From Anonymous

Photo

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:18:10 -0500

retrowunderland: Another popular style in the 1950s, the Teddy...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:14:40 -0400

1950s Teds

50s Teddy Girl

50s Teddy Girls/ Judies

1950s Teddy Boys

50s Teddy Boy

1955 Teds

1954 Teddy Boy dance

Teddy Boy hairstyle

retrowunderland:

Another popular style in the 1950s, the Teddy Boy style, began in England by youths who rejected the drab, boring work attire worn by their parents’ generation. These young men believed in dressing sharply and giving more consideration to one’s looks. Teds were inspired by the more elegant fashions of the Edwardian period, (from which the term ‘Teddy’ was coined), and they brought about the revival of drape jackets: long, knee-length single-breasted wool jackets with velvet trimmed collars, narrow contrasting lapels and velvet cuffs, with plenty of pockets. Teds wore narrow drainpipe trousers, brocade waistcoats, stiff shirts, shoestring ties or skinny ties known as Slim Jims, with suede or crepe soled shoes. Hair was usually styled into a wavy quiff with long sideburns, greased and combed back to form a ducktail in the back of the head (think Elvis Presley).

Teddy Girls, also known as Judies, had a cool, tough girl style that rebelled against the more feminine mainstream. They also wore drape jackets, but with pencil skirts, hobble skirts, rolled up jeans, toreador pants or full circle skirts. Boaters and coolie hats were fairly popular at this time. Common choices of shoes were espadrilles and flats.

Teds were responsible for many aspects of style and fashion that would later be the foundations of the rockabilly trend.

chichininja: Diana Vreeland’s role was behind the lens and she...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:40:45 -0400

chichininja:

Diana Vreeland’s role was behind the lens and she helped to define the role of a stylist that we see today. This photo, shows her at work with Richard Avedon and his favourite model, Dovima and visually demonstrates her strong presence behind the scenes. Her list of accomplishments is long; she worked at Harpers Bazaar as Fashion Editor then later moved to Vogue to become Editor in Chief and finally became a consultant for the Costumer Institute at the Met, where she helped to curate the shows and ultimately changed how the curation of fashion would be approached.

Vreeland was known to be highly quotable and her first work in the industry was writing the now infamous column “Why Don’t You” for Harper’s Bazaar. She discovered Edie Sedgewick and Lauren Bacall and was the only credited stylist of Jackie O. Her work challenged the traditions of beauty, society and success and it was her influence that ultimately created the room and the position in which Anna Wintour can now shine.

homelessminds: Gateway of the Mind In 1983, a team of deeply...

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:26:57 -0400

homelessminds:

Gateway of the Mind
In 1983, a team of deeply pious scientists conducted a radical experiment in an undisclosed facility. The scientists had theorized that a human without access to any senses or ways to perceive stimuli would be able to perceive the presence of God. They believed that the five senses clouded our awareness of eternity, and without them, a human could actually establish contact with God by thought. An elderly man who claimed to have “nothing left to live for” was the only test subject to volunteer. To purge him of all his senses, the scientists performed a complex operation in which every sensory nerve connection to the brain was surgically severed. Although the test subject retained full muscular function, he could not see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. With no possible way to communicate with or even sense the outside world, he was alone with his thoughts. Scientists monitored him as he spoke aloud about his state of mind in jumbled, slurred sentences that he couldn’t even hear. After four days, the man claimed to be hearing hushed, unintelligible voices in his head. Assuming it was an onset of psychosis, the scientists paid little attention to the man’s concerns. Two days later, the man cried that he could hear his dead wife speaking with him, and even more, he could communicate back. The scientists were intrigued, but were not convinced until the subject started naming dead relatives of the scientists. He repeated personal information to the scientists that only their dead spouses and parents would have known. At this point, a sizable portion of scientists left the study. After a week of conversing with the deceased through his thoughts, the subject became distressed, saying the voices were overwhelming. In every waking moment, his consciousness was bombarded by hundreds of voices that refused to leave him alone. He frequently threw himself against the wall, trying to elicit a pain response. He begged the scientists for sedatives, so he could escape the voices by sleeping. This tactic worked for three days, until he started having severe night terrors. The subject repeatedly said that he could see and hear the deceased in his dreams. Only a day later, the subject began to scream and claw at his non-functional eyes, hoping to sense something in the physical world. The hysterical subject now said the voices of the dead were deafening and hostile, speaking of hell and the end of the world. At one point, he yelled “No heaven, no forgiveness” for five hours straight. He continually begged to be killed, but the scientists were convinced that he was close to establishing contact with God. After another day, the subject could no longer form coherent sentences. Seemingly mad, he started to bite off chunks of flesh from his arm. The scientists rushed into the test chamber and restrained him to a table so he could not kill himself. After a few hours of being tied down, the subject halted his struggling and screaming. He stared blankly at the ceiling as teardrops silently streaked across his face. For two weeks, the subject had to be manually rehydrated due to the constant crying. Eventually, he turned his head and, despite his blindness, made focused eye contact with a scientist for the first time in the study. He whispered “I have spoken with God, and he has abandoned us” and his vital signs stopped. There was no apparent cause of death.

