How to Walk in High-Heeled Shoes Without Waddling and Grimacing

This post is a quick step-by-step guide on how to walk gracefully in high-heeled shoes without waddling like a duck. Moreover, spiked heels won't make you look glamorous if you wear ‘pain’ on your face.

Walking straight in Stilettos (Image used under license from 123rf.com)


1st Step
As a beginner, start practising with kitten heels because if you want to strut in four-inch heels you’d have to start off practising with these. You should start low and work your way up to the higher heels.


2nd Step
When you walk easier and feel more comfortable in kitten heels, you can move up to high wedge heels. Their heels fully attached to the sole will give you good balance and increased confidence. Wedge heels are comfortable to walk in because your heels are placed higher above the level of your toes.


3rd Step
When you feel more relaxed with high-heeled wedge shoes and can walk comfortably in them without feeling awkward, you can go shopping for spiked shoes. But before then, have an imaginary walk in high shoes. Do this by standing with your knees straight, your body raised and supported on your toes, and your heels raised at least an inch (or so) off the floor. While trying this, see if you are tottering or bending at the knees. If you do bend your knees, even remotely, you are not yet ready for spiked shoes.


4th Step
If all goes well with step three, start with baby steps (small, slow steps), ensuring you do not bend your knees any more than you normally would. For balance, put one foot about 12 inches directly ahead of the other, placing your heels down first before your toes. HEELS THEN TOES! HEELS THEN TOES! HEELS THEN TOES!


Conclusion
Now that you have practised walking in stiletto heels without the occasional grimace, only then are you set to wear and strut your 9-inch spikes.

5 Vintage Fashion Accessories That Deserve a Comeback

Now is the time to rock those 20th-century fashion accessories if you are a vintage fashion enthusiast who loves statement pieces typical of the 1900s styles. The pieces were bold, daring, and attractively brazen. From anklets and brooches to fancy bra straps and earcuffs, these statement pieces deserve a comeback (with standing ovations) to the 21st-century fashion scene.

Some of the pieces we vintage fashion fans will love to see are:
  1. Anklets
  2. Fashion rings
  3. Fancy bra straps
  4. Ear Cuffs
  5. Toe rings

Anklets

Anklets or ankle chains have existed for centuries, with the first known types about 8,000 years old. From the beginning of its existence, it was not a fashion item, but an ornament that represented nobility and wealth. They were made from wood, bone, leather and woven twigs. Today, ankle chains have become fashionable pieces of ankle adornment made from various materials like gemstones, beads, and leather, precious metals like gold and silver, and base metals like copper, nickel, and brass.

Beautiful ankle bracelet. Image used under license from iStockPhoto

Although women of the early 20th century who wore ankle bracelets were called brash and brazen, by the middle of the century, women embraced its use as fashion jewelry. Two decades later, anklets became extremely popular as fashion jewelry and became an integral part of fashion and style.

Stylish vintage anklets are usually adorned with charms like hearts, keys, crosses, leaves, and gemstones like jade, emerald, and rhinestones.

Elaborate Rings

Art Deco rings are by far one of the most dramatically-styled fashion rings of the 20th century. Rings of the era (1920s to 1930s) were dazzling, stylish, and elaborate. For women who love flashy and bold fashion accessories, nothing beats the beauty of Art Deco rings with their loud and sassy designs.

Vintage-inspired fashion rings. Image used under license from iStockPhotoo

Fashion rings of the period, and up until the 1950s often featured brightly coloured stones like ruby, sapphire, and emerald with heavily eclectic and daring forms. They were large, dramatic, and symmetrical designs with rectangular/hexagonal/square centre-set gemstones, many with uniquely set side stones surrounding each gemstone. The symmetrical patterns and motifs were influenced by Egyptian, African, and Indian cultures.

Popular gemstones used for the Art Deco fashion rings are ruby, emerald, sapphire, onyx, ivory, and jade. Others are mother of pearls, corals, and colourful faux gems set on precious metals - silver, white gold, platinum, chrome, and marcasite. Many high-end Art Deco-style fashion rings have filigree and diamond accents.

