Grab yourself a bargain from our Summer Sale!

Perhaps something from the Kiss Me Deadly Van Doren Diamond Rouge Collection?

I’ve just managed to recover from last week’s Vintage Vogue fair, held in Brentwood, Essex where I together with the girls from Joanna’s Wardrobe had much fun showing off our faux Vintage lingerie. In keeping with the Retro theme, with our hair rolled and made-up retro style, dressed in pencil skirts and stockings and high heels, some of us showed off fabulous Stockings and Romance bullet bras while Victoria showed off a gorgeous Vollers Thai Silk corset, which she just loved wearing and was admired by many.

Wearing our bullet bras, managed to attract quite a lot of attention to our stand and many were sold, which is not surprising as they really are fabulous  giving you that Vintage “cone shape” look and so comfortable to wear.

Many of you showed a keen interest for the Kiss Me Deadly Vargas Girdle Dresses in both the gorgeous peachy pink as well as the black.

Another popular style was the beautifully Kiss Me Deadly Peach Jolie collection, with its midi style bra being purchased for outer wear as well as lingerie.

For those of you who didn’t manage to come along to the Fair, and savour the atmosphere of the stall holders and their Vintage wares, there’s always next time on September 5^th as its well worth a visit.

Many of you who popped by managed to sign up for our fabulous competition to win a Retro make-over and photo shoot with the very talented Martin Plant from Alter Ego Studio, but those of you that didn’t  it’s not too late to enter with the closing date on the 30^th June. So sign up now to enter!

Styled on the classic Capri 15 RHT stockings from Cervin, these glamorous contrasting Capri 15 Bicolore stockings are made from 100% non-stretch nylon, with a black welt around the top and contrasting stitching together with coloured heel and toe. Available in Blue and Rose.

At Joanna’s Wardrobe we just love trying on the gorgeous items we sell! Last week we were planning our outfits for the Essex Vintage Fashion Fair and  took some photos – so here is our Violet wearing a Vollers Thai Silk Corset which is one of our all-time favourites.  Actually I think we should all have one! They look wonderful either with a skirt or with black trousers and of course they also come with six detachable suspender straps so they can be combined with fully-fashioned stockings for a very seductive effect…

Of all the things to buy online, lingerie may not seem like the most sensible one. Until now I’ve always been an M&S enthusiast, dashing into their high street stores to buy affordable, slightly unexciting, matching bra and knicker sets and, on special occasions, perhaps paying a visit to La Senza, boyfriend in tow.

Consequently, you can probably imagine that my lingerie selection was not a particularly exotic one and so, when I arranged to do a boudoir shoot with Alter Ego Portraits as an engagement present for my boyfriend, I realised I had nothing suitable to wear.

Fortunately they sent me to Joanna’s Wardrobe, the online lingerie boutique. Selling everything from bras to basques and camisoles to corsets I knew as soon as I hit the homepage that this was the place to find the perfect outfit.

Knowing only vaguely what I wanted and feeling sure that I needed something 1950s in style but not having a clue what that was, I emailed the site for help. Before the day was out Karen rang me with a multitude of suggestions and numerous ideas on what would be the most appropriate outfit to wear. Chatting to Karen was incredibly easy and she knew exactly what to offer and how to explain why. At first it may not seem particularly natural to talk about cup sizes and stocking preferences over the phone with someone you don’t know but Karen makes it feel completely normal, enjoyable even. 

Having discussed the shoot and what I needed, Karen first pointed me towards bullet bras and wide suspender belts. After a look on the site I just wasn’t sure they were for me due to their larger amounts of material (I’m very petite) so I went back to her for further advice.

Having thought about it further Karen had a brainwave, sending me the link to the gorgeous Kiss Me Deadly Van Mimi Basque. Seeing the images of this black lacy beauty on the site I loved it immediately and instantly threw my 1950s brief out of the window in favour of the chance to wear it. But there was a fly in the ointment – Karen didn’t have my size (a 30C). Fortunately, knowing the range so well, Karen knew that a larger size may work given how tightly the basques are cut and suggested I try the 32C.

