#badgirlcrush - Solanah
This month we had a chance to sit down with the stunning Solanah from Washington state. Solanah is an avid vintage enthusiast, she shares her love of 50's silhouettes, her favourite style icon of the 50's, the perfect everyday pink lipstick and her favourite vintage shops!
Q: Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?
Q: We love your style, is there a particular era you like to reference, or do you prefer to mix elements from different decades together?
A: I enjoy the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, but find styles from the 1950’s to be easiest to wear day to day. My favorite go to uniform is a tight tee and a full skirt, somewhat a mix of mid-century and modern.
Q: Where did your passion for the mid century era begin?
A: I think it’s more of gravitating towards those styles because they fit me best and, and the silhouette is classic, either in a full dress, or cigarette pants. With the right hairstyle and makeup, you can make an outfit look more vintage, or modern, and I love that about it.
Q: Do you have any advice for Bad Girls who are starting to collect vintage items? What should we look out for, and what should we avoid!
A: I think knowing that owning vintage is a bit different than modern is important. It constantly needs care, even if you just bought it! Seams can be mended, buttons sewn, and stains diminished, but watch out for fabric deteriorating, or colors that have run.
Q: Are there any vintage shops in Washington our readers should visit?
A: There’s a lot of vintage shops to visit in Portland, my essential shopping destinations are Wanderlust, Living Threads, Simply Vintage, Xtabay, just to name a few!
Q: Which three pieces in your vintage collection are your most prized possessions? (if you can pick three!)
A: A beautiful princess cut mink coat my grandma gave me for my birthday, a black framed makeup case that once belonged to a morticians wife, and a carved bakelite bangle I found in the small town where my great grandma grew up.
Q: If you could raid any Hollywood starlet’s wardrobe, who would it be and what pieces would you have your eye on?
A: Oh I adore Brigitte Bardot’s wardrobe, both onscreen and off. She was this ideal mix of pin-up girl and carefree spirit. Brigitte could be wearing a designer dress to a poker game, or picking up a striped shirt at a street market on vacation, and she always managed to be sexy and effortless.
I’ve always loved her little abstract floral bikini, full skirt black dress, and oversized striped shirt with cigarette pants. The looks can be copied, but will always belong to her!
Q: With a pout to rival Marilyn’s, can you tell us your favourite lip products for that perfect bombshell pout?
A: That is too sweet! Well I don’t wear red very often, but I do love Chanel in Gabrielle, and Maybelline’s Dynamite Red. My go-to color is Portrait Pink by Besame, it’s an absolute dream, and I imagine Miss Bardot wearing it through the 50’s and 60’s.
Q: If you could describe your style in three words, what would they be?
A: I was once described as “ wayward fairytale princess” and ever since then I’ve gone with that. A bit fantasy, some disney princess, and good splash of bad girl.
Q: We can see you once were blonde, now tell us did you have more fun?!
A: Oh so much fun! Blond hair makes it so much easier to show off curls and rolls, and really gives new life to clothes I’d only worn when I was brunette. But my hair grows very fast and is naturally dark, so upkeep was a little crazy. I adore my new color though, it’s a bit darker than my natural color, and has a red undertone, a color I have yet to try!
Q: If you could pick one, who would your Ultimate Bad Girl be and why?
A: Oh my grandma. She’s lived quite the life, growing up in California in the 1940’s/50’s. She has stories of auditioning for game shows with her girlfriends, working at diner back when they were all the rage, stealing police cars (“I didn’t know how to drive but I figured it couldn't be hard.”), and taking up smoking just so handsome men would light her cigarettes. She still gets things done better than anyone (“I’ll write them a letter”) and feigns tripping if there’s a handsome man nearby with thighs to steady her. It’s the stories we don’t know that I’m sure are the best!
Q: What do you love about The Original Bad Girl?
A: The wearability! I don’t really wear blouses, and you can’t wear sweaters year round, so when I discovered The Original Bad Girl, I just fell in love. The styles and quality and ideal, and the cuts are perfect for wearing over slacks, or tucked into a skirt. They’re so easy to throw on and wear, but make a great impact, and that’s really what I’ve always wanted!
Q: What are your goals for the rest of the year?
A: I’d like to get better at doing my hair in vintage styles, there are so many tutorials now, it just takes practice! I’d also like to finish this biography I’m reading on Alice Roosevelt, probably the first bad girl of the 20th century, and start learning a second language, most likely spanish.
