site wide sale with 100% of Profits going to child rescue coalition

From March 1st to March 7th, Happy Yellow Dress is having a huge site wide SALE, and we are extremely proud to be donating 100% of profits to Child Rescue Coalition. Below is a video explaining the plight of the children being rescued, and what CRC does to help. WARNING This video is very difficult to watch, but what's worse than hearing about it, is what the poor kids have to go through actually experiencing it.

What is child rescue coalition

Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario and Paris Berelc give a n important PSA, speaking up for innocent children

Blake Lively discusses child sexual abuse and child trafficking at Variety's Power of Women event.

How it works

If you don’t want to make a purchase, but would still like to help, you can donate directly to the Child Rescue Coalition HERE or share this post on social media. We thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

SUPPORT THIS HEROIC CAUSE, THAT PROTECTS OUR CHILDREN. CLICK HERE to shop our sale, or click HERE TO DONATE TODAY!

Andrea Brooks is Red Carpet Ready in Happy Yellow Dress!

Happy Yellow Dress had the honour of dressing actress Andrea Brooks for the UBCA/ACTRA awards! She is known for her work on Super Girl, iZombie, and many more great shows and films, but you may know her best as Faith Carter in Hallmark series “When Calls the Heart”! You can check out some of her amazing work here

Andrea K Brooks o the red carpet at the UBCP/ACTRA awards in her gown by Happy yellow Dress!

This beautiful dress was made from a satin charmeuse, and features our very own Happy Yellow Dress exclusive print! And always a must with HYD is hidden side seam pockets! Deep enough to hide a phone, lipstick, keys… even a flask and pistol, if you’re into that sort of thing ;) You can find the spring version of this dress here and a green floral version here

As always, thank you for stopping by, and feel free to use coupon code HAPPY20 to save 20% off on the linked Lana dresses :)

Legally Blonde, or Legallee Blonde?

Although we sure do love us some Reese Witherspoon, we’ll take the latter this time around. Lee Taylor is a Vancouver BC based lawyer, and also the creator of Legalleeblonde.com, a blog devoted to fashion and providing content relevant to women as they work to achieve their career goal.

Most of her posts are about dressing professionally without losing your personal creative style and flair. Here is one such post where she styled our Viola M dress! Such an original and creative way to wear a wrap dress!

Lee Taylor from Legallee Blonde in the Viola M wrap dress by Happy Yellow Dress

Do you have some original ways to style your Happy Yellow Dress? what are some tricks you use to make an outfit more work appropriate? let us know in the comments, or send a picture to debbie@happyyellowdress.com, and we’ll feature you in a blog post!!

Thanks for reading friends, and in the meantime, here is a video of a cute Maine coon talking to her kittens

DIY: Custom Printed Fabric - How to Use Spoonflower

Have you ever had an idea for a dress or tote bag but couldn’t find the right fabric to satisfy your creativity? In the fashion industry, have you ever wanted to test a print before ordering hundreds of yards of fabric? Well I’ma show you how to gitter DONE and bring your designs to life!!!

This will be the first of a two part series. Part one will focus on small run printing. In a nutshell, printing small quantities on almost any kind of fabric. Part two will be geared towards those in the fashion industry. You’ll learn how to get large quantities of fabric printed for production. Rollstock screen printing is the standard for any aspiring designer. Stay tuned for that one!

I’ve been a professional designer for a long time! One of my secret weapons is Spoonflower. Outside of personal sewing or arts and crafts projects, one of the main reasons you may want to use spoonflower, is for something called sample yardages. In the fashion industry, you do all of your sales based off of samples. When using your own fabric designs, it is very difficult to find a manufacturer who is willing to print small runs of fabric for you to make your samples out of, so Spoonflower is a lifesaver in this department!

Let’s get started! First you will need to head over to Spoonflower and sign up for a free account. If you’re a full-time designer, I recommend signing up for a professional account. Your turnaround times will be shorter and you’ll have dedicated customer service.

Next, you’ll need to come up with a design to print. This could be something as simple as a photo, clipart image or scan of a leaf. If you’re a professional, use a full repeat design. I’ll talk more about graphic design in a future post.

Once uploaded, you’ll have to confirm that you own the copyright to your image:

It will take a few minutes to upload, especially if you have a larger file, but once the process is complete, your image will pop up in your design library:

From here you can play around with the fabric lengths, repeat, and size of your print to see just how it will look on your fabric. You can even print wall paper!! Watch the above video to see these options in action!

Here is my final product. I went with a beautiful chiffon, and it looks just beauteous!

