LADY WARRINGTON'S GUIDE TO BLITZ FASHION!

So I thought I would help out some of you who are less informed in the area of 1940s and blitz fashion, as I have had a lot of questions on what one should wear for my party. Let me start by saying it doesn't have to cost the earth, as some people have been worried about. It doesn't have to be authentic either. It can just be the look of it. So here are my suggestions:

* Tea dresses for the ladies are great. These have been back in fashion recently so some of you might have one in your wardrobe. Primark and Topshop have been doing loads of them. Team it with some simple heels or court shoes, a cardigan and some red rogue. The film The Edge of Loveis a good reference for this look.



* Land girls are a really simple look and easy to put together. All you need are some wellingtons, Dungarees or trousers, put with a bad taste granny jumper or blouse. To finish off the look, knot a scarf round your head.

The most important thing to get right with the 1940s is the hair. This can make or break the look. They seem very complicated but with a little practice its not as hard to master as you think. The most popular style was the Victory Roll and putting a hair net on.


Here is a great little video from you tube that tells you how to do a victory roll in under 5 minutes. watch and learn ladies.

* Stockings were very important and sexy but during the war due to rations drawing a line in eye liner and browing your legs with gravy granules was the only way and now due to the credit crunch, its probably is still a good option.

* The fashion was all about the Shoulders. The bigger the better. Skirts and dresses were either pencil or trapeze. The tons of fabric used for the wide skirts of the New Look came later. A good place to hunt out 1940s dresses are Camden Market, especially the Stables, This shop Rocks on Brick Lane and Vivien's of Holloway who do great little 40's dresses starting from £49. 294 Holloway Road, London N7 6NJ
tel: 020 7609 8754



* Ok. Now to the men. Don't think I forgot about you! Suits were the main staple of the day. Most of them a lot looser fitting than todays. Team with a waist coat or bad knit tank top, with a slim fit tie. Finish off with a Trilby. God I love a man in a Trilby!



*Uniform was the most important outfit of the Blitz. I also love a man in uniform, but they were just as importnat for a woman as well. The best place to get them from is Soul Ja in the Stables at Camden market. They have 2 stores there and are good prices. There is also Silvermans in Bow, which are quite good.Silvermans Ltd,
2 Harford Street,
MIle End,
London E1 4PS
Tel 0207 790 0900
Or there is Squadron HQ
121 Kentish Town Road, London, NW1 8PB, UK Phone +44 207 485 2442






So now there is no excuse! Actually it would be wonderful if you just turn up. I'll leave with a few more ideas. x

I LOVE VIVIEN

Exciting news. Vivien's of Holloway, one of my favourite clothes shops has just opened their new shop. Still on the Holloway road but a lot more glamorous and I bet a lot warmer than their place above the garage. It was very cold when you wanted to use the changing rooms. Now I'm back from Italy I can't wait to get down there. Check it out, especially any of you coming to my blitz party as they do great 1940's dresses.

VENICE

Ah! Venice. The final stop on my Grand tour and what a place to finish. Many of the worlds greatest writers and poets from Byron to Hemingway have tried to put Venice into words but it is an impossible task, so I'm not even going to attempt it! It has to be seen to be believed. There is really no place like it on earth. Totally unique! Every street is a perfect postcard; every canal a perfect painting. You can spend hours walking the small alleys ways that become the maze that the city is and the saying is true: You never find your way back to the same place the same way.
Bec's and Deb's joined us in Venice and now with Ruth we became five, though I should say five ladies of leisure. All we did was wander all day, shop, eat and drink. We did find time to go on a gondola which has to be done in Venice, though I did nearly throw up again with back motion sickness, on that thing. Thank God I didn't as I don't think Venice would seem so scenic if you were stood on a bridge and see some northern girl chucking over the side of a gondola as it floats by you!
It being our last night out, we all got our glad rags on and went out for dinner on Saturday. This involved us drinking and eating to much; getting molested by the old Italian guy at the table next to us, who told me I had a nice pair of eyes, but was looking at my breast (They have grown due to all the pasta. Yes!); going to a bar and meeting some Italian guys who wanted to take us to a party; us telling them we would be back in 5 minutes after we walked Ruth home; us getting very lost and taking 45 minutes Oops!; us thinking sod it and going to another bar; us meeting some other Italian guys, one hot (None English speaking!), one not hot (English speaking! Why does that always happen!); us being asked out the next day to go out on a boat with them; us thinking about it; us making a sharp exit and us ignoring their phone calls the next day! Oh! and us with a big hangover as well. So a good night out!
We spent our last day sat on the beach in the Venice Lido catching our last rays (the tan has faded big time since Tropea!) Then we went to the famous Harry's bar for a Bellini, at the place of its invention! We did feel slightly out of place as the bar was filled with the rich of the rich who don't even look a the prices and then there is us going "Oh my God! Look how much it costs, maybe we should peg it now!" We decided to stay and break our bank balances and were like naughty school children being very loud and silly in the corner of the room much to the dismayed looks from the social elite, as if to say "Who let the Riff Raff in!" We didn't care though!
So my Grand tour has finished. Have I found the answers to life while I have been here? No! Have I hell, because there are no answers. What I have done is eaten and drank a lot, laughed, had a great time with great friends, seen the most amazing things and fallen in love with a country. Italy: Ti amo. xxx