Ornate Bra Straps

Fancy bra straps are beautiful fashion accessories that add a touch of glitz and glamour to strapless clothing. They are worn to be exposed and really beautify formal dresses, gowns, and bustier tops, and less formal clothing like strapless blouses, tank/tube tops, and halter necks.

Fancy bra straps.

The most appealing and sought-after kinds are adorned with faux or genuine rhinestones and sparkler diamante gems. The beautiful embellishments make them elegant and attractive without going over the top.

They are wonderful pieces of fashion accessories that can also give a fashion upgrade, like turning a simple day wear into an attractive evening outfit or replacing camisole straps with diamante studded fancy bra straps. It will also enhance old favourites and give your ‘dumped’ clothes a new lease on life.

Ear Cuffs

Ear cuffs may have been around for centuries (dating back to 200 BC) but in the 20th century, they became great earring alternatives for women with unpierced ears. Ear cuffs can be quite fascinating and attention-grabbing, and their charm continues to grow season-upon-season as fashion icons, celebrities, and jewelry design shows continue to adopt its use and rediscover it as a trending accessory.

The earliest ear cuffs discovered in burial sites in the British Isles were known as Kaffas. They were made from non-fanciful brass without embellishments and were crafted with a large mount to wrap around the outer ear lobe. By the 1700s, they began to appear in Europe. But unlike the ancient ones, these modernised ear jewelry became more reserved in its crafting, resembling classic earrings instead.

Made from expensive metals, they were set with precious stones like rubies, diamonds, and sapphires. They were only affordable to wealthy upper-class women. Ear cuffs were worn to exhibit a woman’s wealth and social status.

Toe Rings

Toe rings have been around for hundreds of years and have been worn by both men and women, in Africa and Asia. Way back then, they were worn for various cultural and traditional reasons, but certainly not as jewelry or fashion accessories.

Foot showing toe ring and ankle bracelet. (Image used under license from iStockPhoto)

In the Western world, there is no symbolic interpretation for wearing toe rings. They are generally regarded as fashion accessories to prettily adorn the feet. Meaning they are worn simply to portray stylish statements.

Exquisite toe-ring designs are stylishly crafted after 20th-century motifs and themes of swirls and figurines, fauna and flora, inscribed bands, and love themes. The best types are those made from lasting materials like gold, enamel, brass, and silver that will make your feet look pretty and delicate.


Other articles of interest:



600 Years of Wedding Dress Designs: 1300s to 1900s

If you love all things that have to do with the history of women's fashion, you will enjoy reading about how wedding dresses evolved.
  • What was getting married like before white weddings became popular?
  • What did the bride wear?
  • When was the first documented white wedding dress in Western culture?
Six centuries of bridal wear - 1300s to 1900s.


The book Six Centuries of Wedding Dress Styles and Traditions will answer these questions and more. It will take you through some of the interesting histories of bridal wear with an insight into what brides wore hundreds of years ago. It includes photographs and illustrations of hundreds of years of wedding dress collections.

It is a good reference book to have if you are a student of fashion history, a wedding dress styles enthusiast, and a bridal wear dressmaker and tailor

10 Famous Jewellers of the 1920s

It was the Jazz Age of the 1920s, an era that heralded the beginnings of conscious awareness of unconventional costume jewellery. During this time, the Art Deco movement also made an impression on jewellers. Jewellery designs were influenced by events like the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, African art, and the Avant-Garde art movement. They were largely accepted by the flapper generation who frequently wore Art Deco-inspired jewellery and dazzling clothing. 

To this swinging generation, it was all about femininity and accessorizing, and the movement provided design inspiration for these. Jewelry, they say, was meant to capture the eye and command attention.


The style was characterized by bold colour contrasts, geometrics, clean lines, and stylized motifs. There were long strands of pearls, brooches, strings of round beads, ornate bangles and wide embellished bracelets, earrings with tassels, and loop necklaces.

Today, early 20th-century art deco-inspired costume jewellery still remains incredibly popular.


