Category Archives: Book Reviews

Rediscovered Treasures, Thermos Flask Lamp

Rediscovered Treasures – Lighting

August 8, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

My mum bought me this terrific book “Rediscovered Treasures – A New Life For Old Objects”. It has so many vintage style projects, I just don’t know where to start and, as per usual, I’m left talking about it rather than doing it. So I thought I would just share a few of the lighting ideas which have really caught my eye. I’ll leave the craft projects for another post (maybe when I’ve actually made something!) Thermos Flask Lamp Bases […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Interiors, Photography2, vintage • Tags: art, books, craft, design, diy, flea markets, Interiors, Rediscovering Treasures, Salvage, shopping, style, vintage

How can you look so naughty and feel so nice?

July 27, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

I recently bought the book “Lingerie” featuring the beautiful photography of Lillan Bassman. Bassman became a photographer in the late 1940’s. Her images of women broke the mould, emphasising a more intimate portrayal and establishing a niche in lingerie and night-wear photography. Harpers Bazaar, March 1954 Carmen Dell’Orefice, Merry Widow 1951 Bassman was an avid watcher of women and in the book it describes how, in the mid 1940’s, she began to study the body language of those who made […]

Categories: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Book Reviews, Fashion, Photography2, vintage, Vintage Inspiration • Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, art, beauty, books, burlesque, culture, design, dressmaking, Fashion, Harpers Bazaar, Inspiration, Lillian Bassman, Lingerie, photography, reviews, shopping, style, vintage

Madam Satan, Kay Johnson, Adrian, Zepplin Ball Gown, 1930

The Five Year Rule of the She-Serpent

July 25, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

My mistress is very sensitive to the clothes she wears. She’s a phenomenon. If she has a lively dress she’s lively, like today. If she has a shy dress she’s shy, like yesterday. And everything changes, everything: she talks in a different way, she’s somebody else. She’s dressed in sparkling and very close-fitting green scales: the dress ends in a thin sharp tail. From the neckline a kind of snake emerges and continues in spirals twice around her neck, it’s […]

Categories: 1920s, 1930s, Book Reviews, Fashion, Illustration, Photography2, vintage, Vintage Inspiration • Tags: 1920s, 1930s, art, beauty, books, celebrities, craft, culture, deborah nadoolman landis, design, dressmaking, Entertainment, Erte, Fashion, fashion illustration, film, films, Glamour, history, illustration, Inspiration, Jospehine Baker, literature, Madam Satan, massimo bontempelli, movies, photography, She-Serpent, style, The Mystic, vintage

The Sam Haskins Effect

July 9, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

This is one of my favourite Vogue shoots from 1996. Shot by Nick Knight and featuring (I am sure) Jodie Kidd, these black and white misty shots are really reminiscent of Sam Haskins 1960’s photography. I didn’t really get into Sam Haskins’ photography until one of his images appeared on The Last Shadow Puppet’s album, The Age of the Understatement. I then managed to get hold of the director’s cut of Cowboy Kate and other stories, and just fell in […]

Categories: 1960s, Book Reviews, Fashion, Photography2, vintage, Vintage Inspiration • Tags: 1960s, art, beauty, books, burlesque, celebrities, Cowboy Kate, Fashion, Glamour, Inspiration, Jodie Kidd, Kate Moss, music, Nick Knight, photography, Sam Haskins, showgirl, style, vintage, vogue

Diane Von Furstenburg, 1940s dress, Lauren Bacall, Black veiled hat, The Big Sleep

Diane Von Furstenberg and the 1940’s Twist

June 3, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

It’s been a busy week. Back from Seville and straight to a wedding on Saturday. Not any ordinary wedding, you understand. In true Jubilee spirit, one of my best friend’s married her childhood sweetheart at the Guard’s Chapel, off St James’ Park. If you know London, you’ll understand that it’s just a few metres away from Buckingham Palace, and therefore in the midst of Jubilee festivities. You can just imagine the atmosphere, particularly with the bride arriving in a horse-drawn […]

Categories: 1940s, 1970, Book Reviews, Fashion, Photography2, vintage • Tags: 1940s, 1960s, Adrian, art, beauty, books, celebrities, craft, design, Diane Von Furstenburg, drawing fashion, dressmaking, Entertainment, Fashion, fashion illustration, film, films, Glamour, history, hollywood, illustration, Inspiration, Jerry Schatzberg, Lauren Bacall, movies, photography, shopping, style, The Big Sleep, vintage, vogue, Weddings

The Wicked Woman of the Jazz Age – Daisy Fellowes

April 10, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

Every era has an “It” girl. She isn’t the most beautiful woman in the room, she isn’t the richest woman in the room nor is she the woman with the most glamorous outfit. She is the one women aspire to. She has more style and ingenuity in her little finger than her circle of friends put together. She isn’t a slave to fashion but 10 paces ahead – collecting the creative and the unique as she goes. In the Jazz […]

Categories: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Book Reviews, Fashion, Vintage Inspiration • Tags: 1920s, 1930s, art, beauty, books, celebrities, Chanel, craft, culture, Daisy Fellowes, design, Fashion, fashion illustration, Glamour, Harpers Bazaar, history, Inspiration, Karl Lagerfeld, literature, music, photography, style, The Jazz Age, vintage

Who’s Pussy Footing Around?

April 4, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

When I met Jason Brooks and David Downton at the Fashion Illustration event, back in December, they also had a selection of second hand illustration books. I managed to pick up this really cute one on Andy Warhol (which you can still purchase second hand) : You generally don’t think passed his silkscreens, as they’re so iconic, but these early illustrations, when Andy worked for the likes of Harpers Bazaar and Vogue, are really gorgeous. Simon Doonan, in the foreward […]

Categories: 1960s, Book Reviews, Fashion, Illustration, vintage • Tags: Andy Warhol, art, books, Chanel, Christian Louboutin, culture, design, Fashion, fashion illustration, illustration, Inspiration, Manolo Blahnik, photography, Shoes, shopping, style, vintage, vogue

The 1930s Monogram Masquerade

February 22, 2012 by igetakickoutofyou

I have a favourite book of reference at the moment, for the 1930s. It’s called Fashion at the time of Fascism and it’s all about the influence and effects of the Fascist regime on fashion in Italy. The book explores many different angles of the industry, including beauty, the rise in fashion houses and italian celebrities of the time. Today I’m only looking at one very small aspect of it – as I shall no doubt use many more for […]

Categories: 1930s, Book Reviews, vintage, Vintage Inspiration • Tags: art, books, craft, design, diy, dressmaking, Fashion, fashion illustration, history, photography, politics, reviews, style, vintage