50s fan Rita Andreassen creates a stylish world on a budget

WHILE some people struggle with a massive mortgage to live in their dream home and others are on a continual quest for the latest must-have gadgets, 50s fan Rita Andreassen says she has the secret to true happiness.

Rita Andreassen, of Macquarie Fields, has found the secret to true happiness in life.

• Top teacher reaches new heights
• Life of devotion honoured

WHILE some people struggle with a massive mortgage so they can live in their dream home and others are on a continual quest for the latest must-have gadgets and trendy items, Macquarie Fields resident Rita Andreassen believes she has found the secret to true happiness.

“A lot of people live beyond their means and that takes the joy out of life,” Ms Andreassen said.

“I feel that the secret to a happy life is to live within your means and to keep a childlike nature but not a childish nature.”

Ms Andreassen, 46, believes in living a simple life and gets great fulfilment from that.

“You don’t have to keep up with the Joneses,” she said.

“Be happy and content with the simple things in life and don’t overcomplicate things. Be satisfied with what you’ve got in life.

“Someone once said if you live in a caravan, make it a castle.”

Rita Andreassen says people should be happy and content with the simple things in life.

This philosophy is one of the reasons Ms Andreassen is drawn to the 1950s era.

She dresses in figure-flattering dresses from that era, loves the music of singers including Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley and has also decorated her home in that style.

“I have a lot of pink in my home because that is classic to the 1950s,” she said.

In addition, she has two pink flamingoes in her front garden and a Morris Minor parked in her garage.

“It was a happier time,” Ms Andreassen said of the 1950s.

“I love the fashion of the 1950s and I feel feminine and pretty when I dress like that.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of physique you are, the style encourages curves.”

“It was an era when people were kind to each other and they took great pride in their appearance and their home.”

Ms Andreassen admits she is not a fan of today’s fashions and said men and women have forgotten how to dress.

Ms Andreassen loves the fashion and the style of the 1950s.

“Clothes are thrown together and it looks like no thought has been put into it,” she said.

“Class is diminishing.

“It doesn’t cost a lot to look good.”

Ms Andreassen said her advice to teenage girls struggling with body image and pressure to be a certain size or to look a certain way was to surround themselves with people who love them.

“The media will shout to us that we have to have a certain look but it’s important to surround ourselves with people who love us and they will enforce that positive message to us,” she said.

Ms Andreassen, a team leader at Mission Australia’s op-shop in Campbelltown, said each of her dresses cost about $10 and she bought them from op-shops and second-hand shops.

Ms Andreassen admires the pink flamingoes in her front garden.

To people keen to explore other fashion styles, her ­advice is to start with one piece be it a hat, shoes or accessories.

“Build an outfit around one item,” she said.

Ms Andreassen, who has a dog, a beagle named Brandy, and a cat named Ruby, has taken great pleasure in decorating her home in the 1950s style with some elements from the 1960s.

Some of her treasured items include a 1950s kitchen dresser, a chrome drink trolley and a shag pile rug she bought for $50.

“I buy a lot of my furniture from op-shops or kerbside pick ups,” she said.

“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to dress well and furnish your home.”