Photographs from the past

I always enjoy a good rummage in dusty old boxes in junk/antique shops to see what I can unearth. I had a good look a few weeks ago in my local antique shop and I found these beauties. I spent quite some time deciding which to have. I couldn't afford to buy them all and I do find abandoned photos touching. I don't like to think that no one cares about the people photographed any longer and I always think that I need to rescue them. That is coupled with the fact that I love seeing fashions worn by real people in the past. So here are the choices I made:

Edith Dolan 1940's

One fantastic thing about these photos is that most of them had names written on the back and I do like to be able to put a name to a face. Many of them also had date stamps which is so very useful, especially for the starts and ends of decades where the fashions of one are merging into the new fashions the next and clothes alone aren't always enough to go on.

Isn't she just perfect?! Amazing hair, the arches on her eyebrows, glimmering pearl studs, puff sleeved jumper. I think the jumper is a hand knit and it looks to have dark thin stripes knitted in from the bust down. I think I have a similar pattern. I would love to know more about her.

Winnie Gibson and Douglas 1940's

Winnie's hat stopped me in my tracks and she went into the 'must keep' pile straight away. It is pretty amazing and so very big! Her dress is worth a good look too with those big round buttons on the shoulders and the diagonal stripes that cross at the bust. I wish I could see the rest of it. Douglas looks rather jolly and very smart in his uniform. I hope they came through the war unscathed and were happy together.

Ethel Booth 1920's

Ethel Booth 1920's

I couldn't leave Ethel behind for two reasons. One is that I found two photos of her and I wanted to keep them together. The other is her gorgeous 1920's day wear. I particularly like the first dress, the second is very pretty but a bit floaty for me. The first however, is one that I can imagine wearing. It appears to be a leaf print with a central white bib in the front and a long, pointed collar. Lovely shoes too.

I think Ethel is older in the second photo. Her face has slightly changed shape, her eyes are more defined like she may have some make up on and she has waved her hair. Her floral print dress has pointy, plain cuffs and collar. The floral fabric appears to be see through with a slip underneath, I think the slip is lace trimmed. Great shoes again. I can't quite see what she is holding but I think it is a beaded purse and so that is what it shall be.

Elsie Godard 26th October 1930

Bob and Elsie Godard 6th April 1931

I think Elsie Godard is such a glamorous beauty and I was so pleased to find two photos of her. I just love the top one; the casually knotted pearls, the big fur collar, the sparkle from the ring, the waved hair and that beret. It looks to be tweed, possibly with a bow at the back. I want it.

It is a bonus to get to see whole of her coat in the second photo; I'm sure it is the same one. I would like to know why they are in their outdoor clothes. Are they pretending that they lived in or visited the thatched cottage on the painted backdrop? Elsie looks more set for town than country to me though. Elsie still has her pearls on and I'm wondering if that is a dress clip on her cloche? Her shoes are marvellous too, with white edged bow shaped cut outs on the front.

Bob appears to be in a rather nice three piece wool suit, I can just about see his waistcoat. I like his big turn ups on his trousers. Nice tartan scarf too. I would like to know more about them.

Hilda and I 1920's

On the back of this photo it looks like the writer (I), on the left,  has written that they were 15 and a half and that Hilda is 17. I found out who was who as the next few photos are clearly labelled as Hilda. I think from their positioning that this is Hilda with her sister and I will come back to this in a couple of photos time.

I do like these dresses. You can clearly see the dropped waist of the one on the left, it is marked by several rows of small pleats. From the waist down the skirt are decorations which look rather like rosebuds. These appear to go all the way around the skirt. Hilda's dress has printed flowers and leaves which seem to reach just above waist level. There is a lace insert in the V neck. They both have lovely pearl necklaces and Hilda is spotting some very pretty, glittery star slides in her hair.

