Friday 22 November 2013

Last-Week Links: 22 November 2013

Hello, happy Friday. I hope you've had a good week? Aside from work, I've been researching the Powers Girls models - so many great stories to suck up my time! I hope to write something about this soon.


Given that my head is still somewhere in the early 1940s, what better way to start than with this Life article on eye-catcher hats, published in October 1942 and highlighted on Lilies and Remains. The design picture is a Lilly Daché, who is on hand - of course! - to provide an amusing quote.


For earlier headwear, Vintage in a Modern World reproduced a 1926 article on tying your own turban. "The movie stars" are all doing it, apparently.

How mouthwatering does the Schiapparelli auction found? More details here, and an interview with her granddaughter, Marisa Berenson, here. (Also, as an aside, interesting to see Dior contributing to the restoration of Marie Antoinette's Versailles 'rustic' hideaway.)

Features from both sides of the 80s catwalk/club this week. For the catwalk side, the 2014 Pirelli calendar is an unpublished Helmut Newton calendar dating to 1986; for the club, here's Sue Tilley's reminiscences of the 80s in London (and a bit of NY). And, of course, Vivienne Westwood's autobiography should be a brilliant story - when it eventually comes out.



There are two new fashion exhibitions in London getting lots of attention at the moment: Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! is at Somerset House - here's Daphne Guinness talking about Blow - and Hello, my name is Paul Smith at the Design Museum, which inspired Sweet Jane's feature about Nottingham's Birdcage Boutique, as shown advertised above, where Smith used to work, and other boutiques in the city.


I love the street style glam rock meets cartoon character designs in the Meadham Kirchhoff Topshop collection. Someone - though not me, I suspect - is going to look wonderful striding around in this rock star of a coat.


And for more pop culture meets fashion, Suckers Apparel have made a collection of Twin Peaks inspired fashions. Here's the Smoking in the Girls Room cape - would Audrey approve, I wonder?

On a more serious note, well done to Hadley Freeman on her comments on Terry Richardson, "fashion's shameful secret". Quite. (Vogue: get rid of the naked young women and bring back Mrs Exeter.) And, not fashion, but this amazing story on xojane on a woman daring to tackle the hideous behaviour of revenge porn sites made my jaw hit the floor.

It makes me even more thankful for women such as Kathleen Hanna. As she says, "there's still a lot to scream about."And there's bright young women like Tavi Gevinson, already influencing the way females can be portrayed in the media.

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Friday 15 November 2013

Last-Week Links: 15 November 2013

Wah, how is it Friday again? I've not got around to writing about all the things I want to - such as how I've been reading A.L.T. and The Powers Girls, and I've not even managed to mention how much I enjoyed the Teenage film (I really did, it's fabulous). Still, at least I've remembered to show up here, right?


I'll ease myself back in with some pictures of some incredibly stylish ladies. Never Underdressed featured Susannah Charbin, a Londoner with a great taste in vintage who is now based in New York (as if you couldn't guess from that shot!).


Another New Yorker, Sally Singer, was photographed for The Coveteur in her flat in the legendary Chelsea Hotel (for more New York legends, do read the beautiful Patti Smith piece on Lou Reed, if you haven't already.)


Not NY this shot, but LA. Brad Elterman took some great pictures of rock stars visiting the city in the late 70s and early 80s, including Bowie, Dylan, The Beatles. Here's Debbie Harry, looking as sexy as ever (via Please Kill Me). For a twenty-first century take on life on the road, check out Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand's selfies with books. And here's a really interesting interview with Nick Knight about the changes in photography brought about by instagram and the like.


Dan Marbaix's photographs of abandoned buildings are really rather wonderful. I'm a bit in love with the wallpaper above. Messy Nessy Chic shared photos of America's 'secret' and now abandoned city, Oak Ridge.

Moving onto high fashion, I want to read this new book that hopefully sheds some light on the mysterious life of Jean Patou, new book. Meanwhile, his rival, Chanel, continues to flourish, and prop up some of the traditions of haute couture according to this article on preserving traditional artisan workshops. Accounts of British couture are less well publicised so I really enjoyed reading the first part of a fascinating 1952 article on British couture, scanned in at Vintage Chic. Finally, here's the story of the original Miss Dior (she's more interesting than Natalie Portman).


Style Bubble shared some contemporary Japanese craftsmanship with these gorgeous PVC and lucite bags by Mame.


And Prada and Wes Anderson teaming up can't be anything but happy can it? Especially if it involves spaghetti.

Have a great weekend - I'm going to immerse myself in the world of Pop at the Barbican amongst other leisurely delights.

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Friday 8 November 2013

Last-Week Links: 8 November 2013


Another week has flashed by. What have I been up to this week? Well, I've been lusting after Charlotte Taylor's wonderful circus-inspired fashions for starters, found via Calivintage.