Some Famous Jewelry Designers of the Twenties


While some of the jewellers mentioned below have been known for their designs before the roaring twenties, many were at their peak during this era and made their mark in the jewellery design business. Their names still resonate among jewellery makers and collectors of vintage jewellery.

The following are jewellery designers (in no particular order) famous for their creations.


Frédéric Boucheron


His jewellery pieces are works of art and were designed to fit the reigning Art Deco designs of the 1920s. Before then, in the late 19th century, Boucheron was considered the pioneer of “modern jewellery” who revived an engraving technique that had been forgotten since ancient times. He soon became famous for the extraordinary designs and quality of his precious stones which included diamonds engraved with flowers or arabesques, and colourful gemstones (sapphires, rubies, lapis lazuli, coral, hematite, onyx, emeralds, and rock crystal) encircled with geometrically arranged diamonds.

Boucheron jewellery designers and makers enjoy the patronage of royal families and the custom of Hollywood icons like Dietrich, Garbo, and Rita Hayworth.


Mario Buccellati

In 1919, Mario Buccellati, also known as “The Prince of Goldsmiths”, acquired the family jewellery company and renamed it “Buccellati”. He was a famous jeweller who marketed his creations through exhibitions that helped him meet and make customers of affluent clients from all over. Mario Buccellati was so well patronized, he opened many branches around the world. 

His jewellery designs featured elaborate gemstone works suggestive of the Art Nouveau and Old Hollywood eras. They highlight animal and insect forms, created out of pearls. He is also famous for his “gold jewellery and exquisite silver objects” and the combinations of precious metals (silver & gold, and platinum & gold).


Coco Chanel


Chanel’s jewelry designs may have been considered innovative in the 1920s, but the works were revolutionary, radical, and bold, a new style that consisted of high-end components combined with lower-priced materials. Before that time, wearing costume accessories was considered a fashion faux pas because they were perceived as cheap and belonging to women who couldn’t afford genuine pieces. Unperturbed by the opinion of the status quo, she developed her radical design concept of mixing gems and other precious stones with faux ones. The results and responses were brilliant.

Piling bracelets and bangles, stacking faux pearl necklaces, layering an unprecedented number of brooches, and adorning cuff bracelets; fashionistas were awed by this expressive and playful new look. Coco Chanel’s awesome combinations were and still are what costume jewellery is all about. Each piece she crafted was the signature finishing touch; a perfect complement to the already dazzling outfits of the flapper generation of the twenties.


Elsa Schiaparelli


After moving to Paris in the 1920s and establishing a Fashion House in the late 20s, Schiaparelli began making costume jewellery along with her other lines of clothing, perfume and other fashion accessories. She believed that costume jewellery was a vital part of fashion and style, an art form in its own right. Her early works are often portrayed as whimsical, glamorous, and extremely stylized.

Elsa Schiaparelli believed that costume jewellery was an integral part of fashion design as well as an art form in its own right. Elsa’s jewellery was whimsical, imaginative, and innovative often made with bright, colourful glass stones. Many of her designs are inspired by nature, the circus, astrology, and native African art.


Gerard Sandoz

One of the most famous jewellers of the 1920s, Sandoz was well known for his elaborate geometric designs. His bold and dramatic creations made him recognized as one of the forerunners of the Art Deco style of jewellery. Being an artist, he incorporated his bold and strong artistic styles into his jewellery, making each piece a beautiful work of art. In many of his popular works, Sandoz paired metals with gemstones like onyx, lapis lazuli, coral, and hematite.


Jean Dunand


Dunand was popularly known for his extensive use of lacquerware (a decorative-coating technique) in his design elements. He used it for many of his works, including vases, furniture, and most especially, costume jewellery. His creative designs of lacquerware jewellery made his creations trendy and a must-have in the twenties. Josephine Baker, one of the most popular music hall entertainers in France who took Paris by storm in the 1920s wore his famous lacquerware jewellery, a wide cuff bracelet and a circular neck collar. This stunning jewellery set designed with black, yellow, and red colours made Dunand's jewellery famous. He was also one of the forerunners of the Art Deco style.


