Nadinoo's Muse -The Vintage stylist/seller

When the idea of featuring a series of real life Nadinoo muses came about Rhiannon from Liebe Marlene Vintage was my natural first choice. 

This enchanting girl is the perfect Nadinoo Lula character I design for with long wavy brown hair and delicate doll like features, I can picture her in the entire AW10 collection. 

On approaching this talented lady I had the perfect dress in mind and was utterly  thrilled she picked the very same one "Lula's Fairy tale dress". It's a dream to see her in one of my very own dresses styled in a magical leafy wood.

In case you have not yet been introduced to this little lady I highly recommend her blog Liebe Marlene Vintage where you will never be short of inspiration. Featuring interviews with independent designers and sellers from around the world. Not to forget the wonderfully styled vintage outfits worn by herself and other little cuties, never failing to make my heart melt and go straight to her Etsy shop for more...

I hope you enjoy this little interview with Rhiannon and the beautiful shoot.

When did your love for vintage come about?

Honestly it was kind of accidental.  I think that the first fashion-y things I fell in love with were old Audrey Hepburn movies and the descriptions of dresses in F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, but I didn't really put two and two together, and when I first started getting into clothes and buying clothes I gravitated towards vintage just because it was affordable.  I went to college in small town Indiana where it was pretty easy to find vintage so I took it for granted until I was 25 or so, living in Minneapolis, and suddenly pretty obsessed with tracking down clothes from specific eras.

Do you have a collection of pieces that are just too good to say bye to?

I'm probably more prone to hold onto something old and not too valuable just because it has sentimental value.  I do sell a lot of things I vowed I'd never sell when I bought them . . .my tastes just change, or my bank account goes too low and I throw things in the shop.  That said I have a few things . . . There's this little beaded blouse from the '40s that I can't see myself selling, though that might be because I bought it on a family vacation in Pigeon Forge and I have such great memories from it.

Are you reading anything at the moment? 

Yes!  It's strange, but last week I was sick in bed for four days straight and didn't read a thing.  Then as soon as I got better I went to the library and picked up Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart, and I love it.  Eudora Welty is hit or miss with me.  I love her writing style, but I only really like her books and stories when they're funny and written in the first person.  This book reminds me of her story "Why I Live at the P.O.," so it's a hit.

What is your favourite thing in your wardrobe that makes you smile?

A few things!  I have a dress from Lover that I managed to buy on sale a few years back, and I always love to wear it.  I know this Nadinoo dress will be a favorite of mine--the little woodland animals on it definitely make me smile.  And also I don't know if it counts since I can't wear it anymore, but my mom just gave me a sweater my great-grandma knit for me when I was a baby--it's blue and has bunnies on it and has a matching bonnet, and it's adorable. 

Your most special place to go on a day or afternoon off?

I don't know if there's any place in particular, but I love going on day trips with my fiance, Drew.   I really like getting out of the city and into the country and seeing a completely different part of the south, where it's quiet and the buildings and streets and roads are preserved enough to give you an idea of what the area used to be like back in the day.  

What’s on your x-mas wish list this year? 

I always feel rotten asking for things.  My real Christmas list is really practical and non fashion-related (clothes for winter running, a subscription to this really good local history magazine called Georgia Backroads).  But here's a list of things I'd buy right now if someone gave me some money and forced me to spend it (impractically):

 -TBA blue velvet dress.

 -Wendy Brandes Little Woolf Necklace.

 -Aldo Black Velvet Platforms (for New Year's).

-And chocolate.

When styling your shoots do you have any particular girl or story in mind, real or fictional?

I've only styled a few shoots so I'm still learning and don't have much of a method yet, but basically I just ask the photographer (my friend Jamie Hopper) what her thoughts and plans are, and then I come up with outfits.  So far it's a lot like planning out an outfit post for my blog, and the clothes I pick for the shoots are usually stuff I'd wear myself.  I wish I could say I dreamed up whole stories around the outfits, but I don't.

If you could go back in time and live for a decade, what era would you choose? 

The 1930s for sure.  Right now I'm more interested in late 1910s, early 1920s fashion, but I just love '30s films and the toughness of the decade.  I like the way people talk in The Thin Man films and It Happened One Night, and I like the escapism of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and it all just makes sense to me so I think I'd fit inside that decade best.

What did you want to be when you were all grown up? 

When I was a kid I always thought I'd grow up and live far away in the woods in a little cabin and start writing books.  I'd have three dogs and talk to people only once in a while and be a complete hermit.

Finally, what inspiration or ideas do you have for Nadinoo? What would you like to see from us in the future?

Oh, I love what you do, so I'd say just keep what you're doing!  I can't wait to see how Nadinoo evolves.  I'm already excited to see what you have in store for spring. 

Thank you Rhiannon for being our first Nadinoo muse x x x