It's Just Plain Sandra Dee!

I already liked Sandra Dee when I first heard of her awhile back. And why not? She's an adorable little sweet, girly blonde, and represents everything girls today strongly lack (modesty, chastity, femininity, sophistication without forgetting she's still young, something the girls and young women today would be wise to copy- dressing like a tramp and acting like one does not make you attractive or grownup!). I watched some of Gidget on Youtube yesterday and I straight up fell in love with her! If you haven't seen Gidget, I quite recommend it; her character of the same name was perfect for Sandra, and her "friends" in the movie are pretty close to how girls are today: obsessed with boys, and they think dressing in skimpy bikinis in front of guys (older guys, no less) at the beach makes them pretty darn sexy and sophisticated, but cute little Gidget of course humbly struts her stuff in a less attractive red-orange full piece, stumbles as she follows her friends while walking past the guys, and wears a HIDEOUS mask when she goes udnerwater. She, unlike her friends, is only interested in being around the guys because she wants them to teach her how to surf, not because she wants their attention to feel "hot" or because she "doesn't get along with girls". No, she was a smart, classy, womanly girl- and she's considered a tomboy?!? And a very stylish one too, I might add.

Sandra's style is the epitome of classy, clean-cut, modest 50's attire. Flats, A-line skirts, high necklines, sleeveless shirts and dresses, cropped pants, long skirts- and of course, since it's Sandra, bright colors. I love her outfits so much, the dresses especially, naturally. While of course the 50's were full of things like racism, sexism, pin-up girls (considered classy by today's low standards), and actors just as depressed, drugged-up and promiscuous as today's (let's face it, they just knew how to hide it better!), but the fashion was pretty good. I'm not talking Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe's very tight, very low-cut dresses (ew), I mean the school/fair outfits you see Sandy and the Pink Ladies wearing in Grease (ironic, since they have a whole song about making fun of modesty and virgins with Sandra's name in it), or housewifes from back then, with the styles mentioned above. So elegant but simple! And not to mention, they took their hair seriously back then. They only had the best hairstyles and colors. Most wore a lot of makeup too (but had better makeup artists than today too), but Sandra was a natural beauty, and she liked to keep her style fun, simply, and colorful- after all, she was just a kid.

Sandra liked her eyes outlined a bit darkly with bright lips. Use a dark brown eyebrow pencil to define your brows, then use a blue eye pencil to line both lids (narrow at the inside corner, wider at the outer ones), with a deep blue shadow washed over her lid, and black mascara. Since Sandra had warm coloring, she could pull off orange lipstick. If you can't due to having cool coloring (being a Summer or Winter, like me), use a rosy pink shade for Summers and a not-too-dark shade of red for Winters. Being colorful is the key, not necessarily what color you use. For hair, you needn't dye your hair a beautiful shade of golden blonde, but simply keep it loose and tousled, by either letting "the wind comb it" (as Dee herself said) or trying it with your blow dryer. If you have medium/short hair, do not part it. If it's as long as Sandra's in the first photo above, make a deep side part. (Note that in that photo, that is not always how Sandra looked. That was a young, 'fancy' pic of her. As she got older she kept it shorter and more tousled but the makeup stayed the same).

If still in doubt, try watching some of her movies or Beyond the Sea- Kate Bosworth plays her!

Farmer's Daughter Chic

Ever see the Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the 50's, State Fair? I tried watching it today. It's no Sound of Music, so it was a bit hard to get into, although the technicolor was of course great to look at. Most of the songs were just OK, but what really caught my eye was the dresses. I am a self-proclaimed dress freak, especially for old-fashioned ones such as from the 1950's. These had some great ones! Margy Frake, Jeanne Crain's role, had so many different ones, and they were all good. Modest, feminine, and almost 'edgy' for the day, with the strong (but soft) shoulders, unsually bright colors, and even fake fruit on one, but all around a bit peasant-y, Margy being a farm girl... and the other cast had good ones too. All the characters had pretty, neat hair that was popular back then when nice hair meant something and both genders made an effort to have theirs look good.

Not sure I like the bust part, but I love puffy, sheer sleeves.

The date dress. I love the vest part... the black draws attention to her slim waist and adds some elegance to her white peasant dress.

Looks almost like a Mexican-style peasant dress, and very cute and dollish.

She rather looks like Vivien Leigh too! Probably my favorite.

Does she wear this at Christmas too? I would!

Very sweet and girly. I love flowers embroided on, and you can almost never go wrong with pink. She has beautiful hair too.

It doesn't go with her brilliantly colored hair, but icy blue is gorgeous and one of my favorite colors.

So, don't be afraid to look country sometimes, for a state fair, date, picnic, school, even a party. Margy met her true love in these- and without dressing like a hooker or someone desperate for attention too (can we say Taylor Momsen? Ugh). The dresses all reflect the innocence of the women and the time period (not that the 50s were perfect, but still), the sweet simplicity of that decade, and the true femininity today's females so painfully lack often enough.