Queen of the Night

CELEBRATING THE ROARING TWENTIES IN A SPECIAL SERIES

You’ve heard of those flowers that bloom only at night? Here’s another varietal that comes out in the evening: a 1920s poppy fascinator to adorn the head of the femme fatale. Be careful she might have thorns to prick you …

Night flowers have such evocative names: Queen of the Night, moon flower, columbine, evening primrose and night flowering jasmine. Usually they are white or silver to catch the moonlight and attract night pollinators, drawing them with their exceedingly fragrant scent.

The most special is the Queen of the Night – there is no other flower so fragrant or rare as this one. It is in fact a variety of cacti flower that blooms once in a year if you are lucky – or only once in several years. Its Latin name is Cereus cactus, but for its rare and majestic presence it is commonly known as the ‘Queen of the Night’. It literally bleeds aroma from its beautiful white petals. Expect it to bloom on one special summer night.

The Queen of the Night herself

Raspberry Swirl

CELEBRATING THE ROARING TWENTIES IN A SPECIAL SERIES

Raspberries: delicious to eat own their own, on top of pavlova, poured over with cream, swirled into icecream … the list is endless. It’s even a beautiful-sounding word, and totally hooked me when I stumbled upon this cloche hat on eBay a few months ago. It was described as a ‘raspberry swirl’ of a hat, and I won it at auction at the unbelievable price of $6.55. It is vintage 1950s, and the seller did not in fact describe or photograph it as a cloche. However, pulled down over the head mimics the classic 20s flapper hat wonderfully.

The striped long-sleeved cotton tee and the Moschino Cheap & Chic skirt combination are a perfect match, and worn together resemble the dropwaist silhouette popular in the 1920s. Stripes were of course popular in this decade too. A cute summer outfit to wear by the beach.

The first recorded use of raspberry as a colour name was in 1892, and there are many shades, ranging from a vibrant cool pink to rose, to a duller glace that more exactly resembles puce. French raspberry is comparatively quite a warm tone.

Scroll down for an inspiring gallery of deliciousness. 

1920s silk evening dress from Fab Gabs on Etsy1920s evening gownsFind them at: Sequinned gown (left) and beaded gown (right)

Adorable, sweet and sexy, this Kitty lingerie set in Raspberry is by LasciviousRaspberry threads by Esme Living ColourRaspberry rug at Modern RugsAnd last, but certainly not least, raspberries and cream

Thoroughly Modern Filly

CELEBRATING THE ROARING TWENTIES IN A SPECIAL SERIES

Clara Bow modelling as the well-dressed flapper

Those of us who love vintage clothing and shop for it today will probably have a fair idea of how much garments cost according to their age and quality. But have we thought about how much these same clothes cost back in the day? 

Here is a breakdown of a well-dressed flapper’s ensemble, and what a pretty penny it cost: $346.50 to be exact. Doesn’t sound like much to us, does it? That silk faille coat trimmed in ermine fur on collar and cuffs cost $150 then; today it would fetch many hundreds of dollars or even thousands, depending upon where you did your shopping. On The Frock, a 1920s black silk evening cape in excellent condition fetches $1150 – which is really not that much compared with the cost of a similar modern designer coat, let alone haute couture. (Do browse through The Frock website – there are some truly amazing pieces there.)

… That puts the cost of Clara’s outfit at nearly three months’ wages!

To give you some perspective, the average yearly income of the American worker (across all industries) in the 1920s was $1407. That puts the cost of Clara’s outfit at nearly three months’ wages! Back then, a new-fangled electric washing machine cost $85; a bicycle $43, and a dozen eggs set you back just 78¢.

So Mr Pierce is not joking when he writes: ‘As a matter of fact, it costs about as much to dress a modern girl in a genuinely modish flapper outfit as it does to equip completely a reasonably well-furnished three-room flat.’

Image from Australian Grazia magazine, Oct 22, 2012; photographed by Harold David and styled by Virginia Van Heythuysen

Above is my comparison with the well-dressed flapper: a well-dressed filly, taken from the current issue of Australian Grazia magazine, in a fashion editorial aimed at young ladies attending the Spring Racing Carnival. The total cost of this outfit is $4,684.96. That’s not including the cost of the Chanel makeup used in the shoot. Suddenly I can visualise the scoffing exclamations an average 1920s flapper lass must have made when she flipped through the magazine that page was torn from.

Suddenly I can visualise the scoffing exclamations an average 1920s flapper lass must have made when she flipped through the magazine …

The average Australian female salary (excluding overtime) is around $61,760 – and that before tax. Take that out, and this outfit costs nearly two months’ wages. A dozen free-range organic eggs, by the way, (which is probably what that flapper girl was paying 78¢ for) costs around $8. 

So, beautiful clothes have become a little cheaper, and ‘quite nice’ clothes from high street brands are within the reach of most of us, but it’s worth remembering that there are still some true vintage bargains to be had out there. And I’m not talking about The Frock prices – I mean thrift shops where you could strike gold and find an amazing garment for $5 or $10. Thrifting, op-shopping, flea-market shopping, whatever you call it – that’s thoroughly modern, and thoroughly kind to the earth. 

Feeling Blue

Girls in Red :: Lucas AB2 // Dylan // No flashLast week Upsie-Daisy finished up working at the theatre after something like six years. We were all very sad to see her go of course, but happy she was going on to something exciting, and still in the arts precinct so she wouldn’t be too far away for lunchtime reunions.

In celebration, she suggested we (in our respected departments) all dress up in different colours each day in the ten days leading up to her departure. She set up a spreadsheet immediately indicating which colours were to be worn on which day. I don’t work Mondays, so missed out on yellow (which I was very disappointed about), and Upsie-Daisy herself was a fail on the day! She had forgotten to account for the fact she actually had no yellow in her wardrobe. One day was allocated for spots or stripes – I was pleased to combine the two, although stripes proved to be more popular.

Here we all are on red day, her penultimate – by this time the rest of the company had twigged to what was going on. On her last day we all, aptly, wore blue.

Jazz Girls in Red :: Lucas AB2 // Dylan // No flash

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an icon of Australian literature and film. The book was written in 1967 by Joan Lindsay, and such was its impact that it was soon after adapted to film by Peter Weir, in 1975.

Written in the form of a true story, and set on Valentines Day in 1900, the book centres on the disappearance of a number of teenage girls and one of their teachers during an excursion to Hanging Rock in country Victoria. The first half of the story focusses on the girls as they prepare for this longed-for picnic, and after the disappearance, the impact this has on their fellow students and the larger community. But the mystery was never solved, and hence its endless fascination.

A still from Picnic at Hanging Rock, the 1975 film directed by Peter WeirThe character that has most impact on everyone in her world is the ethereal Miranda, who looks, as her French teacher remarks, like a Botticelli angel. All the girls are dressed similarly, in white muslin dresses, buttoned high around the throat and tight around the wrists, with straw boaters on their heads, but there is indeed something special about Miranda. She floats about like a spirit from another world, and she speaks as though she knows she is only visiting for a short time. And then she is gone.

An alternate version of my image treated like a vintage photograph

All sorts of sordid and mystical theories – sexual molestation, abduction, murder – are put forth to explain their disappearance, but none of them come close to the truth. For in fact, Lindsay had written a final chapter resolving the mystery, but her editor suggested she remove it prior to publication. Chapter Eighteen was subsequently published in 1987, and if you burn to know the truth, you can read about it here.

Here is my little homage: my lacy dress (a souvenir from Vietnam) looks more like the girls’ chemises than a dress, but the cotton Battenberg lace parasol and the enamel cups are something these girls from 1900 would immediately recognise.