Super Sunday #9 ♥

so... it's the second Sunday and you know what that means...

it's time for another Super Sunday post!!!

wow, can't believe we've almost hit 10 Super Sunday posts already! that's flown by... scary stuff!

anyway, this week it's a fabulously fashionable little dedication

i figured that i'd rambled on about my favourite artists/illustrators for enough weeks in a row so i thought it would be nice to have a stylish post again

so without any further ado, this weeks Super Sunday post is dedicated to the fabulous, the fashionable, the totally estupendo y muy bueno... 

Jasmin Rodriguez aka Vintage Vandalizm

so who is she i hear you cry?!

well allow me to fill you in on this super styling señorita...

Jasmin Rodriguez (aka Vintage Vandalizm) is a Puerto Rican super duper stylist, model, writer, designer, blogger, artist and all round fashionista living in New York (update 2014, she now lives in Las Vegas!)

she writes the most awesome blog posts about her super fashionable life + always posts amazing photos of her shopping sprees/nights out/fashion shoots

now i follow quite a few fashion blogs (including Jane Aldridge's 'Sea of Shoes' and Tavi Gevinson's 'The Style Rookie') but Jasmin's blog has got to be my top fave. 

it's the fashion blog i go back to time and time again whether i need inspiration for a painting, a new illustration, make-up tips or ideas for an outfit, her blog never fails to supply exactly what i'm looking for!

so why is she one of my style icons?! (because let's face it, she is!)

well for starters her style is massively influenced by all things Pinup and Rockabilly (and we all know what a Pinup fan i am right...) she loves to mix styles from the 40's, 50's and 60's too, yet she puts her own unique twist on every look no matter which decade it's inspired by!

add to this the fact that she always dresses in a very pretty feminine way even if she's wearing trousers, she still manages to look feminine. it may sound daft but so many style bloggers nowadays just focus on wearing the latest trends and designer labels and disregard the rest!

as Jasmin herself put it "I think the world is too fixated on trends that people tend to forget who they are and what they like"

she's also an avid vintage shopper and despite having a wardrobe to die for packed with some verrrrry desirable designer pieces, some of her best looks have consisted of 'thrifted' vintage items or smart sale buys. she really is a super styling shopaholic! 

she always looks fabulous, she always dresses in her own unique style and she always looks totally gorgeous!

it doesn't seem to matter what she's doing, she could be out grocery shopping and you can bet she'll still be looking fab! it's that sense of glamour about her, it reminds me of Dita Von Teese (check out a previous Super Sunday post all about her here - Super Sunday #4) that timeless quality of glamour, no matter what the occasion or location.

Jasmin has it too and just like la Dita, she always dresses to impress

she's such a doll! i just love her, she ALWAYS looks fabulous

it's not fair really is it! she's super talented and let's face it... a total superstar!!!

she's modeled for a ton of awesome websites, magazines, brands etc etc and recently she even modeled for Bernie Dexter Clothing 

as you can see, she looks totally 50's fabulous in the pics from the shoot

i've been a fan of Jasmin's blog for about a year and a half now and i never get tired of her fun, fabulous and fashionable posts 

the thing is, living on the Isle of Man means i don't really have many places to get 50's fashion advice (apart from Charlotte... who is leaving me to go back to England!) so Jasmin's blog is a great source to go to (along with several other 50's/vintage fashion sites, of course) 

her blog is a great place to visit though, even if you're not a massive 50's fan, she has a generally awesome sense of style and is never afraid to be herself

it was actually around this time last year i first decided to have a go at drawing some VV inspired art

i can't believe it's been a year already! seems like only yesterday!!!

there are three VV pieces i worked on

there's...

'the Vintage Vandals'

inspired by this gorgeous Moschino dress from Jasmin's lookbook

you can read her full post about the illustrations HERE

there's also...

'Jasmin in Wonderland' (click image for full view)

inspired by this post where Jasmin co-ordinated outfits based on 4 characters from 'Alice in Wonderland' - wonderland fashion

you can read the VV post about the artwork HERE

Jasmin also hires out her styling expertise to people in New York, she'll be your personal stylist/shopper and find exactly the look you're looking for

i know my friend Charlotte (aka Loretta Jane's Vintage Boutique) is also a massive 'Vintage Vandalzim' fan and i guess it's our shared dream to one day head over to New York and go on a 50's fashion shopping spree with Jasmin

who knows! it might happen... one day

* * *

ok time for some lovely links

here's Jasmin's Twitter page - @VintageVandal

here's Vintage Vandalizm on tumblr - VV tumblr

here's the official Vintage Vandalizm facebook page - VV facebook

and of course, her super duper website/blog - Vintage Vandalizm

enough mindless gushing?! ok i'll stop now, but you KNOW she's awesome!