Miriam Haskell


This American designer, Miriam Haskell, is in the top ten jewellery designers of the time. She designed costume jewellery that was affordable to 1920s women and worked in partnership with Frank Hess who was a part of the birthing of colourful jewelry designs. Frank Hess, her chief designer, was previously a young window dresser at Macy’s. Their partnership has been responsible for the finest handmade costume jewelry ever created.

Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford and Lucille Ball, and fashion-conscious women loved the unique style and characteristics of Haskell’s designs and wore her jewellery widely. Her jewellery has also appeared in films, on tv shows, and in stage plays.


Napier

Napier jewellery was the rave in the 1920s. They made pieces in Art Deco style and introduced classy and elegant designs to fashion accessories lovers. Although Napier Jewelry is no longer a top brand, its jewellery is still highly valued and sought after by vintage-inspired fashion-conscious individuals, and jewellery collectors.

The fashion industry was dominated by their eclectic bold designs which featured spectacular geometric and floral patterns made from faux gemstones, imitation pearls, glass, and plated metals. They are also recognized for their sterling silver works. Pieces were large and chunky and were a deviation from the typical designs of the time. This helped them make a positive impact on the fashion scene.

Napier was one of the first brands to make costume jewellery available and accessible to the masses.


Paul Emile Brandt

Paul-Emile Brandt was born in Switzerland but moved to Paris, France at a young age to study under Chaplain and Allard. He started his own business outfit in the 1910s, making Art Nouveau-style jewellery. After World War I, Brandt began creating jewellery in the Art Deco style. His designs are characterised by neutral palettes with white gold and diamonds, offset with onyx stone or black lacquerware.

By the 1920s, he began to work with precious stones and lacquer work. He created jewellery designs made with inlaid lacquered eggshells and brooches set with calibre emeralds in characteristic art deco styles. He describes his jewellery-making as “... jewellery of great design and great construction...”. 

By the 30s, Paul Brandt started to produce hand jewellery – bracelets, bangles, rings, and neck jewellery - necklaces and pendants that featured relief work with geometric shapes.


Tiffanys


The company was founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1837. When he passed away in 1902, his son Louis Comfort Tiffany became the company’s first official jewellery design director, while Tiffanys became a design icon during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods of the early 1900s.

Around this time, the Art Nouveau movement was gaining ground. Louis’ designs featured nature-inspired pieces in Art Nouveau’s style. His pieces of jewellery were majorly made with enamels, gemstones, and even glass. 

Soon, the Art Deco era began and saw an absolute passion for all things Tiffanys. The jewellery makers became the arbiter of fashion and style as brilliant diamonds and lustrous pearls adorned the silhouettes of Hollywood’s silver screen actors. They became the screen darlings of the Jazz era – nothing burned brighter on a black-and-white screen than Tiffany’s dazzling jewels.



Vintage-Themed Sketch, Doodle, and Write Notebooks


1. Old-Fashioned Cream Paper Drawing Book

Enjoy using this 19th-century vintage-themed fashion sketchbook with illustrations of French newspapers showing fashionable Parisian women in their elaborate day dresses. It comes in a convenient square shape and consists of dot grid pages and blank drawing canvases printed on cream old-fashioned type paper.

If you are a classic fashion enthusiast, there is a possibility that you’d like this traditional look cream paper that great fashion designers of yesteryears sketched on. If you are a vintage fashion aficionado who needs a journal to write and sketch in, then this is for you. And if you are a fashion designer or fashion design student who just wants something different from the rest, this is it.



2. Roaring 20s-Inspired Lined Notebook

If you are a vintage enthusiast, you know about the Flapper generation of young women and men of the 1920s. They loved to party and listen to jazz music. They were energetic and embraced what many considered outrageous lifestyles and boldly displayed their contempt for what was acceptable behaviour of the era. Today, they are considered the first generation of independent individuals who pushed barriers to political and sensual freedom.

If you are a fan of the 1920s, you can't but love this vintage-inspired lined journal. It has images of swinging Flappers doing the Charleston dance on each lined page and colourful illustrations of men and women of the Roaring Twenties.



