The Ladybug has a thing with vintage designer accessories

When I am asked about my style, I used to say that I loved mixing vintage, high street and designer pieces but things have slightly changed lately. In my constant search for fashion sustainability and ethics I am slowly abandoning high street like Topshop, Zara and Mango (although I buy something every now and then) to handmade and sustainable fashion, loving the fact that something has been created for myself only, that I know who made it and how it is made (without human exploitation) and using quality fabrics that last longer. Vintage is still my pillar, as well as designer pieces especially those I can afford, which means thrifted or vintage.

Lately I also developed a real passion for finding vintage designer pieces at bargain or accessible prices, for example at Humana Vintage or online from Opherty & Ciocci, where I got these two amazing accessories that I am wearing in this post: the vintage Yves Saint Laurent scarf (used as an headscarf) and the 70s Celine clutch. Both pieces are still available on their site for a very fair price.

 

My marine jacket with golden buttons is thrifted from a Salvation Army store in New York (I love charity shops!) for a few dollars, while my denim shirt with little pussybow is from Max&Co. It is a quite old collection, I have worn it a lot and I bought it during the summer sale session I think two years ago.

The military green trousers are part of my sustainable fashion turn: they are from 4.10, I love their fabric and shape but more than ever I love the fact that they are ethically made, in Italy. A piece of slow fashion and an example of amazing design, quality and respect of the environment and of people’s work. I really wish one day we could all afford more pieces like that.

90s inspired sneakers are from Dixie, hoop earrings are from Genny Pi in Milan.

The Ladybug latest vintage fashion taboo broken!

When I look back at my old fashion style I realize – as everybody I guess – that my sense of fashion has changed over the years (even if some things always stay the same!). But also some of my fashion habits and credo has changed. An example of this is the vintage jeans: I have been convinced for years that vintage jeans wouldn’t fit me, that I preferred to buy modern ones etc. To make long story short I haven’t bought a vintage jeans for ages (it was a sort of fashion taboo!) until I realized (in a vintage shop in Barcelona last year) that vintage jeans are great on me and that they have shapes (depending on the eras) that suit my curvy body way better that the new ones.

I started with an 80s mom jeans then moved to vintage Levi’s, now I fell in love with a 90s designer boyfriend jeans from Jean Paul Gautier that I found on Opherty & Ciocci site!

I loved the style but I tried to “work it my way” by wearing a vintage 80s blazer from Humana Vintage in Milan and a lovely printed tee by La Bigotta (she is an amazing tattoo artist and she created a clothing line with her most famous drawings; in particular I love these series that my friend Simona got for me in a vintage and handmade market in Rome!).

Final touch the ultra-feminine golden and black Baroque style turban handmade by Madame Ilary paired with a pair of huge hoop earrings from Gogo Philip. Snake-print ankle boots are from Zara.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug and the iconic Roberta di Camerino dress

There are vintage pieces that I consider iconic and for this reason when it happens that I can wear them I feel very excited, just like a kid that received for Christmas that toy that he has been dreaming of for a very long time!
I think that I already told you about that feeling when I received for the first time an Hermès vintage silk scarf from Opherty & Ciocci. Well, this time Marco surprised me with another amazing piece: it is this wonderful vintage Roberta di Camerino wool dress in brown with a “trompe l’oeil” pattern that I adore. The shape of the dress is incredibly feminine and the details are to-die-for, especially the little golden “R” as buttons on the top and on the sleeves.

This is one of those beautiful pieces that just “dress” you without the need for any additional accessories. This is not the only Roberta di Camerino piece that you can find on Opherty & Ciocci site. There are more dresses and accessories that you will absolutely adore at very honest prices, I am sure that you will be amazed as I was when I wore it for the first time!

Anyway, even if the dress didn’t need it, I wanted to make it sparkle even more by adding a sequined golden handmade turban by Madame Ilary and retro inspired lion hoops by Serena Ceccarelli (check her out on Instagram, she has very nice and good quality jewels for very good prices too!).
Last but not least I added a touch of python (fake one, of course) with my snake-print ankle boots from Zara.

The Ladybug’s 40s fashion experiment

This is a fashion experiment. Something that I tested to verify my theory based on which nothing in fashion is totally new but every “new” piece has a vision from the past, an inspiration from another era.

This experiment was an idea that I had when I saw this beautiful 80s vintage Luisa Spagnoli blazer from Opherty & Ciocci, a wonderful piece with has such a 40s shape that I thought: “What if I create a 40s inspired outfit with modern or 80s pieces?”

