Something Blue

One night a few weeks back I was feeling a little blue, so I decided to cheer myself up with something nice from Etsy. I didn’t want to spend much, so these cute little periwinkle blue ribbon hair clips from UK store ffflowers hit the spot. I call it chic and cheerful shopping, and they look just darling with my bob.

Party Girl of the Ancient World

Click images for larger versions

Salomé –the original wild party girl of the ancient world. Here the femme fatale models the essential accoutrements of the successful dancing girl: foot-long fringe, harem pants, beaded bra tops, hotpants – and, nothing at all except for a seductive smoulder (and a little Lancôme makeup) for the camera.

Manuela Pavesi of Italian Vogue styles the shoot, and the photographs are by Albert Watson – most likely from an early- to mid-nineties issue.

Here’s my take on Salomé, plus a few historical images.

Cherry-Ripe

Lots of favourite things here: red, red and white together, stripes, hats … and cherries. Who doesn’t love a cherry motif? There would be just something wrong with you if you could reject a cherry. Retro, yet never out of fashion. There are a zillion cherry earrings on Etsy, and I wonder how many lipsticks have been named after cherries? And let’s not forget black forest cake.

I found this cute little cherry printed tank in a charity shop. You can’t really see it in the photos, but the dark shading on the cherry print has been done in an enlarged halftone (that is the dot pattern you see on all printed material). That little detail is just the cherry on top.

I remembered a quaint old poem I read somewhere once upon a time about a girl so deliciously sweet Thomas Campion compared her to a bunch of cherries. Here it is:

Cherry-Ripe

There is a garden in her face 
  Where roses and white lilies blow; 
A heavenly paradise is that place, 
  Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow: 
  There cherries grow which none may buy 
  Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. 

Those cherries fairly do enclose 
  Of orient pearl a double row, 
Which when her lovely laughter shows, 
  They look like rose-buds fill’d with snow; 
  Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy 
  Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. 

Her eyes like angels watch them still; 
  Her brows like bended bows do stand, 
Threat’ning with piercing frowns to kill 
  All that attempt with eye or hand 
  Those sacred cherries to come nigh, 
  Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry.

There are a couple of extra images on the SNAP Facebook page – it was hard to decide which background I liked best.

Fascinator Baygon!

I loathe fascinators. They are an abomination. They ought to be crushed underfoot by any self-respecting woman with any pretensions to chic. In fact, that is the photoshoot I hoped to bring to you today, on this Melbourne Cup Day holiday but it was not to be, alas. I have no fascinator in my possession to destroy.

Feathers, ribbons, sinnamay, fie!

These lamentably ubiquitous accessories seen on female heads everywhere during the Spring Racing Carnival look like nothing more than a plague of insects have landed in the city. They have even been forbidden at Royal Ascot. Feathers, ribbons, sinnamay, fie! If only we could spray them with some Baygon Protector Multi Fascinator Killer – that would soon rid the city of these pests.

The Seventh Veil

CELEBRATING THE ROARING TWENTIES IN A SPECIAL SERIES

Salomé – an icon of dangerous female seductiveness – has inspired centuries of artists to create paintings, operas, films, ballets, poetry, songs and even video games. For some she is the frivolous and foolish young woman who caused the death of John the Baptist, for others she is revered as the classic femme fatale, able to both fascinate and repulse simultaneously.

Aubrey Beardsley’s Salomé, 1907She danced before King Herod and his court and abstracted a promise from the king to grant a wish. Her dance is thought to have had an erotic element to it and is the precursor to the famous Dance of the Seven Veils during which six outer veils are flung off. Having seduced the king, and prompted by her mother, Salomé demanded the head of John to be served to her on a platter. If you ask me, it was rather foolish of the besotted king to have agreed to grant her wish before having heard it.

My seventh veil consists of portions of an Arabian dancing costume, a vintage sequin encrusted showgirl bra and lots of vintage pearls and silver jewellery. Plus loads of kohl, the essential accessory of any dancing girl worth her salt.

All Nazimova, Russian American actress, plays Salomé in 1923George Barbier’s portrait of Tamara Karsavina as Salomé, 1914Theda Bara in a rather awesome costume, as Salomé, 1918