Marilyn - Hollywood Icon: an exhibition 12 March - 31 October 2011

I am so looking forward to this new exhibition, as featured in todays Evening Standard.  It is opening at The American Museum in Britain, in Bath, next month, but there are talk about bringing it to London and I jolly well hope the do.  If not, well, I've never been to Bath - anyone fancy a trip?

The exhibition shows many of the Miss Monroe's personal possessions - everything from film costumes to her orange squeezer (one of only two things she claimed from her divorce from Arthur Miller).

There are over 65 exhibits including the pink wiggle dress from Niagara, the chiffon dress from Some Like it Hot, costumes from The Prince and the Showgirl, the aforementioned juicer, photos of her mother and a figurine of a dancer she was given during her time in an orphanage.

This promises to be an intimate portrait of a woman many were and are still in love with.

The curater states

"From the objects in the collection I've realised how much she'd gone through in her life,

only to fall to pieces at the end - a tragedy."

Another fabulous Koster and Murray knitting book!

I just couldn't resist this - and I now have 4 from the series so am very proud.


Just feast your eyes on the pictures:

The cover illustration would make a fab tattoo.

I cannot imagine how long it would take to knit this!

 Finally the perfect ribbed cardy pattern:

Pretty little waistcoat:

I must make this hat!

And this:

 And this blouse:

She looks scarily like the Queen Mother:

Old Movie Madness: The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

Finally I have a laptop that actually works wirelessly and was able to spend a lazy morning in bed while my guest slumbered in the living room.  As a result I had copious time for some knitting and film watching all from the luxury of my gorgeous Art Deco bed.

Today I was in a comedy mood and so picked the 1941 film, "The Devil and Miss Jones", starring Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn.

The film starts on a daft note, with a little letter to "The Richest Men in the World" warning them not to take the film personally.

The film centres around Coburn's character as John P. Merrick, the richest man in the world, who owns, among countless other business, Neeley's department store.  The staff at Neeley's are under the influence of the union, due to unfair working conditions, and when he Mr Merrick sees that they have hung an effigy of him he is determined to root out the troublemakers and goes undercover as a shoe salesman.

Working at the store is wake up call for Mr Merrick, he is a hapless salesman and through harsh treatment from his superiors and kindness from his colleagues, including the lovely Jean Arthur as Miss Jones, he realises that his workforce are valuable and falls in love.

Charles Coburn is excellent as the blustering Mr Merrick, and gives a tender performance as an angry, lonely man who blossoms when given the opportunity to make friends and find love with saleslady Elizabeth.  Jean Arthur is great too, as a kind woman, madly in love with her boyfriend and she shows great comic timing. I especially loved her throwing herself across a desk.


The costumes are wonderful, as I knew they would be as soon as I saw costumes by Irene in the credits.meaning Irene Sharaff, who also dressed The King and I, Gaslight and An American in Paris.

Aside from the film being genuinely warm and uplifting I was also mesmerised by the hair, Miss Arthur sports two great dos during the film, her work hairdo has small rolls and a fluffed pointed fringe, while her more casual hairdo, for a day at the beach shows the fringe still fluffed but combed to the side.  Great ideas for things to do with my new fringe.

I thought this was a really lovely movie, easy top watch but just the thing to raise the mood on a grey day.

Spring has sprung...a VI on the highstreet round up

Well, not quite, judging by the weather, and given it was snowing in February last year I can't see it warming much until the end of the month...but in fashion terms Spring is definitely here.  The shops are filling up with dresses and tops in pretty Spring colours, and luckily (or not - depending on your viewpoint) two of the main fashion trends seem to be the ballerina look, inspired by Black Swan no doubt, and a 50's retro look.  We will ignore the return of 70's retro, please.

So, my pick of vintage inspired items on the high street follows:

Primark, as ever, are leading the way with this darling little beach dress (£17) reminiscent of a 40's playsuit.  With painterly looking beach scenes around the skirt:

I think this would look great with some Carmen Miranda style platforms (more on these to come) and a big updo with a flower for your hair.


Also from Primark is this fabulous 50's style full skirt (£17), just begging for a twinset and a petticoat:

I'll be trying to get my hands on these plus a few of their essential £2 striped t-shirts to see me through.


Dorothy Perkins also have a lovely little cotton dress in their Spring/Summer collection - what a cutey:

The ballerina influence has been picked up by a few stores, with Topshop leading the way.  The ballerina look can easily be translated into a 50's classic Audrey Hepburn vibe, but this elegant look isn't just about ballet pumps and wrap tops.  We are talking off the stage elegance here, including the dreaded 70's palazzo pant.  I'm not joking, these palazzo style trousers (£48) are giving me a 1930's feel - it is all about how you wear them (avoid prints) - I want to waft around drinking champagne and smoking from a cigarette holder with my hair in fingerwaves:

I'm also loving these pastel numbers from the ever reliable ASOS (not out yet, as far as I can see - so no linky):

They also have these, with a more daytime feel (£40) - think Kate Hepburn -  that I might just have to get for work.