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Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:20:35 -0400

alecshao: Peter Zimmermannp - Blob Paintings (2011)

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 16:12:35 -0400

alecshao:

Peter Zimmermannp - Blob Paintings (2011)

Photo

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 12:54:48 -0400

morbidnews: Pictured above is the mugshot of Elizabeth Short,...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:15:13 -0400

morbidnews:

Pictured above is the mugshot of Elizabeth Short, better known as The Black Dahlia, arrested in 1943 for underage drinking in Santa Barbara. Born in Medford, MA, in 1924, Short spent her time after high school criss-crossing the country, eventually settling in Hollywood with predictably unrequited starlet-type aspirations. This aimless young lady came to national attention on 15 January 1947, after a stroller-pushing mother discovered her torn body in a vacant lot, torso cut in two and drained of its blood, a chunk of flesh taken from her leg and stuffed up her genitals, her hair freshly shampooed and still wet.

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Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:12:34 -0400

gqmcgee: The Ramones - “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 02:45:06 -0400

gqmcgee:

The Ramones - “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”

ex-frat-man: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About PREP,...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:14:15 -0400

ex-frat-man:

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About PREP, But Were Too Stuck-Up to Ask

By Mike Steere
Blade Staff Writer

For lack of a better word, we’ll stick to the label that has been so cavalierly sewn on the recent resurgence of classic conservative clothing - Preppy.

What Preppy really means is someone who went to a fancy eastern boarding school, which is to say somebody whose daddy and grandaddy had pots of money.

In clothing, the word denotes a style based on a small number of expensive, natural-fabric, subdued-color pieces. The things that have been worn for at least 35 years by the spoiled scions of old money.

The basic idea of preppiness is to look rich and as though you’ve been rich so long you don’t have to flash it.

The hard part of it is that you have to look rich while wearing different combinations of a half-dozen garments that come in dull colors and crumple up as soon as you put them on.

There are rules here. You can’t, for instance, money up your appearance with Las Vegas displays of gemstones. Nothing gaudy is allowed.

Preppy is not an easy look. If you don’t FEEL preppy, you can’t possibly look preppy.

The idea is to wear a $250 blazer and $80 slacks like coveralls. Even if you got it last week, the prep ensemble should look as if you were born in it and that, at the time of your birth, your father was wearing the same thing.

Prep knows no age. The basic prep components are about the same from high school through retirement.

There’s nothing new here. For at least 35 years - through all the vagaries of fashion weather - the ship of classic conservatism has sailed on. The same people have bought traditional in the same places, and they will continue to do so until the last martini is mixed and the last bridge hand dealt.

If you want to wear these time-honored styles with authority, it is necessary to look like one of those people. With the newcomer to prepdom in mind, we have prepared the following short encyclopedia of prep.

The Preppy Look For Men

From Frank Kahle, owner of Neil’s Men’s Shop in Ottawa Hills, one of Toledo’s shrines to traditional clothing:

Like most people who are serious about this stuff, Mr. Kahle doesn’t like calling what he sells “preppy.” This appellation is merely a glib commercial label for a system of dress whose devotees are, like Mr. Kahle, religious.

This man is an absolute fetishist for tradition. If a garment isn’t cotton, wool, silk, or lambskin suede, he wants nothing to do with it.

To be a purist, he says, is to cultivate snobbery.

Basic prep items, according to Mr. Kahle, are the all-cotton button-down shirt, cotton khaki trousers, Shetland woolen sweater, serge regimental-striped belt, wool blazer, and the various species of Ivy League shoe.

The khakis are “the jeans of traditional clothing.” Mr. Kahle also acknowledges the admission of blue denim jeans and corduroy Levis to prepdom. Regretfully.

Ties ought to be silk, maybe wool or cotton for summer, in either a regimental stripe or Foulard pattern, (plain field with rows of little colored cells). The apogee of tie tradition is a burgundy and navy-blue regimental stripe. A true believer might have two or three of these.

Mr. Kahle frowns on club ties, the ones with little sporty things like pheasants, golf clubs, or sailboats.

A preppy pretender, Mr. Kahle says, can be spotted at 100 yards.

Suit or suit jacket shoulders tell the tale. Padded shoulders are very unprep, as are jackets with too much tailoring. True traditional clothing has natural shoulders and a sack shape.

Count the jacket buttons. Two is unprep. Three is the thing.

