Pinups, pageants and rivals

Leading up to the pageant that took place over the weekend, I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos on perfecting the pinup look/walk/hair/everything. The one thing that I noticed was that a lot of the girls warned against bitchy Pinups.

I honestly can’t relate to this at all.

This past weekend was pretty amazing and I got to spend it with some pretty amazing women. From zipping each other up (and then unzipping each other again – you wouldn’t understand) to supporting our competition (yes, we cheered our competition on), it was an amazing display of why we do this. Why we call it a sisterhood and why we don’t care what you think about how we look, because how we behave is by far the most important part of being a Pinup.

Yes, yes. We all have our hiccups, but when it boils down to it there is a colourful group of South African gals who primp and preen themselves on the reg. Pinup gals who I consider to be my favourite people!

There are few people who could truly understand and appreciate what goes into living a pinup lifestyle. Fewer still understand that there is so much more to being a “pinup girl” than hair and makeup (although, that does play a pretty obviously large role in this sub-culture).

Being part of the Pinup community is something else entirely, especially in South Africa. We have a small group of gals who have taken being a pinup girl and rolled with every single aspect of it. From the hair and makeup through to being an amazing human who does their fair share of charity too.

As my regular readers will know, I entered the pageant at the Dusty Rebels and the Bombshells Rockabilly Festival over the weekend. Standing alongside 12 babes in their Sunday best, sassy pants on and lashes for days.

Six of those babes I know  on a personal level and absolutely adore, and I was cheering for them all. We all stood up there with our curled, hair sprayed-to-death do’s and a tummy full of butterflies. We checked each other’s teeth for lippie, we smiled our brightest, laughed the loudest and let our sauciness shine.

We did it as a group of friends.

My favourite part was how many Pinups made their glorious debut on the day. Pinups like Miss Lollipop, Gingerbomb and so many more! It honestly warms my heart to see so many beautiful women take charge of their lives through pinup, but that is a gush for another post.

What was up for grabs?

The prizes were phenomenal too! How the organizers manage to find such amazing sponsors each time is astounding to me.

• From tattoo vouchers sponsored by Paul Collocott tattooist,
• A photoshoot courtesy of Kitty Bee Photography,
• Accessories from Lady Flamingo Boutique and Violet Vanilla
• Clothing from Pinn’d Up Clothing and Levi’s vouchers.
• There was also a lingerie voucher from Angels Lace and
• amazing M.A.C. goodies,and if that wasn’t enough, AnonaMiss was there with bounties for the lovelies too!
• Lest we forget the adorable handcrafted lovelies from Chaos and Candy.

The to-die-for Ginger von Snapp walked away with the title of Dusty Darling, while Madam Mab von Vixen looked like a gothabilly dream when she won her title of Best Dressed Betty.

As for me? Well, I’m off to Cape Town in November as an official finalist for the Miss Bombshell Betty pageant for 2016 and I brought Bettie Flash back to life to celebrate the occasion.

A massive thank you goes out to the amazing organizers of both the event and the pageant. It was magnificent and we all felt totally at ease on the day! To the gorgeous Blue Haired Betty, thank you for being such a calming force around a bevvy of anxious Betty’s. You made everything so unbelievably easy for us all.

All photos are courtesy of the amazing Marianne Brits-Strodl 

Follow along to see my pin up adventures on Facebook too!

Xoxo