Vintage 40s ‘Wartime Chique’ look

Last week, my friend Martine, of Beleef het verleden, organized another vintage party. She specializes in organizing historic events and reenactments and knows her stuff when it comes to historic fashion. Once a year, she organizes a vintage themed 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s party, with a live band and a few extra activities. I have been to every edition so far and this time, I styled myself up in a 1940s inspired look which I dubbed ‘Wartime Chique’.

Credits: Loic Benot for Beleef het Verleden

But hold up! I didn’t just do my own make up this time. Martine asked me to be the resident MUA for this party. I am very used to doing my own make up, but doing make up on other people isn’t something I regularly or ever really do. So this was quite scary and exciting for me. I had fun doing it and who knows, maybe I’ll do it again next year!

This is the completed look. My inspiration were pictures I used to see of 1940s hairstyles of girl hanging out with soldiers and those ‘women come to work’ posters from the WWII period. I didn’t really look up any pictures per se as I had a good idea of what I wanted to do. I already owned the dress, so that was my starting point. Then I wanted to make some victory style rolls in my hair and keep my make up simple and a bit muted.

This is a better look of the dress. This dress is from Mint & Berry, which is a German brand which is sold at Zalando, where I got this. I bought this eons ago, but hardly ever wear it. The only time I ever wore it was at my dad’s birthday party and my grandma, who was in her late teens in the 1940s, loved this dress as it reminded her of something she’d worn at the time. So I knew it would be perfect. But no, this is not a vintage dress, it simply mimics that style.

For make up I get it clean and simple with some matte shadows from the Urban Decay Naked Basics 1 & 2 palettes. I used Stark (Basics 2) all over the lid, Faint (Basics 1) in my crease, Venus (Basics 1) on my brow bone and Undone (Basics 2) is what I am wearing as liner. I added a lot of brow by using some NYX brow pommade, a pencil and some eyebrow gel. I finished off the eye with a good dose of mascara.

For my base I went a tad lighter than I currently am and created a flawless finish by adding lots of powder to mattify my face. I am wearing a little bit of Coralista by Benefit for my blush, but only a hint as I didn’t want to pile it on too much. Since bronzer + highlight and the concept of a strong contour had not yet entered the mainstream I didn’t apply any of that. I went with a subtle color on the lips as well. I’m wearing an oldie but a goodie: MAC Cremesheen in Ravishing.

For the hair, I decided to try out Victory Rolls. I washed my hair the night before, which made the task a bit more cumbersome, but after adding lots of texture (dry shampoo and texturizing spray) I managed to create two rolls. One flipping backwards and one flipping forwards. I secured them with hair grips and lots of hairspray. The videos most helpful to me for creating this hair style were the following three videos: one, two, three.

Credits: Loic Benot for Beleef het Verleden.

Since my hair isn’t the longest at the moment, I couldn’t do much with the rest with my hair. That is why I pulled my hair up in a half ponytail. You can see that effect clearly in this picture which also nicely captures the atmosphere of the party. I quit doing other people’s make up around 10 PM and then hit the dance floor myself.

If you would like to see more pictures from the party, than feel free to check out the picture page on Martine’s website.

If you would like to see my other vintage inspired looks you can click on the links below:

1. 1920s Flapper girl look (video) (April 2015)
2. 1950s hair & make up (March 2014)
3. 1950s Rockabilly inspired look (June 2013)
4. 1940s Hollywood glamour inspired look (October 2012)
5. 1920s Roaring 20s look (May 2012)

Unfortunately I was unable to create a video for this look as it was too dark by the time I got started.

What do you think of my look?