What kind of costume are you wearing for this Hallowe’en? Something gross and gruesome, something cute, or something retro? Here are my best vintage-themed ideas for a fantastic Halloween – what do you think of them? And what other ideas could we add to the list? Bride of Frankenstein The Bride of Frankenstein was released(…)
I think we’ve all seen the photos of Renée Zellweger’s new face by now. The news hit like a storm yesterday after she attended a film premiere looking, well, not like herself. If you haven’t seen the photos you can see them here. I honestly wouldn’t have recognized her in the new photos, and my(…)
I love the different Hallowe’en costumes in these photos, although being British I always find it strange to see people dressing in ‘regular’ fancy dress during Hallowe’en. Here we just wear spooky costumes (ghosts, skeletons etc) whereas in America any kind of fancy dress seems fine. Anyone know why? I have no idea but I’d(…)
I’ve never had Chocolate Orange cake before. In fact I don’t think I’ve even seen one on offer anywhere and I have no idea why not! Chocolate and orange are a well-established hit-combination so why not a Chocolate Orange cake? So I decided to experiment and invent one. The sponge is a basic Victoria Sponge(…)
Rubye De Remer was a particuarly pretty silent movie actress during the 1920s. She landed a spot in the Ziegfeld Follies after being spotted after winning a New York beauty contest, and was dubbed “the most beautiful blonde since Venus” by Florenz Ziegfeld. Like many Ziegfeld Girls she went on to work in the movies,(…)
I was asked by Modcloth to create a vintage-inspired layered outfit perfect for this Autumn and, well, you know I can’t resist a challenge! We all know that dressing vintage couldn’t be simpler in the summer – all you need is a cute sundress, some great sunglasses and you’re pretty much there! As the nights(…)
It was rather of a relief when I found these photos to realise that 1940s women didn’t all look as impossibly movie-star-ish as we tend to think. Far from the easy ‘glamour on a shoe-string‘ that we read about so often, these photos show the hard-working ordinary women of wartime Britain during their daily lives.(…)
With parents like Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli, Liza was always going to be a big hitter in the movie world but she was also a real style icon of the 1970s. Her first major film role was in the movie ‘Journey Back to Oz‘: an animation sequel to ‘The Wizard of Oz’(…)
Wife to Mick and mother to Jade Jagger, Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias met the lead singer of the Rolling Stones at a party in 1970. They married in May 1971 when she was already 4 months pregnant. The Nicaraguan socialite quickly became known as one of the most distinctively stylish women of the decade, from the(…)
I love 1970s fashion. Don’t get me wrong, some of the outfits I was dressed in as a child still make me shudder and you wouldn’t get me anywhere near a paisley-print maxi dress with a pie-frill collar (bad childhood memories) but on the whole 70s fashion was fabulous. I love the deep v necks,(…)
I’d forgotten just how delightful Fred and Ginger movies are. It’s been probably 15 years at least since I last watched one and they really are the best kind of movies. If you love a good rom-com, amazing dancing and show stopping glamour, then they really are for you. Swing Time has got to be(…)
Boy have there been some strange beauty contests over the years! These photos include the contestants for ‘Miss Psywar’ (doesn’t that stand for Phsychological Warfare…?), ‘Miss War Worker’ and ‘Miss Bobbed Hair 1925’…
Jean Shrimpton is one of the best-known models of the 1960s and was an ‘it girl’ and icon of Swinging SIxties London. With her slim figure and coltish long legs she represented a real departure from the more grown-up sophisticated models of the 1950s. After finishing a modelling course at the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy (famed(…)
Most of the children pictured here lived in the Surrey Hills slum of Sydney, Australia which was a notorious den of organized crime, drug dealing and prostitution. As an area it fell into decline and poverty during the Depression of the late 1890s and despite undergoing some regeneration in the 1930s, an influx of American(…)
Myrna Loy is perhaps known best for her roles as femme fatale in silent movies. Because of her exotic beauty she was often cast in the role of Asian or Eurasian characters but later became a popular female lead in romantic comedies where she was frequently paired with William Powell and Clark Gable. Here are(…)
I treated myself to a 1950s Hammer B-movie yesterday: X… the Unknown. It kills… but cannot be killed! It rises from 2000 miles beneath the earth to melt everything in its path.. machine gun bullets, flame throwers… nothing can stop it! Sounds fabulously terrifying eh? Happily I can report that it wasn’t very terrifying at(…)
Alfred Cheney Johnston is most well-known for his photographs of the girls who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and 20s. Here are some of his more risqué photos of the girls, including one of Gloria Swanson. They probably aren’t particularly suitable for viewing at work, depending on how open-minded your boss is(…)
There’s a lot to be said for the time when we weren’t all glued to our smartphones, but not everything people did to relieve their boredom was a good thing. After WW2 lots of young men with flying experience and a desire for adrenalin-fueled excitement had limited ways to enjoy themselves. So there came about(…)