The Ladybug is shining in her favorite color (and vintage!)

Not longtime ago I shared here my favorite colors and I put on top of my list yellow!

Since I was a kid yellow is my favorite color: its representation of sun and light has always inspired me and I feel really like myself when I wear it!

I have many yellow clothes and accessories, not only in summer: dresses, shoes, sweaters…I really can’t resist a good yellow piece, better if vintage!

Like this lovely dress a real 80s piece that I got from Humana Vintage in Milan, in the shop of via De Amicis during their inauguration party! It is like a long jacket with short sleeves and I always wear it with a belt (this one is from Mango) to give more focus on the waist!

I paired it with an amazing tapestry bag that I got in Budapest in a lovely vintage shop called Lovebug Vintage.

All my jewelry is vintage too (except rings that are handmade): 80s hoop earrings from Viola Vintage (I got them during a vintage fair here in Italy, probably Valeggio Veste il Vintage) and golden vintage JJ brooch from A rebours Vintage in Milan. Rings are handmade from Afrohemien (cowrie ring) and Francesco Tramontano, except the tiny yellow ring that is vintage found in a little vintage shop in Osaka, Japan.

The shoes are very old caged boots from Jeffrey Campbell.

More women dresses here.

The Ladybug has a vintage heart (dress)

I need colors, I need love, I need air…I need smile, laughter, friends, kisses, hugs and all the things that I missed during this quarantine.

When I look at these old pictures taken by my colleague (who is such a bad photographer!) I still remember why I was laughing so hard (he was saying things that made me laugh and that I still remember but I can’t repeat here!) and I miss even the good times at work, because many of the people I work with are also my friends and I really enjoy spending time with them!

Today is the first day out, lockdown is over and I can’t wait to take pictures outside again and I decided to celebrate with this post!

This shooting started with another lunch in the Isola Design district in Milan, on the way back to work, when I saw another colored mural that I liked! It was perfect for my vintage outfit of the day:

• A red, white and navy heart dress from Humana Vintage in Milan…I bought it during the opening of the new store in town because I loved the pattern, the colors and the adorable heart-shaped buttons!
• A very old vintage red patent belt that I bought many years ago in a second hand store in Capri during a little weekend there when I still lived in Sorrento;
• An amazing pair of Monet vintage earrings that I ADORE that I found at A Rebours Vintage in Milan (Lisa – the shop owner – is one of the greatest collectors in town!).

Taupe caged boots are an old Jeffrey Campbell pair that I use all the time (you may have seen them on me more than once!) while rings are from El Rana Jewelry and Francesco Tramontano.

 

The Ladybug flies high like a butterfly!

What do you do when you are walking down the streets and you realize that you are dressed exactly with the same colors of your favorite murals that is just in front of you? Also, you are with your friend, also known as the best photographer that you know? Well, your organize a quick photo session just before heading back to the office, right?

I have always loved this mural in the Isola district in Milan but I don’t know why I never thought of taking pictures here until that day that my outfit perfectly matched it! Maybe it was just waiting for me wearing a matchy-matchy outfit! Ha Ha!

I was particularly colorful that day, wearing my yellow wings, ops! vintage jacket from Humana Vintage in Milan and my green trousers from Massimo Dutti both matching my AMAZING vintage Elzac 50s ceramic brooch inspired by Josephine Baker (another amazing vintage find from the wonderful Valentina from Déjà Vu Vintage!). When I saw it on Internet I immediately fell in love so she brought it in Milan during the Naviglio Grande Antiques market…I couldn’t believe my luck to have such a fantastic vintage piece!

I also wore some handmade rings, two from Francesco Tramontano and one from Ecole d’Anaïs plus a wonderful handmade Senegalese ring that I bought in Senegal years ago.

Black peep-toe ankle boots are from L’Arianna.

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug’s chronicles of a perfect vintage Sunday morning in Milan

There are days that are just perfect: there is nothing special going on, but you feel alive and true to yourself and it gives you such a powerful energy and vibration.

This is what happened on that Sunday morning. I had a meeting with Ilaria on the Navigli in Milan to join the group for the Day against violence on women, and then to have a quick tour on the Naviglio Grande for the usual Antiques and Vintage market every last Sunday of the month.

Here I had a meeting with my wonderful vintage jewelry provider Valentina from Déjà Vu Vintage who had two beautiful surprises for me: first of all she was with the beautiful Laura from Oggetti Smarriti that I haven’t seen in a while and seeing her made me really happy; second, I found a wonderful vintage golden and wooden brooch and I was super happy about my new amazing find!

