- Since she was a little girl, Rochelle Anvik has had a passion for all things retro, including ’50’s fashion, home interiors and even cars
- After throwing a 50s-themed wedding, Rochelle and her husband went on to renovate their home to look like it was straight out of a 1950s film
- Now, she’s made a full-time career out of buying and selling vintage wares
Here, she tells her story in her own words:
Hitching up my petticoat, I danced around the lounge room with my mum, Kathy, now 66, to ‘Dream Lover’ by Bobby Darin.
I was 10 years old and, while most kids my age were listening to Beyoncé or Amy Winehouse, I much preferred Buddy Holly and The Crickets.
Mum and my dad, Mike, now 67, grew up in the 1960s but loved ’50s icons.
My grandpa Dwayne was a journalist, and he’d take Mum with him when he interviewed Hollywood stars. Over the years she collected autographed photos of Elvis Presley, band leader Lawrence Welk, and actresses Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.
Growing up, Mum developed a penchant for shopping in vintage and antique stores and, when I came along, she took me with her. Her mini-me, I loved it too. When I was six, I spent all my pocket money, $30, in a vintage store on a Victorian child’s dress from the early 1900s.
It was the prettiest frock I’d ever seen and it fitted me like a glove. I had to have it.
In my teens I always preferred the old rather than new, and especially loved the fluffy and flouncy look of ’50s fashion.
But my time warp taste was not trending with my peers, and I toned down my fashion choices.
It wasn’t until 2015, when I’d finished school and was working as a ballet dancer, aged 19, and started dating store worker Matt, that I let my back-in-time taste blossom.
Meeting at a singles group, my heart soared when Matt, then 23, asked me out and took me to a ’50s-themed dance.
‘You love the ’50s era too?’ I asked, impressed.
‘I’m a big fan of the music,’ he admitted, as we jived the night away and swayed to Frank Sinatra.
Matt was my rockabilly Romeo and just three months later we were married.
Wearing full 50’s fashion pin-up attire, with my hair perfectly coiffed, we drove off into the sunset in my 1955 baby blue Dodge Royal Lancer car.
Soon after, as newlyweds, we started looking to buy our first home. The only thing was, I had specific requirements.
‘I want a house that was built in the ’50s and to do it up in the style of the time,’ I said to Matt.
‘Happy wife, happy life,’ he chuckled.
Finding a fixer-upper that was built in 1957, it ticked that box, but we had an epic task ahead of us to transform the exterior and interior.
Only then did my ’50s obsession reach a whole new level.
We painted the outside of the house bright turquoise with giant pink lettering for our house number, and the manicured front lawn was peppered with model flamingos.
It looked just like something off the set of the ’50s TV series, I Love Lucy – our favourite show.
And in the garage sat my vintage baby blue car in true 50’s fashion.
Next, researching materials and colour palettes, we laid flooring true to the pattern and shade of the decade and created a retro bar and lounge and a Walt Disney-inspired office.
All the ornaments, cabinetry, utensils and artefacts were authentic.
Constantly adding to my already extensive collection, I scoured online, and rummaged in second-hand, antique and vintage shops for retro treasures.
For the living area, we even found an authentic box TV and antenna, which we skilfully modified with a flat screen inside so we could watch modern movies and shows.
My all-time most-adored find was a sit-in sauna – and the only other person to have owned the exact same one was Elvis!
I splurged and paid $1800 for it.
After a year’s hard grafting and $75,000 – I’d been saving since I was 15 – spent on renos and decor, in 2022 our ’50s haven was ready.
Friends were in awe of what we’d created, and they weren’t the only ones!
After posting our home photos online, production companies reached out wanting to hire our house for TV and film shoots.
Amazingly, our house was making us cash!
As well as bagging myself a ’50s loving husband and home, my obsession became my career. My days were now spent making bookings for people to ‘borrow’ our home for commercials, photoshoots, TV series, movies and music videos.
It was such a popular venture that making way for camera crews to stay in our home for up to 12 hours a day, meant we could never be there.
Tapering back on the leasing so we could enjoy living in our ’50s haven again, I delved full-time into vintage buying and selling.
Now I revel in spending my days rocking my full ’50s fashion attire with red lippy and a big beehive hairdo, while doing online mid-century auctions and sourcing authentic time warp treasures from the 1920s onwards to buy and sell.
And my venture makes me a tidy income of $65,000 a year!
Matt and I are also buying a house to renovate in a ’60s theme and, later, one in the ’70s.
My whole life may be a blast from the past, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
