Going Hollywood (1933)

Due to the wonders of TiVo, a few weeks ago I watched Going Hollywood (1933) on TCM, starring the beautiful Marion Davies and Bing Crosby. 

Davies and Crosby - a still from one of the musical numbers. This one isn't mine - I found it on Google. 

It was light, cute, annoying in parts (why does she like Bing’s character? He’s a bit of a jerk! But you have to allow some suspension of disbelief in order for the inevitable reunion in the end to be bearable), but overall a fun movie – Patsy Kelly was great as usual as Davies’ wise-cracking friend. What especially did it for me was the costuming – there were some real stunners in this movie. I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the nightgown Davies was wearing at the beginning (sometimes you really just have to see something in motion to get a good feel for how it looks), but I tried to take a snap with my camera anytime something beautiful caught my eye – be it an outfit, face, whatever. I’ve actually got a few movies I’ve done this with – used my camera to photograph the screen during pretty scenes, which I will share over the next few weeks. Anyway, please excuse the weird look of a photographed TV screen – it’s the only way I know how to get an image off of my TV or computer when I can’t take a screen shot. As always, click on the image to get the highest resolution.

Bobby From Boston

Come one and come all! – Chaps, mostly.

Last week I went to check out Bobby From Boston, a vintage shop in Boston I had read good reviews about online, via Yelp. And I was certainly not disappointed.

I should note up front that the store is mostly for the fellas – about 85% of the stock there is for men, but there’s a small women’s section that is very well selected. I would be annoyed about how small it is, but I realize that most vintage vendors focus on the ladies, so this is a nice change.  Also, Bobby has a warehouse nearby in Massachusetts and that is apparently very well stocked in women’s items – I plan to visit there as soon as I can.

Anyway, back to Bobby’s in Boston. Walking into this place was like a dream – its wonderful to see a place that presents guys with a chance to dapper-ify themselves. And any guy that dresses himself here would have no choice but to walk out dapper as hell, to borrow the title of Solanah’s husband's (Samuel's) blog. I never before gave much thought to men’s clothing, except to ruminate on the sad state of most modern guy’s wardrobes. But Bobby’s made me wish I had a fella to dress up – there was absolutely everything here. Shirts, ties, suits, bags, cuff links, shorts, pants, suspenders, shoes, and hats-a-plenty. I can guarantee you I’m forgetting a lot of the stock, since again, I am not well versed in men’s clothing, but I could tell this place was a haven for the Well Dressed Chap. The chronological range of vintage runs from turn of the century military garb to 60s menswear, and it is all in very clean and new-looking condition.

One thing I especially like about Bobby’s – a lot of shops that call themselves vintage are really consignment, or stock mostly 70s and 80s stuff and think that this qualifies as vintage. I suppose you could stretch it and say 70s is vintage (even though I really don’t like it), but 80s absolutely is not, not at this point. Bobby, the owner of Bobby From Boston (whodathunk?) told me that he tries not to go past the 60s, but stocks a wee bit of 70s as it is somewhat in demand.

So, my final verdict? I recommend – no, I implore – any and all guys who would like to step up their daily spiffiness factor to head over to Bobby’s whenever in the Boston area and contribute to the beautification of the world by dapper-ify themselves in clean, quality, vintage garb. Preferably from the 40s and before. But you know, whatever floats your boat. Just stick a hat on top of it to doff, and you’ll catch the world’s (and my) eye.

Now I’ll let the photos do the talking. I had to cut out a LOT, so this is really just a peek at what lies within... 

Fancy Feet

Not really fancy, but just well-adorned. Of my many, many vintage wish-list items, shoes are easily at the forefront. Partly because I just love shoes. Really, it probably isn’t good how much I like them. Maybe its because they are both functional (cover and protect your feet) and aesthetically satiating – they present a chance to do as you will with pretty details and decoration, all on this tiny and concentrated canvas. And, unlike clothing, people don’t think its weird if you wear the same ones all the time, so you can get a lot of use out of them.