She sent it out to me to try and just two days later a beautiful package arrived, inside which was the basque and matching thong lovingly wrapped in black tissue paper. I was convinced it wouldn’t fit but Karen knew better and sure enough it was perfect. On the day of the shoot I felt completely confident wearing my Kiss Me Deadly outfit and by the end, I didn’t want to take it off.

It’s now sitting lovingly packed up in tissue paper in a drawer, waiting for its next outing. Of course I’ll be wearing it as often as I can, but for days when a basque just isn’t appropriate, I’ll be back to Joanna’s Wardrobe.

© Helen Ochyra

Journalist and editor specialising in weddings and travel

www.helenochyra.com

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The next step was to decide how we wanted the site to look.  Just deciding on the logo and top bar was hard enough! I wanted something a bit provocative and the red suspender strap  seemed to do the trick. Those of you who were there at the beginning will know that originally the red contrasted sharply with the site background, which at that time was a grainy black and white photo.  But we very soon tired of that image and wanted to find something a bit different.

One of the original ideas was to have some fun with the look and feel of the pin-up art that we found so inspirational.  This would entail creating Ideas and Inspiration pages that displayed the original artwork together with links to similar items of lingerie that I sell on my site. This presented a problem though - copyright on the original images.  Obviously you can’t just go around stealing pictures and presenting them as if they’re you own. 

So this, combined with another idea which was to model some of my wares myself - and that’s another story - led to the idea of taking our own photos to imitate the fabulous pinup drawings of Gil Elvgren, Peter Driben and Alberto Vargas.  But there were so many to choose from! We tried to be creative, and it’s really hard to pull it off - partly because the women in those images are so flawless and so unfeasibly shaped, unlike yours truly – but it was great fun trying! 

Using props we had around the house such as the ironing board, baking equipment and a hat box, we eventually came up with the background image we use today on the site.  Although I must admit it wasn’t the easiest of things to pose in especially as I didn’t want to ladder the gorgeous stockings I was wearing!

The next milestone in the road to starting Joanna’s Wardrobe came when we realised that there was loads of inspiration in the golden age of movie glamour, stars like Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

So choosing lingerie for me could start with us browsing around the Internet looking for pictures of movie stars and then thinking what I’d need to get the look.  The browsing part was fun by itself, some of the pictures we found were amazing.  It also gave me a new outlook on my feelings about glamour.  In the past I’d thought of these women as being sex objects, but more and more I came to see them as strong women who knew what they wanted.  They knew that the way they dressed was a big part of the power they had over men. 

Well you see this one all over the place don’t you! Which isn’t surprising, it’s absolutely gorgeous. This is the picture that inspired my husband to buy me my first corset, and inspired me to wear it! Also, pictures like this one completely changed my view about photos of women in underwear, and in particular changed my view about me in my underwear.  I realised I would love to be photographed like this.  And when I talked to other women I found they felt the same way.  It’s incredibly empowering when you become comfortable with the idea that what you are wearing is alluring . 

 My husband loves this look -  the pronounced bust, tiny waist and wide hips. He says it’s incredibly womanly. We decided that for this sort of look I would need a strong girdle or cincher and a bullet bra, so we went looking for those items on the various lingerie sites that we had found.  It was still hard though.  So the idea of my own website began to develop, a website where I would stock items that would appeal to people with similar tastes in lingerie to mine. 

 A bit of fun with Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in seamed fishnet tights and glittering bodyshapers from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Not only did we love the idea of stocking this kind of look, we also started thinking about doing our own photos for the site, and encouraging other people to think about the fun side of buying and wearing lingerie.  The idea being that lingerie can be fun, not just functional.  This gave us the idea of a Blog where we’d help people choose interesting items, and help them to have some fun with their cameras too!  It also gave us the idea of partnering with photographers who specialise in Boudoir and Cheesecake Photography.

 More soon!