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Category / Fashion for Dummies

Marge Simpson, the Style Icon

With that towering head of blue hair, we tend to forget that Marge Simpson has a killer body – for a bright yellow cartoon character, that is. So what better way to show off those famous Simpson curves than have her recreate some of the most memorable moments in fashion history? Italian illustrator, AleXsandro Palombo,…

A Photographer’s Forgotten Muse on the French Riviera

There was definitely something about Renée. When the legendary French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue met her while strolling the streets of Paris in 1930, he fell in love instantly. Tall, chic and hiding coquettishly under a wide elegant hat, he nicknamed her the ‘parasol’. Together they embarked on what Lartigue remembers as an “eternal vacation”, a dreamlike two-year holiday in the…

Meet the Original “Victoria’s Secret” Beauties of the 1920s

When looking at black and white photographs of women considered glamorous in the 1920s and early 20th century, I often find it difficult to relate to their look. Their make-up is strange and melodramatic, their hairstyles usually unflattering and even macabre; almost like there was a preference for a rather un-natural beauty. But then I came across…

Men Wore Corsets, History Says

Pink for girls, blue for boys. Heels for women, flats for men. Corsets for ladies, burly silhouettes for gents? Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets. The…

The Real Jessica Rabbit

What I remember most about Jessica Rabbit is how she was always wearing that provocative red dress, cut oh so inappropriately low at the back, even just to run around town. Meet the real-life Jessica Rabbit, Miss Vikki Dougan, the 1950s ‘It girl’ who inspired the iconic cartoon sex bomb… Photographs by Ralph Crane for…

Max Factor’s Clown Contouring Make-Up of Early Television

I doubt these ladies felt at all ready for their close-up, but this is what it looked like to be camera-ready in the early years of black & white commercial television. Technology for the new medium in those days lacked a significant amount of contrast and wasn’t capable of showing certain colours. Make-up artist to the…

Before & After Pin-Up Models Back in the Day without Photoshop

Ever wonder why today’s fashion campaigns are a product of lengthy Photoshopping sessions? What kind of touch-ups did the models get before Adobe came along and changed our world forever? As these pin-up before & afters show, the models literally became cartoons of their former selves…

17 Eyebrow-Raising Headlines on Vintage Cosmopolitan Magazines

Cosmopolitan is and always has been provocative women’s magazine. I remember reading it as a curious teenager, trying to fold over half the page I was looking at so the person next to me wouldn’t see. But browsing through the Old Magazine Shop‘s vintage copies of the mag, I found myself quite surprised, sometimes even…

Meet Stefania, A Model, Not a Plus Size Model

I used to blog a lot more about female body image in the fashion industry but I think I sort of trailed off on the subject because it didn’t really seem to be making much of a difference. Today I think I found some new inspiration. Meet Stefania, not a pluz-sized model, a model, full-stop.…

The Secret Lives of Fashion Mannequins

For a brief moment in the 1930s, one of the most famous celebrities of the day was a 100-pound mannequin named Cynthia. She had box seats at the Metropolitan Opera, received freebies from Tiffany and Cartier, graced the cover of Life magazine and was even invited to the wedding of Edward V111 and Wallis Simpson.…

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