Welp! That’s it! You now have a tool to help you print whatever the heck you want on the fabric of your choice. I hope you enjoyed this mini tutorial, and hope to see you next week for part 2: Rotary Screen Printing for the Fashion Industry.

If you have a question about the fashion industry you’d like answered, leave it in the comments section, and I’ll answer in a future blog/video!

Thanks for reading/watching everybody! Until next time, stay happy my happy people!!! (And if you’re sad, here’s a cat video for you :)

New Youtube Channel! Daily Vlogs and Behind the Scenes!

A day in the life of a fashion designer...

Hi Everybody! Just wanted to pop in to let you all know that Happy Yellow Dress has a Youtube Channel, where I will be trying out the Daily Vlogging format for about a week, (if I can survive heh heh). Here is the first installation.... Kiiiind of cringey, but once you get past that, there's some pretty valuable information in there:

I will also be taking your questions and making video responses! Got a question about fabric design? Wholesaling? How to start a business in general? Ask away, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you'll subscribe to the channel here

"MY CULTURE IS NOT YOUR PROM DRESS" KEZIAH DAUM AND THE QIPAO SAGA

I've written on cultural appropriation before, (You can read my thoughts on it here), so it should come as no surprise that Keziah Daum, the target of the #mycultureisnotyourgoddamnpromdress hashtag, has my full support. We recently sent her one of our full skirted cheongsam style dresses, and she was sweet enough to do a photoshoot for us! Here are some of the pictures:

Keziah Daum in our "Wanderer" cheongsam style dress, named after the song by Dion

Kudos to the photographer on another beautiful shot of Keziah during the golden hour 

More Keziah in her yellow striped modern qipao

I gotta say, the outrage over her wearing a formal dress to a formal event was ridiculous. The qipao isn't religiousm garb, it was traditionally made of cotton, or other simple fabrics, and worn loose as everyday wear. The formal version Keziah wore to her prom was the westernized version that was very popuar in the 30's... keyword: westernized. If you'd like to read more on the history of this dress, this blog has a very thorough rundown on the historic evoloution of the cheongsam.

I do have a lot more to say on this topic, but will leave that for a future post. Until then, thanks for reading, and here's another photo. Enjoy!

Keziah in the green wheat fields of Utah

Women's clothing in Kitsilano? Shop Middle Sister Boutique on West 4th!!

Attention Vancouverites! We are now pleased to announce that our line of vintage style clothing, Happy Yellow Dress, is being carried by Middle Sister Boutique located at 2137 West 4th Avenue, in beautiful Vancouver BC! 

Just a snippit of what their site has to offer!

Next time you're in Kitsilano head over to West Fourth for some retail therapy! If you head into Middle Sister, say hi to Linda, and tell her Debbie sent you :):)

A glimpse at the storefront of Middle Sister Boutique! 

Thanks for reading! Do you know of a shop that would suit our line of classic style women's clothing? Let us know in the comments section below!

Happy Yellow Dress Featured on the Flashback Summer Blog!

"Vintage lifestyle with an intercultural twist!"

One of our fave people, Emileigh Rogers of the Flashback Summer blog, has done a feature on our Wanderer dress! You can find her full post here!

Here she is! Emileigh Rogers from Flashback Summer looking gorgeous in our Wanderer dress.

Here she is in our Wander dress, named after the famous rock and roll song by Dion. You can listen to the song on our (very small and very new and very amateur) Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDruZyXqlD4

For more great shots of Emileigh in our Wanderer dress, go check out her blog! Make sure to leave her a comment and tell her Debbie sent you!! 

The Aussie Saga Continues, with Cheribomb Retro!

Cheribomb Retro, Vintage fashion for today's busy woman

We here at Happy yellow Dress are soooo excited to announce our partnership with Aussie retailer Cheribomb Retro! These guys specialise in fun, classy, sexy vintage style clothes for the curvy gal. 
 

This is their pretty logo as seen on the Cheribomb website!

Cheribomb Retro is run by a husband and wife team, who have invested time, money and professional expertise into slowly building a brand which will one day hopefully expand into bricks and mortar. They are what you would call a slow burn, but that is definitely beginning to take off. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter,

What sets Cheribomb Retro apart is that they stock high quality brands with quirk, and make an effort to get to know each brand's sizing, and how it fits. Each and every last dress, top, skirt, and accessory that is found on Cheribomb Retro has been hand picked by the owners. So who are these owners you ask? Read on...

Cheri Kerr has 20 years in digital marketing and website building and has worked on some of the biggest brands in the game such as Weight Watchers, NRMA, Telstra, Yahoo! (when they were good), Reckon. She has written two books about the internet industry and has an overriding passion for vintage clothes. (see: https://www.cheribombretro.com/cheri/from-fremantle-to-fancy-2/).

