Musicgals: The Inspiring Style of Women in Music

It’s no secret that music inspires our lives every day, not to mention the musicians and their own personal style behind it. Women in music, past and present, are a driving force of inspiration and expression in personal style for us here at Carousel. Whats cooler than an all-girl punk band in mini-skirts singing about how powerful women are? Kathleen Hanna once said ‘I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe.’ She was talking about buying dresses right? Or did I get that one wrong, I mean, a full wardrobe of new threads seems pretty pleasurable to me.

Or what about a 50’s Jazz beauty, dressed to the nines in a gorgeous midi dress, telling us stories of her long lost love? By emulating these stunning and powerful women, we can be transported to a different era. Style is timeless, and if you wanna pop to the shops on a Sunday morning in an Ella Fitzgerald-esque 1940’s frock, then we are all for it! Style is about having fun! If metaphorical dress-induced time travel doesn’t float your boat, you can always stay right here in 2015, “Shake Off” the bad vibes, and dance to the good ones in your favourite party dress á-lá Taylor Swift. And well, that seems pretty perfect too. Just do you, girl.

That girl thinks she’s the queen of the neighbor hood, well I’ve got news for you.. SHE IS!” (Bikini Kill, Rebel Girl, 1993)

aretha franklin vintage style soul singer

Channel soul sensation Aretha Franklin with 1960’s inspired A-line dresses and sweet floral sundresses. Finish off the look with some accessories that are ‘sweeter than honey’.
(Green Claudette Dress here, Twiggy Dress here, Sunglasses here, Earrings here)

sarah vaughan jazz women in music

Emulate the effortless 1940’s femininity and grace of jazz singer extraordinaire Sarah Vaughan, but stay cool and moody and true to her jazz roots in dark, cool colors and dark cat eye shades.
(Grey Lillian dress here, Blue polka dot Ingrid dress here, Necklace here, Sunglasses here)

solange knowles singer retro style

Get colorful and daring with some bright retro styling like the eternally cool Solange Knowles.(Butterfly Betty dress here, Red Ava 1940’s dress here, 1940’s Sunglasses here, Daisy print scarf here)

Taylor Swift style pop music singer circus

Grab Taylor Swift’s perfectly pretty style in gorgeous separates. Our Olivia skirt (Which just so
happens to be the name of one of Taylor’s cats… Coincidence? I think not.) and Marlene blouse just ooze preppy-cool. Simply add a pair of Taylor’s signature wayfarer sunglasses to finish the look!
(Burgundy Olivia skirt here, Rabbit print Angie shirt here, Blue Marlene blouse here, Floral 1950’s Anita skirt here, Wayfarer sunglasses)

kathleen hanna style riot girl carousel

Steal riot grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna’s unique and rebellious style in super cool mini skirts, shift dresses, and huge glasses!
(Peach Angie blouse here, Spot Skirt here, Black Shift dress here, Sunglasses here)

Vintage Style Inspiration from Queens of the Screen!

Girls on Film – we get some vintage style inspiration from the movies!

For decades, women in film have inspired how we have dressed. The iconic ladies of the screen have an incredible way of creating characters that bring out a desire to “BE” like them. Here at carousel we definitely find some new vintage style inspiration every once in a while that influences how we want to dress. Nine times out of ten, it’s definitely dictated by a character, actress, or women in history, that we really admire.

First, lets look to fictional characters: Take “Penny Lane and the Band Aids” In Almost Famous (2000) for instance. Penny and her gal pals exude the quaint essential 70’s chick style. Too cool for school (did they even go to school?) and always effortlessly styled in loose-fitting spring time vibes. Now I’m not saying we should all copy these characters, because that wouldn’t exactly be creative now would it? Instead, how about we imagine we were part of their gang. Now that’s way more fun! (And who doesn’t love a super cool girl gang?) So grab your groovy gal pals, stick on Tiny Dancer by Elton John and blast it out on a highway while wearing these cool threads:

Almost Famous 70's style movie inspiration

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70s style vintage inspiration movies

Next up, a woman with on and off screen style: Let’s take it back to the 40’s and 50’s with the ever chic, Jean Seberg. Muse of French New-Wave director Jean-Luc Goddard, and all-roundminimal beauty. Jean encapsulates classic cool French style on film, and in her own personal style, with pastel blues, baby pinks, and adding an edgy touch to her classic feminine style with a short pixie cut. Which (be warned) you may even be tempted to try out a pixie cut  yourself if you fall for her like Goddard did.

