Hello there!

Aloha mai kākou!

I suppose it's best to first introduce oneself. My name is Milan and I'm a Hawaiian girl born and raised on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi who has transplanted herself all the way on the other side of the world in Malmö, Sweden. I do miss home (and I highly expect to be putting up photos that will further my homesickness), but I really enjoy living in Sweden and having the opportunity to travel in Europe. It is an interesting challenge to learn a new language and create a life in an entirely different place than where you've grown up. I've been living in Sweden on and off for a total of about four years.

I decided to keep a blog so that I could have a place to collect and share my interests and thoughts, particularly around my love of vintage. For as long as I can remember I have always loved old stuff. Anything! Homes, furniture, jewelry, kitchen stuff, you name it! If it was beautiful and old, I was sold! Perhaps it started with spending childhood summers in my great-grandparents' home in Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi. It's a charming 1920's Hawaiian plantation style home that was and continues to be a total time warp! When I was little I would take bubble baths in the jade, pink, and black art deco bathroom. As a preteen I spent lazy mornings on Kauaʻi digging through closets in the house, looking at my great-uncle's 1950's college yearbooks, admiring the hair and outfits of all the students. I thought the styles then were just great! 

When I was a teenager, I found a beautiful dress of my grandma's that was hidden away in her closet. It was a sleeveless turquoise dress with a white bubble pattern and white piping and bows on the bodice. It fit me perfectly and I just loved how I felt in the dress! But since nobody wore dresses like that anymore, I thought that the only chance I had to wear it was for Halloween. And to be sure, people thought it was a costume. A beautiful dress indeed, but quite obviously not "normal" clothes. I would have loved to have more dresses like that, but I thought that surely beautiful clothes like that just couldn't be found anymore. I started collecting 60's - 70's psychedelic / aloha shirts and 1960's airline bags. My mother thought I was nuts!

I moved back to Sweden three years ago to live here, not just stay for a year as I had done before as a grad student. Generally speaking, i think finding vintage is a bit more accessible here than in Hawaiʻi. That was when I realised that it was actually much easier than I thought to find beautiful vintage dresses. I now prefer to wear 1950's - early 60's clothes as the small waists and full skirts fit my curvy shape much better than many of the straight styles available today. About two years ago I began collecting more and more vintage clothing and I haven't looked back. The retro craziness continued when I moved into an early 50's apartment (funkis style, for those of you into Scandinavian design) that is in need of a little renovation and is an ongoing process. Anyway, I'm so excited to have a place to collect and share my love (and never-ending hunt) for all things vintage. Welcome to my blog!