Style Scenario: Film Noir Murder Mystery Party

This week's Style Scenario takes us to a Film Noir party! Here's your guide to both his and her outfits which are sure to crack the case without even smudging your lipstick.

For Her:

The perfect Femme Fatale should be outfitted in a beautiful gown. This 1930's bias-cut silk velvet gown is highlighted with beautiful rhinestone dress clips. Dresses like this were designed to show the sultry curves of a woman's body. Don't have a vintage 1930's gown? Go for a dark colored long gown and don't skimp on the costume jewelry. The more glitz the better!

Top off your outfit with gorgeous pearl or rhinestone earrings, vintage fur wrap, sparkly heels, and of course an embellished cigarette case!

For Him:

Think Dana Andrews in Laura! A doubled breasted pinstripe suit with a stetson hat tipped to the side brings out his inner detective! During this period, suit lapels became extra large as a way of making men's shoulders appear extra broad, so be certain to match the width of the tie appropriately!

Lastly, men used to accessorize almost as much as women! Accompany his ensemble with a pocket square, scarf, collar bar, and a smart dame!

Now as with any Film Noir party, be sure to accompany your outfit with a great cocktail, some red lipstick, and a great detective alias!

Salut!

The Vintage Chanteuse

Thirsty Thursday: The Gin and Sin

Hi Vintage-istas! This week's cocktail is the Gin and Sin, a fabulously sweet and sinful cocktail from the roaring twenties! This Prohibition Era Cocktail was our drink of choice for our murder mystery party this past weekend and we think you will enjoy it just as much as we did.

Admittedly, the number of components to this delicious cocktail numbers greater than you will find in your average Vintage Chanteuse cocktail, but the effort will be worth it!

Let's take a look at the ingredients:

• 1.5 oz gin
• 1 oz lemon juice
• .5 oz orange juice
• .5 oz simple syrup
• Splash of grenadine
• Mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Before we look at this drink's instructions, its important to make sure you prepare your simple syrup first if you haven't any pre-made. In a small sauce pan, combine 1 cup of granulated sugar with 1 cup boiling water, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Then, remove pan from heat and allow to reduce into a syrup and cool.

Then you can proceed with the preparation:

In a cocktail shaker, combine all ingredients over ice and shake until ice crystals form around exterior of shaker. (You can see here, we chose to mix up a slightly larger batch to accommodate our party guests). Next, strain mix into cocktail glass, over ice if you wish, and garnish with a sprig of mint leaves.

Accompaniment:
Keeping with the murder mystery film noir theme, we recommend "Le jazz du Chambrioleur" from the French film Une vie de chat. Composed by living French composer Serge Besset. While not from the actual period, you will find this song has the perfect film noir feel to get you in the mood!

Salut!

The Vintage Chanteuse

Deadly Ever After

Hello Vintage-istas!

A day after our 3 day road trip from Connecticut to Nebraska, Yesterday's Lady hosted a murder mystery engagement party for my fiancé and me.  It was AMAZING! Here's a little sneak peak of our "Deadly Ever After" party.  The party was located in the Historic Schmuck Building in downtown Beatrice, NE.  We had a fairytale themed murder mystery game from host-party.com, which we gave a vintage feel by creating film noir costumes, retro cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, playing crime jazz softly in the background, and of course a dark and stormy evening to top off the ambiance. 

The dinner party was in three courses: Noshes (hors d'oeuvres), Dinner, and Dessert.  After each course, another clue was revealed to the guests.  We named each dish to appropriately fit our guests' characters. 

We decorated each table with vintage Nancy Drew Mystery books, vintage-inspired lamps, and black and white table cloths to tie the Film Noir theme together. 

When hosting guests, we ALWAYS use china plates, crystal glassware, and cloth napkins. It's an attention to the details that makes the guests feel special and pampered. We try to always use vintage tableware (even if they don't match!).

Our hors d'oeuvres were nestled amongst a vintage suitcase, candelabra, and a phone with a reference to Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. 

We carefully planned each round of clues, with an announcement by our host Sherlock Holmes (my fiancé) and each clue was created to look like an old typewriter with Film Noir font. We supplied our guests with detective notebooks and pencils that we created using name tag labels and our pencils were engraved with Sherlock Holmes quotes such as "Sniff out the facts."

At the end of the evening, our guests were sent home with gift bags filled with dark roast coffee, dark chocolate biscotti, bookmarks, and literary love quote coffee mugs (which we made ourselves). Oh, and did I mention the evening was capped off with a ghost tour of the haunted Schmuck Building?!

The evening was a huge success. So much so we will be planning a Murder Mystery Party, open to the public in October. If you have ever considered attending a Murder Mystery Party, the historic Schmuck Building is a PERFECT place for a little murder...

Salut!

The Vintage Chanteuse

Weekly Playlist: Film Noir

Hello Vintage-istas!

We've been busy this weekend hosting a film noir themed murder mystery party. It was a huge success! In fact, so much so we will be hosting a public murder mystery party in the Historic Schmuck Building in October! And really, what better place to host a murder mystery than in a haunted building! I will be posting information in September about buying tickets and the party's mystery theme. So to whet your whistle a bit here's a little film noir music we used to create an ambiance on Saturday night!

Now for our feature...

It was a dark and stormy night. The street lamps were casting gloomy shadows on the wet pavement. It had been a rough night and my weary eyes followed the moonlight which seemed to light the way to Harry's bar on the corner. When suddenly from behind a female voice grew from the shadows "May I have a light?"

Salut!

The Vintage Chanteuse