Last but not least, after a good chat with these beautiful ladies, Ilaria and I had a quick lunch at the Mag Café, definitely one of my favorite bars in town, that I love for its very vintage atmosphere and décor!

Vintage was the word of the day, that’s maybe why I felt so hype and excited, like in my real element.

And vintage was also part of my outfit of the day: it was indeed the perfect occasion to wear my wonderful green vintage coat from London Vintage, a wonderful lady that I met at the Pop Up Vintage Fair in London during my last visit end of October.  I have been looking for a colored vintage coat with fur collar for years but I couldn’t find my perfect match until I tried on this one: everything was just made for me! The incredible color, the shape, the collar, the mint conditions…I was so excited when I tried it that I knew immediately that it was mine! When I asked my friends at the fair where to find what I was looking for, they all answered: at London Vintage, and brought me to one of the most amazing stalls with great vintage pieces (especially coats!). They were right, Mr. Coat was waiting for me!

I wore it with a vintage inspired circle skirt handmade by Madame Ilary with an amazing pattern that she used also to create the beautiful coordinated turban.

The black turtleneck sweater is from Zara, the retro inspired black shoes are from L’Arianna and the golden hoops are vintage.

Last special piece of the day: the tiny round Ottod’Ame bag that you can wear in three different ways. I found it in Florence during my last trip and I couldn’t leave the shop without this lovely bag! You will see it in other outfits and you will find out other ways to wear it!

The Ladybug is a vintage woman in red!

In my last post I told you about my great vintage shopping session at the Pop Up Vintage Fair during my last weekend in London. One of the amazing gems that I found there was this wonderful vintage 60s red cape with silver double breasted buttons from Tilly’s Vintage, in wonderful conditions!

I have always wanted a 60s vintage cape and when I saw this one I just couldn’t resist: it was my very last purchase before running to the airport but it was too nice to leave it there!

It is hard to wear a cape in winter because it is too cold in Milan but autumn was perfect for this lovely piece that I wore for a Saturday afternoon birthday tea and cake at the delicious Pavé in Milan.

I paired my beautiful cape with Cos black culottes and retro inspired L’Arianna black shoes plus some other vintage and handmade pieces: a vintage hooked handbag from Vintage Studium on Depop,  a beautiful blackamoor vintage brooch from Déja-vu Vintage and a handmade animal print turban from Madame Ilary.

I really love the elegance and this “diva feel” that you have when you wear such amazing vintage pieces: people look at you in the streets and they keep telling you how elegant you are, the elegance of another era they say. One of my favorite feelings!

Photo Credit: Milena Molinari

The Ladybug reveals the secret of the “combo” style

Since I know Ilaria from Madame Ilary I’ve been developing a strange addiction for what I call the “combo style”!  The combo style is the combination of a turban or headwrap with a skirt, culottes, trousers or even a dress of the same fabric and pattern. Usually when Ilaria sews something for me she asks: I have more fabric of this, do you want a turban too? And my answer is always yes!

I can wear the two pieces separately and mix them with other styles but I really have a thing for wearing them together! The only thing that you need to pay attention to when combining the patterns this way is to have a “neutral” piece between them, just not to overload your outfit with different pattern and colors.

In this case I used a beautiful vintage linen white shirt from the 70s that I bought at Humana Vintage for a few euros but it is one of my favorite pieces ever. The fabric is wonderful, candid and fresh and I have been dreaming of a shirt like this for ages! Also the little trimming on the top are adorable but you cannot really see them from these pictures.

Regarding the combo, this was the first time that everything started from the turban and not the opposite: I got the turban first and even if I saw the culottes and I loved the golden palms pattern I only got the culottes many months later, when I saw them hanging in her show room and thought “Hey, they are perfect for my turban”!

I wore my outfit easy and comfy with flat gladiator sandals from Clarks and amazing jewelry:  brass shield and earrings are handmade from Metalica Creazioni, while the blackamoor brooch is a vintage piece from Déjà-vu Vintage.

The Ladybug and that Josephine Baker inspiration

Josephine Baker is definitely one of my biggest girls crush and I may say even an inspiration for me.  Dancer and singer, probably the first black “diva” of the 20s and 30s , she used her popularity to fight racism and she supported Martin Luther King’s fight for black people emancipation and civil rights. A strong and wonderful woman who is also a fashion inspiration for me and for all the women of all eras, at the point that it is today easy to find jewels and vintage fashion inspired by her.