They’re also at the top of my list because I don’t have any (vintage pairs, that is), besides two amazing Daniel Greens (not taking those out of the house) and a mid 40s style sandal that is pretty fragile. This part of my wardrobe is left largely undeveloped due to money and the fact that size 8s are somewhat harder to find - the average ladies' shoe size in the 30s and early 40s was tiny! Here are a few pictures of shoes that I’ve coveted over the past few months - it was really difficult to narrow the list down! Taken from etsy, ebay, other blogs, the internets… unfortunately I didn’t do well at marking where I found them. Enjoy!

- Emily

Oh, how I love all of these. The rainbow woven style tie-up sandals would be perfect for the beach/sport, and I love the three at the top, especially the all-black ones. 

Cats & Berries - the Song

Hello chums and chumettes (mostly chumettes, I suppose),

My absence, if at all noted, is due to the fact that I’ve recently moved from Atlanta to Boston. I’ll be in Beantown for the summer doing an internship at a production company and taking a summer course at a nearby college. I’m really excited to be here, and hope that I make the most of it and don’t get city-shy and hide away in my apartment during my free time in order to avoid the confusion of public transport and the unfamiliar busy pace of the streets.

Anyway, I’m still feeling rather lazy in terms of posting (I spend way more time reading other blogger’s posts!) so here’s a quick one. I wanted to share with you a cute little clip “You’re the Cats”, a short musical number with Ben Lyon and Ona Munson from 1931 in the movie “The Hot Heiress”:

I saw this clip a few weeks before Gracie and I started talking about making a blog, and though it is by no means a lyrically sophisticated or musically poignant number, I do love it and think it’s cute. Anyway, as you can see, this is where Gee and I got the idea for the name of this blog!

Hope you are all doing well!

- Emily 

Doin' the Dirty

And by "the dirty" I mean procrastinating the dozen or so things I need to do over the next several hours, including writing a paper on a local Gothic Cathedral's architecture, creating tiny gardens and zombie food (unrelated) and starting and finishing an 8-10 page essay about historic gardens. Im starting to wish caffeine had an affect on me, but alas...
So, what better way to not do what I need to than by online shopping (no luck there of course) and blog browsing (sadly, there is only so much I can take in at once!) and posting?!
Here you have it folks! More pictures of my gorgeous family in the heart of the good ol' U.S.A., New York, New York. For the majority at least...

Ana at 15 years. Pre-glamour it seems... Still love it. Oakdale, NY, USA.
1940

Ana outside of Tia Josie's house at 18 years (so she says....) Also, she looks A LOT like my mom here. Which makes sense, but it's still really weird.

Ana at 15 lounging in Oakdale, NY.
1940

All I Want is Loving You and Desserts, Desserts, Desserts

Howdy'do, folks!

Gracie here to talk to you about (okay, mostly to show you) my fantastic treat-filled weekend with my mommy. I am lucky enough to go to school only two hours away from her house so I go there (too) frequently.  This weekend was the first I actually did some of what I had hoped to, however, so I am really really happy. Obviously.


So, first things first: DESSERTS.

This weekend I made two batches of ice cream and, consequently, two friggin' fantastic types of frozen goodies. If you want recipes let me know!

1) Chocolate covered strawberry ice cream bites.

this picture sucks, I know, but it's the only one I took of the finished product. Dumb me.

2) Mint ice cream-chocolate chip cookie sandwiches

I know the internet really downgrades the impressiveness of baking, but trust me, these were awesome. And I am generally very critical about my work, so you can have faith that these were actually good.

Next thing: Outfit post numero dos!

Today I wore all modern clothes!!! IT WAS MADNESS. Not really....
And, okay, when I say "modern clothes" I mean that they were made in the last few years by big manufacturers that sell modern styled clothes to lots and lots of people who often over look the more classic styles being sold. And I have no problem with wearing clothes like this if they look nice (which I think they do!) so, in that regard I am not a snob, but if we start in on the topic of other modern clothes... well, that's when I'll get a little pompous and mean and angry. So, lets save that for another day, shall we?

