Vintage Outfit Post-Indian Summer

Technically, at least according to the Old Farmer's almanac, Indian Summer can only occur between the dates of November 11 and November 20th and is marked by warm, windless days with a hazy or smoky atmosphere, and these days must follow a cold frost.   Indian summer is fleeting and rare and therefor precious.   The colors on the dress in today's outfit post remind me of the most beautiful Indian Summer's in my memory, all hazy and golden.   The dress is from Revamp Vintage, I scored during their early summer sale at a very good price.  Revamp makes clothes for theatre and tv productions and every day vintage afficianados alike and there attention to detail is impressive.  Their clothes are extremely historically accurate, and unlike most repro companies they don't focus only on the later vintage decades, the 1940s and 50s, but include many items from the 1900s through the 1930s.  My dress is a copy of a 1920s cotton lawn dress and it reminds me of the robe style looks popular in the twenties.  The beautiful hair clip is from chatter blossom and she made it with vintage flowers in the same colors as the dress.

Revamp has great customer service and for no additional fee they shortened the dress so I wouldn't have to have a tailor alter the complicated hem.  I'm certainly hoping that there will be some warm days in late Autumn so I can wear this dress to walk through the leaves.

Outfit Details

• Dress revamp vintage
• Hair clip chatter blossom
• Bakelite bangles, thrifted
• Shoes, miss l. fire

Wednesday-Waiting

We had a big activity planned for Weasley on Sunday, something special that the has never done before, sadly the weather didn't cooperate and we have re-scheduled the event for November.

Cinema Spotlight-The Plastic Age 1925

In yesterdays post I wrote about the gorgeous, sporty college fashions of the 1920s, and no where are they on better display then in the film I'm profiling in today's post, 1925's The Plastic Age with the incomparable Clara Bow.

The Plastic Age was based on a popular 1924 novel by Percy Marks a college English professor. 

The novel purported to tell the scandalous "true" story of campus life.  With descriptions of fraternity hazing, petting parties, and alcohol fueled shenanigans it quickly became a best seller, and a year later a film.

 

The hero of the film is the young Hugh Carver the sheltered only child of devoted parents and a prep school athletic star.  

In the opening scene Hugh's parents are packing him up for college.  As his devoted mother lovingly folds his long underwear

 Hugh betrays a hint of his eagerness to fly from the nest:

Once at Prescott College the straight laced Hugh is roomed with Carl Peters, a lothario with a wall of beauty devoted to his conquests in his door room

 

The real "hotsy-totsy" of which is Cynthia Day, played by Clara Bow:



Cynthia has signed the bare shoulder on her photo: "To Carl: a real hot potato."

One glimpse of Cynthia and Hugh is  ready to try life on the wild side.  He decides to join Carl's fraternity and the hazing ritual that night involves sneaking into the home of Cynthia and the other college girls.

When Cynthia gets a look at Carl, wearing only a night shirt and a bowler hat, she clearly likes what she sees:




Soon Cynthia is giving Hugh a dancing lesson


and a love triangle between Cynthia, Hugh, and Carl has formed.  

The next morning Hugh, along with the other fraternity boys, isn't up to his old athletic form.  The exasperated coach says:

To which Carl's reply is a curt:

Hugh perhaps feels a bit bad about his falling grades and poor athletic showing but with Cynthia on his mind he is easily distracted from his studies and practice sessions.

Cynthia quickly introduces Carl to a number of other temptations

and soon Hugh's concerned parents notice his poor grades and losses on the football field.

Meanwhile Cynthia is falling in love which leads her to the painful realization that she is bad for Hugh.  Convinced she is unworthy of him she tearfully ends the relationship

A newly single and serious Hugh regains his athletic prowess and leads his team to stunning victory on the football field.

 

Soon Hugh is a graduate,  packed up and ready to leave Prescott with his parents.  On his way to say goodbye to his buddies he sees a newly chastened Cynthia fighting of the advances of an unwelcome admirer.

