The “city cool” parents, as she describes them, have a 14-month-old daughter. She is a full-time nanny for a family in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. I jet out the door (don’t forget, coffee to go!) and am at work by 8:15 a.m.” “I get dressed, walk the dog and then more coffee. It is Monday morning and DiLullo’s alarm is going off. That experience is an everyday exercise for DiLullo, who builds her passion for pin-up fashion around her daily routine.
“I have seen women of all shapes, sizes, color, ages and sexual orientations enjoy the confidence-building experience of being a pin-up.” “Pin-ups celebrate the everyday girl,” Giuliano said. In Philadelphia, the pin-up scene is anchored by DiLullo’s friend, photographer Celeste Giuliano, who holds the largest ’50s-era party in Philadelphia each year, the Pin-Up Peepshow. The blog doesn’t generate any revenue, but through her own journey to becoming more self-confident, DiLullo wants to support other women who are interested in wearing pin-up clothes. Companies began to send DiLullo samples to review if she didn’t like something, she wouldn’t pitch it to her readers.
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She learned how to fit herself for vintage clothing, like petticoats and dresses, and started putting her own personal style into the clothing she modeled, attire with feminine silhouettes and sassy curves. It began as a lingerie blog but quickly morphed into something more. In 2012, she launched her blog, “Warning: Curves Ahead.” I’d say, ‘No, this is how I dress.’ Over the years, I’ve gotten way more into it.” “At first, I’d go out like this in public and people would ask if I was going to a costume party. “I ordered my first dress and never looked back,” DiLullo said. The owners and designers pride themselves on open dialogue with their customers. The company, based in Los Angeles, has nearly a million likes on Facebook. “I thought, if they can look like that, then I can too.” She discovered Pinup Girl Clothing online, made by women, for women. It really wasn’t working for me,” she said. “Five years ago I was chubby, in a bad relationship, a little bit in denial about being gay and dating a guy. However, modeling pin-up clothing wasn’t always on her radar.
More than half a century later, DiLullo, 24, is trying to resurrect the art. Pin-up drawings and paintings were mass-produced to create posters that were “pinned-up” and became popular during World War II. Popularized in the 1930s and ’40s by painter Alberto Vargas and illustrator Gil Elvgren, two of the most well-known artists in the field, this particular look portrayed women as simultaneously wholesome and sexual - the ideal of femininity in its heyday.
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Her porcelain skin completes her look, that of a pin-up girl. The thermometer reads 98 degrees with an excessive heat warning but DiLullo doesn’t seem to be affected. The pin-up model/nanny/blogger’s lips are painted a deep, soulful red.ĭiLullo’s hair is dark brown and she wears colors that seem to be plucked from a pinwheel, comfortable yellows and aggressive greens that pop from her vintage-inspired skirt, peasant top and heels. The stares come from any number of visual zingers that take the average bystander by surprise.
When Jessica DiLullo is hiking through Fairmount Park in high heels, people take notice.