3. The 1920s Vintage-Inspired Dot-Grid Notebook

This vintage-themed dotted grid notebook depicts an era of fun-loving adults partying and dancing to the swinging jazz music of the roaring twenties. For lovers of vintage-inspired stuff, this dot-grid book, with images of Flappers doing the Charleston dance will be excellent for many uses, including journaling, writing, goals-tracking, doodling, task reminders, and poetry crafting.


4. Antique Themed Notebook

This classic-theme author’s notebook is created for beginner and budding writers and novelists who love antique-inspired writing materials. With its aged paper look, this faux worn-writing-paper comes with faint-lined inner pages similar to the paper the famous writers of old composed stories and poetry on. 

The notebook for authors, poets, and story writers features pages that come with title and date blocks and index pages for easy organizing and navigating. It will make great gifts for vintage-inspired up-and-coming writers, young novelists, play and verse writers, and poets.


Articles of Interest

7 Famous Fashion Designers of the 1920s
Vintage Fashion Quiz (with Images)

Are Jumpsuits Suitable for Weddings and Special Occasions?

Are jumpsuits suitable for special occasions like weddings? Absolutely. Women no longer HAVE TO wear a dress or gown for special events, and weddings are no exception. Consider a stylish jumpsuit as an alternative to the usual.

Jumpsuits are body-flattering. They are beautiful, comfortable, and non-restrictive, and they give you the flexibility and fluidity to move around effortlessly. Unlike most formal dresses, you do not have to give up your comfort to look chic.

For a wedding, you can easily style-up a jumpsuit to fit a dress code and make it classy. With the right accessories – heels, wraps, stoles, costume jewellery, elegant handbags, headpieces, and eye wear, your silhouette will be runway-worthy. 

Jumpsuit styles vary. They come with tapered, straight, semi-wide, wide, and ultra-wide legs. The designs range from halter-neck, strapless, and off-the-shoulder styles to jumpsuit gowns, bow-bodice suits, and tuxedo jumpsuits, all echoing popular gown details. Sleeve designs include bell, Bishop, cap, and butterfly sleeves. And the popular fabric choice for formal jumpsuits is velvet, brocade, satin, crepe, linen, and silk.

Whether you desire a sleek style, an embellished design, or something fluid and flowy, try a jumpsuit for a change.  We can’t deny the fact that a chic and elegant jumpsuit will make a welcome and refreshing change from the typical style of guest dresses everyone else is wearing.


Posts of Interest

How to Dress Vintage Chic Style in Everyday Clothes

Clothing Styles we will Hate to See Come Back

1920s Inspired Writing Journal with Images of Flapper Swingers 

Vintage-Inspired Cathedral Wedding Veils

A cathedral wedding veil is all about the length. Coming at no less than 9ft long, you will find (or can custom-make) vintage-inspired cathedral veils that come as long as 12ft. but the beauty of the veil is having a long aisle to walk down. There is not much point it wearing veils that long if you are getting married in a small chapel with a short aisle.




If you desire a regal stately look on your wedding day, the Cathedral styled veil is for you. It is a ‘super-size’ vintage-inspired headpiece that makes a bold statement and portrays a wedding that’s not only stylish but elegantly formal as well. They are great for a black-tie wedding at a dramatic venue.

This long sweeping wedding veil that drapes naturally to the ground and trails behind you comes in single, double, or triple layers look beautiful when worn on trumpet-style wedding dresses, ball-style gowns, mermaid gowns, and A-line bridal dresses.

They look absolutely wonderful in the dim light of many traditional churches and cathedrals and ‘come to life’ as the bride walks out into the sunlight under the flash of paparazzi lights.

A vintage-inspired cathedral bridal veil can be worn either on the crown of the head, attached to the hair with heavy combs or hair clips or at the back of the head with a tiara. The tiara will give it an elegant and royal touch.






Further reading:
170 Years of Wedding Veil Styles (Bridal Veils 1800s to 1970s)
Wedding Veil Designs – Types and Styles of Bridal Headpieces
Gothic Bridal Veils for Medieval Inspired Weddings