David Kerr is a retail IT veteran in the Australian fashion industry, and has spent the last decade and a half working on retail IT and operations for brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Oroton, Marcs, Aldo shoes, Morrissey and More.

Also, check this out! Cheribomb Retro offers Zip pay! Something I've never even heard of! It allows you to pay monthly for the things you want today! Pretty nifty if you ask me!

Welp! That's it for this installment. Thanks so much for reading, and feel free to leave comments or suggestions for future blog posts, or where you'd like to see Happy Yellow Dress sold!

We Have Breached the Australian Front With Ponyboy Vintage Clothing!

Stay Golden Ponyboy!

We're so happy to announce the first of our Australian partners! ponyboyvintageclothing.com In New South wales!

Now THIS is a logo!

Ponyboy Vintage specialises in "affordable vintage inspired clothing and accessories, and our belief is that clothing should be made to fit women opposed to the notion that a woman needs to fit fashion. It is our company's aim for all women to be able to express their unique selves with timeless style and confidence." ~ Serene Coleman - Director of Vintage Rockin' Rolla

The first thing you see when you enter the Ponyboy Vintage site. Vavavoom!

We're pretty excited to work with Serene, and are excited to learn that she offers afterpay, an online version of layaway. Pretty nifty if you ask us! Find them, on facebook, Instagram, and twitter

And Yours truly is front and center on their Facebook page :):)

Welp! That's it for today's post. Do YOU know of any boutiques that might like our stuff? Let me know, and if it turns into a new stockist, we'll send you a free dress of your choice! Until next time... Adios!

Contest Time with CICI Marie

"vintage inspired fashion and beauty"

We've breached the ocean and infiltrated the UK!!! Head over to Carly's blog at http://www.cici-marie.com/2017/08/outfit-rockabilly-western-win-dress.html and follow the rules there for your chance to win a Happy yellow Dress of your choice!

Here is Carly in our Rockabilly Gal dress, named after the song by Hayden Thompson and Roy Orbison! 

And the back view. Isn't Carly the best model for our dresses! So cute!

OK, that was a short and sweet post, but you get the idea ;) Head to the CiCi Marie blog for your chance to win a FREE RETRO STYLE DRESS!

Deighton Cup 2017 What to Wear?

Deighton Cup 2017

is fast approaching in Vancouver, and we will be there! Not as vendors, but as attendees! Yay!! Always a good idea to mix business with pleasure ;) This event is technically a horse race, but c'maaaan... we all know it's more about the fashion! Here are some looks that we recommend:

Matched Sets

The "Cry to Me" skirt, and "Hula Love" crop top 

The "Cry to Me" skirt, and "Hula Love" crop top can be found here: http://www.happyyellowdress.com/shop-online/cry-to-me-t75tk They are inspired by vintage and retro styles of the 40's 5o's and 60's and named after the songs by Elvis Presley, and Solomon Burke. The Top buttons up the back, which adds an extra special bit of detail for an event very much focussed on fashion. Now all we need to finish the look is a hat! We like http://hivemindmillinery.com/

Classic Vintage 

The Lana Dress, named after the Roy Orbison song, is the perfect vintage inspired look for the deighton cup

The "Lana" dress is an updated version of classic vintage, and can be found here: http://www.happyyellowdress.com/shop-online/lana-yellow-floral This midi length dress is perfect if you're going for that classy look.

 Modern Vintage

The Viola M wrap dress. 

This wrap dress can be found here: http://www.happyyellowdress.com/shop-online/viola-m It is perfect for the hot summer weather we will (hopefully) be seeing for the Deighton Cup. It is a flowy light rayon, and wraps around the waist to fit almost any body shape! It's  fashion for all at happyyellowdress.com

Well that concludes our suggested looks for the Deighton Cup! Mark it on your calendars! July 22nd at the Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver. Tickets can be purchased at http://deightoncup.com/tickets/ and make sure to buy your pretty dress before it's too late!!!

Controversial Blog Post

Hello friends, I wanted to talk about something a wee bit controversial... I've seen a lot on social media and the blogosphere in general lately, about cultural appropriation. As some of you know, my brand is named after the happiest little yellow dress that I ever designed! You can see it down here: vvv

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress in yellow, by Happy yellow Dress

I designed this dress waaaaaayyyy back in 2004. It is inspired by what I consider to be the prettiest most feminine thing in fashion, the cheongsam. I had never seen one with a full skirt before, so I created my own version out of my faaaavourite yellow striped cotton.