* * *

back to college for me tomorrow, assessment this week...

this is NOT a good thing and i AM going to be killed by my tutors because although i have about 19-20 pieces of artwork to show, i have 0 logbook pages

this = me dead soon

anyway, enjoy the rest of your Sunday dear readers

until next time, that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥

muchas gracias y adios

(that's thank you and goodbye in Spanish on behalf of Puerto Rico, i couldn't remember if i've done a thank you for them before but i know that Jasmin is Puerto Rican so i thought a Spanish farewell was fitting, gracias muñeca ♥)

Patterns and Pinafores ♥

Today has been another busy busy day

I didn't post yesterday simply because... I was SO busy!!!

I literally didn't stop all day!

Anyway today i've had great fun messing around with some photoshop brushes. I'm toying with the idea of drawing/painting some tattooed Pin-up girls but before I sit down and have a go at drawing some of my own tattoo designs (a la Angelique Houtkamp) I used some brushes instead.

Here's a cute photo of the fabulous Bernie Dexter that I... tattooed

yes I also darkened her swim suit as well, I did it to match the flower in her hair. and yes... i know the tattoos don't look real THAT WAS THE POINT!!! thank you photoshop police!

I also finished another test piece today. 

As i've mentioned before (several times) i'm a big fan of the artwork of Angelique Houtkamp (check out her website here – Salon Serpent) and i've been having a go at imitating her style, only i'm using pencil crayons instead of paints. 

so using this sketch... i tried to have a go at her super duper style!

This is one of my main test pieces. There are a few more smaller ones but this one turned out the best. It's tricky getting the crayons to blend, I mean I don't have any of these fancy pants artists pencils that blend like pastels etc blah blah blah

i'm using a box of 36 colouring pencils that cost me a whopping £3.99 (WHSmith's... bargain!) so they're ruddy difficult to blend with!

It took a long time to work into and it's only colour on a photocopy of the big sketch I did last week (hence the non-blue tattoos) but it's stuck in the logbook now... which makes it an official test piece!

So this has inspired me to do a new pin-up Girl of my own! she isn't quite ready yet but I can tell you this much... she is a green eyed beauty, had long black hair and is kind of spooky looking... so will definitely be a Halloween themed illustration!

That's it for now, stay tuned as i'll be posting her as soon as she's finished!

In other news...

the delightful Annie, who is a fellow HNDer at college, brought me in the most fabulous book to look at today! Now she's already a star because last week she brought me in not one but two massive fashion magazines to keep and is always super duper pleasant and lovely. 

She's also the mum of someone I went to High School with but that isn't important! Anyway, she brought this book in and i've pretty much spent the whole afternoon just flicking through it slowly falling in love with the pictures and wishing verrrry hard that I could travel back in time to when it first came out!

Sadly the front cover is missing (and has been for a while apparently) but most of the pages are intact and every one is filled with gorgeous illustrations and patterns. It's a pattern catalogue essentially, Annie told me that she used to sit and flick through it with her Grandma and they would pick out the ones they liked from the pages.

We tried to work out what year it was published but it doesn't say anywhere! However... in the children's section of the book there is a big article all about Snow White with costumes and dress patterns based on the Disney film. 

Now it doesn't say the year but the way it talks about the film suggests it was the latest Disney film out at the time... which puts the date somewhere between 1937-1939. the film itself was released in December 1937. 


However. there is an add on the back of the catalogue for the 'winter collection 1938-39 so i'm guessing that means this catalogue in question was brought out in1938 to be precise... and we all know I like to be precise!

it's the most wonderful book though! The patterns and the prices (averaging 35 cents for a whole set of dress patterns with transfers and stencils etc) are just divine.

This has to be my absolute favourite page from the book. And no... it's NOT because it says 'In a very gay mood' in big letters! It's the aprons and the pinnies! Aren't they fabulous!!!

Pinafore aprons covered in hand embroidered flowers and hearts... I would literally die for an apron like one of these! I can't decided between the pink polka-dot one with the heart shaped pockets or the black and white one with red ribbons and padded cherry applique! Love, love, L-O-V-E!

