Here at the thehepburnmovement I strive to show the diversity of pinup/vintage culture every chance I 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 I aim to show that with every post. I 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...
Photo by : Andrea Marulanda
I met Michelle thanks to Instagram and instantly found myself enamored by her free spirit and kind soul. Her ability to mix pinup with her "hippie" style life style is inspiring. she strives to provide representation for interracial folks, who don't feel they belong in the people of color category. She is a strong advocate for love, acceptance and kindness in the community. I'm so excited to be sharing her story with all of you today.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
Photo credit: Paper Moon shoppe
When did you get into the pin up style?
A: I’ve always been attracted to vintage style, I think it was because I grew up with oldies music thanks to my Uncle Bob and his room filled with CDs and records, I’m talking floor to ceiling, all four walls, stacked with CDs. I was singing, “Sugar pie, honey bun” and “Baby love! My baby Love!” to my baby brother when I was 4 years old. I was (and still am!) into the Motown sound, the feelings, the vibes and naturally, the look! I really think I had a past life in the 1960s-70s because even though I didn’t have much of a concept of history and fashion, I remember I loved pictures in my little golden story books and dolls that had that retro look. It wasn’t until my older sister started renting movies from or set in the 50s-70s that I really began to realize, “People back then had such great style!” and ever since I’ve been choosing clothes based off that attraction.
I also grew up watching old TV shows like I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show. Again, I can’t exactly tell you why, but I loved the style in all of those shows. That’s what I leaned to when choosing my clothes whether I was aware of it or not!
The specific “pin up” style is a little bit of a new thing, just maybe 3 years ago. My friend Miss Miriam was a huge gate opener to the pin up style. I was always more into the hippie/mod/disco fashion of the 60s and 70s. When I saw Miriam post outfit ideas and hauls, I was like, “Hey! That’s super cute! I want to wear that! I CAN wear that!” I guess because the 1940s-50s pin up style is SO elegant and classy, I figured it’s too “fancy” for every day, but honestly 1. WHO CARES 2. There are ways to dress pin up yet keep the look casual.
Photo by : Andrea Marulanda
Who is your biggest style inspiration?
A: This is so hard to only choose one, Like I said, my early life was filled with influence from a different time, so I must give credit to girl groups of the 60s i.e. Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Shangrilas, The Marvelettes, The Crystals, The Chiffons, The Bobettes as well as other songstresses like Cher, Lesley Gore, Petula Clark, Skeeter Davis and Karen Carpenter.
The color pallettes and artwork from album covers from The Beach Boys and The Beatles inspire me too! Movie star wise, of course Marilyn and Audrey. The first time I saw Audrey Hepburn it was either Sabrina or Roman Holiday and I just remember her beauty hit me like a slap in the face: I had never seen someone so beautiful. Nine-year-old Michelle had hearts in her eyes and thought, “That. Is. The. Most. Beautiful. Girl. That. Ever. Existed.” She messed me up for years!
My boyfriend recently introduced me to Sandra Dee. He’s been collecting Sandra Dee memorabilia for decades. His favorite Sandra Dee movie is the 1959 teen surf movie Gidget. I want all the clothes she wore in that movie! Movies I grew up on that had all around great fashion inspiration include Now and Then, The Babysitters Club, Almost Famous, The Brady Bunch movies from the 90s, My Girl, Clueless and Never Been Kissed.Other groovy chicks in that time that I’ve obsessed over for more than their fashion choices are Twiggy, Edie Sedgwick and Susanne Farrell.
The color pallettes and artwork from album covers from The Beach Boys and The Beatles inspire me too! Movie star wise, of course Marilyn and Audrey. The first time I saw Audrey Hepburn it was either Sabrina or Roman Holiday and I just remember her beauty hit me like a slap in the face: I had never seen someone so beautiful. Nine-year-old Michelle had hearts in her eyes and thought, “That. Is. The. Most. Beautiful. Girl. That. Ever. Existed.” She messed me up for years!
My boyfriend recently introduced me to Sandra Dee. He’s been collecting Sandra Dee memorabilia for decades. His favorite Sandra Dee movie is the 1959 teen surf movie Gidget. I want all the clothes she wore in that movie! Movies I grew up on that had all around great fashion inspiration include Now and Then, The Babysitters Club, Almost Famous, The Brady Bunch movies from the 90s, My Girl, Clueless and Never Been Kissed.Other groovy chicks in that time that I’ve obsessed over for more than their fashion choices are Twiggy, Edie Sedgwick and Susanne Farrell.
My favorite TV show growing up was Sabrina The Teenage Witch, not only because it was a cool premise or that it cracked me up, but I was obsessed with everyone’s clothes! Sabrina of course had the best outfits, but even her aunts and friends, especially Libby. The episode where Sabrina goes back to the 60s blew my little 7 year old mind. I was not the same after seeing that vibe and style.
Photo credit: Dance Photography Workshop
How does it feel to be a minority in the pin up community?
A: I don’t know how to place myself, as a minority in the pin up community or in real life! Even though I’m what Dwight Schrute calls, “Some kind of halfsie,” I honestly don’t feel one way or another, or even half of two different ethnicities. My mom was born in El Salvador and came to the US as a foreign exchange student. My dad is white, or to be a little more specific, mostly British, Irish, French and German. My Great Grandmother came to the US from Germany, but I never met her.
So, I grew up in a mixed-race family. My grandma from El Salvador took care of us until I was 8, so I ate tamales, platanos and pupusas. I was extremely privileged to go to school with such diverse classmates and live in an area with all kinds of people and life styles. Maybe it was because people never knew what ethnicity I was, maybe because my last name is Williams, I can’t remember feeling any kind of discrimination as far as race.
That whole combination helped me from the start, just to treat people as people. Yeah, this person is different than me, but who cares?! If anything, my favorite people have always been the ones that don’t blend in, in whatever that means! I think different is cool, you can learn so much from someone who is different from you.
My favorite Disney movie since I was 5 years old is Pocahontas and the song “Colors of The Wind” STILL gets me choked up. “You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you, but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew, you never knew.”
That whole combination helped me from the start, just to treat people as people. Yeah, this person is different than me, but who cares?! If anything, my favorite people have always been the ones that don’t blend in, in whatever that means! I think different is cool, you can learn so much from someone who is different from you.
My favorite Disney movie since I was 5 years old is Pocahontas and the song “Colors of The Wind” STILL gets me choked up. “You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you, but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew, you never knew.”
We are all just people. We may look different, sound different, smell different, think different, move different, write different, but at the end of the day, our body, our chemistry, or nature, is THE SAME. We are one. We are all connected. We are not separate entities. That is something I really try to promote, and I’d like to help people realize. I encourage everyone to think differently than the status quo and realize we’re all brothers and sisters, from the same parents, Earth and Heaven, and universal love, unconditional love will set us free.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
I hope you enjoyed learning about Michelle as much as I did, she is such a delightfully inspiring person. She strives to share such a positive and accepting message and I'm so excited to start the year off with her. If you aren't following her already you definitely should, you definitely won't regret it! I'm so excited to continue sharing this series this year, I hope that you reading this realize that you are not alone. Minorities in every shape and form belong just as much as anybody else in the vintage / pinup community,its something I want to stress with every post. I hope you see yourself reflected through one of these lovely folks and if you don't see the representation yet please let me know. I want to feature everyone I can and accurately represent folks from everywhere!
If you have any comments, questions or even suggestions on what you'd like to see me do next, feel free to comment below and I'll do my 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 xx aka "thehepburnmovement"
No comments