Vintage on the Web – July 2015

Vintage on the Web

It’s that time of the month again when I let you know about those fabulous vintage blogs, articles, how-tos and shops that I’ve come across during July. It’s been an odd month with lots happening, but also with a nice restful week off from the 9 to 5. I did have lots of sewing projects I wanted to tackle during my time off but ended up going out and visiting friends too much to actually get on with much. But I’ve still managed to trawl the internet for interesting finds, so without further ado, here’s my Vintage on the Web for July.

Movie Classics

Movie Classics Blog

If you’re a big fan of movies from the golden age of Hollywood, or even if you want to learn more about them, then the Movie Classics Blog is definitely for you. This wonderful site has an amazing array of movie reviews to give you ideas of what to watch next, mostly from the 1920s up to the 1970s, many of which you’ve probably never heard of before.

Movie Classics is lovingly put together by Judy, a UK based movie buff with a particular interest in the 1930s and 40s and loves a good Pre-Code. She often takes part in blogathons where a certain subject is chosen and lots of blog writers write up a post with their spin on it. These posts are great to really start delving into specialised classic movie areas you may not have ventured into before. What I also love is many of her reviews contain a link to where you can watch the movie online, saving you time hunting it down yourself.

Esty How to make suspender clips

DIY Lingerie: How To Make Suspenders

This is a great how-to and something I’ve wanted to make for a long time. I’ve got a multiway body I bought from Next which stupidly didn’t come with suspender clips. I say stupidly because I hate the idea of putting tights over the top of a body and stockings are much more attractive. However, this tutorial can be used to add them to anything like knickers, bodies, figure hugging slips or even a short shapewear skirt.

If you’re unaware of Esty, or think I’ve spelt it incorrectly, then you’ll be interested to know that this is a fantastic lingerie website which promotes independent lingerie designers from across the world. It is run by the lingerie enthusiast Estelle, or Esty for short, who designs and makes her own designs as well as stocking well-known brands such as Dottie’s Delights, Kiss Me Deadly and Dirty Pretty Things.

Brooksy Hats

Brooksy Hats

Brooksy is a 1920s slang term for “a classy dresser”, just perfect for this gorgeous millinery company selling on Etsy. Based in Virginia, USA, and run by designer Olivia Lloyd, the shop features an absolutely stunning range of 1920s to 1940s style handmade hats, all at very reasonable prices.

I particularly love the 1940s style leopard print half hat above. It’s basically styled like a headband and sits across the top of your head, leaving the rest of your hair untouched, so you don’t get hat hair. Genius! It’s based on an original 1940s design owned by Olivia and is seriously chic styled with an oversized bow that matches the plain black on the reverse of the leopard print.

Jersey Shore 1906

ChapterLilaRia Blog: Bathing Beauties

This fantastic collection of photographs spanning the first six decades of the 20th Century are a great insight into the world of beach holidays. The one above, from Jersey Shore in 1906, shows you just how popular spending time enjoying the sun, sand and surf was in the early years of last century. It was a time when holidaying at the coast, or just visiting for a day, really came into its own. People had more leisure time on their hands but travelling abroad was still very expensive and meant spending several days or even weeks actually getting to your destination on board a ship, something that was really only ever enjoyable for the very wealthy.

I love how you can see the change in swimwear fashions across each decade, going from a vey prim and proper bathing dress in the 1900s, through to the cute little playsuits of the 1920s, the beautiful full swimsuits of the 1950s and finally the daring bikini of the swinging sixties.

How to crochet a 1940s snood

How to Crochet Your Own Snood

A couple of weeks ago I bought my first snood and am planning to wear it this weekend to a 1940s event, assuming my hair behaves and styles how I want it to. However, having a small amount of knowledge of crocheting (I’m in the process of making a Granny square blanket) I thought it would be a great idea to try and make one myself and, if successful, I can then make them in all sorts of colours, so I went on the hunt for an easy to follow how-to tutorial. That’s when I came across this guest blog post on Sew Retro Rose by Miss Dixie O’Dare.

Miss Dixie makes it look so simple with really in depth step by step pictures and comments, which makes it very easy to follow. I think I could probably manage to do this if I take it slowly and follow it word for word. And just look at how beautiful it is! I really want to make a red one and a blue, and maybe even a pink one.

National Types of Beauty, 1930s

Beautiful Vintage Portraits of 21 National Types of Beauty from the Early 1930s

Over the last few years I’ve seen a few of these articles where they compare women from lots of different nationalities and see how they differ but they’ve all been modern day ones, so when I spotted this one from the early 1930s on Vintage Everyday I just had to have a look.

It’s amazing to see how similar they all are with that typical bobbed hair and Cupid’s bow lips that we all associate with this era. This clearly shows the influence of Hollywood right the way around the globe even then. I’d love to come across one from before the heyday of the Silver Screen and see whether those from far reaching countries were similar to those that we recognise from our history books of British and American ladies.

Taking Great Blog Photos

I recently discovered The Girl with the Star-Spangled Heart blog and absolutely love the posts by its owner Stephanie who hails from Florida, USA. Like me she loves to sew and has a passion for historical costumes, as well as a love of good old Blighty’s Downton Abbey. However, what I really like about her blog are the video posts. This is something I’m really scared of doing on my own blog, so I like to watch others like Stephanie, to get ideas when I finally pluck up the courage to do one. (It’ll be a little while yet!)

I chose to feature this particular video because it has some really helpful tips about taking photos for your blog, something I know I need to improve on. Being someone without a partner it does prove rather difficult to do outfit posts, which is something I’d like to do more of, but when I do get to do them these tips about lighting, and the brilliants ones about posing, are going to come in very handy.

Have you come across any interesting blogs, articles or online shops in July? I’d love to know what you’ve discovered, so leave a comment below.

Cate

Just a vintage gal suffering from the Golden Age syndrome. A lover of all things old, especially the 1930s, seamstress, crocheter, maker of hats and enjoys rummaging at flea markets.

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