inspiration movie style jean serberg

vintage style inspiration retro dress from Carousel

jean seberg movie style blouse carousel

And last but most definitely not least in our current girls on film loves: A woman with incredible personal style – the unfathomable Bianca Jagger. How is she even a real person? Too hot to handle, queen of the 60’s & 70’s, the ultimate risk taker. Bianca’s style was, and is not, for the faint of heart. But luckily enough, its not so hard to emulate. So get your stilettos and head scarf wrap on, and take a look at how we re-create her style.

bianca jagger vintage style inspiration collage

vintage style inspiration carousel

Vintage Valentines Style Inspiration: The Notebook

Valentines day is just around the corner and it got us thinking about our favourite romantic films. Classics like Dirty Dancing, Casablanca and Roman Holiday all made the list! All of these movies have given us some serious Valentines style inspiration as well!

Get Vintage Inspired Valentines Style!

Vintage Valentines style inspiration the notebook

The Notebook has to be one of the most romantic films of all time. Part of the appeal (apart from Ryan Gosling of course!) is the amazing 1930s and 40s outfits Rachel McAdam’s character Allie wears throughout the film. The blue dress from the poster is probably the most famous outfit from the movie, but some of the other outfits are equally gorgeous. Many of the dresses remind us of our own Ava (See them all here) and Ingrid dress (here) from Circus. They both have that easy to wear, everyday glamour that was so prevalent in 1940’s style.  What do you think? Perfect for a Valentines date!

Carousel Christmas Elves & Rita Hayworth

It’s been a whole week since we last updated you of the goings-on in Carousel. and what a week it has been!

We had a fantastic 40%-off offer on for the weekend of Black Friday to Cyber Monday. You guys grabbed the chance to get yourselves a few Winter/Spring wardrobe additions and you certainly kept our CarousElves busy! We were up to our eyes with boxes, labels, tape and Pretty Pink Paper getting your purchases out a.s.a.p.

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Rails and Rails and Rails…

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Boxes piled high!

Spring is getting closer & closer, faster and faster so we’re now finalising our Circus designs! This includes our ‘Everywoman’ Circus Rita blouse, inspired by Rita Hayworth, one of the original everywomen. It comes in a classic silhouette with 3 different print options- Bow, Floral or Bird. The magic of the Rita is that it can be formal or casual. Dress it down with jeans or dress it up tucked in to a pencil skirt.

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The Circus ‘Rita’ Blouse Inspiration Board

Until Tuesday, All the best, <3 Carousel

With Winter Weather Comes Great Fashion…

We’re really starting to feel the winter weather this week! Sure, it isn’t exactly fun to be standing at a bus stop shivering but there is one great thing about cold weather…the clothes! Knitted jumpers, creative layering, scarves in gorgeous colours & patterns, hats… we love it. We’ve seen a lot of folks putting ‘over the knee’ socks over tights, and long sleeves under shorter sleeves.

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Aisling modelling our NEW casual collection.

We’re working ‘layers’ in Carousel too. Just this week our Photographer, Lyndsey, did a photoshoot with our resident model, Aisling (above). We have a new range of casuals that were designed to be mix ‘n’ matched with each other. There are dresses, kimono tops, oversized pieces, and a whole host of other elements in the  collection.

We’re working on choosing new fabrics for the Circus Nancy skirt too. We were originally inspired by the sixties for this design. Nancy Sinatra, Daisy flowers and the colours of lomography photography were our main inspirations. As you can see from our collage, below, it’s *very* 1960’s.

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The Circus Nancy Skirt, Inspiration Board

We’ll be back here with more updates on Friday. Until then, wrap up warm!

I <3 Carousel

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Carousel Goes Crazy for Christmas !

Who doesn’t love Audrey Hepburn?

She was intelligent, graceful, charming and the epitome of class. That’s the exact reason we named the Audrey dress after her!

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The Circus Audrey Swing dress, Inspiration Board

As well as a pleated skirt we gave it two very different punchy prints to make this Vintage-inspired beauty a more contemporary look. You can get our Circus Audrey dresses here: http://bit.ly/1t8Xv9P

In other news…Carousel’s gone Christmas Mad!! Ali put our in-store decorations up and we had the fabulous team at ‘Display Is What We do/Decorate 2 Celebrate‘ in to create our AMAZING windows! We’re so chuffed with how they turned out…thanks team!

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Carousel’s Christmas Window Display!

Carousel-Circus-Vintage-Retro-Christmas-Window Display-Decoration

Carousel’s Christmas Window Display!