And though it's menswear, I'm rather taken with the jolly boozy skeletons of the Goodhood x Soulland collaboration, especially on this shirt.


Here's a trailer for the first Yves Saint Laurent biopic - the 'official' one (via Black Book Mag). I'm still looking forward to the unofficial version, with Léa Seydoux as Loulou de la Falaise.

Carine Roitfeld is out and about promoting her own film at the moment - here's her advice on attaining chic, including dressing true to your own character and developing your own sense of style. Something I'm sure the Fabulous Fashionistas, who were in full force, at the Mirror Mirror conference would agree with.

Moving to the older to the younger but echoing similar concerns, there's an interesting interview with stylist Katy England in the Guardian in relation to new film she's made, tinged with nostalgia for the relative freedom she enjoyed dressing as a teenager: She says, "fashion has become more homogenised. I hate the idea that 14-year-old girls are made to feel like they have to have their hair a certain way, to have a certain body. It's like there is only one ideal way to look now. It's really harsh."


Teenage dressing of a similar era is captured in George Plemper's photography, as featured on the Bank Holiday blog. They're images of London students taken between 1976 and 1984. How ridiculously stylish do this pair look? Also worth a read is the story of Ungdomhuset in Copenhagen, as featured on the Teenage blog.


These mugshots of Australian criminals circulate around the internet quite frequently but are never less fascinating to look at. What are their stories? What became of these women? This image comes via Vixen Vintage.

Finally, it's worth reading the account of Barbara Alston of The Crystals on the demands of recording with Phil Spector (found via Please Kill Me).

Have a good weekend, whatever it involves. It's friends birthdays for me, and hopefully a long overdue trip to the seaside too. See you next week.

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Friday 1 November 2013

October on Last-Year Girl and Last-Week Links: 1 November 2013

Subject: Ironing ones hair with an iron

What has happened to this delightful idea, we have not heard about it lately. 

Oh to be able to issue ideas in the grand manner of Diana Vreeland! I'll give you a pinch and a punch for the first of the month instead, and move on with the week's links.

The above is just one of the delightful notes in this selection of Vreeland memos, taken from a new book (also featured are her directives on Mexico, summer dressing and pearls).


I get the sense Anne Scott-James would have issued no such memos. Having just read In The Mink, I was interested to see that The Butterfly Balcony featured a wartime post from during her tenure at Picture Post, all about Black Out accessories. Here a woman at Selfridges is trying on a luminous flower, an accessory intended to make her more visible to vehicles and other pedestrians in the dark.

Deborah Turbeville, who died this week, was a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar before getting behind the camera herself and creating gorgeous, ghostly photographs: her obituary in the Guardian can be read here and the New York Times one here.


I love the gorgeous pictures of Barbara Ruben, an East London-based seamstress, shared on What We Wore. Make sure to scroll down that post to see her looking beautiful in an animal-print (I think!) bikini. Her best friend had an identical one, she reveals.

While vaguely on the subject of female friendships, or at least relationships, this is a great selection of fictional female flatshares - for once I feel like I'd read most of the books mentioned.


I live alone. But if I was to share my flat, I'd be happy for some of Michaela Gall's great ladies to live with me, in ceramic form at least. Here's the Duchess of Queensbury wearing her now semi-famous mantua.


While I've got my imaginary purse out, I'd really really like some of Rosapina Vintage's new collection - she shared her sketches, including the pinafore above, on her blog.

Talking of sketches, wasn't it fun to see Edith Head on the Google home page on Monday? And, for even more sketches, this travelling library of sketchbooks sounds lovely.

Finally, interesting to see that LVMH have bought a share in French publishing house Gallimard. Do they reckon on books becoming a luxury up there with champagne and Louis Vuitton bags? Perhaps a future Les Journées Particulières will take you behind the scenes of a printing press? Let's all keep buying books while we can still afford them!

Have a good weekend (books will probably feature in mine, somewhere along the way).

***
THIS MONTH ON LAST-YEAR GIRL

Basically I've read quite a lot:
* I had a peek into the life of a 1930s model, thanks to Noel Streatfeild/Susan Scarlett's Clothes Pegs.
* And into the career of a fashion journalist in the 30s and 40s through the eyes of Anne Scott-James and her book In The Mink.
* I reread a copy of the 2000 relaunched edition of Nova magazine...
* ... before being transported straight back into 2013 by Alexa Chung's IT.

***
NEW BOOKS ON LAST-YEAR GIRL BOOKS

* Gorgeous photographs in On The Edge: Images from 100 Years of Vogue (plus a foreword by my lady crush Kennedy Fraser).
* A compilation of the best of Queen magazine in the 1960s.
* A 1956 edition of Harper's Bazaar.
* Paperbacks about the lives of artists Toulouse Lautrec and Modigliani.
* A great 1960s edition of Nevil Shute's classic, A Town Like Alice.
* And a 1950s edition of an Agatha Christie classic.

***

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