Furious at the young man who tried to kiss her Hugh punches him, and Cynthia hearing of the attack realizes that Hugh still loves her and with the help of Carl

the two are  joyfully re-united.

Romance bloomed behind the scenes of The Plastic Age as well, though sadly  it didn't come to a happy end.   Clara and Gilbert Roland, who played Carl Peters, where both young and overwhelmed by fame.  Roland was Mexican and spoke little English and Clara was always socially insecure because of her decidedly blue collar back ground.   They madly in love and were soon engaged

However, Clara's possessive father hated Roland because he was Mexican and a Catholic and did everything he could to put an end to the relationship.  The pressures from her father and the attention from other men as her fame grew lead Clara to end the relationship though she remembered him fondly for the rest of her life. 

The Plastic Age is a charming film that offers a glimpse into a world long gone.

College Fashions of the 1920s

 

 

This post owes everything to the lovely post on 1940s college fashions on the wonderful The Vintage Inn blog.  Liz's post about the charms of 1940s college life got me thinking about one of my favorite decades, the 1920s, and the sporty fashions worn by flaming youth co-eds. 

The twenties where a good decade for college.  Enrollment was at an all time high, particularly for woman, and society was in the midst of the first big youth culture movement.   All over campuses young people where shocking their elders by drinking elicit alcohol, bobbing their hair, speaking in a new slang jargon, and attending dances and petting parties.  The image of college life transferred from one of quiet study:




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to something a bit less sedate:



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With enrollment up and young students in the throws of the celebratory 1920s youth quake, college became an important part of the cultural landscape.  It began to be recognized as a typical write of passage, becoming the subject of popular films and magazines.

 

 

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But what where the flaming youth co-eds wearing while all this was going on?  The answer: stylish, comfortable, sports wear.  Sweaters, sweater vests, sports jackets, and striped ties seem to have been very popular with young men.

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And of course letterman sweaters where a hit on and off the football field. 

 

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Styles for young ladies weren't all that different from those worn by the gents, with sweaters often being worn with knee length pleated skirts, cloche hats or head scarves, and of course bobbed hair.

 

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Tie neck middy blouses were a popular choice for young ladies during warmer months:

 

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Women where also participating in college athletics and wearing the same sorts of sweaters, paired with skirts, as their male athlete counterparts.

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Though my college years have long passed by I would dearly love to sport any of these fashions for a crisp autumn walk through a leaf strewn campus....



Silent Film Sunday Clara Bow - The Plastic Age (1925)

The perfect back to school Silent Film The Plastic Age follow the adventures of a football star freshman and his flapper girl friend, students at the fictional Prescott college.  Enjoy!

The Colgate Clock

As is the case in all things when it comes to exploring cultural land marks I have a healthy appreciation for all things kitsch, perhaps more then healthy.   I'm the kind of person who has more interest in seeing the worlds largest ball of twine and the big doughnut hole

then the Louvre.

I just love how somewhere around the mid-century mark, the 1930s to the 1960s, newly car happy Americans went crazy for giant, odd ball roadside attractions.  Sadly many of these wonders have gone the way of the decade they were created in, but others remain a testament to American eccentricity.  I'd love to get into a RV, dogs and husband coming along of course,  and drive across America in pursuit of these remaining curiosities.  However, such a vacation is not really feasible.   However, luckily there is a genuine roadside oddity right here in Jersey City, the Colgate Clock.

The Colgate clock is the former worlds largest clock, its since been eclipsed by a several others including a giant in Saudia Arabia.  It was built on the grouds of former Colgate-Palmolive head quarters. When Colgate moved  the factories and office building where demolished, but the clock remained, all alone on a desolate stretch of waterfront.  It has survived the revitalization of the waterfront, from abandoned warehouses to condos, and hurricane Sandy.  Unfortunately you can't get very close to the clock but you can see it from a distance and it lights up at night

A charming odd ball curiousity and a reminder of an earlier time.