My Love of the Cheongsam

Growing up in a tiny town, my only escape from the humdrum existence of small town living, was through books and classic movies, such as The South Pacific and Flower Drum Song. Although I was too young at the time to understand what these movies were all about, I was fascinated by the beauty of the fashions, which I had never been exposed to before.

The Wanderer  cheongsam style dress with full skirt, by Happy Yellow Dress

The Wanderer  cheongsam style dress with full skirt in teal stripe, by Happy Yellow Dress

I fully understand how wrong it is to mock an entire group of people by diminishing their culture to a costume, but fashion is not a costume. Fashion, (and I'm talking real fashion, not fast fashion), is something that hours of time, energy, money, sweat (and sometimes even blood and tears) are poured into the creation of, so the end product can be worn with great pride.

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress with full skirt in poppy, by Happy Yellow Dress

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress with full skirt in poppy, by Happy Yellow Dress

Of course I am always open to respectful discussion on these topics, but I have seen some very positive independent companies, as well as their customers being verbally attacked to the point of physical threats by people who disagree with their mixing of cultural elements into their collections.

Since those small town days of escapism, I have gotten the chance to travel the world, and have discovered first hand, that in reality, this is all fashion is and has ever been. A gigantic mix of cultural elements from here, and cultural elements from there. From the days of the silk road, to the present Rockabilly comeback in Japan. A collar is a collar, be it the cheongsam, Peter Pan, button down, edwardian high neck etc.  and fabric is fabric, be it tartan, batik, lace, silk, denim etc. Everything has come from one culture or another, and will be recycled, shared and re-used for centuries to come.

I have seen many of these companies who've been under attack, publicly respond with a canned apology, and promise to do better... but in the cases I have seen, there really is nothing to apologize for. To dictate who can wear what based on skin colour, is completely ridiculous and wrong.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Any abusive comments will not be removed to prove a point ;)  Thanks for reading!

Chuck Berry! Say it ain't so!

First Modcloth sells out to Wal-Mart... Now THIS!?!? It is a sad day in history. Chuck Berry was and will forever be one of our all time fave musicians :( RIP Chuck Berry!

Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll Listen to these songs from the man who could play a guitar like he was ringing a bell and see if school days are same. Find out why Anthony Boy is in such a rush and see the true beauty of the Brown Eyed Handsome Men.

His face when Yoko starts screeching is the best thing you'll ever see... Enjoy!

Edith Head

If it weren't for Edith Head, Happy Yellow Dress wouldn't exist. She designed soooooo much of the gorgeous clothing worn on film by Grace Kelly, (our idol), Audrey Hepburn and the like. These old films inspired us to do what we do, bringing back that classic sophisticated, but fun retro look for everyday wear.

Edith Head wearing her trademark round glasses

Edith Head started her career as a French Teacher, and eventually, (shadily), scored a job teaching art, (while taking art classes herself, unbeknownst to her employer). This eventually led to an assistant sketch artist role, also obtained by shady means, (she used her classmate's work in her portfolio), for a designer at Paramount. She would go on to work at Paramount as lead costume designer for over 30 years, only leaving after her 43rd year to work with her good friend Alfred Hitchcock, (another of our heroes), at Universal.

Here is Edith Head collaborating with Alfred Hitchcock

Here is a sketch by Edith of our alllll time favourite dress worn by Grace Kelly in the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window". You can read more about that in our previous post here: http://www.happyyellowdress.com/new-blog/grace-kelly 

A sketch by Edith Head of her dress design for Grace Kelly's character in "Rear Window".

And here is the resulting dress as worn by Grace Kelly in the film:

Grace Kelly in the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window"

Welp! That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed reading about one of our many idols! 

Do you have an idea for a blog post? What from the bygone eras inspires you? Let us know and we'll write about it!

Espadrilles

We are obsessed with these vintage style shoes! The easiest way to make a modern summer outfit look vintage, is to throw on a pair of these babies! Shouldn't be too difficult to find a pair, because they are making a HUGE comeback right now. These were made popular in the 1940's by Lauren Bacall  in the film Key Largo.

Lauren Bacall looking all Lauren Bacall-y in her sweet espadrilles!

Espadrilles date  back to the 14th century in the Pyrenees mountain region between France and Spain, commonly known as the Basque region, (Which apparently boasts the most beautiful humans in the world). They were originally worn by both men, and women, which was also the case in the 40's/50's as you can see in the photo below. 

A shot of Grace Kelly with Carey Grant. Both wearing Espadrilles.

