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(…)
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(…)
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(…)
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(…)
When 21-year-old Mia Farrow married Frank Sinatra (who was 50 at the time) in 1966 she wore an white skirt suit with a bow at the waist. The boxy cropped jacket had sleeves which finished at the elbow and crystal buttons. Teamed with her famous pixie cut hair she was a truly modern 60s bride.(…)
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(…)
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(…)
Audrey Hepburn married twice, the second time in 1969 to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti. They married in Morges, Switzerland and she wore was a pale pink minidress with matching hood by favourite designer Hubert de Givenchy. Givenchy also designed some of Hepburn’s most iconic movie looks including her Sabrina dress, the amazing 1960s mod costumes(…)
The wedding of Wallis Simpson to Edward, Duke of Windsor in 1937 was one of the most scandalous marriages of the 20th Century. In order to marry ‘the woman I love’ who was an American 2-time divorcee and therefore seen as totally unsuitable to become Queen, King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate the throne.
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?
I love this series of photos. Some of them could have been taken anywhere during the Sixties: the Mary Quant fashions and girls with their heavy eye-makeup and bouffant hair (even on the ballerinas). But then there are some uniquely Parisian photos too: the street scenes, the elderly couple snoozing in the Louve, the stamp(…)
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(…)
1928 was an interesting turning point in 1920s fashion. The boyish figure of the mid 1920s was starting to become more feminine again with female curves starting to re-emerge from androgyny. The tubular flattening underwear of earlier in the decade was becoming more forgiving (or at least more womanly in shape), and once again women(…)
Have you heard the amazing story of this vintage 1950s wedding dress? It was anonymously donated to the charity St. Gemma’s Hospice (who are based in Yorkshire, UK) with the following note pinned to it: “I wish any lady who takes this dress to have a life with her loved one 56 years like I(…)
If 2014 was primarily the “Year of the Selfie” (see: just about every showbiz article written that year), it was also the “Year of the Celebrity Corset-Wearer”. Indeed, in some instances, the two came together, with several famous women posing for selfies while wearing corsets (more on that later). But just why are corsets enjoying(…)
I love the idea of collating images which give a real flavour of what a place was like at a point in time. All of the photos below were taken in Paris in 1926. They range from Josephine Baker dancing at the Folies-Bergère, to photos of buildings, shop windows, fashions and bridges along with some(…)