We’ll be back here on Monday for more news and Christmas fun…

Until then, love Carousel xoxo

The Circus Vera dress from Carousel, Ideas and Inspiration - vintage - retro - fashion -style

Circus Design & Inspiration Ideas, Vera

Wondering what the inspiration was behind the Circus Vera dress design? Well wonder no more….

Vera Ellen was a dancer starring in the likes of ‘White Christmas’ and ‘On the Town’. She danced with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly,Danny Kaye and Donald O’Connor amongst others. She was graceful, vivacious and energetic and we think that sums up the Vera dress. Featuring 2 punchy patterns, one a bird design in an autumnal colour scheme and one a more Vintage-inspired navy & brown floaral pattern. The dance influence is in the pleats of the skirt creating a great little kick…very swishable 😉

Here’s the final design & inspiration for the Vera-

The Circus Vera dress from Carousel, Design and Inspiration Ideas- vintage - retro - fashion -style

The Circus Vera dress from Carousel, Design and Inspiration Ideas

In other news our Design team have come back with loads of ideas and different fabric swatches for the next season! You helped to contribute to this process by choosing your favourite fabric patterns and colours via Twitter and Facebook. As you can see from the pictures below there are a lot of really different prints and patterns to choose from so it can be a tough job!  We really can’t wait to show you our ideas for future designs. We know you’re going to love them.

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Our Design Team hard at work Finalising Designs and Fabrics

We will be back here in a few days with more news from Carousel Headquarters. In the meantime have you checked out our videos? We’re having a bit of fun talking about our Circus designs and showing you how to style yourself up! They are a work-in-progress but we’re learning quickly. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that :D. Check them out here: Carousel on Youtube

Talk soon! Carousel, xoxo

 

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‘Circus’ Design & Inspiration Ideas, 4

Another week in Carousel and more Circus design & inspiration ideas. We have our sketches, inspired by Vintage fashion, and now we’re choosing fabric for the charming Shirley blouse.

This has a cute Peter Pan collar and a box shape so we’ve taken advantage of that by covering it in a cute print. Here’s what we’re thinking in terms of pattern and colour scheme-

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New Ideas for Shirley Blouse Spring/Summer 2015

Meanwhile we were doing a photoshoot yesterday with Betty. We’re all about brightening up the dull weather with pops of bright colour!

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Brightening up the streets outside the store!

The dress Betty is wearing here is the Circus Keyhole dress (available at http://bit.ly/1tPkXOj ) . We’ve just discovered how well this shade of blue goes with purple!!

And how cute is this bobble hat? <3

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Bobble Head Betty! click on the image for outfit details…

You can get the bobble Hat outfit details here: http://m2.ilovecarousel.com/get-the-look.html .

Enjoy your weekend! Love, Carousel. xoxo

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‘Circus’ Design & Inspiration Ideas, 3

We’ve been working away with new Circus designs & Vintage inspiration ideas. We’re so excited to hear that we have a delivery of new items coming in next week!!

It definitely reflects the direction we’re going in for Autumn/Winter 2014. Slightly darker colours that integrate well with your winter wardrobe but brightened up with cute prints like polka dots and air balloons.

Here’s three of those new dresses-

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New Circus Designs! Dots, Polka Dots, Air Balloon

We’re also choosing fabrics for the Spring/Summer Joan dress. Who doesn’t love florals and tiny polka dots? Kate Middleton certainly is, and if it’s good enough for a Duchess it’s good enough for us!

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Circus Design Inspiration: Fabric options for the Joan dress

Our window displays are becoming a thing of pride recently…Ali in the shop is our Window Display expert and she’s done a fantastic job.

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Ali getting stuck in to our newest Carousel Window Display

We’re busy little bees at Carousel HQ so check back here on Saturday for another update!

Love, Carousel xoxo

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Circus Design & Inspiration Ideas, 2

We got some more swatches in to Carousel HQ this week and we’re having fun playing around with them for our new designs.

We narrowed it down to these two fabrics for our Ava dress and we’re really excited to find out what you think of them! One is a Fan design in two tones of purple with a little orange accent. The other swatch is a graphic floral design with a red base colour…almost like a painting.

Circus-Carousel-iLoveCarousel-Vintage-Retro-Design-Dress-Ava Gardner

Circus Design Inspiration: Fabric options for the Ava dress

Click the pic to see what versions of the Ava we currently have online. In the meantime leave a comment below letting us know what you think…purple or red?

Lots of Love, Carousel xoxo