Pay attention to the rumple, Mr. Kahle says. Natural fabrics, unlike natural-synthetic blends, wrinkle. “Traditional clothing rumples, and it looks rumpled, and that is a very accepted, prestigious look.”

Pills around the collar - those minuscule fuzzballs - are another sign of the unprep, Mr. Kahle says. The pills only form on synthetic-blend shirts, which are not part of the purist’s wardrobe.

Cuffs are the stuff of tradition. You can get by with plain-bottom khakis, but Mr. Kahle encourages cuffs on all trousers.

The true believer doesn’t like new clothes. Certainly not new-looking clothes. The rapport between man and garment has to be relaxed and intimate, like old friends.

Your sheepskin suede sport jacket (ultra-suede is absolutely outre) doesn’t come into its own for two years.

Old preppy saying: “Weejuns aren’t worth a damn unless you’ve worn them in the shower.” Shoes should look broken-in. Shined, but never too shined.

Shoe advice from Mr. Kahle for women: Don’t move into colored Sperry Topsiders until you have a standard brown pair. Always build from the traditional ground up.

The Look For Women

The garment vocabulary for women is more or less the same as the men’s prep pantheon - blazers, woolen pullover sweaters, oxford button-down shirts, penny loafers and slacks.

Also on the list, according to Madonna Corrigan, fashion director for Lasalle’s, are knee-highs or textured hose, kilts (plain or plaid), berets, plaid pants or bermudas, trench coats, and pea coats.

Jewelry is minimal. An acceptable piece, Mrs. Corrigan says, is the geometric pin.

The traditional dress code was established in men’s fashions, and most of the toniest prep women’s clothes come from companies that once belonged exclusively to men, Mrs. Corrigan said.

The Old Villager company, for instance, was a man’s shirtmaker that began making women’s shirts. One day it occurred to the owner to lengthen the woman’s shirt, and so the shirt dress was born. An original Villager shirt dress is fabulously preppy.

The rules of prep dress aren’t quite as rigid for women, Mrs. Corrigan says. There is room to play with colors and textures.

The traditionally dressed woman can, by making very small adjustments, transform her look from the school-girlish true preppy to a classic professional or dressy appearance. Penny loafers and argyle knee sox yield preppy, and textured hose and low pumps mature the appearance.

Good women’s traditional clothing is of the same weight and quality as corresponding men’s items. And the cost is about the same.

The trend toward high-priced taste is a sign of the economic times, Mrs. Corrigan says. The initial outlay for classics is high, but clothes of this caliber are investments that pay off over the years.

The Body

For men, broad-shouldered and athletic, but never overmuscled. Preps pushing 30 are sleek in a slightly dissipated way, the sort of body that is build on a regimen of martinis and light exercise.

Preps are never fat or overly robust. The prep body doesn’t call attention to itself. It is a rack for expensive clothes.

Prep women, like prep men, shouldn’t have overly generous proportions. This is a very good year to be flat-chested. [Ed. note:I beg to differ.]

Preps should cultivate a sallow tan - outdoorsy, but not baked cocoa-brown. All things in moderation.

Parameters of the Preppy Life-Style

ANIMALS - Dogs can be very preppy. Tops are floppy, affable, big breeds that swim and retrieve. The Golden Labrador is as preppy as anything sold at Brooks. Any bird dog with a high-price pedigree is acceptable. It pays to spend a little extra for a distinctive breed. English setters, for instance, are preppier than Irish setters. Avoid miniatures and long-haired Orientals. If you must have a cat - a big tabby with a name like Bob, who has a few funny eccentricities, can dress up a prep household. No show cats.

WHAT TO FIND IN THE MAILBOX - Fraternity newsletter, alumni-association fund appeal, Bergdorf Goodman, Inc., fall catalog, and a letter from anyone on Nantucket.

WHEELS - Two seater convertibles. Sport car names with age - MG, Triumph, Austin, Fiat - are high on the prep list. The Japanese are building tremendous sports cars, but Datsuns and Mazdas somehow don’t achieve preppiness. It’s tradition, not how the thing runs, that counts. Classic Mercedes coupes, Jaguar XKEs, and restored Morgans are the absolute pinnacle. For family preppies, a green Volvo wagon.

SMOKES - Any American brand dating before World War II. The serious preppy smoker shuns filters. Smoke whatever dad smoked. English imports like Players are a very preppy option. Nothing funny-colored, too long, or menthol. For those who are quitting or cutting down (a very preppy thing these days), Benson and Hedges lights.

A PREPPY MEMENTO - Stateroom key from the R.M.S. Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic). Grandmamma’s 1927 crossing.

