Divine DeVille...

Candice DeVille is an Australian-based blogger and vintage entrepreneur. In the latest edition of Glory Days magazine, she talked to Editor, Natasha Francois, about her love for full blown colour and mid century modernism and her vintage style abode. To get the inside story on Candice's decorating style and DIY projects, order yourself a copy of the Home issue available from the Glory Days Emporium. 

Natasha had such a great time getting to know Candice she couldn't fit it all in the pages of the magazine, so here she shares a few more insights into the lady behind Vintage Current...

On blogging: It began as a means to catalogue my outfits- and how I was using the clothes in my wardrobe as a virtual database. It was a bit of a brain dump for what I was feeling at the time, I was a fairly new mother I'd been living out in the suburbs, I was terrified of becoming homogenised or being absorbed into this melting pot of suburban blah and really needed to do that to stay in touch with who I was.

On her passion for new media technology: My family were very early adopters of technology and I was the kid that would play on CB radio, my dad was an electronic engineer so he taught us to make circuit boards and how to code and all that sort of stuff. I've been online since the days of bulletin board systems when I would meet guys called Phoenix up at the milkbar. 

On the reality of global business: I regularly have Skype meetings with people all over the world. I have to keep different world clocks in my phone constantly in order to keep up.

On being a workaholic: Essentially if I'm not asleep I'm working!

On her circuitous modelling career: I did a number of different deportment courses when I first started modelling I was about 19 at that stage. I didn't do very much with the modelling at that stage for a couple of reasons, one of them was that even as a size 10-12- basically I was told that I was too fat. I had a much older face than a lot of the other girls, they put me into bridal modelling. I got quite jaded pretty quickly because I realised that the only way I was going to be able to make that a supplementary career was by losing a lot of weight. I went this is not for me, it's not the career I had in mind so I left it and I didn't go back to modelling until I was 30 (she's now a vintage and pinup model). 

On how she got good at public speaking: A lot of theatre. I did a lot of performing and public speaking even as a child, I was used to being on stage and speaking and performing ever since the first nativity play where I had to pretend to be a sheep and they stuck cotton wool on my butt and pushed me out there and then you couldn't get me off. I went to a performing arts high school and I did a lot of musical theatre and toured around Australia.

On her biggest obstacles: I'm a natural procrastinator that researches things to the nth degree so it feels like work. The other one is just overcoming a lot of things in your own mind, not comparing yourself to other people to really focus on what your own talents and goals are and not to get distracted from your own vision and path by what someone else is doing. And thirdly not letting the naysayers get your down. The internet is full of trolls and I've had my fair share of them.

On being too cheerful to be a goth: I did the goth thing when I was about 16/17 and as much as I loved it , I found it really hard even being accepted into the goth community – and I would go to goth clubs and I was told I looked great but I'm a terrible goth because I smiled too much. So I kind of got kicked out of the goth thing... because I'm too happy and I don't do elitism.

On other common misconceptions: People think you're not authentic or hiding behind a mask. I do get asked quite a lot do I ever go without makeup and well yeah of course I do, I don't have to wear it, I enjoy it. But it's not something that is so ingrained in my idenity that I can't go without it.

On how her tastes have changed: It is interesting, it's only even been of late that I've considered looking at the seventies. I guess because I was born in the '70s- I am never going to consider looking at 80s or 90s or even thinking about those being in the same room as the term vintage. The seventies is a decade that I've always grown up thinking oh yuck how could anyone have worn that! And in the last 12 months once I saw American Hustle I got completely obsessed with that whole high glam 70s Halston look. So there may be a little of that to come... 

On what home means to her: Home for me is wherever I'm at peace, wherever I'm at peace sadly seems to be wherever my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection are! So I can be just as at home staying in a backpackers or in a hotel provided I've got my red lipstick and a hairbrush, my camera, my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection I'm good. 

On her ideal weekend: A great weekend alone is stocking up on red wine and cheese and sitting there with my laptop for the whole weekend just fiddling around with new apps and building little sites or playing with things. I also have a bit of a, not an expensive hobby, a hobby – every now and again on a Friday night, sitting down with a bottle of chardonay and buying domain names! 

Candice has just announced dates for her style and glamour workshops to be held in Australia in July. Click here for all the beautiful details!


All photography supplied by Candice DeVille and Helen McLean.