Hilda Price 11th April 1931

I would like to know what Hilda is thinking here; she has an interesting expression. I like her smartly belted coat with the big buckle and the thick fur collar with the corsage pinned on. I think her hat is woven fabric though it is hard to tell.

Florrie and Hilda Price 1930's

This was taken on 1st November but I can't read the year of the date stamp sadly. I think it is safe to assume that they are sisters. I am certain that Florrie is the I in the first photo with Hilda.  I have studied them a lot to make the connections. I like the matching huge bead necklaces and the carefully set hair. Hilda could well be wearing the same coat as in the previous photo.

Hilda 7th My 1939

Another interesting expression. What were you pondering Hilda? This photo really has something about it. Here she is a few years older, still liking a big pearl like necklace and a fur collared coat and a star shaped hair clip.

Hilda and hubby 1930's

I loved finding this and realising that I had photos of Hilda from her teenage years to her wedding. The back of the photo just said hubby, so sadly we don't know his name. I'm surprised that the writer didn't say having been so good at writing the names in the first place.

It is a perfect vintage wedding photo. Floor length veil, gigantic bouquet, beautiful full length, long sleeved dress and the groom is carrying his white gloves. I hope they were very happy.

Hilda Price and hubby

I nearly left this one when I first found it as it isn't my kind of thing and as I said I couldn't buy them all. But then I realised it was Hilda and it kind of finished her story off for me. I want this to be a honeymoon memento and I really think it could be. It was taken in a studio that has two branches, one in London and one in Blackpool. I'm so sure that Blackpool is where this was taken, it just feels right!

I think that these photos all came from one person's collection. I wish we knew the links between them all.

A visit to the Marks and Spencer archive

1930's lingerie advert. I would take them all!

I had a fabulous day out on Friday with my lovely friend. We met in Leeds and went to visit the Marks and Spencer archive which is located in the Michael Marks building at the University of Leeds. It is an interesting walk from the centre of Leeds through the university campus and it takes about 25 minutes. I found out about the archive a while ago but it has taken me this long to get organised for a visit. It was well worth the wait!

Marks and Spencer is one of the most recognised shops on the UK high street and even if the fashion doesn't always float your boat I bet you still go in for basics, underwear or food. My M&S staples are cardigans, tights, pyjamas and coronation chicken sandwiches!

1970's lingerie advert. I like the florals in the middle.

The archive exists both as the archive part with a reading room that you can book into to look at M&S documents and items and as an exhibition area looking at the progression of the company through the ages.

Most of the garments and items are behind glass so please excuse the strange lights and reflections in some of the photos. I think they still give a good idea of the fashions which is what I was after.

I bet most people in the UK have at least one pair of M&S knickers!

The first part of the exhibition goes through the history of the company - the detail of which can be found in this timeline. In brief, (underwear joke ha ha ha!), in 1884 an immigrant peddler Michael Marks opened his penny bazaar in Leeds market. He stopped selling more expensive items, concentrating on things like haberdashery and everything did indeed cost a penny. Tom Spencer became a partner in 1894 bringing admin skills and financial backing. By 1900 Marks and Spencer had 36 penny bazaars and 12 high street stores.

The penny pricing had to cease at the outbreak of the first world war as goods became harder to obtain and more expensive. The company survived the Depression by changing it's pricing and offering a smaller number of goods, concentrating on clothes and food. In the 1940's M&S helped the government with developing quality clothes with fewer details at lower prices, which helped to result in utility clothing.

An early M&S shop assistant's uniform and one on the right from the 1940's.

More staff uniforms, I remember the one on the right.

Logo details on the dress in the middle above.

1960's uniform, as seen on the left above.

In the 1950's and 1960's M&S concentrated on developing it's clothing, both in terms of fashions and materials. From the 1960's there was greater use of man made fabrics. The food department also changed, bringing chilled rather than frozen chickens to the housewives of the day. Convenience foods followed by 1973.

Now let's look at some fashion!

