Victorian Fashion Plates, if you please!

Godey's Lady's Book was a popular publication in the 19th century. It provided women with articles about etiquette and domestic life and the latest fashion plates from them to model their own homemade clothing after. You might say that it was the forerunner of publications like Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Most of the fashion plates I've seen have been mid-century, with huge skirts and intricate details. It was very cool to find these Victorian versions. For your home inspirational pleasure...

Made by Nikki F2011

Just got back from a week and a half in the heart of Mexico. It was a very interesting week full of ghosts and orbs and very old churches. Been slogging through all the emails that have built up in the interim, and I came across this preview of the Made By Nikki Fall 2011 Collection. Simply gorgeous! Brought to you via  Le petite-coquette.

Edwardian Ball and Fashion Plates

In honor of the upcoming Edwardian Ball here in LA this weekend, I want to share some cool fashion plates and catalog pages from the turn of the century. I'll post pictures of what we wore later on :)

I just love the details and the moody colors....

The original vamp

I've been going crazy ordering books from Amazon.com lately. I've discovered that there are so many books out there that I would actually love to read, that I would otherwise never find in the neighborhood bookstore or Barnes and Nobel. I was recently reading a book about the history of Arab dance (belly dance, whatever you want to call it) and Theda Bara was briefly mentioned.

According the this book, she was the original screen Femme Fatale and the studios went out of their way to build an elaborate (if false) myth around her. Her name is an anagram for Arab Death, and the studios claimed that she had been born in the shadows of the pyramids and she bathed in snake blood. They provided for her a Nubian driver, who drove her round Hollywood in a white limo, while she pretended to not speak a word of english. I love it. I now have a date with a friend to bar hop round LA pretending we only speak arabic. It'll be a challenge, especially once we start drinking, to maintain, but damn it! We'll give it our best!