How amazing is our Vintage Queen number 128? The beautiful Ane looks like a Twenties film starlet!
“My real name is Ane, but I perform burlesque with the name Pepper Sparkles. I am originally from an area between Spain and France called The Basque Country, where subcultures are very rare, so my first contact with vintage as a style was when I moved to Finland and discovered burlesque.
Nevertheless, back then I barely knew anything about how the different decades looked like and it wasn’t until I met my better half, Lassi, that I really had the chance to explore and discover the shapes, cuts and motives that make each decade unique.
Lassi is the president of the Finnish association for vintage lovers www.fintage.netand he dresses up in Twenties and Thirties clothes everyday, so I guess it wasn’t a big surprise that I ended up sharing his passion for the Golden Era, Jugenstil and Art Deco. My very favourite periods are the Edwardian period, the Twenties and the Thirties, but considering I’m 5’11″ finding clothes from that period that would fit me is a real treasure hunt!
The Edwardian era specially suits me since I seem to have been shaped after the Gibson girls, and often clothes that are meant to be worn with a corset fit me like a glove without actually needing the corset! I have some real treasures from this period, including a pair of wedding boots, a gorgeous woolen suit with Jugendstil details and a pair of women’s cycling bloomers!
The Twenties are specially challenging for my figure because of how curvy I am, but I’m lucky enough to own a pair of real flapper dresses that actually fit me. One of the things that I most love about the Twenties is the fingerwave hairstyle though, and I also find most of my inspiration for my hair and makeup from exotic dancers and actresses from that era: Jobyna Ralston, Ruth St. Denis, Mata Hari, Louis Brooks, Clara Bow, and a long list of nameless pictures of beauties I stumble upon while browsing the net.
The Thirties are still also rather challenging since women used to have rather small hips at that time, but their mastery of the bias cut makes it so that I can often also fit into some beauties from this era. One thing I’m lucky about is that my feet are rather small for my height (approx US size 5 1/2) and extremely narrow, which makes it a bit easier to fit into shoes from this era.
I find most of my clothes/shoes/accessories from Finnish fleamarkets and/or fellow vintage lovers and eBay/Etsy, but because of my height I often also need to make my own clothes, for which I try to use vintage materials (for example buttons/buckles) whenever possible.
My burlesque costumes have also started to be influenced by this eras, and thus my last two acts have featured Mata Hari and a silent movie crossdresser!
images: picture with the gramophone by Mats Õun, picture with the fox stole by Atelieri O. Haapala, and other pictures by Marissa Tammisalo
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