Gillian Bell Illustration: Capturing your Fashion Moment!

How do you pick a present that will endure? We all want to give a gift that our best gal will treasure, but with so much choice it can be hard to know where to start.

Gillian contacted us recently and offered to illustrate a couple of our vintage dresses and we jumped at the chance. We adore art in all it’s many guises and fashion illustration is up there. Our life in vintage fashion has meant that we’ve spent a lot of time researching fashion history and have come across some of the most wonderful illustrations of dresses from the past.

Gillian’s drawings are truly beautiful and would make such a thoughtful gift for a bride, debs or even for yourself!

Fashion illustration has the ability to bring a dress to life. It has a wonderful way of showing how something might look when worn and can give a real sense of movement. We adored Gillian's interpretation of our 1950's, Priscilla of Boston, lace and tulle wedding gown.

Next up, was one of the most incredible evening dresses we have in store. A 1950's, Emma Domb, fiery red, satin evening gown with sequin flames. This ones a showstopper and Gillian's illustration highlights all it's glamorous details!  

Gillians Instagram page has many examples of her work from debutantes, brides and well known faces including the lovely Rebecca Rose who like us, hails from Monaghan and we've had the pleasure of meeting. Her outfit for the Dublin Horse Show was gorgeous and made a stunning illustration!

Gillian's work is priced from €155 (A5) to €195 (A4) for completely original, hand-drawn and framed works. 

Statement earrings - How Will You Wear Your's?

Wear them like an iconic celebrity 

 Audrey Hepburn

 Elizabeth Taylor

Grace Kelly

As the finishing touch to evening wear

Frances Howard, 1925 

Harper's Bazaar, 1955

Extra large and out of the ordinary

 Suzy Parker in the 1950's

Harpers Bazaar, 1966

With a touch of luxury with designer pieces

Elsa Schiaparelli, jewelry

Rock them like they did in the swinging 60's!

 David Webb, photo Bert Stern, 1966

 Donna Mitchell by David Montgomery, 1966

With some fancy headwear

 1950s Fashion

 Lucy Doraine, 1920s

 l’Oficiel de la Mode 1969, photo by Roland Bianchini

 Like the lady you are

 Helen Williams, 1960s

 Jean Shrimpton

Walking your dog, obvs...

1950's Fashion

With very little else!

Photo by Roland Bianchini. L´Officiel 1972

Space age 1960's!

We have a huge collection of vintage earrings in all styles for pierced and non-pierced ears. Your only difficulty will be choosing which ones to make your own!!!

Get in touch to make your appointment to peruse our jewellery collection at your leisure.

01 6111842 

hello@dirtyfabulous.com

Celebrating All things Irish!

It's easy in a world that's so connected globally to find ourselves envious of other countries, climates and lifestyles. 

Whatever your thoughts and feelings are about St. Patricks day, it does bring our heritage and all round Irishness into focus. I think it's a great time of year to celebrate what a wonderful little country we are. Not only do we live in a land of astounding natural beauty but we're a culturally rich, musical, innovate and creative group of people.

And look, we all know we're far from perfect but we can get back to correcting and improving our shortcomings after this brief period of cheerfulness and celebration.

With this in mind, lets say it together people: "Sure aren't we just great!!!"

Time to look back at some of the beautiful and important design pieces in our history:

The Aran Jumper

One half of our family hails from Donegal, and having spent a lot of my childhood there I would have had several of these as a youngster. After an interlude in my youth of thinking they were uncool, I'm now desperate to get my hands on a vintage one to wear over tea dresses and capri pants!

Image source

Marilyn Munroe in Life Magazine

 Grace Kelly wearing an aran jumper

 Julia Roberts in a cable knit jumper

Irish China

I have such an array of china that I could probably host several Mad-Hatter worthy tea parties, simultaneously! My collection has grown through gifts and charity shop raids and even though it's always random and miss-matched I do love hunting for Irish china.

I've been inspired by these images to bring out my collection for tea on St. Patricks day!

Image via Vignette Design

Image from Home Is Wear The Boat Is

 Beleek Irish China

Vintage Designers And Fabrics

Sybil Connoly is probably the most well known vintage designer we have. Her designs were hugely successful worldwide. Jackie Kennedy loved her creations as did many celebrities of the 50's and 60's.

Anne Gunning in Sybil Connolly

Advert in 1954 issue of Australian Woman's Weekly


Barbara Goalen in a woollen suit with sleeveless sling cape by Sybil Connolly,
photo by Milton Greene

 Lachasse vintage suit in fine Irish wool, 'brigand collar',

1951 photo by Don Honeyman

Irish Crochet

We couldn't write this piece without mentioning Irish lace and crochet. Our country is world renowned for producing the most intricate and beautiful lace fabrics. 

1910 era Irish crochet gown

Dirty Fabulous vintage jewels displayed on our own collection of Irish crochet

Happy Day Of Irishness!!!

Steal Her Style: Dress like Grace Kelly!

1950's pale green floral satin brocade cocktail dress

1950's faux python box bag with gold enamel clasp

1950's Weiss crystal large brooch 

A lady who needs no introduction; Grace Kelly will always be the epitome of style and the original inspiration for #STYLEGOALS!

Throughout her career Kelly's wardrobe remained classic, chic and lady like. She was never brash or bold in her clothing but was always absolutely flawless in appearance. She is one of the most revered celebrities for her natural flair for fashion in a time when style assistants hadn't been invented!

Yo can shop our Grace Kelly inspired pieces by appointment in our beautiful boutique or on Open For Vintage