1920's vanity box

1920's kimono

These two items are made form beautiful floral fabrics. The next set of pictures are of 1940's fashions.

Look at those marvellous buttons!

I love this circus print! So much detail!

Moving on to the 1950's.

Yes please!!

Great dog scarf!

A television showing period M&S adverts.

Now for the 1960's.

Great print on that dress.

 The 1970's

The exhibition continues to cover the years up to the present day. I stopped taking photos after the 1970's display as by then I had covered all the eras whose fashions I was interested in. The exhibition at the archive isn't massive but it is well displayed and informative and really very interesting. We spent a lovely time there and really enjoyed ourselves. We then wandered back into Leeds for dinner at the M&S cafe as we felt it was only fitting! There were no coronation chicken sandwiches though!

I leave you with this one of me modelling a wartime ARP helmet.

And as it should look!

Vintage wedding photographs part five

It is an exciting time as my sister gets married on Saturday. It seems to have been a while in the planning and is now suddenly here. Her dress is made, the cakes are iced, my niece and I have sparkly bridesmaid's shoes to wear, bunting is being put together, paper flowers are being fashioned and crochet floral table centrepiece production is a go go. It is all set to be a wonderful day.

All this wedding preparation made me think it was about time to feature some more vintage wedding photos here. You can find more in my previous posts on this subject here, here, here, here  here and here.

I really like this 1920's photograph as you can see a fair bit of detail of the bride's cap and veil. Look at the lovely lace on the corner of the veil that is hanging over the chair. Her cap is either beaded or she has some kind of tiara on. It is a shame that her massive bouquet hides her dress but this is common in wedding photos of this era.

I think this is a 1920's wedding because of the bride's hat, hair and dropped waist dress. On the back of the photo it says Mother and Dad. I wish we had their names! I like the fact that this bride's bouquet almost touches the floor! The groom is very dapper.

I think that this is also a 1920's wedding, although it could be early 1930's. Massive bouquets, floor length veil, pearls, bridal cap. I am particularly interested in the bridesmaid's dresses as it looks like they have some sort of open, full length coat that goes over their dresses. Their hats are also interesting, the look like they have an inner cap that fits close to the head and then the outer part has the brim. You can see the hat pin on the bridesmaid on the left.

I like these two smiley, happy bridesmaids. I like the jaunty angled brims on their hats too. The sleeves and length of their gowns make me think this is a 1930's photo.

I think this is an early 1940's photograph judging by the hair and the woman on the right's dress and hat. We can't see much of the bride but close up it is possible to distinguish two layers to her dress, the top layer is see through and looks to have a lattice pattern. The bridesmaid's dresses look a little more 1930's with their puffed sleeves. On the bridesmaid on the left you can see some kind of detailing near the bottom of the dress, I think it could be an appliqué bow? The little girl has nice shoes that I would wear now and a great, sticking out dress!

This photo is not in great condition but I wanted to include it as the bride is in the middle of laughing at something and looks so very happy. I can't tell if the bride's dress is a printed fabric, some kind of damask or has a lace overlay. Her sleeves look slightly puffed but then tight from the elbow down. You can just catch a glimpse of her floor length veil behind the groom's leg. I like his pin striped suit. I think this is a 1940's wedding.

This is a lovely picture of a wartime wedding. I hope that they had a long and happy life together. The bride and bridesmaid have suits on or possibly the bride has a long coat and a dress on. Impressive hats too.

Very helpfully there is lots of information on the back of this picture. The wedding of Mary and Alan took place on 4th November 1948. The best man is Brian Temperley and the bridesmaid is May Lyons, the bride worked with her at the Regal Cinema. I love being able to find out this kind of information. The bride is in a lovely shaped suit, it looks like the skirt may button down the middle, or it has some kind of central decoration. May's dress has some very pretty pleats and looks to have some embroidery at the collar. She has a very far away look!

