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1940s Fads: Indoor Sunbathing

1940s Fads: Indoor Sunbathing

The 1940s was a time when no one gave much thought to sunscreen and you could happily chain-smoke cigarettes and drink cocktails while you tanned, without so much as a thought to the health consequences.  In 1948 the Senator Hotel in Atlantic City installed sunlamps in the ceilings so its patrons could tan, even when(…)

1940s Summer Underwear

1940s Summer Underwear

Before the structure and corsetry of the 1950s was the softer silhouette of the 1940s. These photos are from a fashion feature on summer underwear from 1949, aren’t they beautiful?

Louise Brooks: From Dancer to Showgirl to Scandalous Flapper Icon

Louise Brooks: From Dancer to Showgirl to Scandalous Flapper Icon

Louise Brooks with her sharply bobbed hair is one of the most iconic figures of 1920s cinema and epitomized the rebellious modern woman of the time. She started off her career as a chorus girl and dancer in 1922, and by 1925 was a dancer for Ziegfeld’s Follies. It was as a Follies girl that(…)

1950s Hand Drawn Dresses by Hermes

1950s Hand Drawn Dresses by Hermes

I don’t know very much about these fashions, except that they were captioned ‘Hermes Dresses, 1952’.  I love the idea of all the detail being drawn on, although I’m not sure they would look quite this fabulous in real life rather than on super-glamorous 50s models! Does anyone know anything about the back-story to these(…)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #10: Princess Anne

Iconic Wedding Dresses #10: Princess Anne

When Princess Anne married Mark Phillips in November 1973 at Westminster Abbey, she wore a Tudor-inspired dress with a real 1970s flavour. Who would have guessed those two styles would be a good combination..?  With it’s high neckline and long draped medieval sleeves, it was elegant and simple in comparison to other highly-embellished royal wedding(…)

Air Hostess Training in the 1940s

Air Hostess Training in the 1940s

Photos taken at the McConnell Air Hostess School which trained air hostesses for TWA in the 1940s.  The training included learning the correct way to serve drinks, dealing with inebriated passengers and even learning how to change nappies (did Air Hostesses used to do that?). Even more surprisingly they are also pictured having chewing gum(…)

Miss Lovely Legs 1949

Miss Lovely Legs 1949

Curious photos from a Beautiful Legs Contest from 1949.   The pictures raise lots of questions in my mind – aside from why you’d want to enter a ‘beautiful legs contest’ in the first place.

Disneyland in the 1950s

Disneyland in the 1950s

You must have heard people say that the 1950s was a time of simpler pleasures, and these pictures of Disneyland in the 50s show that perfectly.  This was a much more low-tech world of stagecoaches and steam paddle boats and serious people riding on carousel horses wearing suits (if these pictures are anything to go(…)

Marilyn Monroe before Plastic Surgery

Marilyn Monroe before Plastic Surgery

Marilyn Monroe photographed in February 1947 when she was still a young starlet. At this time she was still called Norma Jeane, and hadn’t yet undergone her Hollywood makeover. In 1950 she had rhinoplasty (a nose-job) and a chin implant on the advice of her agent who paid for the surgery.  She only changed her(…)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #9: Elizabeth Taylor (1975)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #9: Elizabeth Taylor (1975)

It’s amazing considering Liz Taylor got married 8 times that she managed to make a fashion statement every single time!  This is one of my least favourite of her wedding outfits, partly because I still struggle to love 70s fashion (too many bad fashion choices as a child) but I had the most fun drawing(…)

5 Strikingly Modern Victorian Photo Portraits

5 Strikingly Modern Victorian Photo Portraits

These beautiful Victorian portraits are a type of early photograph called daguerreotypes.  Invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in the 1830s the photographic image is imprinted onto a silvered copper plate, making each portrait unique.

Silent Movie Icons: Norma Talmadge

Silent Movie Icons: Norma Talmadge

One of three sisters, Norma Talmadge was one of the most popular actresses of silent movies in the 1920s. She had a difficult childhood; her father was an unemployed alcoholic who abandoned his family when they children were still young, leaving Norma’s mother to try and make ends meet.  At 14 Norma began modelling, and(…)

How The World Looked When Airships Filled The Sky

How The World Looked When Airships Filled The Sky

The airship industry effectively died with the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, but for 80 or so years previously the dream of lighter-than-air travel had gradually been becoming a reality. The sight of airships were becoming less of a novelty and were seen in the sky’s across Europe and North America. In truth though, by the(…)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #8: Jayne Mansfield (1958)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #8: Jayne Mansfield (1958)

50s blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield was married 3 times before her tragic death at the age of just 34.  For her second wedding to bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay she wore this sensational skin-tight dress covered with lace and sequins. (He proposed with a whopping 10-carat diamond ring which cost $5.000 at the time – something like(…)

A Rather Intriguing (and Ghoulish) Photograph

A Rather Intriguing (and Ghoulish) Photograph

I stumbled across this photograph this morning and I’m ghoulishly intrigued by it. The only information I have about it is that it’s captioned ‘Air Suicide Attempt‘, 1929. 

An Original 1940s Make-Up Tutorial (Including Contouring!)

An Original 1940s Make-Up Tutorial (Including Contouring!)

This photos were taken at a professional photo shoot for a young starlet some time during the 1940s. It’s really interesting to see the different stages, especially the amount of contouring they used on her face. Presumably the make up was done specifically for taking photographs as it seems a little heavy for real life.(…)

Risqué Nose Art from WW2 Bombers (NSWF)

Risqué Nose Art from WW2 Bombers (NSWF)

Nose art on airplanes first became popular during WW1 when German airmen (or rather their ground-crews) started painting a mouth and teeth onto nose cones, rather like Moby Dick below. In fact a shark-face design is still painted on nose-cones of military aircraft today. During World War II the military didn’t allow nose-art, but was(…)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #7: Gene Tierney (1946)

Iconic Wedding Dresses #7: Gene Tierney (1946)

When Gene Tierney married costume designer Oleg Cassini in 1941 she was planning to wear this amazing lace dress, designed especially for her by her husband-to-be. Ultimately though they didn’t have time to get the dress made, as eloped to Las Vegas to get married to escape the disapproval of her family, who opposed her(…)