photo shoot

Vintage Covers: Vogue December 1964, Ring in the Bling

Vintage Vogue cover inspired photo featuring a gold and blue eyshadow with a silver scarf

There is no fear of blending in with the crowd when you ring in the New Year with this kind of flair! Featuring a stunning, sparkly gold and blue statement eye, paired with a silver headscarf, everyone will be asking, “Who’s that girl?”

vogue magazine cover from 1964 featuring a model wearing a silver head scarf and sparkly blue and gold eyeshadow

I thought I’d ring in this new year with a casual blue and gold eyeshadow look! Inspired by this Vogue cover from 1964, this was a very fun #myvintagecover to recreate. I haven’t done one for such a long time, and this one went together so perfectly. (All thanks to my sister because of her skill with the makeup, photography and lights. All I did was model and then edit the photo afterwards!)

Well, I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas season and are looking forward to celebrating the New Year; here’s to 2023!

An Ode to the Twenties

portrait of nicole dressed up in the 1920's style

The 1920’s seem like they are eighty years ago to me; I always count years from the year 2000 and then, to my surprise, I remember that I have to add twenty years to that total….do you ever have that problem? Of course, if it really was 2000 I would only be nine years old, so I’m not sure why that catches me off guard every time.

The 1920’s is an era that has always intrigued me, as a season of transition in the Western world, though it’s not an era that I’ve ever worn myself, apart from a few cloche hats. The twenties boyish silhouette doesn’t work for me, but I love the streamlined, yet detail oriented clothes from this time period- especially the evening wear and hair accessories! While it’s not an era that I would want to live in, or incorporate into my wardrobe today, one hundred years later it is fun to immerse myself in it every once in a while. I wanted to do this photoshoot last year, for the debut of 2020, but it didn’t end up working out. It’s still the “twenties” for the next nine years, though, so I am posting it now!

Are you drawn to the styles of the 1920’s? Do you want to see a comeback of the designs from that era? 

Vintage Covers: Vogue August 1953, A Splash of Colour

my vintage cover reproduction of an original august 1953 vogue cover, the artyologist

Add a dash of drama to your look with a bright pop of coordinating fuchsia lip and nail colour. Against a background of soft neutrals, the result is striking. 

vintage august 1953 vogue cover

On the second last day of the month, here I am with my vintage cover for this year’s #myvintagecover challenge…. just squeaking in at the end with no time to spare! I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the challenge again this year, and so when August came around, I didn’t bring it up. However, when Tanith asked if I wanted to do it in September, I agreed…and then got so busy right after then, that it took me until now to finally get it done. I’m glad I did finally get around to finishing it up though- I saw this cover last year, but didn’t have time to do it, but it worked out so perfectly as I already had all of the components for this look (with a bit of photo editing to make the lipstick and nail polish the right colour!) And, again, I ask myself, how do these models make these poses look so effortless? They are anything but!

Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl, the artyologist

How is it already the end of October?

This month has just flown by for me, and has been a rather strange month too. I had every intention of posting these pictures on the Thanksgiving weekend (Oct. 8), but a combination of burning my right hand (which made typing difficult), getting a head cold that lasted forever, and then work and other engagements, has delayed me. . . and here we are now at October 22!

This is one of my favourite outfits and photoshoots of late. The photos were taken on the thanksgiving weekend, which also happened to be my birthday weekend! (Apparently I am claiming the whole weekend as my Birthday weekend, not just one day. . .) I was at first a little disappointed that the leaves had already turned brown by the time we were able to get these photos, but as it turned out, the colour palette worked incredibly well with the sepia tones of my outfit. The outfit is an amalgamation of some of my favourite pieces in my wardrobe-  I pretty much picked everything that I love to wear, and put it all into one outfit, because it’s always nice to wear something “special” on your birthday!

birthday outfit, the artyologist

Well, that’s really all I have to say, but if I try and think of something else to write, I am afraid that this will never be published. Sorry that the blog has been a bit boring lately, I’m a bit out of practice. . . I am hoping to get back in the swing of things, and post more frequently again.

Hope you are all having a happy October!

Vintage Covers: Tampico, Harper’s Bazar

Melodrama in Mexico: Follow along as an American power broker conquers the jungles of Mexico and might also be involved in seducing someone else’s wife, in this Jazz Age tale of Big Business. 

That is all I could find out about this novel Tampico, by Joseph Hergesheimer, and it all sounds quite tedious. The novel was also apparently made into the movie “The Woman I Stole“. Considering that no one has ever heard of this film either, I am going to guess it wasn’t a blockbuster hit.

Terrible sounding story aside, it made for a great cover to replicate for #myvintagecover! My friend Chantelle was visiting for a few days, and we decided that we wanted to make a cover together. Finding a magazine cover that had two people in it, proved more difficult than we thought it would be, though. After diving into the depths of google, we eventually found this 1920’s cover art by Erte, and decided that it wouldn’t be “too” difficult.

Why we decided to wear fur and wool hats on the hottest day of the year (it actually was the hottest day we’ve had all summer!) who knows- but after the debacle involving a forgotten camera (it was sitting at home on the desk), a hot and grumpy person (oh- that would be me) and a background that required being completely photoshopped in the end- it actually turned out rather well. Part way through photo editing, I realized that this was not going to be a simple crop and splice sort of editing job, and it took quite a while to get the pictures lined up, the background edited and the colours correct, but I’m glad I persevered, as it is definitely one of the most fun covers I’ve ever done!

There’s still a week left of August- do you think you’ll be joining in with the challenge? There are some pretty great covers over on Instagram- make sure to go and check out the hashtag!