We here at the thehepburnmovement strive to show the diversity of pinup/vintage culture every chance we get, to show that ANYONE and everyone can be a pinup regardless of your age, sexual orientation or race. That despite the lack of representation in the media, we exist and are here to inspire others to step out into the spotlight. People from all kinds of nationalities and identities make up this community and we aim to show that with every post. We want to highlight the wide variety of pinup/vintage loving people because they come from all walks of life, and deserve to be seen. This weeks pinup is...
NORA
Nora is someone we have admired from afar for much longer than we'd care to admit (simply because we're her number 1 fans, this is an indisputable fact). She is so incredibly inspiring, kind, motivational and incredibly down to earth. She isn't afraid to speak her mind, or be herself two things that we strive to do ourselves. She advocates for ALL people's rights whether they be women, POC, part of the LGBTQ+ or even a combination of these things. Being long time fans, getting the courage to ask her to be apart of this series took a bit of time, but we are so thankful we finally did. Her story is a true testament, to the incredible woman she is and we feel honored to share her story with all of you today.
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When did you get into the pinup/ vintage life style?
Honestly I’m not sure I’m that much into the life style. I wouldn’t call my interest a life style as I enjoy vintage as a fashion genre but I love my modern gadgets and very modern job as a neuroscientist. I can’t imagine living without the modern technology and the privileges and rights I have now as a woman and a POC! I got into vintage fashion about 8 years ago when I lived in Australia and I started going into second hand shops because I was trying to figure out my own style. Growing up I didn’t really know how to dress myself and didn’t really have that much interest. I was repeatedly told that it was more important to be smart than to be beautiful - something I took to heart as an advice that I need to focus on my education because I wasn’t beautiful! Anyway in my early 20s I realised that I wasn’t comfortable wearing modern clothes like my friends and I decided that I needed to try a few different styles and explore. In second hand shops I realised that there are so many beautiful vintage clothes that I have always loved as a child but was too scared to wear! I was lucky that my husband (my boyfriend at the time) was supportive of me exploring different styles and was supportive enough to help me document my outfits and my fashion mistakes. I started by wearing 1980s-does-1950s clothes and slowly went to older decades and pretty much settled at 1930s-1950s fashion. I don’t really consider myself as a pin up as I think there’s a cheekiness to the pin up style that I do not possess and for me I prefer the more day-to-day vintage style. Even though I am now known as a vintage girl I still wonder if I will ever stop wearing vintage as I am aware that my style might develop and change as I get older.
It feels great actually. I never really realised that I was one of the few WOC in the community when I first started blogging 6 years ago and it wasn’t until a reader pointed out that she follows my blog for that specific reason. I guess I always thought it was annoying that I couldn’t find vintage photographs of Asian ladies wearing the kind of clothes I wanted to wear but I knew that it can be historically and culturally explained (I researched about it here: https://tmblr.co/ZNkcHx1l9DIWd). I’ve always thought that diversity is a problem in fashion and social media so I am glad to be representing the WOC with my looks. I don’t believe that the vintage community is discriminatory, but I think it’s important for me to say (especially in the current situation) that history needs to be respected but not preserved without any evaluation. We know that there are so many flaws and mistakes the human race has made throughout history and I sure hope that just because I wear vintage clothes people do not assume that I want to live in the 1950s (I wrote about it here: http://www.norafinds.com/post/127392226790/why-i-wouldnt-live-in-the-1950s).
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We hope you enjoyed this weeks edition of "Any one can be a pinup" Nora's story is one we feel many of us in this community to relate to. Proof that you don't have to ascribe to a certain style or label to belong. That being yourself is more than enough and in doing so you inspire others everyday to do the same. Thats what Nora does for us and after reading her story, we hope you feel a little inspired as well to be yourself, theres no one better!
If you have any comments,questions or even suggestions on who you'd like us to feature next, feel free to comment below and we'll do our best to reply in a timely manner.
As always thanks for reading, may your days be filled with pretty dresses, dapper clothes & a lot of happiness.
Paola & Kyra xx
Aka "thehepburnmovement"
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