For our latest outfit of the day, I had a great t-shirt that I got at Target, but wanted to do something fun and new with it.
You guys have probably noticed that Target has some really amazing tees, but they are only available in bigger sizes in the Men’s Department. So, tee surgery is needed to make them look good on a woman’s body.
I decided to do the usual tee surgery of removing the neck from the tee. After that, I thought about pairing it with some items to create a rockabilly look with it.
When you are prepping a new dapper look for a convention or just trying to accessorize a new dress, one key item you need to think about are shoes to complete your look.
Here are a few styles that will work with vintage-inspired fashions. All the choices are reasonably priced with shopping links below as well as photo examples.
The Ballet Flat
This style is perfect for not only dresses, but pedal-pushers or capri pants as well. I’ve never been a big fan, because they have a tendency to give me a blister on my heels. However, I just found this flat from Skechers that stays put. The shoes also have more cushioning than the usual ballet flat. Buy your Skechers ballet flat here.
The Oxford
This shoe has a few different types as far as heel styles. There are flat, block heeled and traditional heeled options. I really love this block heeled version I got from Amazon. They have padding on the inside and the block heel gives me lots of support. Buy your Block-heeled Oxford here.
Classic Converse Chuck Taylors
This shoe is not only great for 50’s looks, but for 80’s, goth, punk or rock looks as well. It is the ultimate casual shoe. Now, while it is not padded on the inside, you can get insoles that provide support if you need it. Chucks come in every color imaginable, and a high-top version as well. Buy your classic Chucks here.
Saddle Shoes
Besides the Chuck Taylors, the other shoe that leaps to mind when someone is thinking about vintage 50s fashions is the saddle shoe. Named because the contrasting stripe resembles a saddle on the shoe. You can get saddle shoes in a variety of colors and even high heel versions, but the classic black and white flat-heeled version is the best way to go. Get your saddle shoes here.
Saddle shoes aren’t the best for long days on your feet, so I created a comfy version from a white sneaker. To create your own, will only take a few minutes of your time. Click here for the how-to instructions.
If you have any go-to styles for your dapper looks, please leave us a comment below. We love to hear from you!
Our latest outfit of the day is the Loki pin-up dress by Her Universe for The Disney Dress Shop.
I love this dress so much for so many reasons, but the stand-out reason is the detailing on the dress itself.
The basket weave pattern at the waistline nips in my waist perfectly, without sacrificing any comfort. The detailing on the skirt is so beautiful. It is the perfect Loki bound dress.
Like all Disney Dress Shop dresses, I love the fit! It is a very fancy looking dress, but as comfortable as a t-shirt. And…pockets!
The other day we broke down Benji’s Robin Hood dapper look, and now it is my turn.
I went to Dapper Day as Robin Hood’s bestie, Little John.
Disney’s Little John is my favorite Disney character. I love his sense of fun, positivity, loyalty and justice. I know that is a lot to attach to an animated character, but he made quite an impression on me as a kid.
Here is a reference photo:
Photo: Walt Disney Company
Now, let’s break it down using the Team Build Checklist:
The Leader
The Leader for this bound would be the bear ears. I decided to go with a Mickey ear headband, but with brown ears because, bear. I also got really lucky and found these custom-made ears by To Never Neverland on Etsy. These ladies have tons of great ear headbands for every character imaginable. Please check out their page. The headband is also super comfortable. The little feather detail was just perfect.
Little John’s outfit is pretty simple. Green tunic, shoes and hat. The best detail to let people know I was bounding Little John was a money bag. We found these perfect purses on Amazon. I actually added jump rings, removed the strap and attached the purse to my belt to create a fanny pack of sorts. The belt is from Amazon as well.
The Blaster
There really wasn’t any special make-up or hair needed for this bound, but because it was Dapper Day, a red lip was the perfect finishing touch. My red lip is MAC in Ruby Woo.
I hope that our latest bounds got you inspired for Spring Dapper Day! Hope to see you there, and happy shopping!
For my latest cosplay, I put together a look for Dapper Day of my favorite Captain America suit, the stealth suit.
The dress is pretty easy to put together. I found some iron-on transfer paper at a craft store. With that, a star-shaped cookie cutter and a straight edge, I was able to create the stealth dress.
When choosing your star, make sure you choose one that is good scale to your body. Then you will need three stripes on each side, again, keep an eye on the scale. The stripes end at the arms at a 90 degree angle, but are diagonally cut to fit close to the star. The lengths also vary, with two shorter stripes on the top and bottom and the longest in the middle.
I recently began building a screen accurate Captain Marvel cosplay (by build, I mean ordering various items, but I digress…). Part of this cosplay is going to be the “The Fonz” lunchbox and teseract. There are several teseracts available on Etsy, but I wanted to save a little money and make my own.
It is so easy, I wanted to share the DIY with you. Shopping links below.
What you Need:
Acrylic box
Clear craft glue
Blue twinkle lights, battery operated
White parchment paper for cooking
Steps:
Take your parchment paper and cut into squares that fit inside each side of the acrylic box
Take a small amount of glue and attach each piece of paper into the inside of the box
Insert the twinkle lights and turn them on
Boom! You’re done!
This is literally the easiest project ever. It took me mere minutes for finish and now I have a great prop for various cosplays. The great thing is that the little box has a swing lid, so you just open it, turn off the lights when you aren’t using them.
I have this great Cap shield that I used for cosplay, but the problem is that it scratched up rather easily. Now I have a great shield, but it is not looking so great these days.
I decided to do the girliest thing possible and glitter it!
It took about three months in total to do it. Because I wanted to make sure the different colors of glitter didn’t run into the others, I had to start from the inside and work my way outwards.
I used the products pictured below. Click on the links here for the glitter, brushes, glue and sealer. All available on Amazon.
Happy Shopping and send us pictures of your creations!
I’ve talked a lot about these DIY sneakers as of late. It is about time to show you how to make your own.
You will need:
Shoes
Fabric Paint
Paint Brush
First, the shoe. I have arthritis in my right knee, which makes walking a lot difficult. So, I found a great walking shoe from Skechers. Get your own with this link.
Now, basically a saddle shoe is just what the name implies. It is a shoe that looks like it has a little saddle on it. You can get any color shoe and any color paint and just go bananas if you want to. There are no rules here. You can match them with your outfit. You can get a very inexpensive shoe if you they are for a one-off costume. You can find very inexpensive sneakers in a variety of colors just about anywhere. I chose my shoe because it was super good for walking all day.
So first thing, you need to chose how big or small you want the saddle to be. Choose a natural line on the shoe to mark it. Like in the pic below:
You can see where the stitching makes a guide line for me to paint.
Then you just put a coat of paint on the shoe, wait a day and do one more and you are all set!
And there is the finished product! They turned out great, and have saved my feet at a number of adventures since.
We have made a big change to the site, in case you haven’t noticed already!
We didn’t come to the decision to change the name lightly, but because it was so long, Benji is being raised pretty well so far and we wanted to change our focus a bit, we decided to make the leap. We really wanted to focus on everyday living as a nerd.
How to integrate your fandoms into your everyday life. Not with just everyday cosplay, which is fun to wear for sure, but also more subtle ways, bounding, dapper looks, pin-up style and the like.
We hope you like the update! Please share your thoughts with us. We love to hear from you!
The Oxford