I am so pleased she brought it in for me! It is just gorgeous, so, soooo lovely!  

***

edit: 11:49pm ok i'm back from the theatre now! i should have explained at the start but i didn't... tonight was my cousin's big dance show at the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas, this years show was called 'Celtic Infusion' and it was soooo awesome! 

i'm helping backstage for tomorrows performance but she had enough helpers tonight so i got to watch it from the stalls instead. woooow! so epic and my god-daughter Bonnie was soooo good! i was one proud god-mother i can tell you! if you live in the Isle of Man and are stuck for something to do on Saturday... get yourself down to the Gaiety and watch the show! 

***

Edit... again!: 02/10/10 2:48pm ok i'm FINALLY finishing this blog now! all the pictures are scanned and i'm just about to post it before grabbing some lunch

hope you all enjoy the scans from the pattern catalogue, i tried to pick out my faves though to be honest i could have scanned the whole thing! every page is brilliant!

anyway, that's all folks...

♥ ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Giggles and Gravity ♥

So today at college I've spent the day sketching and fixing up my desk. It's looking pretty super now, I've slowly been filling up the board with pin-up pix + the desk is covered in all my other arty farty junk like books, canvases etc etc

i've tried to be good today and not use the internet too much (aka spend too much time online procrastinating) so I turned the 'airport' off on my macbook for a bit. However... I forgot to turn off the 'push notifications' on my iPod touch so every time I got a message on facebook it made a little noise telling me. 

Plan = FAIL!

I posted an envelope full of goodies to my friend mike today since the pin board in his halls room at uni is SOOOOO empty! He probably won't be very grateful though. What a gaylord. 

Ah, speaking of gaylord's... you would NOT believe what I found today whilst flicking through a big book of 40's advertisements (awesome book, I also have the 50's and 60's editions 'All American Ads' so SO good) I turned the page and BAM! This is what I saw...

now if you can't read that properly due to the crappy quality of the picture (I took it on my phone and bluetoothed it to the macbook... aren't I clever) it's an ad for a shaving kit called... GAYLORD!

Ok, I know i'm 19 and supposed to be a grown-up but COME ON! How could I not giggle at that?!

In fact I giggled so much I sent all of my pencil crayons and sketching pencils flying everywhere. Gravity obviously hates me since they all ended up clattering to the floor and the lead is most likely broken to bits now...

stupid gravity!

the ad itself says: 

'For a King on his day! (in reference to father's day)

Give dad GAYLORD for his shaving and after shaving requirements. GAYLORD is the choice of virile, immaculate men for that fit, fresh feeling. A tingling, stimulating tang - a distinctive, masculine fragrance. In dramatic, burgundy-bright horsehead containers.

GAYLORD for good grooming'

that is EXACTLY what it says! i swear...

Anyway, i've had a great day flicking through the add books. You can see the little sketch I did this morning below. It's not great but I tried my best (+ my daft iPod kept distracting me with notifications)

it's from an old Jantzen swimsuits ad. Now i'm not much of a swimmer but my golly gosh... Jantzen just made the most adorable swimwear! It's not even funny how awesome their stuff was! And their ads were even better. These were two of my particular faves from the book. I didn't attempt to photograph them on my phone so these copies are off an awesome website (one I just adore) called Plan 59. 

Plan 59 is a fabulous site chock full of mid-century ads and works like a facebook photo gallery, so you click on the image to see the next one etc. I love it, I spent about half-an-hour flicking through the files this afternoon, so great. They don't make ads like that anymore...

Check out the site here - http://www.plan59.com/main.htm

and naturally all this though of ads got me thinking about the glorious genius that is 'Mad Men'. I shan't ramble on about it too much (today...) but if you watch the show you'll understand why looking at books filled with 40's/50's/60's advertisements would make me think of 'Mad Men'

and look... a token shot of the AWESOME cast for your viewing pleasure!

and that's it i guess. i am ruddy starving since i've barely left my desk all day + still feeling a bit off.

oh oh i almost forgot... i won a bouquet of flowers last night off a show on Manx Radio!!!

i didn't even know my mum had entered me into the draw to win them... until it was announced on the air that i'd won! 

what a super mum i have! ♥

i won them off Ashlea Tracey's Sunday night connections show. check out her super duper facebook page here - Connections with Ashlea Tracey

she said they should arrive my mid-week so i'll definitely be posting a photo of them on here when they do!

better do some work now...

so... that's all folks!

 ★ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX