Vintage on the Runway, Dita in Howard Greer

 Dita Von Teese in what looks to be a vintage 1940's Howard Greer gown...or a good copy.

Howard Greer gown from the archives of Dorothea's Closet Vintage.

From the VFG website:

"Greer opened Greer, Inc. in Los Angeles late in 1928 with a legendary star-packed opening. He was the first major costume designer to take the leap of establishing his own couture house. He started with custom design, then added ready to wear alongside it by 1947. After that his clothing was sold around the country and he was in the top tier of American ready-to-wear designers . Greer specialized in cocktail and dinner dresses that he specifically designed to look good seated at a table with stunning necklines.....In many ways, he remained true to his training as a costume designer. He didn’t follow the padded shoulder line of the 1940s, and liked to work with black combined with a range of pinks for contrast."

Photo Post: The last of The Summer

I know it is October, but here in Central Arkansas the summer is still hanging on by it's fingernails.
Just a few more days of 80's and then it looks like real fall might be around the corner.
I brought in the last of the Zinnias the other day and took a few pictures.

Also. TOMATO PIE. I got a hand full of green tomatoes from my mom about 3 weeks ago and just left them on the shelf and a last week they began to turn. Ate one last night, yummy as can be so I cut the rest up and made a tomato pie.
It is, as always, delish.

Vintage Lilli Ann Coat on Dita?

GASP!

Is it vintage? Not sure, but if it is I would not be surprised if it is a Lilli Ann coat.
Very dramatic.
Here's a few scans I have from early 50's Vogues.

Via Tom and Lorenzo.

Photo Post: Evil Cat is Hungry

Evil Cat pondering who (whom?) to eat first.

We ran out of cat food yesterday.
Luckily we got to the shop this morning before she decided the dogs would do.

For Those Who Love To Read

*

Since June I have purchased 13 books from Amazon for my Kindle.
Now I love to read.
And I love books.
I really love my Kindle.
I hate holding a book and I have an inability to get books back in time.
I lose books and my dogs have been known to find library books very yummy.
And I love libraries.

Today I found out that my local library now has the ability to lend books via Kindle due to a deal between Overdrive and Amazon.

Yippee!

My reading lists are heavily British and obscure, but there will be no more late or lost books fines and I will save some money on purchases.
Of course this all depends on what format my library has a specific book available in. From comparing what I bought in the last few months to what is available there are 4 books I purchased that could have been just borrowed. Plus there are a few I was not really sure if I wanted to read or not (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) that now I can borrow happily.

I still have to go to the library and pay my $50 fine (I know....DON'T JUDGE ME) which I would have paid in May if they had a CC machine and took debit cards.
I mean really, who carries cash anymore?

*That is a Bryant and May mystery by Christopher Fowler. If you like mysteries and have a thing for London these are the best.

Mushroom Interlude

It has been pretty wet in the last week (finally) and mushrooms have begun sprouting from some potting soil.

Photos: Vintage Finds

We went on a short trip this week to visit my parents and in between great meals my mother and I did a bit of shopping.
I got a few new vintage 50's tumblers, some fun vintage hankies for wiping my brow and a Homer Laughlin serving bowl in a great starburst pattern I like.

This is Not Sad...

There is way too much fucking "weigh you down" sadness this week.
Fires in Texas and all the 9/11 stuff.
I made the mistake of turning on NPR earlier. Christ, one depressing angst fest after another. Tragedy porn at it's finest.
Enough to make this depressed, broke and hormonal woman want to end it all with a butter knife.
To make us all feel better I give you a picture of Angus the Stray Who Lives Under My House Because He Sprays. That planter never got filled this year with flowers and what not because he decided it made a very fine cat bed. I have gone outside and found him sleeping in it on his back with just his kitty paws trust in the air.
Oh yes.
It is too laugh.

Last of the Summer Photographs

The other night we got the golden glow that shows up some nights right before the sun goes down.
I ran outside and saw this:

Nice.
It was better in person.
Also snapped a few pictures of the last blooms on my crepe myrtle which has been in bloom since late June.

