La Femme de France frontispiece, August 1926.

I think this would make a nice t-shirt or 'shopper' bag design.

Jenson's Robbialac

 I'm against 'neutral'. Paint everything. All right, perhaps not the mirror. Or the lampshade. Steady on.

Dainty housework, 1926.

Put me down for a home demonstration.

The old lines are the best.

Knight's Castile advertisement, Home Chat 1949.

There they are!

Haven't seen you in ages!

Likewise!

When I acquired this photo I was sure the woman was Christina Foyle of Foyle's bookshop. I was wrong.

Reformwear.

Berlin 1920s. In the early '20s reformwear leagues sprung up all over Europe as a response to the rapid revolution in women's clothing. The reformers merely wanted to join the party by loosening restrictions on gentlemen's eveningwear in particular. Reformers were generally very keen on loose collars, tabards, sleeveless cardigans, shorts, socks ( stockings) and leather sandals.
Of course, we need guerrilla reformwear leagues RIGHT NOW for the opposite reason: to oppose the slovenliness of the 'designer' casualwear plague. I'll say just this: it WILL get you everywhere with the ladies.

Stop all the clocks: Empire Exhibition 1938 postcards

We're almost at the last glimpse of the British Empire here in the summer of 1938. Apparently it rained almost throughout the exhibition's life and the 300-foot Observation Tower was frequently rendered useless due to being encased by cloud. Oh, allegory.  With huge slabs of Europe infected with fascism the exhibition seems to me to have been a final flash of optimism at a time when all eyes were on the Beast of Berlin. We didn't exhibit again until the 1951 Festival Of Britain by which time Britain wasn't so willing or able to brag about empires and dominions.

I find these images rather dreamy. As a child in the 1960s I was very taken with the notion of 'garden cities' and 'new towns', the moving , if you will, of pavillions from far to near. Although we may have thought we were unleashing a blanket Billy Butlin-ism ultimately we built only readymade ruins. There's nowhere you can fittingly hang a Kiss-Me-Quick hat. Born, not consulted, etc.