That’s what I did! I furtherly shaped the jacket (btw, if you can see the details of the fabric and buttons, they are amazing!) with a thrifted Dior Gaucho belt that I found in Capri many years ago in a luxury second hand shop when the Gaucho collection from Dior was just launched.

The color of the jacket was very similar to a pair of my favorite modern culottes from Please (I love them so much that I have them in two colors, camel and grey!) with a clear vintage twist that I realized how perfect they were together for my vintage experiment!

Once the core of the outfit was done, I decided to be very careful with the accessories. First thing to add: a 40s inspired turban! Not so difficult for me considering the number of turbans that I have, but this handmade golden piece with leaf decoration from Madame Ilary is definitely one of the most 40s inspired pieces that has a place in my wardrobe!

I stayed on the same golden tones for the earrings, a vintage 80s statement pair that I found in Barcelona last year in one of the loveliest vintage shops in town, Lullaby.

Last but not least, as I am not a fan of 40s mid-wedges and mid-heels I decided to give the outfit a little color shake with this pair of amazing aqua heeled ankle Chelsea boots from Ouigal: this is my third pair of Ouigal shoes this year, I am madly in love with their style and they are incredibly comfortable.

So, what do you think of my fashion experiment? Successful or not?

The Ladybug vintage blue(s)

Blue is definitely one of my favorite winter colors this year: I didn’t realize until I put together this outfit and I became aware of the fact that I have so many blue pieces in different shades mostly bought this winter! I’m not really surprised about that as it is such a “flexible” color that it is easy to adapt with many others if you are bold enough to try interesting mixes, with yellow for example or with rust.

This time I just decided to put together different shades of blue starting from my new beautiful vintage striped silk shirt that I got from Opherty & Ciocci. I honestly have a thing for vintage shirts as I use them a loth both for work and on my free time and I seriously think that vintage shirts have shapes, colors and patterns that are so hard to find in modern times.

When I saw this shirt I fell in love with its shade of blue and with the light stripe contrast. When I received it and I tried it I was also completely fond of its shape and silk softness! The first thing that I thought was to pair it with my Jil Sander amazing skirt that I found last year at a sample sale for an incredible price!

They look perfect together! But as I didn’t feel blue enough I added my adored Ouigal blue ankle boots, one of my favorite pair of shoes ever!

All the other accessories pictured here are vintage and available on Opherty & Ciocci site: from the wonderful vintage burgundy clutch to the handmade earrings and brooch in perfect retro style (the cameo brooch is to die-for!). 

Women blue skirt

The Ladybug’s perfect compromise to wear vintage at the office: the vintage blazer!

You know already that I am not new to wearing vintage at the office! Sometimes I just wear one piece of clothing, accessories or jewelry mixed with high street fashion or thrifted designer, sometimes I try to add more pieces because I know now that my colleagues are pretty used to my vintage outfits!

This time I started with a classical vintage Armani blazer from Opherty & Ciocci that was the perfect compromise between vintage (a wonderful designer piece in mint conditions!) and smart office wear. I fell in love with this beauty and I am buying more and more designer vintage blazers because I can use them at the office or dressed down with jeans and sneakers in my spare time! The shape of the blazer is amazing and so is the fabric, this is the reason why I didn’t want to have it in a boring smart outfit so I decided to use a bit my imagination and I paired it with warm tones of the rust corduroy culottes from Zara and the sporty denim shirt from H&M.

As vintage pieces are never enough I added this 70s velvet clutch with geometric pattern (an Italian gem from Opherty & Ciocci’s amazing vintage bags collection!), a beautiful handmade retro inspired owl brooch (also available on Opherty & Ciocci website) and a pair of vintage silver earrings from my own family collection (they were gifted from my grandmother to my mum and from my mum to me!).

Las but not least, I added these 60s inspired brown ankle boots that I got from Marella two years ago during the winter sales and that I still love as when I saw them on the shop window for the first time!

Would you wear this outfit at the office? Maybe on a casual Friday?! 

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug is a color-block vintage girl

Yellow power! Yes, yellow is my favorite color because it is bright, sunny and warm just as I am…or as I want to be!

This winter I decided to wear it more, not as much as I do in summer, but I decided to add some yellow sparkle to my winter wardrobe. This is the reason why I bought this soft faux-fur leather midi skirt at Dixie this last autumn, it’s a statement piece but I thought that I could wear in winter with total black for example.

It was not the case of this autumn outfit that I shot some time ago and where I decided to play the color-block girl and where I switched my total black + yellow idea with a splashing colors outfit!

