After the hardships of the wartime years, the 1950s exploded in a riot of colour. Women embraced the hourglass figure of Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ and wore big petticoats to make their skirts larger, and for the first time teenagers developed their own fun sense of style.
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(…)
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(…)
More and more smokers are becoming social pariahs. They have to stand on the street in the rain outside restaurants, bars, pubs and even their own cars (if their kids are inside). And while I don’t mind this, being a non-smoker, it does strike me as strange that in years gone by smoking was seen(…)
So, who knew there was a trend for body jewelry in the 50s? These photos are from 1951 of ‘Cling’ jewelry, which presumably was somehow stuck to your skin rather than pierced into your skin! Frankly I suspect these twinkling baubles would be uncomfortable, would probably fall off after a short time and also leave(…)
Er, I can’t claim to tell you much about these photos except that they were labelled ‘wet proof paper’ 1953. I have to assume that the bikini and beachwear are made from ‘wet proof paper’. Why, or what that is, and whether it’s suitable material for swimwear I have no idea. Sorry! If you can(…)
When Ava Gardner married Frank Sinatra after months of media speculation the world went wild. This was Gardner’s third marriage and she had long been branded a femme fatale by the press. Sinatra also came in for a lot of flack for leaving his wife Nancy for her, both by the Hollywood Establishment and the(…)
It was the lovely Armi Kuusela from Finland who won the first ever Miss Universe contest in 1952*, with Miss Hawaii, Miss Greece, Miss Hong Kong and Miss Germany in the runner up positions. Interestingly Miss United Kingdom, Aileen P. Chase, who was a runner up in Miss World the previous year didn’t even make(…)
If you want to talk fairy tale weddings then Grace Kelly‘s wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco was the real deal. One of the world’s biggest movie stars marrying a prince in a bonefide Royal wedding? You can’t beat that! Of course once she married into the Royal Family and became a princess she(…)
We tend to think of 1950s swimwear as being the height of style and sophistication, and some of it WAS beautiful, but as you can tell by these photos some of the more experimental items of beachwear were more miss than hit! The giant puffy beachball look anyone?
The can-can dancers of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, probably taken some time in the 1950s judging by the hair and make-up styles. Those flying leaps into the splits look really painful! The backstage photos showing them warming up before a performance are really interesting too, they were all so bendy!
As promised when I published my favourite women’s outfits from this year’s Goodwood Revival, here are my pick of the most dapper gents. Their outfits are all 1940s, 50s or 60s themed and I think you’ll agree that they all look splendid! As always there were so many military uniforms, that I decided not to(…)
Sadly I couldn’t make it to Goodwood Revival this year. It’s the first year we’ve missed it, but happily Matt Hind from Men’s File was there taking his amazing photos so I didn’t have to miss out entirely! Here are some of my favourite looks from the Goodwood Revival 2015. The fashions range from 1940s(…)
Tomorrow Queen Elizabeth II overtakes Queen Victoria as the longest serving monarch in British History. I was born in the 1970s so she’s always seemed very much an older woman to me, so I thought it might be nice to see some photos of her as a young woman. I particularly love the photos of(…)
We all know and love Angela Lansbury from Murder She Wrote, plus she was the voice of Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. However she didn’t start out in life as a middle-aged crime-solving widow (or a singing teapot). Back in the 40s and 50s she looked rather different and played a huge(…)
So you think Cara Delevingne invented the bold brow? Think again! As with most fashion trends, it’s all been done before. And as with most things Audrey Hepburn did it better. Here are five Hollywood stars from the 1940s and 50s who rocked the statement brow trend the first time around! Of course, the 1940s(…)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of those iconic monsters that everyone recognizes, like King Kong, Dracula and Frankensteins’s Monster. Unsurprisingly he was much better looking without his head on! Ricou Browning played the Gill-man in all 3 Creature movies, but only in the underwater scenes – different actors played the creature on(…)
Marilyn Monroe was married three times, once as a sixteen-year-old brunette in the 1940s, and twice more at the height of her stardom. You don’t hear much about her wedding outfits, and I think that’s because she never chose to wear a classic wedding dress. Actually she did wear a traditional white wedding gown for(…)
Pin up girls have been around for a lot longer than you think. Since as early as the 1890s girls have been drawn, painted and photographed and presented to the world as the ideal of beauty and sexuality. Like fashions in beauty and body shape, the pin up has changed enormously over the last century.(…)