1930s – Page 14 – Swing Fashionista

Prada goes 1930s…

I was looking through a bunch of old vintage shoe ads that I have collected over the years and have always wished that a pair of these, my favouriteÂ amazingly colourful shoes from the 1930s, would turn up on ebay.Â I have seen one or two pairs come up for auction in 12 years on ebay but they are so rare.

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Then I came across these shoes by Prada from their summer collection, looking uncannily like the the shoes from the old Sears ad! They are a lot higher in the heel but definatley have a 1930s influence. Check them out!

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Speaking of Wallis Simpson…

On the theme of Wallis Simpson, one of my favourite portayals of her was by Gillian Anderson in the UK series, ‘Any Human Heart’. Gillian captured her beautifully and the clothing she wore was exquisite. Just thought I’d share a few shots of that too, as Wallis had an amazing style that was copied by women the world over at the time. Edward was also a trendsetter is day. The ultimate stylish couple. The casual sports wear is to die for!

The 70s BBC series, ‘Edward and Mrs Simpson’ was also very good. The clothing was stunning and Edward Fox was quite uncanny as Edward. Check it out along with ‘Any Human Heart.’Â Her sportwear is to die for in the last pic.

Vanity Fair September 11: Editorial for W.E

Oh what a delicious editorial in this month’s Vanity Fair, shot by Tom Munro! The shoot is to promote the upcoming film W.E (directed by Madonna!) which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in a few days. If you haven’t heard about it yet, W.E of course stands for Wallis and Edward, and the film will explore the story of the romance between Mrs Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry the glamorous divorcee. Some stills have been released from the film, so I will post those as well – it’s going to be a Swing Fashionista’s dream come true, swoon!

Everyday fashions of the 20s, 30s & 40s by Sears

For me, as a vintage clothing collector and wearer, old clothing catalogues are must have as they are gold-mines of imagery and info. Part of recreating a vintage look is understanding how an outfit was put together back in the day, and old catalogues are the best way to find this out.

The clothes people bought to wear to work, around the house, for vacations or for more formal or glamourous occasions are all to be found in Sears catalogues. Dresses, hats, shoes, purses and scarves, jewellery and stockings. These books are a wonderful record of exactly what people wore in the 20s, 30s and 40s and HOW they wore it. It can be hard to source original catalogues these days and most go for a fortune on ebay, so these three “Everyday Fashions” books from Dover Publications are great resource and not too expensive. I use them all the time as a reference. They are available from Amazon.com

Golden Gowns

I stumbled across this photo of Cheryl Cole in a golden gown on the X-Factor. It reminded me of some photos of vintage starlets in metallic gowns I have set aside over the years. Amongst the beauties here we have Ginger Rogers, Jean Harlow, Baba Beaton, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, Nancy Coleman, Veronica Lake, Myrna Loy, Carol Hughes and Delores Del Rio. Wow, I need something like this…