1930's McCall's Designs to set you drooling!

... not that you need to be losing any more liquids during this atrocious heat! Thankfully I'm not in the South right now - I'm interning in LA over the summer - but the temperature in my hometown is 106 degrees today! Stay hydrated and cool if you are anywhere experiencing this heatwave.

And in the meantime, take a look at some of these gorgeous designs from a few different early & mid 1930's McCall's magazines! I apologize for the slightly dingy hue - I took them in a dimly lit library with my iPhone but even so, the incredible color palette shines through!

I want EVERY SINGLE ONE of these. And just look at the back detailing on the bottom far right one, with the strips - the way the back has been pieced together is just marvelous!

Hairy Pawter and the Curly Ginger Girl

Hey guys.
Hey.
It's me, Gracie.
Remember me?
Probably not.
That's cool.
I remember you though.
Mostly.
I'm sorry I haven't read any of your lovely blogs in well over a fortnight.
But I'm working on it.
no promises though.

In the mean time, I have hair. Lots of hair. And since I am so very sure you all want to look at it and pull the curls to watch them bounce (they don't so stop touching my hair, please) it and cut it off and keep it for a wig or two (or three) so I am going to post some very private, artsy photobooth pictures. You'll be totes jeal.

Try to not look directly at my face.
It'll burn your eyes out.

some rolly-bangs things.

More McCall's

More from an early 30s Spring edition of McCall's magazine to set you swooning and sighing!

BBC Sherlock Appreciation Post

Hiiii you all.

I know I've been.... absent, to say the least. And I know you all would much rather read about something 100% vintage/history related, but that's not what I'm here for. This is a post (one of many) that I've been wanting to do for a while now. It's about fashion, so you should like that. And it's about BBC's Sherlock series, so if you aren't aware of it listen up!
I am a massive Sherlock Holmes fan. Especially the newer BBC series, which is basically everything I love about SH but in modern London. It is really beautifully filmed and edited and styled and everything about it is really just perfect. And Martin Freeman. He is the best Watson. And frankly I like Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock way more than anyone I have seen. I think he fits the role really well.

Anyway, this isn't really about those guys (though a future post might be,) it is about The Woman. If you haven't watched the second season yet then you haven't had the honor of being introduced to this character. And since I believe season 2 is being aired sometime this weekend on TV in America, this is sort of a teaser.

"A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the season as well as the one involving the Woman, is MY FAVORITE episode. Right up there with the last episode of season 2. I have watched it probably 8 times now. I love it. I do. I do. I do.

And the Woman.
She is styled in a very midcentury manner. But obviously with modern "twists", as they say.
So I wanted to show you. Because she really has lovely things. They all do on this show. If you don't believe me check out this blog (it's AMMMAAAAAAZING!)

Without further delay; The Woman:

Im going to go back to the island (where the internet is scarce) but I hope to read up on your lovely blogs soon.
OK BYE GUYS.
- Gracieieieieie

Pants, Pincurls, and Travel

A quick photo update of my travels this semester: I've managed to make it to Bath, Stonehenge, Isle of Man (for archery club!), and Belgium! A combination of planning ahead (so as to minimize paper-writing conflict, though there is always some), student rates, and overly optimistic organization forecasts are mostly responsible for this.

Of course, for the vintage side of this blog, these won't offer much, except for my comment (below) on the experience of trying to maintain pincurls whilst hostel hopping - my travel clothing is pretty unexciting. On my trip to Belgium, I actually got pants for the first time since high school!! It was freezing cold there, windy, and it hailed multiple times - tights simply were not doing it for me, so I somewhat reluctantly gave in and got some cheap pants on sale at H&M. To my surprise, I actually really enjoyed/am enjoying them! It was liberating to be able to move about without constant shivering, not to mention not having to worry about big gusts of wind revealing my underwear (knickers if I want to make myself chuckle) to the world. I've worn them a few times since getting back two weeks ago - the weather here has been atrocious, raining constantly and really high winds, and on late-night trips to coffee shops for studying or mid-day runs to the grocery, since I ride a bicycle it is so much easier! I've been getting really tired of the one-hand-keeping-skirt-out-of-gears-the-other-one-steering move.

One more thing about pants: this whole "pants" vs "trousers" thing is really throwing me off here. As my fellow New World-ers know, trousers are fancy-style-pants in American English, whereas here trousers simply means pants. And pants are knickers, underwear, "panties" (uuuurghhh what a horrendous word, but I've included it for the sake of clarity) over in Brit-land. Completely forgetting this, I was talking to a guy I had just met the other day (actually the night before leaving for Belgium), and it came up in conversation that I didn't own any pants and hadn't worn them in ages. He got this really weird look on his face, and I thought maybe he just really hated skirts, but then he was like "Oh, I had to translate that - you mean trousers." Oops. It was a bit awkward but it did give me a laugh, the idea of unintentionally telling strangers that I don't own any underwear.

Anyway, on to the pictures:

My wonderful friend Victoria in Bath.

Euphonic Earworms: Undecided

I love this song, and it has so many wonderful covers, that I'm undecided as to which I like most! (See what I did there...)

Chick Webb's Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald. Okay, this may just be my favorite.

The Dandridge Sisters. A very interesting cover, I love their harmonies!

Django Reinhardt, vocals by Beryl Davis. I just discovered this version from a friend and it's been playing on my iPod a lot lately!

- Emily

McCall's Magazine 1934

More thirties magic from McCall's Magazine to make me wish I had (read: could afford) a personal seamstress. Taken from my university's archives as usual, but this time I only had my iphone, so that would account for the fuzziness.