Although they are super popular for women right now, you mark my words: by summer 2017 the men will be wearing these things, like curly mustachios in the 2010's!!

Humphrey Bogart wearing espadrilles. I'm sure the dog would be too if it were up to him.

Grace Kelly

Today I will do something a little bit different. Rather than talking about the songs that inspire our dresses, I will talk about the people who inspire us. Grace Kelly is one of those people, cuz she's sooooooooo soooooo SOOOOOOO coooool!! (and pretty and talented and amazing).

Grace Kelly. SO pretty!!

When I was young, one of my favourite things to do, was watch old movies with my Dad. Alfred Hitchcock was our go to guy for a great scary movie! The first time I saw Grace Kelly was in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window, which is still one of my all time faves.  I was around 7 years old at the time and instantly wanted to be her. Her character was so brave and adventurous, and totally capable of keeping up with the boys! (What were you thinking L.B. Jefferies!?!?) Here's a shot from the most suspenseful part of the movie... SPOILER ALERT!!!

Grace Kelly sneaking into Lars Thorwald's apartment. 

So not only was this an amazing movie, with an amazing cast, (James Stewart plays the main squeeze, L.B. Jefferies), but the fashion is incredible!!! 

Still shot from Rear Window

Here's an outfit from the movie I tried to re-create. Apologies for the poor picture quality. My internetting skills are limited :p Thoughts?? I love the halter top! Let us know if you think it's something we should produce!! Here's the link to the rest of our instagram photos: https://instagram.com/happyyellowdress/

From our instagram https://instagram.com/happyyellowdress/

Well! That's it for this week's, (I guess month's), post! Sorry I haven't been around much, We've been busy at Happy Yellow Dress HQ working on some new top secret projects ;)

As always feel free to let us know what you think, or if you have an old song, movie, or person, (old persons are the best!), that inspires you. Maybe we'll blog about it!

You can also check out some of the songs that inspire our dresses over at our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C2qfiM2vjQ Thanks for stopping by :):):) 

Oh Carolina

This Is the song our "Oh Carolina" dress is named after! Such a good song! It was written back in 1958  by John Folkes, and performed by his Trio, The Folkes Brothers. It's about his girlfriend who was actually named Noelena. Have a listen down here vvv

Oh Carolina, by The Folkes Brothers

Early reggae doesn't get the attention it deserves. We love early reggae because it's so rock and roll!!! That's why we named a dress after this classic!! Another great song you should check out is The Israelites, by Desmond Dekker. (The 1968 version is the best)

The "Oh Carolina" dress, by Happy Yellow Dress

That's this week's post! As always, Feel free to send us any old Rock and Roll songs that inspire you, or any old obscure rock and roll songs that you think we should know about! You can send us an email,  or leave us a comment in the comments section below.  We'd love to do a post on your fave old rock and roll artists!! 

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Rock a Hula Baby

If you're like us at Happy Yellow Dress, then you can't get enough of The King, Elvis Presley. Our high waisted circle skirt is named after a song performed by him, in "Blue Hawaii". That's the "Rock-a-Hula-Baby" skirt!  Have a listen below...

"Rock-a-Hula-Baby" by Elvis Presley

This movie came out in 1961, when Elvis was at his hottest! The movie co-stars Mrs. Potts herself, a young Angela Lansbury!! So much great fashion in this movie, but you'll have to check that out for yourself ;)

The "Rock-a-Hula-Baby" skirt

Here's a lovely photo of the amazing hunk a love that is Elvis Presley:

Poster from the movie "Blue Hawaii" Starring Elvis Presley

Well that's it for this week's post! As always, Feel free to send us any old Rock and Roll songs that inspire you, or any old obscure rock and roll songs that you think we should know about! You can send us an email,  or leave us a comment in the comments section below.  We'd love to do a post on your fave old rock and roll artists!! 

Buddy knox, "Party Doll"

This is a great song. So great that we just HAD to name the "Party Doll" dress after it!! Buddy Knox is the artist. We here in Happy Yellow Dress land are HUGE Buddy Knox fans, in fact, another one of our pieces is named after another Buddy Knox song, but we'll save that for another blog post ;) 

Party Doll, by Buddy Knox. Please have a listen!

Here is the original Party Doll dress. It's the one that put us on the map ;)

Well! That's it for this post. Do you have any old Rock and Roll songs that inspire you?? Or do you know any old obscure rock and roll songs that we should know about? Let us know!!! You can send us an email,  or leave us a comment in the comments section below.  We'd love to do a post on your fave old rock and roll artists!! 

Thanks for stopping by :)

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