The Retro Look

  I've started seeing more and more women adopting a retro look reminiscent of the 40's and 50's.  Over the summer, I ran into a young woman at the farmers market who looked as if she'd stepped out of a picture with her retro shorts outfit, bandana wrapped hair with bright red curled bangs peeking out.

At a Barnes and Nobel, I saw one of the store employees in a suit with long straight black hair, her bangs rolled and bright red lipstick.  Even one of the young ladies in my family has adopted the look, complete with glasses that look great not ugly.

I even discovered a magazine for those who like the retro look complete with clothing, style tips and other great topics for anyone who wants to achieve the look. 

I suspect its a way to bring back the glamour that has disappeared from society.  Most of the females I've seen, even in most women's magazines do not have the same level of elegance as those with the retro look.  If you watch the old movies with Audrey Hepburn, Kathryn, Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and other women from the films, they always had that wonderful look filled with a "I know what I want" look.

I sometimes with, I could manage to look so elegant as they do but unfortunately that takes a lot of practice which I do not have time for.  Beside, my hair is rather long and has a mind of its own.  This past summer, I checked out You tube and found several videos designed to show women with longer hair a way to create hairstyles from the teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's.  Unfortunately, my hair is much longer than the women who created the videos.  Its down to the bottom of my rear.

The only style I managed over the summer was a head full of ringlets created using finger curls for a performance I had this summer.  My hair does ringlets quite well since its naturally curly but for more modern styles, its extremely hard to tame it into shape.  I tried a modified 30's look and a modified 50's look but I have so much hair, its weight kept causing the rolls to slip.

In addition, I don't wear heels enough to survive them more than a couple of hours at most.  I love the look of heels but I haven't figure out how to balance I weight on them.  Instead, I clump on them sounding like an elephant rather than a woman. I also haven't figure out how to apply makeup without looking a child playing with her mother's stuff.

Oh well.  Even when I dress up for a fancy evening out, I never look put together, no matter how hard I try.  I can practice.  I can buy book after book on the topic.  I can go step by step through a video and just not look right.  I even had someone ask me to describe my style.  My answer?  "Comfortable"  I didn't say it was because I couldn't figure out how to create my own style. 

I hope I didn't bore you with a bit about myself.  I know there are others out there who just don't seem to "get the look together".  Let me know what you think.  Have a great day.