Balenciaga

Vintage Balenciage Suit, 1951

First Lady Vintage

I thought that looked like a vintage dress.
Mrs. Obama is on the cover of next month's Essence Magazine wearing a lovely vintage 50's dress from New York Vintage.
She makes it look totally modern.
Via Mrs. O.

Amelia's Fashions

Interesting article on Huffington Post about Amelia Earhart's Fashion Line.
Nice bit of vintage fashion history.

The above is a 30's pattern available at Vintage Fashion Library.

Via ArtFire Vintage on Twitter.

To Bed....

For the Sherlock fans out there, they have finished shooting the second season which will run in 2012 here in the US on PBS. If you have not watched season one yet, I think it is one Netflix streaming.

Vintage London

Wonderful film of very early 1950's London via author Christopher Fowler's blog.

Still Hard

I've had so many pets die (mostly because I've had so many) over the past 10 years, but it is still heartbreaking when it happens.

A friend had to put a lovely kitty to sleep yesterday (?) which reminded me that I had not posted that Alley Cat died about a month ago. Old age, over 100 degree weather and a ninja like ability to slip outside and disappear for days on end did her in.

Sweet kitty.

I'll miss her.

Change in the Light

There is a lovely phenomenon that happens in the summer when the air changes overnight from heavy and overbearing to, well, normal. When that happens breathing becomes less of a chore, the contrast between shade and light is more pronounced, colors richer.

That happened today.

It was still cool enough when I woke at 10 am (stop judging people) to catch a few morning glories still open.

I love the way the light illuminates the back of this flower.

 Angus in his jungle getting his chow on.

A cup of tea and I already feel less bitter.

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Argument

I keep having this argument with my husband about women.

He is disappointed that once women go into management most of them act just like the male soul crushers at work.

He uses the C word...a lot....I do too, but that is besides the point.

His argument is that after all the trouble getting equal rights and feminism and all that that women have gone though to get where we, are we should be better people.

At least as management.

My argument is that it would be nice if that happened, but women are human beings and there are just as many douchey women* as men and in the end the women's rights movement is about women having the right to be an ass* as much as a man.

One of my favorite writers, Caitlin Moran summed my point up in her book How To Be a Woman:

“The purpose of feminism isn’t to make a particular type of woman. The idea that there are inherently wrong and inherently right ‘types’ of women is what’s screwed feminism for so long – this belief that ‘we’ wouldn’t accept slaggy birds, dim birds, birds that bitch, birds that hire cleaners, birds that stay at home with their kids, birds that have pink Mini Metros with ‘Powered By Fairy Dust!’ bumper stickers, birds in burkas, or birds that like to pretend, in their heads, that they’re married to Zach Braff from Scrubs, and that you sometimes have sex in an ambulance while the rest of the cast watch and, latterly, clap. You know what? Feminism will have all of you.
What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be.

*see Palin and/or Bachmen

*recent studies have shown that assholes actual make more money then nice people so that is probably why we all tend to end up working for such cunts (used in the more British way to signify male and/or female ass) in the end.

I Would Sell My Son For This

Or even my right boob.

Anyway, it has a habit of getting in the way.

Kuma Komet Television.....

Via @retroruth (No Pattern Required) on Twitter.

Also.

I am old.

How old you may ask.

So old that when the news (which also leads to the question of why would this story be on the news) "The Smiths" I think of this:

Not Will and Jada Smith.

Seriously, I just don't care.

New Links

I added a couple of links to the roll.

* Skeptical Science, it will help you deal with the conservatives in your family who do not think there is such a thing as Global Warming and if we pray enough Jesus will save us from it anyway. It is listed under the heading; Truth in Politics or How to Deal with the TeaBaggers in your Life.

* Christopher Fowler, an English author who writes the cracking good Bryant and May mystery novels. For Anglophiles his blog is a great mix of London past and present with other odd bits and pieces thrown in.

*John Finnemore, the comedy genius who writes my favorite BBC radio show "Cabin Pressure", has a nice little blog. I like him so I read it. The last few posts have included pictures of his notebooks for each show which is really a gift to budding writers to actually see how his creative process on paper works. Plus he is a really funny man.

That's it.

I think I will leave you with Craig T. Nelson being a douchebag on Glenn Beck.