VERONA

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Well I have been asking that question most of my life, but apparently he is in Verona, which was the next stop on my trip. The decision to go Verona was a last minute one as, as it was not part of my original plan, but I couldn't bear the thought of staying another day with cabin fever in the rainy hills of Tuscany. So I tagged along with Romany Liz who was going to meet her friend, an actress called Ruth there. Its was so the right decision. Verona is probably the most beautiful place I have been to in Italy and most importantly the sun was shining once again. Unfortunately I had to sleep on a hard floor in the B&B as I had turned up unannounced and there were no spare beds, but I guess it was better than sleeping on the floor. Thinking about it, it was a lot more comfortable than sleeping on the deck of that boat for 5 days in Indonesia as well, as at least there were no cockroaches and I was not damp, 24/7! So really, if I think about it, compared to most of my travelling experiences it was like sleeping in the Savoy! Anyway back to Verona! We spent most of our time just wandering the streets and marvelling at the beautiful buildings and beautiful people as Verona was full of them. It was also dripping in money: Lots of it! We did find Juliet's balcony and courtyard which was dripping in tourists! All of them trying to rub the statue of Juliet's breast (Yes I did it!) and then writing cheesy love messages all over the walls. Sadly there was no sign of my Romeo, only a big red neck Aussie stood next to me who who kind of ruined the setting a bit by shouting to his friend, "Mate this is a big pile of shit! Lets go and get a beer!" Not exactly Shakespeare!

TUSCANY: WHY DOES IT ALWAYS RAIN ON ME!

What do you get if you combine a red head hippy, a Romany who lives in Chelsea, a blunt cockney, a northern who drinks too much, staying in a cottage in the middle of no where, driving around Tuscany in the smallest car on earth? Well you get a very interesting week?
We arrived from Florence late on Saturday after 2 hours stuck on the motorway (Yes other countries do have traffic jams!) and then got lost on the country roads. We are staying in a little Hamlet called Montefinali, which is miles from anywhere. It was built in the 13th century but was restored a couple of years ago into plush cottages. The place is really amazing and has a great pool and lots of places to walk, unfortunately it has none nothing but rain since we have been here, much to the dismay of Deb’s who now believes that she is cursed with the weather and holidays due to her last couple of vacations being total wash outs. So really all we have been doing is sitting around wrapped in blankets like OAP’s, getting drunk on lots of wine and eating like pigs. There is not much else you can do. I do believe we might have to book into weight watchers and the Priory after this! We have managed to venture out on a few occasions, when it has stopped raining, in our box like Fiant Panda, which we have named Fifi. The girls didn’t seem too impressed with the car when we picked it up, as we could hardly fit the luggage and ourselves into it, but as I explained it was very cheap and it did move, just quite slowly. On the first night we managed to go to a local village Sant Gusme which was having a fiesta (this was after getting lost quite a lot and me getting bad car sickness again!). I think I like Italian fiestas as it basically means going around and trying out all the local wines and getting drunk. We are staying in the Chianti region of Tuscany, which is famed for its red wine. So its quality wine we are getting drunk on, which makes a change. After eating another amazing meal we then sat in the field and watched the best fire work display I have ever seen.
Today we battled with the weather again, trying to do a BBQ in the pissing rain, which was quite fun considering none of us between us have ever lit one before! It made us feel really good and a bit like men with a penis extension. Who needs men! In fact we haven’t left the cottage today apart from to get wine so we can get more drunk! I have decided to jump ship a bit early though, with Romany Liz and head to Verona and then to Venice as I’m getting a bit of cabin fever stuck in the middle of nowhere with this weather. If I stay around any longer I will turn into an alcoholic tramp, as I am already starting to look like one! Besides I like to go to Verona as I have heard if you rub the breast of the statue of Juliet you are meant to find true love. I hope that true or I will end up looking like some big fetish statue lesbian!