I paired the yellow skirt with a green vintage Kenzo ruffle shirt with colored stripes at Opherty & Ciocci with a vintage light blue scarf that I wore as a headwrap from Humana Vintage.

Special vintage touch: a pair of amazing vintage Givenchy sunglasses from Opherty & Ciocci!

Black heels from 8 at Yoox, Fulani brass earrings from Africaialha on Etsy.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

 

 

 

The Ladybug sharing her vintage love for Andrea Odicini (at Opherty & Ciocci)

I think that I have already shared my love for the Italian designer Andrea Odicini some time ago when I shared with you the beautiful vintage red dress that I wore for Opherty & Ciocci.

As I loved that one so much I thought that I could wear another vintage dress from Odicini, considering that Opherty & Ciocci has some great pieces of this amazing Genoese designer on their site.

So here I am with another great vintage piece, this time it is a striped cream and navy dress with sculpture buttons and amazing cuffs. What I love in his fashion is the incredible attention to detail, the volumes and shapes, there is a great difference between vintage fashion and vintage designer fashion!

This outfit is 100% vintage and mostly from Opherty & Ciocci, not only the dress but also the amazing vintage Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses, also available on their website.

The electric blue vintage 80s shoes are from Beacon’s Closet in Brooklyn (one of my favorite vintage shops in the area, I really wish I can go back one day!) and the blue vintage 80s earrings are from Love Vintage store in Barcelona.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug and her very first time…with an Hermès vintage scarf!

As you may know I recently became the official ambassador of Opherty & Ciocci, an institution when it comes to vintage fashion in Italy and all over the world. I say officially because a long lasting friendship and work reciprocal admiration link me to Marco and his family. We have met for the first time when I started my blog in 2011 at the Forlì vintage fair and since then I have been a big supporter of their brand (and of course a customer!).

I am very happy and proud about this collaboration, also because I have the chance to wear amazing vintage pieces and to style them together with Opherty & Ciocci, always creating something new and fresh starting from their amazing vintage collection.

The shooting that you are seeing here was one of my favorite ones since we began this collaboration, especially because I am wearing one of the most iconic pieces from Opherty & Ciocci, the vintage silk Hermès scarf. Every time that I meet them at some vintage event, or when I surf their amazing site (www.ophertyciocci.com if you want to have a look!) I see incredible vintage pieces from the biggest designers: Gucci, Chanel, Hermès, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Armani, Dior and many others and I have been dreaming for years of wearing one of the iconic Gucci bamboo bags, or Hermès handbags and silk scarves. When Marco told me that he was sending me a vintage Hermès scarf to wear as a headscarf like I use to I nearly fainted. Nothing compared to the moment I took it out of the bag and put it on my head! It felt like putting a crown! I was really feeling like a queen!

The Hermès scarf deserved a great location, that’s why we headed to the Rotonda della Besana to take some pictures of the outfit where, as you can see, I didn’t stop smiling for a second!

The Hermès headscarf was not the only amazing vintage piece from Opherty & Ciocci that I am wearing here. The red vintage Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses and the lemon vintage pleated shirt also come from them and they are all available on their site!

I added a retro inspired rust midi skirt that I bought from Uniqlo during my trip to Japan, a vintage handbag from Humana Vintage and a pair of 70s inspired leather clogs from the Italian brand Casta & Dolly at Archivio Vintage in Milan.

The golden loops are also a vintage find, this time from Depop.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug embracing her curves in a flattering vintage dress

When I first published a picture of this outfit on my social media I received a lot of compliments from many people: friends, colleagues or readers saying that they were not used to see me in such feminine clothes, showing my curves but that I should wear them more often as they liked it a lot.

I had to admit that I don’t like to show my curves too much, not that I don’t embrace them, I totally do, but I always feel like I’m trying to “expose” them and I start feeling uncomfortable.

But when I was editing the pictures and writing this blog post I realized that I loved so many of the pictures and that I was genuinely smiling in most of them. I couldn’t help thinking of what people told me and I guessed that I should give this type of dress another chance as the results seem very interesting!

This beautiful blue dress has a lovely shape, color and print (I love the colored hearts printed on it!) and it is an 80s vintage gem from Chiara Boni, now on sale on Opherty & Ciocci site. Oh, apparently it also gives joy and happiness when you wear it! This is also the reason why I wanted to take pictures of this dress in a park, as it represents the natural peace of mind or what it looks like it the most in a big city like Milan!

I paired the dress with old L’autre Chose platform shoes and beautiful bold vintage earrings from IZ Vintage (my new Turkish discovery!).

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari