s just not apt. I guess it IS kind of funny…

    I like the hat… It lends an air of mystery. 🙂 And I can’t believe you went out without your lips on! What?

    • I like the name, it makes me happy now 🙂 Maybe I should call it the ‘Not Frumpy Anymore’ dress. 😉

      Glad you like the hat. It does add an air of mystery. As in “What am I going to walk into next?” “Who is it that I am talking to?”

      And I was wearing lipstick – a dark, subtle red. Just imagine me going out without it!

      • That made me chuckle. This is actually one of my favorite of your dresses (well, of that era/style, anyway–it’s hard to compare completely different eras and styles). I completely agree about the hat, and the matching shoes and bag were awesome!

  2. Lynne says

    Perhaps call it ‘The Dress Formerly Known as The Frumpy Dress’? TDFKATFD for short. 🙂

  3. I don’t think it’s frumpy at all! It suits you and is very becoming 🙂 Also, both those hats are fabulous, but I’m especially partial to the wide-brimmed sunhat~

  4. These are great!! I’ve been wanting to make some vintage dresses to just wear whenever. =] They are so much prettier than modern clothes I think. =]

  5. I agree with Lynne. TDFKATFD has a certain ring to it. Also, if I were to quickly glance at that set of initials, the sentence my brain generates is “The cat farted.”

    I particularly love that shot of the three of you ladies in your lovely, lovely dresses. There’s nothing quite like the 30s and their drape-y dresses.

    • Because having a dress called “The Cat Farted” is so much better than “The Frumpy Dress”!?!

      Perhaps ‘the cat’s fart’ is something that is even better than ‘the cat’s meow’! 😉

    • Elise says

      Maybe because I hang out with teenagers all day, but whenever I see the letters ‘f’ and ‘k’ together, my brain immediately jumps to a certain 4-letter word. Now, that word works to great effect in the film ‘Fargo’, but…doesn’t sit so well in other places.

      I agree on that blue hat making it all look so interesting.

  6. The floppy hat and vintage car really shows off the “frumpy” dress beautifully!

  7. fnafd (formerly known as frumpy dress) is not frumpy at all. it has a breezy feminine sexiness to it. I like it better with the floppy hat, love the blue hat but the floppy hat definately pairs perfectly.

  8. The first picture looks like you are in the fifties with the blue hat, But without the hat your dress looks very nice, it really suit you. The bag and the shoes matched with the dress because of its tiny brown prints . For me the dress is not frumpy it is an all season dress and does not go out of style. You only have to wear additional pieces with it depending on the season.

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