This bride is wearing a lovely suit, it is probably a wartime wedding. The star piece of her ensemble is her hat. It  has masses of veiling and some bird's feathers/wings/half a bird on it. Quite impressive. They look happy couple.

I think that this could be a 1940's wedding too. The top of her dress has such beautiful details on it, beaded flowers and a sequined ribbon. I think that her hat is made of feathers, I like the ones that curl around her ears. This is a lovely, happy picture.

This is such a fabulous picture of these three bridesmaids all smiling away. The have lovely floor length floral dresses with a slight sweetheart neckline finished off with pearls. They all have elbow length white gloves and cute half hats. I think this is from a 1950's wedding.

I'm looking forward to Saturday!

An archive of wonder - part one 1920's-1950's

A few weeks ago, I, along with a group of friends, went on a very exciting day out to the Knitting and Crochet Guild Archive. The Knitting and Crochet Guild is a charity dedicated to all aspects of UK knitting and crochet, preserving the heritage of the crafts whilst encouraging it's development. The archive houses the Guild's collection of books, patterns, needles, tools, gadgets and made items.

We were booked in for a handling day which involved a tour of the archive and then a chance to see and discuss some of the items from the collection, and to handle them whilst wearing cotton gloves to prevent any damage. This was all fuelled by tea and biscuits and much excitement!

The three Guild members who were showing us around did an amazing job. They were very knowledgeable about their subjects and were really enthusiastic. They were not at all fazed by our stream of questions and the shrieks of excitement and the ooos and ahhhs that accompanied each reveal of the items. Thanks to them we had a super day.

I took so many photos of these incredible pieces that I need to split the posts about this visit into several parts! It is such an opportunity to show some of these items that I don't want to leave anything out!

The garments were all laid out on a black tablecloth for us to see them clearly. The lighting isn't always brilliant but I avoided using the flash so as to not cause any damage. If you mentally dial up the vibrancy of the colours a little then you will be on the right track! It was just great to actually be able to take photos so thanks to the Guild for letting me.

This is a lovely 1920's yellow crochet tunic.

Look how fine the work is! This is a close up of the bottom edge.

This is closer up still to show the delicate picot edging.

This copy of Fancy Needlework Illustrated contains similar patterns which helps in the correct dating of the items.

The next item we saw is this beautiful 1930's jumper. It is knitted in various pastel rayons/artsilks.

Here is a close up and you can see that the main body of the jumper is knitted in a slip stitch pattern.

This close up shows the lovely crochet neck edging. The jumper fastens with buttons at the shoulder.

This gives us a view of both the right and wrong side of the work.

This is the inside of the jumper, those coloured stripes are beautiful!

We were also shown a couple of 1930's children's dresses which were knitted from Robin patterns.

They were knitted in a mixture of rayon and angora. Here you can see the angora yoke.

This pink dress has a square necked angora yoke.

This knitted jumper is from the 1950's and is beige with a blue diamond lattice pattern on the front but not on the back. It is knitted in 3-ply wool and may  have been part of a twin set.

The blue lattice is not knitted in to the garment, it is embroidered on using straight stitch. The jumper has a centre back opening fastened with metal poppers.

We were able to learn some of the history about this jumper. It was knitted during the donor's daily commute, she knitted many item in her journeys. She also donated a brown pixie hood to the archive, I hope she used to wear them both together.

This is a 1950's knitted jacket in dusky pink 2/3-ply and was knitted from a Vogue pattern. It is really very tiny, the waist measures 22 inches.

The buttons are gilt. There is a lace inset pattern done the sides of each button band and across the bottom.

Under the cuffs and the bottom band are lined with petersham to stabilise them.

Here you can see the really neat stitches attaching the petersham to the knitted fabric.

Most of the items in the collection have been acquired through donations and the Guild are working on making sure all areas of knitting and crochet and all eras are covered.

Part two is going to focus on garments from the 1960's to the present day.