Katharine Hepburn had a good start in Hollywood, moving from the stage to the big screen and getting rave reviews. However during the mid to late 1930s she had a series of flops which lost the studios a lot of money and led to her being dubbed as ‘box office poison’, which was effectively a(…)
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!
Ingrid Bergman starred in both the stage play (Joan of Lorraine and the Hollywood movie adaptation of Joan of Arc, so I’m not sure which this is the costume for. The photographs were captioned as being for Joan of Lorraine, but if you look at the suit of armor she wore in the movie (the(…)
I should probably point out that this might not be suitable for viewing at work. It’s not terribly risque, but there are some photos of 1920s topless showgirls, so I guess it depends on what you classify for NSFW, and I don’t want to get anyone into trouble! The Folies Bergère opened in Paris in(…)
I visited the V&A a week or so ago. One of my favourite museums in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum is an eclectic mix of sculptures, religious art, design and fashion, but on this visit I wanted to spend some time in their Fashion section. One thing which really surprised me was the size of(…)
Ruth St. Denis was one of the pioneering dancers of the early 20th Century who brought exotic Eastern dance to the West in the 1910s and 1920s. Born on a farm in New Jersey, she was a vaudeville dancer when her fascination with Egypt began in 1904 after she saw an advert for Egyptian Deities(…)
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 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(…)
Historical stage costumes are by their very nature fabulous. Rarely understated they needed to communicate the nature of a character as soon as they step onto the stage. Some are ridiculous intentionally, some not (I fear poor Andreas Dippel was supposed to look heroic but fell rather short of that), and some are simply wonderful(…)
Silent Movie actress Theda Bara in some of her famously risqué costumes from the 1917 film Cleopatra. I find it quite amazing how small and skimpy her costumes are (although they’re not all terrifically flattering!), but I suppose it was before the Hayes Code was enforced which clamped down on ‘indecency’… Sadly it seems that(…)