The Story of How I Fell in Love With Vintage Style

Our tale today stretches to a good few years back, and it is of true love. The type that strikes suddenly, like a bolt of lightning and makes your hair stand up, tickling your arm and neck at the single thought of it. But how did it happen? Unexpectedly.

In a certain period of our lives, we are all searching for ourselves. Following some wild hair colour changes in my teens, I went to university and subsequently became mostly preoccupied with my studies. I had friends and tried to go out sometimes, but it was an unfortunate time when a new wave of techno music swept away all else. I did not fancy a single music style ever, but I felt this one was not for me. Which made me feel quite lonely and misplaced. There were no venues to go to, no concerts to listen to or tunes to hum. The craze was fresh and wild; it hit quick and hard.

One evening, somewhere in the middle of all the despair, I started chatting with an old school friend of mine. As we were exchanging messages, he sent me a doo-wop song. When I heard the first few sounds, the rhythm and the melody, I felt complete. Electrified. A piece of puzzle fell into place, and I was sitting there frozen, staring at the screen as if unable to intake all the joy.

I suppose you might imagine how much I kept asking him that night to continue sending more tunes similar to the one I heard...As it turned out to my surprise, he was an absolute expert on music of past decades as he himself shared the passion. Our love for the songs and each other grew quick and strong.

One night not so much after, I was browsing and reading online, and Andy was selecting and playing music. That's when I came across the beautiful Marianne and her blog called Esme and the Laneway. She was wearing an astounding rose print dress, and that was when the second lightning bolt struck. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place. I remember exclaiming and pointing: "That's my style!" Andy smiled; so it was and has been ever since.

Looking back, I found traces of the style in my past actions and choices, but it was not all so evident to me, not a complete picture.

As to how the story ends? Andy and I continue our passionate life and love for the music in our home we purchased together. And the dress? It came to me all the way from Australia, the very same one the lovely Marianne was wearing in that first photo I saw. The photos below were taken in our home.