A Very Belated (and Boring) Post

Hi Y'all..... I am so glad to see that you have welcomed Emily back to graciously after her months of being M.I.A from the blog. I should hope you'll do the same for me. I have been absurdly busy with a new job (with the Historic Charleston Foundation!) so I haven't exactly remembered about my secret online life. Until today... And now I feel badly. I don't have a whole lot to say or update you on, other than a smashingly good St. Patty's weekend, during which I baked really kick-ass Irish Car Bomb flavored cupcakes (actually that was before the 17th, for my mom's birthday, but it's relevant.) as well as stayed in a house that, allegedly, hasn't been redecorated since the late 1950s. It is in Columbia, SC and belongs to my cousin-in-law's (if that's a real title...) family. It was such a treat getting to stay there hanging out with my cousins and a couple of friends of the cousin nearest to my age. We all had a great time and went to a great show and everything was just greatgreatgreat.  To prove just how great it was here are some crappy iPhone pictures of the house early in the morn (while all of the boys were still passed out) when it was nice and bright. 

blurry picture of the bedroom I slept in.

The adorable green/blue bathroom connected to my room.

Euphonic Earworms: Feelin' all sentimental with Al Bowlly

I've been on another Al Bowlly binge lately, and some of his slower tunes are perfect for unwinding and generally just getting some sublime and sentimental tuneage into the day. These two songs in particular just make me feel so full and happy and make me want to stop whatever I am doing to take them all in and just sit and daydream.

"The Very Thought of You"

"Easy Come Easy Go" (really random background images but it was the best quality version I could find.)

- Emily

Packing, Procrastination, and Pretty Pictures of Pretty Pals

You can see I was determined to make that alliteration work.

So while I should be packing for my second semester in Oxford since I am flying out tomorrow, I'm sitting on the internets and updating my iPod for the long flight.

So I decided to share a couple of pictures (Gee, you should be proud of me here - did you catch it?) that I took recently, as I've been trying to get back into photography after college pulled me apart from my best friend and main model (Gracie, duuuurh) and my shutter-snapping skills are getting a but rusty.

Photography used to be such a passion of mine (sorry if that sounds trite) and it consumed so much of my everyday thought process, much as early-twentieth century culture does now. It feels like utter crap to try to  get back into this and find that the old adage is true - use it or lose it - as I've found I'm nowhere near as fluent as I used to be with a camera and translating what I see into a photograph. Ah well. It'll just take practice, as that's what got me there before. I have a Flickr account that I began... sheesh, my sophomore year of high school!... that has been sadly neglected since I went to college.

Anyway, here's one picture of Gracie that I took while she was staying at my house.

And one of my friend Cady, who was an awesome and patient model while I once again figured out fingerwaves and futzed around with the camera settings.

I have been itching to edit more pictures from these sets, but I don't have photoshop (I did before I switched to Mac) and so I've tried to make use of iPhoto's editing software but its just no good. I need to buck up and buy photoshop sometime soon...

See you all on the other side of the Atlantic, if I don't post again before then!

Emily

McCall's, mid-late 30s!

Some more from my university's magazine archives! I must say, while I always check out Vogue and McCall's when I'm there, I usually prefer the style pages of McCall's - they used color printing much more often, and their illustrations were more straightforward (but still full of plenty of Fancy, as you can see!) than Vogue's sometimes too-artistic ones that made it difficult to make out the clothing.

Le sigh. Flipping through these pages is always sheer agony of longing.

The Inconstancy of Beauty

Amid all the discussions that have cropped up on the blogosphere in the past few months about the relationship between beauty, society, media, and self-image, I thought this would be timely to share an article from a late 1930's Vogue that briefly address some of these things. I found it rather interesting to see a source from a past era talking about the fast changing trends, witnessing their own part in the constant evolution of style and culture.

Though by no means a perfect or completely even-handed look at their own time and approach to Beauty (though how possible is that ever going to be - evaluating our own era?), I think this article is pretty wonderful - granted, the 1930s is my favorite aesthetic era, and I do find it to be superior in terms of Beauty and attainability for the average woman (in that a relatively wide range of body types were popular, and focus did seem to be more on proportions rather than one particular size, particularly in the later 1930s when it became less popular to focus on slenderizing the hips), but even if the 30s aren't your favorite, it's still wonderful for the glimpse it gives into a society (or at least Vogue, which represented high society, but societies have always tended to be evaluated by the upper classes anyway) trying to evaluate its own self. 

Euphonic Earworms: Sentimental Gentleman From Georgia

Here's a fun song by two different sister harmony groups that I just love!

A funny and super-upbeat version by The Dinning Sisters:

A charming and alternatingly fast and slow version by The Boswell Sisters:

Emily

A Pajama and Loungewear Obsession: Part Three

Here's part three (one and two) of the pajama and loungewear series, a good four months after it began! This time, with a bit of trepidation, I'm sharing some of my favorite personal loungewear and boudoir finds.

Probably my favorite part of reading other blogs is the outfits posts and/or vintage finds posts other vintage-inclined ladies around the world share. I'm pretty terrible about doing them myself (I think I've done a grand total of one so far), mostly because I really am pretty awkward in front of the camera and am really not photogenic (it's okay, I'm fine with my real-life self. But the camera doesn't like my face), but I also have little patience for fiddling with the self-timer. 

Anyway, I finally did some today, because I recently added a 40's robe to my collection, and figured I may as well share that and my others as part of the series! I apologize for the rather unimaginative posing, this would be my camera awkwardness at work.

I'm also wearing Daniel Greens in all of these - I've got three pairs! They really are so comfy, I wish Daniel Green would re-issue their designs from the 20s-40s because they perfectly wed prettiness with comfort. The heels aren't bad at all - on the two dark blue pairs they're only 1.5 inches, and the light blue ones, which I think are late 40s or early 50s, are pretty tall, but are still fine!

My newest addition - a 40s swishy rayon robe scored on eBay for 30 bucks! I love the side tie and the aforementioned swooshiness of this, I feel like I'm wearing a (rather floral) Hogwarts gown when I walk around the house in it - I realize this is an odd association but ah well!

Let's Talk Crop.

I know it's winter-like weather somewhere. Probably where you are. For that, I am sorry. But for those of us who are getting to enjoy the warmth (and humidity) of the south, I would like to bring up a fashion I have only recently become OK with: crop tops.

Not the 1990s baggy/trashy crop tops (you know what I'm talking about. Hipsters wear them now. And sorority girls [odd demographic...]. Usually with a lacy and/or neon bra underneath.)
Or the early 2000's super tight, very ugly, pop-star crop tops I grew up knowing, but something more akin to ... well, good fashion.

The thing I love about them is they can (seemingly) be worn with any length/style skirt or pants and still look very nice. And they can look classy or playful or anything you can dream of, if you choose the right accompanying garment. You can even look like a genie. It's really magical.
There are a variety of styles from the 1930s-50s which I have seen that I really like and hope to make soon. Oh you want to see them? Good.
Let's see how fast we can get through this, shall we?

Ginger in a sortakinda-cropped top, circa 1937.