If you are a blackamoor jewelry lover you may have found here and there some pieces called “Josephine” because they represent her. One of these pieces is the vintage brooch from the 50s that I am wearing here (I also have more modern laser-cut versions of Josephine Baker image) that I got from Déjà-Vu Vintage – my friend Valentina knows very well what I like as she showed it to me immediately when she found it!

I paired it with a vintage brown printed dress from Humana Vintage, another great bargain find during the end of summer sales!  Looks like a piece from the 70s but I couldn’t manage to date it so far, anyone has an idea on the possible decade? Some told me it may be from the 50s but I am not convinced…

Tan shoes and belt are vintage inspired Shoegasm t-bar found in New York and Topshop. My golden earrings are vintage too.

The Ladybug goes green(er)

I don’t know what’s happening lately but I am falling in love with green. It is one of these colors that I have underestimated for ages for some unknown reasons, that I wear rarely and that I immediately toss when it comes to make a color choice.

But lately something has happened between us, I buy more and more green and in the last few months I bought a lot of green accessories which is a big news for me!

Anyway I don’t think that when I saw this vintage silk dress at Humana Vintage in Milan I loved it just for its color; I really loved everything about it: the shape, the fabric, the print, how it fitted, the price (it was during one of the end of summer promotions and I got it for 5 euros!) and of course the green color!

It was not in mint conditions, it had some stains but I loved it so much that I didn’t care and I also used for work more than once. I think it is from the 80s, that’s why I paired it with 80s golden earrings from Lullaby in Barcelona and with an 80s golden cuff that I bought at the Antiques fair in Sorrento many years ago.

Only modern piece, my adored Clarks gladiator sandals in which I spent almost all summer!

The Ladybug and her love story with a Blackamoor special one!

I must confess that I have had a very strange and complicated relationship with vintage jewelry. Even when I started dressing with vintage clothes and accessories I was not very keen on vintage jewels because they looked too old style for me. I felt old when I tried to wear them.

A few years ago, when I got a lot of weight and I didn’t want to buy clothes anymore because I didn’t like them on me, I started buying a lot of vintage accessories, from shoes to bags and…jewels! Thanks to a couple of my now favorite vintage jewelry providers (first of all my friend Valentina from Déjà Vu Vintage) I am now passionate about antiques and vintage pieces, especially brooches. During my first times of vintage jewelry passion I also discovered that I am madly deeply in love with what is called Blackamoor, referring to vintage pieces usually representing African topics and people. Although this type of jewelry is often considered having racist connotations because it is associated with colonialism and slavery, I personally appreciate the representation itself without this type of association with which I totally disagree, and I love wearing and collecting Blackamoor brooches and other type of sculpture or jewelry.

Like a few weeks ago, when I wore my newly added vintage brooch from Déjà Vu Vintage to my daily outfit and paired it with silver African inspired handmade earrings from Metalica Creazioni. When I saw this piece on Valentina’s Instagram I totally fell in love and I waited for her to come to Milan to finally make it mine!

When I travel abroad or visit vintage and antiques markets I always look for Blackamoor pieces and I do the same online (on Ebay for example) where I can find amazing pieces especially from American sellers.

I wore a 70s inspired double-breasted jacket from Zara with large burgundy culottes from Please and black silk shirt from & Other Stories. Black leather bag is from Coccinelle and vintage inspired ankle boots are from The Shoes of Pretty Box.

The Ladybug and a vintage outfit for a very busy day at work

I’ve written a lot of times about my idea of vintage at work or at least how I wear vintage when I go to work. I cannot wear exactly what I want (for example I cannot hang around in turbans!) but I have the chance to work in a place where you can be yourself, without going too far of course!

That’s why I often wear vintage clothes at work, especially lovely dresses or jewelry that I collected from almost all over the world!

That particularly day when I woke up I realized that my agenda was full of meetings…a well charged day needs a vintage outfit!

I decided to wear one of my favorite 70s vintage dresses that I bought in Brussels a few years ago in a lovely shop called Episode Vintage near the Grande Place. I wore it with a vintage 90s black short blazer (from my own personal collection of when I was a kid!) and a pair of black killer heels from 8 that I bought on Yoox.

I added two beautiful jewelry pieces: a peacock vintage brooch that I bought at A Rebours Vintage in Milan and a retro inspired ring with two small cameos from Alcozer & J, definitely one of my favorite rings ever.