OBSERVATIONS

• It seems I have picked up yet another nick name to go along with, Griff, Grifftak, Carlsberg, Carlita Bonnita, Carlos, Stella McCarly, Young Twat, barky, Bon Bon, Long legs and Fight Club! Yes the girls have started to call me Johnny Rotten apparently because of my Rock n Roll lifestyle. Its funny, I shouldn’t, but I actually like it!

• I have learnt to put things to rest. What’s done is done, there is nothing you can say, and even though there are so many words you still have left in my head. They are pointless and must be forgotten for I am doing nothing but banging my head against a wall. It wasn’t my fault; there is nothing I could have done differently, as it wouldn’t have been me, then. I have no regrets. I am stronger from it. It is now over and dead. Lay it to rest.

FLORENCE: A ROOM WITH A VIEW?

A Room with a View is one of my favourite films. It made me fall in love with the idea of Florence and since I watched it all those years ago its been in top list of "Must do!" things for a long time time. Its funny though, how life is not like the movies! I must try, to keep remembering that. OK, on our a budget we were never going to have a view over the Duomo ( The famous Cathedral for you thick people!), but I was expecting a view of some sort, as all that faced me and Romany Liz when we arrived at our guesthouse was a white piece of perspex instead of a window and when you slid that to the side you were faced by another piece of white perspex! Not ideal and also as much as I love Romany she is no Julian sands. Luckily we got moved to a bigger apartment downstairs (ready for the arrival of the girls), which did have a view. Unfortunately it was of an ugly concrete courtyard which smelt of drains. So my romantic vision of my trip to Florence wasn't exactly how I had pictured it in my mind but Florence is still a beautiful city all the same. It does have a slight problem though: to many bloody tourists! I know I'm being a hypocrite being one myself, but honestly there everywhere, in fact it feels like there are hardly any Italians here. The main contingent being the Americans who are just everywhere, to the point that I think I got on the wrong train from Rome and ended up in the states! Then there are the sour face Germans who seem not quite satisfied with seeing some of the most amazing works of art in the world; the Japanese who seem incapable of not going round in a huge tour group like a herd of sheep; the crazy and loud Spanish and so I don't seem bias towards my race, a few English old couples scoffing around thinking their superior and more cultured than the rest. Actually I think the English got off quite well this time, as it makes a change to us getting drunk, starting a fight and shagging anything in sight.
Anna left me and Liz in Rome to go home and work, which was sad and also meant that she left two of the most immature and silly girls on the planet alone without no adult supervision! Luckily we had a spare hard peach left over from our food supply, which we have named Anna and have taken around with us, and shown all the sights too, so it kind of feels like Anna is still with us. Luckily Bec's and Debs have now joined us, but considering we are all just as silly as each other I don't think this helps. Bec's joined in the afternoon and Deb's joined after midnight and we all went out for a celebratory drink, of the girls being back together. All was going very well until Romany Liz went a funny shade of green and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head with her shaking and she then collapsed to the floor in a bar in the middle of Piazza Della Signoria. It was all very scary and we all kind of just stood there in shock while a load of Italians flooded around helping. Liz came round and then immediately started to throw up every where. Later, as I walked back from the toilet where I had left Bec's with Liz who would be there for the next half an hour throwing up her guts with the worse case of food poisoning I have ever seen in my life, I saw Debs sat at the table trying to take in everything that had happened after only just getting here. The only thing I could think to say was "Well! Welcome to Italy!" Let hope this is not the start of how it means to go on! So not room with a view! Also so you know Liz made a full recovery.





OBSERVATIONS

* Italian men pluck their eyebrows a lot and I think there is some chest waxing and under arm shaving going on too.

* Oasis are really big in Italy. I think its because they like their Alpha male ways and make the italian men feel its OK to have big eyebrows, so one day they might stop plucking them!