L'Officiel Archives

Holly's great selections of photos of 1970s Lanvin prints brought to my attention the online Archives of L'Officiel, a venerable French fashion magazine. The functionality is good, and the interface is intuitive enough that I don't think the ability to read French is absolutely necessary (hint: "Plein ecran" = full screen mode)

I love these constructivist-influenced covers from the 1920s and 30s:



..and the way the thumbnails of 1920s covers show a fast progression from a traditional and subdued presentation to the splashy, confrontational aesthetic that still prevails in magazine design.

The archives of L'Officiel are part of the Jalou Archives, which also includes Jalouse and dozens of other fashion and lifestyle magazines, mostly from the 1990s-2000s. I'm thrilled to find out about yet another business concern that sees their archives as an asset worth preserving and publicizing - and that is far-sighted enough to share it with the public, rather than "rights-managing" it into oblivion.

Vintage family snapshots

You see these boxes of hundreds of snapshots at antique malls and junk shops. While they're often fascinating, I don't like looking at them because the idea of someone selling or giving away family pictures makes me unspeakably sad. Then I happened across one at Uncommon Objects in Austin. We were rushing through on our way to dinner, so I wasn't in shopping mode. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I said if I could find it again the next day, I'd get it.

There you have it. I also bought some Kenyan safari-print fabric and a few greeting cards.

Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Part 2

If Google Analytics is to be believed, a number of you are interested in Key West Hand Print Fabrics, a specialty textile and resortwear company I blogged last month. Ever wonder what the company was like in its heyday?




Now you know, thanks to the Florida Memory Project, State Archives of Florida.

I'm currently working on a few more posts about hand print textile manufacturers in the Caribbean and southern U.S. I also just got a great vintage blouse with a hand print of irises from a resortwear manufacturer in Puerto Rico that I'm looking forward to researching.

Kodakiana, part 1

via Ellis Collection of Kodakiana, Duke University Libraries

San Antonio tourist attractions

Not shown: Hordes of tourists.

Pirkle Jones, 1914-2009

With Ruth-Marion Baruch, documented The Black Panthers 1968:

Ghost signs, Austin

"In 1875, one Thomas Cusack, a youth in his teens, started a business with only a paint pot and brush and a remarkable personality as assets. The business consisted in painting advertising signs on the sides of buildings in a small way. Gradually, he took to building billboards of his own, and leasing suitable walls and other locations for outdoor advertisements." -- Time, 1924

"Cusack. Thomas, outdoor advertising; born Ireland, Oct. 5, 1858; son John and Dehlia (Mc- Mahon) Cusack; came to New York with parents when 3 years old; lost parents 2 years later; came to Chicago in 1863; attended pub. and private schools here and St. Xavier's Coll.. New York; married Elinor Ross, 1891 (died 1894); married 2d, Mary E. Greene, at Yonkers, N.Y., July 10, 1895; children: Anna, Thomas, Charles, Francis and Evelyn. Learned sign painting trade and in Dec. 1875 started In the advertising sign business as Thomas Cusack & Co., Incorporated 1903, as Thos. Cusack Co., of which has since been pres.; co. has branches In all parts of U.S. Was mem. Chicago Board of Edn., 1891-8 (vice-pres. of board, 1896, 1897, 1898); on staff of Gov. Altgeld, with rank of col., 1893-7; mem. 56th Congress, 1899-1901, 4th 111. Dist. Has served as mem. of the State Central Dem. Com.; del. Dem. Nat. Convention. Denver, 1908. Mem. Art lust, of Chicago, Chicago Assn. of Commerce. Clubs: Chicago Athletic, Westward Ho Golf. Recreations: handball and golf. Residence: 639 S. Ashland Boul. Office: Cor. W. 15th and Throop Sts." -- The Book of Chicagoans, A.N. Marquis & Co., 1911 via Google Book Search.

Spring coats, part II

I was just wondering if you got your spring coat yet.

Punks of a certain age

Top to bottom: Fay Fife, Penelope Houston, Poison Ivy, Siouxsie

Jolies laides

These two hated each other's guts:




Top to bottom: Chanel; 1927 little black dress; Schiaparelli; 1937 lobster dress

Yale-Vassar Bicycle Race

The funnest party ever, April 1952:






via Life archive. Photographer: Yale Joel.

Jakob Bengel

The Jakob Bengel Company began in a Germany as an engineering and metalware manufacturing firm, but is now best known for the Deco jewelry they produced in the 1930s, using chrome and a casein plastic called galalith (that's Greek Roots for "milkstone").

For that futuristic barbarian superhero princess look:




All via eBay seller natparis.

St. Therese of Lisieux as Joan of Arc

St. Therese of Lisieux IS Joan of Arc in "Joan of Arc," written, directed and produced by St. Therese of Lisieux.

New collection: photos of non-traditional fire dogs

We suffer through a lot of pointless fire alarms at my workplace. It's a combination of our perpetual state of construction and, I think, people nipping into the stairwells for a smoke. The fire station is a block north of us, so the firefighters are usually in and out within fifteen minutes.

One time they brought the fire dog! It was a black and white pit bull. It sat in the front of the fire truck with its head sticking out the window while the firefighters went in. I loved that it was not a Dalmatian, but still had the same color scheme. I'm starting this collection in honor of non-Dalmatian, I mean non-traditional,* fire dogs.

The first two photos in this collection have a secondary theme, which is "fire dogs wearing hats and smoking pipes"

via PitBulls on the Web:


via American Museum of Photography:


I have a few others to share, but let me know if you find more!

*Look, nothing personal if you love Dalmatians, but I don't care for them. Plus they shouldn't get all the credit for fighting fires.

Dial S for Super-Saturated!

We just watched Dial M for Murder, a second-tier Hitchcock film that's still right up there with Vertigo and Rear Window in terms of its use of Big 50s Color. It was originally shot for 3-D because it was all the rage, but was seldom projected that way.

Jon once told me that I "don't know how movies work" because I'm often so distracted by some element of production design that I completely fail to follow the plot of the movie. I did fixate on this one celadon lamp that I'm pretty sure was mainly there as a foil to Grace Kelly's explosively red dinner dress. Fortunately the characters explain the basic plot in advance and revisit all the important points as it progresses, so I could still follow along.




Even the beiges are rich and buttery. Also entertaining for a scene in which Grace Kelly sports the "no makeup look" and utterly fails to look frowsy and downtrodden.