Vintage Bridal Hair Accessories

and Jewellery

The trend for vintage and retro style weddings seems set to continue into 2011 and there are many styles and designs of vintage bridal hair accessories and vintage jewellery available to compliment vintage style dresses.

There is one important thing to be aware of when buying 'vintage' . There are two distinct types - genuine vintage bridal hair accessories and vintage style bridal hair accessories. A genuine vintage hair accessory uses one or more pieces of found or old pieces of jewellery and vintage style uses all new components giving a vintage look to the headpiece. Each supplier should make it clear as to which they are selling but if you are unsure you should check before buying.

Here are some retro and vintage bridal hair accessories and vintage bridal jewellery ideas for 5 decades from the 1920's through to the 1960's

1920's Bridal Style - Flapper Fashion

Long, opera length, necklaces and circle forehead headbands sometimes with feathers set to one side became popular jewellery accessories as the fashion moved towards the flapper style of the late 1920's

1930's Bridal Style - Thirties Glamour

Costume jewellery came into its own in the 1930's and the choker was popular for special occasions.Small hats were worn, decorated with feathers or flowers and worn at an angle with the hair short and close to the head, often with gentle 'finger waves' at the hairline.

1940's Bridal Style - The War Years.

During the war and with rationing in place, accessories were relatively affordable and so were important such as tall flowery hats. Women's hair styles were long, with waves and rolls on top of the head.  A common bridal hair accessory was a home made headband made from laddered silk stockings plaited together and dyed in a colour to match the bridal bouquet. Our necklace shown below was inspired by a Miriam Haskell design and is an example of bridal jewellery which would suit a 1940's theme.

1950's Bridal Style - Rock and Roll and Hollywood Pin-ups

Two styles ran side by side in the fifites, the glamour style and the rock and roll style. Rock and roll style of vintage bridal hair accessories would be ribbon bows in a high pony tail hair styles .A glamour style would have been a large brimmed saucer shaped hat or something chic like a birdcage veil or a small pill box hat worn with short cropped hair set in curls. Special occasion jewellery often featured silver hearts.

1960's Bridal Style - The Swinging Sixties and Flower Power

The circle headband made a come-back in the sixties and flowers were used widely  as hair decorations. The flower was seen a symbol of peace and love by the sixties hippies. Today's forehead headbands which circle the head are ideal to wear as vintage bridal hair accessories for a 60's or  early 70's style wedding. Hair was usually worn long with a middle parting and the fringe of the early sixties disappeared by the late sixties. Bead chokers were very popular jewellery items.

Whatever period of vintage wedding you are planning we can help here at Beady Eyes Designs by researching and creating bespoke vintage bridal hair accessories and vintage bridal jewellery to complete your theme, just get in touch!