garden of earthly delights

I'm in another vintage phase. It tends to come and go along with what I'm reading and where I'm shopping (lots of magazines and blogs usually translates to more high-end shopping), and this recent mania was inspired by the following book:



- which is, in case you were wondering, pretty freaking awesome. I always like historical works that put the past into context with today and humanize it (this is why I adore Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, because she's painted as the party girl she was, and girl, I get it), but there was just so much to identify with in this book. Modern America as we understand it really started in the 1920s, and it's nuts to find out just how true that is, especially with regard to the consumerism that led us to where we are today. (Said the girl with the fashion blog, oh ho.)

Anyway, rather than go on about how alluring I find the F. Scott Fitzgerald/Zelda Fitzgerald pairing even though they ended up dying of alcoholism/in an asylum, I'm going to paste my favorite bit of the book:

Many female college students found themselves "smashed" on other women. "When a Vassar girl takes a shine to another," explained a student in 1873, "she straightaway enters upon a regular course of bouquet sendings, interspersed with tinted notes, mysterious packages of 'Ridley's Mixed Candies,' locks of hair perhaps, and many other tender tokens, until at last the object of her attentions is captured, the two become inseparable, and the aggressor is considered by her circle of acquaintances as - smashed.
- Flapper, Joshua Zeitz

♥! Goodness, I could take a hundred more stories like that. During the course of antique shopping I picked up The Fabulous Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Louis Verneuil, published in 1942. It is, so far, fabulous. Part of this is because Verneuil basically admits up front to being a ridiculous fanboy who finally insinuates himself into Sarah's life when she's in her seventies by writing a play especially for her. Amazing.

Thus I'm all wrapped up in an obsession with the aesthetics of the past, which has so far manifested itself in the following purchases: three vintage hats, a 1940s crepe skirt of the absolutely perfect length, and a handful of skinny vintage ties that will likely find themselves serving as belts. My grandparents kindly took me to a few antique shops this last week, resulting in the abovementioned spoils, and now I'm back home in Henderson, satisfying my craving for more cups of tea than anyone really needs, and updating this blog.

Here are a couple of shots that I had my mom take of me in the backyard when I was visiting home. Featured: my favorite of the hat purchases. The black veil kills me. I want to wear it with everything. And I will. Oh, I will.




Dress, Mise en Scene by Ruffian. Hat, vintage. Thigh-highs, American Apparel.