Gilda

I know I say that I love most of the movies I talk about, but Gilda from 1946 (actually filmed in -45) is definitely in my top ten list.

My birthday hair

I’m a child of April, so I celebrated my birthday recently. I was mightily pleased with my hair, but none of the pictures came out very clear, so I have been debating with myself if I should show them or not. Obviously I decided to inflict them on you anyway, so here it is, my birthday hair:

A review on Retro Makeup: Techniques for Applying the Vintage Look

Today Retro Makeup: Techniques for Applying the Vintage Look by Lauren Rennells arrived. As it happened to be my day off this week I did not do all the household chores I had planned to do, but devoured the book instead.

The very short of it is that you need this book. If you have any interest in make-up and/or retro styles, then it is the book to have.

Here are the slightly longer reasons why:

The ideal movie star

In one of my books there is a little list on various movie stars and their height, measurements and, sometimes, weight. It’s always interesting to see how a beautiful body was perceived during different time periods. The ideal was a slim body, but the almost skeletal figure that you can sometimes see on our modern movie stars are nowhere to be seen. No overly athletic bodies either, or the emphasis on the bust that you can see in the fifties. Though the book is from 1946, many of the movie stars had they heyday in the 30’s, but I don’t think the ideals changed very dramatically. As it is a Swedish list, measurements are in centimeters and weight in kilograms.

I read blogs

I had a little Easter break, so this post that was planned for Friday, comes today. I hope you don’t mind. Kafferepet is a blog in Swedish, but all posts have a short summary in English, so please, take a look. Miriam is 20 years old and tries to live like she lived during the Golden Era. She looks lovely and there are lots of great photos to look at, even if you don’t understand the language. I’m very partial to her posts about Stockholm, the vintage way, like this post.

Born Yesterday

Born Yesterday was originally a show, well still is, and has also been filmed again in 1992 with Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. The movie I’m talking about is the one from 1950. Born Yesterday is a comedy with a rather Pygmalionesque plot. A brutish and somewhat shady millionaire (Broderick Crawford) arrives in Washington, ready to let his money make an imprint. He also brings his mistress Billie (Judy Holiday) a pretty, but shrill and vapid blonde. He soon finds her a bit embarrassing and hires a journalist (William Holden) to refine her. Of course she isn’t stupid, just uneducated and quickly gets a bit more refined than a shady millionaire really finds comfortable. Doesn’t matter, as Billie has fallen in love with her journalist and him in her.

The housedress

When I first started to toy with the idea of making a 1940’s wardrobe I dismissed the idea of making a house dress without really thinking about it. Then Evis pointed out that housedresses really are very practical to wear at home and I remembered all the pretty ones she has made, like this one, and I realized that my prejudices had got the better of me. You see, when I hear the word house dress I see a shapeless monstrosity in nylon that always seems to be a bit unwashed and slightly smelly. Something along the lines of this: