Portraits of Past Lives

self portrait of Rachel dressed in vintage clothes

When you find that you have acquired fun vintage attire and jewelry, courtesy of your late grandmother and great aunt, you naturally play dress up, and take self-portraits. …No? Not exactly normal? Yeah, I didn’t figure it was. But this is a day in the life of a creative soul. I got inspired by all the blingy costume jewelry and swanky apparel, and thus spent the better part of a day tearing up my house to transform it into a studio – making an unholy mess in the process. But I created the images I had in mind, cleaned up the disaster zone, and called it a total win.

Remember that flashy necklace I mentioned a while back, that was a regift from my Great Aunt Marie, some 20 years ago? Well, it turns out it’s a kind of special costume jewelry that people even collect. Who knew?! I’m not sure I’ll ever part with it, but I thought it would be kinda cool to commemorate it with a photo. It definitely makes for a great portrait accessory.

self portrait of Rachel dressed in her grandmother's vintage clothes

While that image was just for fun, this other one I’ve been envisioning for some time. In honor of my late grandmother, I dressed up in her hat, fur, and pearls to take a special-to-me kind of self-portrait. While I viewed these items as fantastic costume pieces, my grandmother actually wore these at some time or another for various occasions, or maybe even just for the heck of it. I find this both fascinating and fun. (Read this previous post to learn more about my fancy and fabulous grandma.)

In all, I felt it was a successful session. I did my best to stay true to the vintage theme, I made meaningful art, and my family never even knew I had the house torn apart, haha.

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Here are some takeaways that I gleaned from this photo shoot…

I’m glad I don’t have to dress like this every day.
When googling hairstyles for this session, I discovered that this type of hat is called a “birdcage fascinator.” How fun is that?!?!
Birdcage fascinators are best worn with glasses because they poke you in the eyes.
Lipstick – particularly red lipstick – is not at all easy to apply, and neither are fake eyelashes. I struggled terribly with both.
I have no idea how to style my hair on a normal day, much less for a vintage styled photo shoot. Lucky for me, I found a low bun sort of “hack” on Pinterest.
Fur coats feel icky.
And especially… Dressed in my grandmother’s belongings, I marveled at all she witnessed through her 101-year lifetime. And I couldn’t help thinking about women’s rights while taking these photographs, because this style was most popular around the 1930s and 1940s – when women couldn’t even have a bank account, along with many other things we now take for granted. I am exceedingly thankful for all the progress we have made through the years, and look forward to, what I hope, is a continued brighter future for all women.

🙂