Anyway, since I actually left the house today (I had nothing left to bake...) to go see "Water For Elephants" with my mutti, I changed out of my strawberry-and-chocolate-covered '50s dress into this outfit.

The baby in my arms is Pi. She's pleasantly plump and the source of many-a-asthma attack of mine. But I love her.

Top: Anthropologie. (Oh how I miss having gifts cards for the lovely place)
Jeans (my only pair, mind you!) are hand-me down Lucky Brand. I think they're meant for boys though, since I got them from my cousin and I don't think he cross-dresses, though I could be wrong.
Loafers: Goodwill
The weird belt (which happens to be the only one I had with me) is a hand-me-down from my aunt.

In other exciting news, I finally invested in quality lipstick and liner. I had never owned lip liner before last friday, but now I don't know that I can go on without it. I bought MAC brand because I have heard/read really good things about it, it was not super-pricey (though it did cost over twice as much as what I paid previously.... I'm just really frugal, I guess) they have a color in matte finish that I really like (Russian Red), and it doesn't have the highest lead content, so I won't die as soon. I hope. I also finally replaced the eye liner my sister stole from me. So that was fun.
I was also really happy with how my hair turned out today, despite several preliminary un-victorious victory rolls this morning.

Gardenias in my hair always smell so nice and remind me of one of the songs Keira Knightly sings in "Edge of Love"

That's enough of my uninteresting mess of a weekend. Hope you lot had a great one!!

So long for now,

Gee

McCall's, 1942

By the time I discovered that my school has quite an extensive array of archived women’s interest and fashion magazines, the school year was weeks away from being over. Nevertheless, I spent quite a few afternoons holed up at the most private nook of the library I could find, flipping through pages of the past that delighted my history fascination and agonized my shallower fancies with longing. Reading articles such as “If You Say, ‘I’m Just Too Thin!’” and “The Inconstancy of Beauty” (both of which I will upload in later posts), and others relating to current events of the era, I found this treasure trove literally endlessly fascinating - my second day there I had this horrifying but morbidly amusing image of me spending the rest of my days there in an insane obsession, relentlessly trying to document every page and sigh over every fashion illustration, until I created my own tomb of magazines. I think many people are interested or amused by seeing examples of how ideas and events were perceived and written about in the past.

And although the writings were fun to look through, still my favorite part was the fashion illustration, especially in McCall’s Magazine. I started out looking though Vogue, but I found that the way they presented clothing (more artistically, either through fashion photography that was beginning to be experimented with, or with wispy and abstract illustrations) made it harder to see the clothing plainly and clearly. McCall’s was less fancy, and I liked their pages of straightforward color illustrations.

Below I’ve uploaded the few images I managed to get from a McCall’s Magazine in 1942. I mostly looked at archives from the 30s, but I picked up one from the 40s, and only got a few pages photographed before my camera’s battery got too low to take pictures. Also, please forgive the annoyance of a photographed page instead of a photocopied page – the copiers were not readily available for the amount of picture-grabbing I wanted to do. So I figured I’d show the 40s images first, and then work through the ones I got from 30s magazines. I hope you enjoy!

- Emily

I wish I could've gotten a better image of this. I just think its charming, the girls' patriotic color scheme and the cute GI in the reflection!

Don't you think the girl at the top looks a bit like a young Lana Turner? Anyway, I thought some other vintage gals might like to see some hair advice straight from the era-horse's mouth.

Click on the image to enlarge if you'd like to read this. An account of how to deal with the shift from the glamourous 30s wardrobe to the necessary practicality of a wartime 40s wardrobe. I am very modern in my desire for a large wardrobe; I am astounded but impressed with their statement that a basic wardrobe of 4 dresses and a coat could suffice! I think most vintage dressers have a very un-vintage problem with clothing accumulation, but I don't mind - while I find this simplicity admirable, I won't kid myself that I am at all interested in emulating it. I do, however, agree that quality is more important than quantity - I just would prefer to have both, ha! Anyway, I found the part about the defense factory girl's earning power very amusing - "think of all the War Bonds she can buy!".