This is a post that is probably going to take me a few days to get through but I think it’s an important one to write about because it shines a light on how I got to where I am now when it comes to fashion/makeup/hair. (This actually took me a few weeks to write lol)

The earliest time I can remember learning about the Pin Up world was around 2004 when I discovered Burlesque model/dancer, Dita Von Teese.

I became obsessed with her. I thought she was so gorgeous. I loved how in her down time she always looked perfect. Her hair was always perfectly curled, her makeup was always on point and she always had on red lipstick, her nails were a signature dark red colour and they were never chipped, and she was ALWAYS dressed up beautifully. She mostly wore dresses and never wore jeans. Even when grocery shopping!

#7011821 Exclusive…Cointreau spokeswoman and artistic director of Cointreau Prive and iconic burlesque performer Dita Von Teese gets her grocery shopping done in Los Angeles, CA on March 20, 2011. Despite it being pouring rain outside Dita managed to look her best in her signature “Wheels & Dolls Baby Dita Rose” cardigan that she designed herself. Fame Pictures, Inc – Santa Monica, CA, USA – +1 (310) 395-0500

At the time, I was 23 years old and in College for Journalism Media. My clothing style was nothing like Dita’s even though I loved what she wore. At the time, online shopping wasn’t really a huge thing like it is now and I had no idea where I would even find clothes like hers. I mostly wore jeans and band T-shirts and I probably only had a few dresses in my wardrobe.

I don’t really remember having any other interest in pin-up girls or clothing in the few years to follow. I worked at Bluenotes and Le Chateau so my clothing choices were based on those stores. When I started working at Le Chateau, my love of fashion really started. I started looking at more expensive and better quality items and really started caring about looking nice. I started adding a lot more skirts and dresses to my wardrobe at that time because I was surrounded by them. I also started wearing more heels and I was building a really nice professional/dressy collection of clothing.

Then 2009 hit and I discovered Modcloth. I remember how small and new the site was and how limited the clothing was but I loved so many of the clothes. I remember thinking how awesome and different the clothes were and how no one else I knew dressed in the clothes on the site. On May 13th 2009, I made my first Modcloth purchase:

With having never purchased clothing online before, I was very unsure of sizing and how things looked on my body so I was bound to have some things not work. The second dress was returned immediately because it was super short. The first dress made me so sad because I loved it so much but it ran super small. I kept it in my closet hoping it would fit until about 3 years ago when I finally gave it away. The last 3 items I purchased were perfect and I still have a wear all three. Shipping wasn’t cheap though so I didn’t make another Modcloth purchase until Oct. 26 of that year and I bought 3 items:

The first dress I eventually gave away because it just didn’t work with my body and the second dress ended up being turned into a skirt because the top looked horrible on me. I still have and love the winter coat though. After this purchase, the shipping became cheaper so I started buying more consistently. I still had a few misses for a while but I started understanding what clothes worked best with my body and then Modcloth started getting a lot better with sizing their products and people started being able to leave reviews, which greatly helped with picking the correct sizes. Between 2009 and the end of 2013 I made 21 orders through Modcloth. I also really loved clothing from Pinup Girl Clothing and Unique Vintage but I couldn’t stomach paying the huge shipping fees. I was still mostly purchasing my clothing from stores like Le Chateau, H&M, and Suzy Shier. My Final order of 2013 really started to show where my style was heading and really started my true obsession with online shopping and retro style:

This is probably one of my favourite articles of clothing I have in my wardrobe. (I got it for 50% off too!)

2014 definitely saw my style changing a lot more. I started to buy more dresses and they became a huge staple in my wardrobe. I spent almost every day of my honeymoon in Vancouver in a dress! Speaking of my honeymoon, I can’t do this post without mentioning my gangster themed wedding! My ideas of what I wanted to look like on my wedding day changed greatly over the last 20 years. I went from wanting to look like a princess in a poofy dress to wanting to look like a vintage Hollywood actress/pin up. I definitely knew I wanted pin up makeup and I wanted a birdcage instead of a veil. I think I mixed my love of modern style with my love of vintage style perfectly.

And of course we definitely had to have the guys wear fedoras and have guns if they were going to be gangsters! lol

After our wedding, I quickly got pregnant which put a damper on my style. I gained 70 pounds during my pregnancy so I wore a lot of leggings and long sweaters. Pretty dresses went out the window during my pregnancy but not my love of mod/vintage/pinup clothing. After I had my son, I spent 6 months in pjs and yoga pants and no makeup. During that time, I daydreamed about the days where I would be able to fit into my old clothes again. I started playing more with makeup and started building my wardrobe again with “goal” dresses…dresses that would push me to lose the weight. At the time I was still getting a lot of basic pieces and not really getting too many clothes with fun prints or full skirts because that’s more of what I was used to and liked.

My transformation into pinup girl wannabe didn’t actually start until a few months later in December 2015, just a year ago. I remember being on the Modcloth facebook pages looking at the visitor posts section and I saw a post about another Modcloth board called Modcloth BST (buy/sell/trade). I decided to join it to see if I could get some great deals. From there I eventually started joining other BST groups: Emily and Fin, Bernie Dexter, Trashy Diva, and Pin Up Girl Clothing, as well as a few other Modcloth sales pages. These pages were a huge influence on me because, not only was I able to buy cute clothes for less, each community also is open to members showcasing their outfits. This definitely started opening up my eyes to the fact that other girls were dressing the way that I’ve always wanted to dress. This also opened me up other clothing brands and different styles that I may had not considered before. I started finding myself getting really interested in novelty prints and large circle skirts the more I watched these facebook pages. I also started to feel like these new shapes and styles work much so much better with my post baby body. I do miss pencil skirts, wiggle dresses, and pants, but I’ll be able to wear them again soon enough!

And as if I didn’t need any more fashion inspiration, in the last few months I started following blogs by lovely ladies, whose wardrobes really spoke to me because they embodied the vision I had for how I wanted to look. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, my two main blog inspirations are Southern (California) Belle

and June Bugs and Georgia Peaches

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I watch these two blogs on the daily and I’m always so in love with most of the outfits they wear! I love it when they wear items I already own and swoon with envy when they wear items I want but can’t afford.

I think for anyone who doesn’t know me very well or doesn’t see me often, the best way to show how much my style has changed in the last year is to go through my Instagram feed @magicpie33. I think it’s very obvious how the styles, shapes, and colours of my clothes have changed. Not just my clothes but my makeup style and even my glasses have changed to help me achieve the pin up look I’ve yearned to have for so long. I knew I kind of “made it” into the pin up catagory when a girl at work came up to me and said “You’re like a pin up girl. Is that the look you’re going for?” I was like YUP!

Throughout the last year, I went through mostly just getting clothes from Modcloth to also being obsessed with Bernie Dexter, Emily and Fin, Unique Vintage, Pin Up Girl Clothing, and Trashy Diva among so many others. (Though I still don’t buy from these stores directly just because their shipping to Canada is horrendous, except Emily and Fin, which isn’t the worst). I’ve been able to expand my wardrobe with pieces that I love and make me happy. And they make me feel young and beautiful!

So that’s basically how I have reached the point that I’m at now with fashion. It was like this little hope and dream I had long ago but didn’t know how to achieve, but now that the styles I love are easier to find thanks to the internet, I can play the wanna-be pin up every day!

And of course, I can’t end this blog post without outfits. I haven’t posted in months but I have still been taking outfit photos. So here are a few from the last few months.