Shoe wise - it seems to be another season of the towering wedge / platform - and though I struggle to walk in them I'm not complaining, after all, taxi drivers need to make a living too.

These blue and yellow darlings from Dorothy Perkin's "Retro Heaven" collection (£42) are perfect for a summery beach vibe (in store only):

While these very simple wedges from Fearne Cotton's collection for Very are marvellously versatile.

I'd better put my credit card back in the freezer before I buy anything...

Another quick thrift shopping post

Good day to you all.

I am feeling rather good today - especially in contrast to yesterday where I thought I was going to die of flu.  It seems it was just extreme tiredness and an oncoming cold which I medicated with an entire bottle of wine and the hottest curry known to man.  That and 14 hours of sleep seem to have cured me and I'm ready to get up and at 'em.

Today's plans mainly involve blogging, knitting and cleaning - so here is blog 1 of the day.

I had the afternoon off work yesterday to go and get my hair done, lucky me, and so got to pottle around the second hand and vintage shops of Angel, Islington after my appointment.  I visited my very favourite shop and picked up a few little treats for myself.  All this swag came in at £9.  Woot.

This lovely if slightly blurred photo shows two gals holding their cats up for the camera, lovely:

A pretty little crocheted doily for on top of the deco TV cabinet :

 Loads of knitting patterns, look at the sexy minx in the second picture down:

A souvenir rayon hanky, I'm going to clean this and frame it.

A stunning linen tablecloth with deco design embroidery:

I really do love second hand shops.  I feel very content with myself.  :-)

A few recent thrifty buys

Hello

I don't have a lot to say really, I'm exhausted from working far too hard.  I did a 15 hour day yesterday and my brain has become jelly.  So instead I thought I'd display a few recent thrifty buys.

I couldn't resist this little crumb sweeper, not that I have a large banqueting table or anything.  

Another Koster and Murray purchase - with the pattern recently beautifully made by  Jeggings Does Vintage (a lovely blog that I have a feeling is going to be well worth a follow).

The cutest little china cat wearing a hat.  You can just see Marlon giving him a sniff.

 And another pretty feline thing - a beautiful piece of pin up art to go in my pink bathroom.  Isn't she a honey?

I also picked up a lovely little pink and grey slip.  So pretty.

And here is a pic of my boys being adorabubble, because, when I'm tired and stressed, these are the fellas that get me through and I love them dearly.  The little white one had "the snip" yesterday and so he looks a tad bedraggled, poor love.

Leading Lady Hair: Mildred Pierce (1945)

Another film inspired do for you all, Joan Crawford's full waved bangs from Mildred Pierce.  Similar to the The Barbara Stanwyck do featured earlier but this time with full waved bangs and fuller curled ends to the hair.  This is my first attempt and it isn't perfect but I think it gives the right look.

For best results with this set I would advise having a fringe / bang area of 4-5 inches long in front and 7-8 inches in back (of the fringe).  You could try with a longer fringe, but you might need to backcomb the underside more for increased fullness so that your hair does not fall into your eyes.

So, I started by cutting my fringe, I used a rectangular part, brushed all the hair forward in front of my face and just chopped it straight across to 5 inches in length from the front hairline.  I often cut my own hair these days, it is so much cheaper and as it is always curled or in an updo I don't worry about little imperfections such as it being slightly uneven.

I then dry set the front section in two rows of pink perm rods.  The back row in two rods, hair curled toward the face and the front row in three rods curled away from the face.  The differing directions help build the shape of the wave and add fullness.

Behold the 7:30 AM make-up free face of someone who hates mornings!

Once these were set I put the sides up, each in two front facing upward directed pin curls.  Setting the hair like this really helps me with victory rolls as it sets the hair in the upward direction meaning I get much less annoying puffiness at either side of the head.  I really hate that.

The back I curled in a lot, probably about 12, pink perm rods, curled up and under to the nape of the neck and no farther.

I then gave it all a spritz with water from a spray bottle and went to bed.

In the morning I started by brushing the side pin curls out in and upward direction, I then backcombed the hair and smoothed out the top before forming a small victory roll on each side and pinning securely.

I then took out all the back rollers and brushed the curls out gently.

The final section to tackle was the front.  I removed the rollers and brushed all the hair together, I then held the fringe straight up and teased the hair at the front of the fringe with my rat tail comb to give it structure.  The key then is to get the right wave and curl to the fringe.  The best way to do this is to brush the hair over the hand to create the straighter section and then to use your fingers to press the wave into the hair and allow the ends to curl over.  It does take a few tries to get it right, I was starting to get frustrated buy got there on attempt 7.  Good old lucky 7, eh!

Being late for work I decided to ignore the flyaways and just hairspray and go.  Shame on me, I know.

So there you go - victory rolls with full wave bangs.

Have a go and let me know what you think.