Retro Photo Session with Shipr

My aunt gave me a wonderful birthday present - a photo session with the retro studio "ШИПР" (Pronounced shipr). These guys are amazing. It's a studio in Moscow where they take pictures using equipment from the early 20th century.

There is no photoshopping involved. Instead, you have a very old camera and a makeshift dark room. They develop the photos right in front of you, in dishes full of chemicals. You can also see them at festivals doing street photography and you can hire them to do events.

Source

My sister took the pictures of the process. I had two outfits, one that was more 1950s and the other a very 1940s look.

Outfit notes:

Dress - Olivia Rogue 

Gloves - thrifted 

Shoes - Miss L Fire
Stockings - H&M

Outfit notes:
Blouse - Collectif
Trousers - Indiska, from a few years ago
Shoes - Keds

The photo record of the process by Maria K.

The results were delightful! I feel just like an actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

 

Visiting the French Gardens at Kuskovo

My sister and I have been making the rounds of all the manors around Moscow for the past couple of years. This year we decided to visit Kuskovo, a little green paradise in eastern Moscow. One of its main attractions is the only French formal garden left in Moscow.

The French garden at Kuskovo

A formal French garden is characterized by symmetry and order; it's nature brought under human control. This type of garden was particularly popular in the 17th century. In the 18th century the English landscape garden emerged which is all about the picturesque and creating the illusion of wild, untamed nature.              

French garden on the left, all order. English garden on the right, all wilderness. Source

Well, you get the picture.

Kuskovo was the summer estate of the very wealthy and powerful Sheremetev family. They owned large chunks of land around Moscow (their name may be familiar to you from the Sheremetyevo Airport, where they owned a village and its inhabitants), owned a large number of people and were patrons of the arts and theater. I very much recommend reading about them - TV shows like the White Queen will look pretty tame in comparison to their lives.

Kuskovo manor and church, view from the pond 

Apart from the palace, which is just a very large manor house beautifully decorated, the park has a grotto, a hermitage, the Dutch house, the Italian house, the Swiss house, the menageries for the waterfowl, the remnants of a summer theater, and two orangeries.  

The Grotto

The Italian house

The orangery 

The hermitage

After a tour of the park, it is essential to take a little rest in the shade with a good book.

Barely visible roof of the Swiss house

The Dutch house in the background

There was also an English landscape garden, wild and romantic.
 

And some semi-wild cats everywhere.

After getting enough fresh air and sunshine, we decided to take a turn around the manor house.

The dinning room

The tiled oven in the reception room, typical of Russian interior design of this period  

The reception room

The dancing room

While we were there, we got to see the French Elegance exhibition. Different rooms of the manor housed a collection of dresses and outfits, recreations of the the French 18th century fashions.

My favorite gown was in the dinning room.

 More outfits from the dinning room.

A beautiful formal gown from the reception room.

I found this replica of the famous Madame de Pompadour dress delightful.

Some less formal fashions and wigs from the dressing room.

And finally, in the last room of the manor house there was a small exhibition of shell art from the grotto. The grotto is undergoing some restoration work, so they moved some of the pieces from there into the main house. I did not know that you can make such beautiful art with shells. Now I do!

   
Well, that's all from the beautiful Kuskovo. Until next time!

Outfit notes:
Dress - originally Lindex, thrifted
Wrap - KappAhl
Belt - thrifted
Bag - borrowed from Mom
Hat - farmers market in Porvoo
Shoes - Keds from Shooz

All images by my sister Maria K. 

Moscow Goes Vintage - Flea Market at the Museum of Moscow History

I'm back after a long summer break with some fun pics to share with you. As always, I spent part of the summer in Moscow and had the pleasure of attending a couple really great events.

One of them was the Flea Market at the Museum of History of Moscow (unfortunately their page is only in Russian, so I'm linking to their wiki). Moscow doesn't seem to be as big on vintage and second hand as, say, Helsinki, but it's clearly getting there. It was very crowded.

My sister's friends have a vintage photo studio ШИПР (pronounced 'shipr') and they often attend events like this one with their old-timey camera.

And they don't just take your picture, you can also get to see how it's developed. Hint, it involves dipping the photo paper into many different liquids.    

But the results are quite stunning. 

I have to say, I love the look and feel of the photo. Unfortunately,the camera is very sensitive to movement. The slight blur on our skirts is a tiniest gust of wind. 

Since I got all dressed up just to take this photo, I will do the obligatory outfit run-down. (Every other blogger is  doing it, so I want to do it, too)   

  

Dress: '90s masquerading as '40s 

Shoes: borrowed from my grandma

Earrings & necklace: '60s vintage (a gift from my grandma)

My partner in this photo is a lovely statue of an early 20th century flaneur. The gentleman is very sharp dresser and quite clearly out and about to see and be seen. I feel like we make a very good pair.  

There were a lot of lovely dresses at the market, but I couldn't find anything that would really be my style (nothing within my price range, at least). But I did find a few things: 

 

A book on household management from 1958 proved to be a treasure trove of recipes, dress patterns and useful advice about cleaning fabrics, embroidering and gardening. I tried a recipe for beef stroganoff and love, love, LOVED  it!     

My other find was this cute little box of cake mascara, probably from the 1960s. I really want to start collecting vintage make-up and this is the first item for my collection. 

I got so inspired by my exposure to all this Soviet vintage, I felt I wanted one more thing. So I got a bottle of Moscou Rouge (aka Krasnaya Moskva) perfume. I am so in love with its scent. It very, very strong and so it has to be dealt out with a lot of care, but it has a strange otherworldly mystique to it. It reminds me of something past and half-forgotten. If you like vintage scents, I can't recommend it enough.             

Moscow Treasures: Arkhangelskoye Estate

Arkhangelskoye is a beautiful estate located about 30 min away from Moscow. It was originally built by
Galitzines in 1703 and was later purchased by the Yusupov family, who owned it from 1810 up until the Revolution of 1917. The grounds are really gorgeous and are somewhat reminiscent of Versailles. In front of the palace is a regular park with neo-classical statues sprinkled here and there. The park leads to a sanitarium built in 1930, and down the slope from it there is a lovely prospect on the Moscow river and more extensive park grounds.

It's very unfortunate that the palace and most of the buildings there are in a dreadful state of disrepair. The palace is undergoing renovations and there are only three small rooms open to the public. The grounds, however, are divine and very peaceful. As we went on a weekday, there was hardly anyone there, and we could stroll among the shrubs and sculptures undisturbed by shrieking children or bustling tourists.

The Grand Palace of Arkhangelskoye

One of the main rooms in palace. Most of it is closed for restoration.  

Arkhangelskoye gardens

The Colonnade, the tomb of the Yusupov family. No one is actually buried in the tomb. Today it's used for performances and exhibitions.    

The Moscow river

Catherine II monument 

The church of Archangel Michael. This church gave the name to the estate. "Arkhangelskoye" means "Archangel's".   

That's me in front of the Small Palace known as "Caprice". 

It's definitely a great place to visit. You can check out their site here (sorry, only in Russian).