1920s

Flappers with sleek bobs, cupid blow lips, long strings of pearls and lots and lots of sass, the roaring twenties were the place to be!

Vintage Look Book: The 1920s Chinese Trend

Vintage Look Book: The 1920s Chinese Trend

Kung hei fat choy! Happy Chinese new year! Today marks the start of the new Chinese Year of the Horse, and to celebrate I thought I’d share a fabulous vintage outfit inspired by the first Chinese-American movie star of the 1920s: Anna May Wong.

1920s Style Icons: Theda Bara

1920s Style Icons: Theda Bara

While Clara Bow was the iconic flapper of the 1920s Theda Bara was the original vamp. She made a prolific 40-plus movies over her 12-year career, all of which were silent movies. Theda Bara made her name playing exotic femme fatales, which she did a little too well, she ended up a victim of her(…)

Vamps & Flappers: The Lowdown on 1920s Makeup

Vamps & Flappers: The Lowdown on 1920s Makeup

If you’re looking for an authentic 1920s makeup-look DON’T look at The Great Gatsby – it’s great for a general sense of style and decadence of the roaring Twenties but for some reason they made-up Carey Mulligan with great sweeps of 50s eyeliner which isn’t right at all! For 1920s make-up inspiration take a look(…)

Vintage Perfumes: The Fragrances that Defined Each Decade

Vintage Perfumes: The Fragrances that Defined Each Decade

Nothing can transport you back in time like a fragrance. They say that your sense of smell is the most powerful and evocative sense, and it’s true: Chanel No. 5 will forever remind me of my mum, Armani pour Homme is my husband, and Brut – well that reminds me of staying out late as(…)

London Then and Now (Video)

London Then and Now (Video)

Following on from my fascination with the history of the London Underground earlier this week, I wanted to share this amazing video with you.  It shows original footage of London in 1927 next to the same journey photographed now. It’s not just interesting to see how different things are (the number of buses vs cars,(…)

Classic Hollywood: The Art of the Eyebrow

Classic Hollywood: The Art of the Eyebrow

There really was an art to eyebrow shaping back in Hollywood’s Golden Era. When each young actress had their big Hollywood studio makeover their brows were plucked and teased (and sometimes even removed and pencilled in) in the process of turning them from a regular girl to a screen goddess. Each leading lady was able(…)

The Changing Face of Santa

The Changing Face of Santa

My little boy has seen 3 different Santas this year (or rather he’s seen Santa 3 times this year) and was slightly confused by the fact that Father Christmas wore glasses two of the times and then didn’t the third time. He whispered that he thought the last one *might* have been one of Santa’s(…)

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels from Motion Picture Classic, 1920. Miss Daniels stepped from screen farce to drama so recently that the even is still being talked about. Miss Daniels was Harold Lloyd’s charming foil in dozens of Pathe film comedies Source and copyright: This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies(…)

Silent movie star Bebe Daniels

Silent movie star Bebe Daniels

The stunning 1920s silent movie star Bebe Daniels in a signed publicity photograph. She looks like she’s wearing a velvet coat with fur trim – very chic! If you fancy seeing her in action here she is in the 1918 movie Two Gun Gussie with Harold Lloyd.

Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis

Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis

Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis photographed somewhere around 1918-1920. I love the fancy top she’s wearing – I wonder whether it’s a costume? It seems a bit spangly and skimpy to be a regular dress. What do you think?

A Chinese-Inspired 1920s Ballet Costume

A Chinese-Inspired 1920s Ballet Costume

The caption which goes alongside this photo reads: Miss Finney dancing, Montreal, QC, 1923. Does anyone know anything alse about it? Isn’t the costume fabulous?

The Enigmatic Ms Garbo

The Enigmatic Ms Garbo

Greta Garbo photographed in 1920 wearing a cloche and a velvet coat. She always looked impossibly glamorous, although I have to say I don’t think she would have looked quite as striking in *colour* as in black and white. I know that sounds strange, but if that lipstick were dark pink or bright red I(…)

Doris Eaton Travis

Doris Eaton Travis

Ziegfeld Follies girl Doris Eaton Travis (1904-2010) in her youth (somewhere around 1922).

Shooting criminals: Are these the most beautiful mug shots in the world?

Shooting criminals: Are these the most beautiful mug shots in the world?

I seem to have a slight obsession with vintage mug-shots this week and I couldn’t resist sharing these beautiful photos with you. They were taken between 1910 and 1930 by New South Wales Police Department. Called ‘special photographs’, I’m not sure whether they replaced traditional mug-shots or were supplimentary, but they were  photographs of “men(…)

Femme fatale: The stylish female criminals of Australia, 1920s

Femme fatale: The stylish female criminals of Australia, 1920s

I was talking about my fascination with vintage mug-shot photos a few days ago and since then I stumbled upon these amazing photos of 1920s women who were incarcerated at the State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay, NSW. What makes these photos so interesting is that they took a full length photo of each woman,(…)