LABELS - Brooks (of course), Villager, J.G. Hook, L.L. Bean, Hickey-Freeman, Pendleton, Cole-Haan, Sperry, Etienne Aigner, Burberry, Izod, John Henry, Bass, Evan Picone, Calvin Klein, Sero, Troy Shirtmakers Guild, Southwyck [sic].

NUMBERS - For men, 3-1/2. In inches, it’s the correct width for jacket lapel, tie and shirt collar. The cuff on pants is 1-3/4 inches deep.

JOBS - Preppiest of all is an easy berth in Dad’s or Uncle’s company. Lawyer, accountant, or banker will do. It is very preppy to follow in male ancestor’s footsteps. Medicine can pass; if done in the correct, relaxed spirit. A preppy wants most of all to be able to wear fabulous suits to the office, take long lunch hours, and get away early for squash or skeet shooting.

POLITICS - GOP, as if you didn’t know. Distant involvement in politics, which to the true prep is a mite unsavory, like food wholesaling or auto parts.

FUN AND GAMES - Sailing, tennis, or any other racket sport, fly-fishing, volunteer work, tailgate parties at the alma mater’s football games, grouse hunting, and bridge. In all things the true preppy is a very sporting second-stringer - a better cruiser than racer. Marathon running, although very chic, is not preppy.

COLORS - For everything. Khaki, forest green, charcoal, maroon, navy-blue, white and camel.

LIBATIONS - The operative word is clean. Martinis, very dry. Scotch by the label. Bombay Gin. For mixers, tonic, soda, or water. Sipping sherry is acceptable, as is after-dinner liqueur, or brandy. Preppy soft drinks are apt to be gin drinks minus the gin - iced tonic or soda water with a lime wedge. Preppiest citrus is grapefruit juice. Booze is in decanters at home. For travel, silver flask with granddad’s initials.

FOOD - Fresh, never frozen. Meat cut to order. The prep-steak is New York strip 1-1/4 inches thick. Nothing from cans. Marketing is four-or-five stop adventure. Preppy moms bake secret-recipe oatmeal cookies for little prepsters. (Chocolate chips might make them break out).

BRANCH OF SERVICE - Navy.

HABITS - Regimentation - ordered and secure. No oversleeping. Social calendars. Little leather notebooks with lists of things to do. It is very preppy to slavishly follow any personal pattern observed in one’s family for three or more generations, whether or not it makes sense.

PREPOURRI - Helly-Hansen foul-weather gear. Wooden-shafted golf clubs. Watches worn inside of the wrist. Tortoiseshell glasses’ frames (See color photos of John Dean in Senate Watergate hearings). Gladstone bags. Anything British. Last year’s Topsiders repaired with sailing twine from dunnage bag on Uncle Roy’s ketch. Ancestor formerly on the board of Pierce-Arrow Motorcar Co.

Where Ivy League Traditions Began

The men’s Ivy League clothing traditions on which preppy fashions are based emanate from Brooks Brothers in New York.

This classic look might as well be known as the Brooks look. The venerable clothier, established in 1818, started and perpetuated the traditions of “traditional” clothing.

Brooks, according to a company spokesman, introduced the button-down collar about 1900, after one of the Brooks family had seen British polo players with collars buttoned down so they wouldn’t fly up during games.

At Brooks, the button-down is still called the polo collar.

In 1890, Brooks brought over from England the silk Foulard necktie.

The company introduced the Shetland woolen sweater for men in 1904, and they began selling the crew-necked woolen sweater for women in 1912.

The pink shirt for men - absolutely nothing is preppier - was born at Brooks Brothers in 1890. Women got pink Brooks shirts in 1949.

Seersucker and cotton cord are Brooks innovations from the 1930s.

Brooks gave birth in the United States to Argyle hose.

In 1918, the company made its first natural-fitting, three-button suit. Formerly, suit jackets had four buttons.

Brooks was also responsible for the first cotton-and-polyester blend shirt, an innovation which clothing purists won’t wear.

The coming-together of all the components of today’s preppiness didn’t transpire until just before World War II, the Brooks spokesman said. And the establishment of the “classic” collegiate look didn’t occur until after the disruption of campus life occasioned by World War II.

The Shoe

Guess - you’ll never get this one - how come the G.H. Bass and Co.’s classic penny loafer is called the Weejun?

It is not a cute contraction of an Indian name, an entirely plausible etymology for a hand-sewn moccasin made in Maine.

Weejun is short for Norwegian. The basic uniform shoe of prepdom is an import from Scandinavia.

According to Joseph Peach, Bass marketing director, Bass family members saw the shoe in Norwary in 1936, and bought permission to bring the design back home.

The distinctive yoke across the front of the shoe is for reinforcement, Mr. Peach said. He doesn’t know if the decorative slit was designed to hold coins, or how and when the first penny was put into the penny loafer.

The Weejun as we see it now is the way Bass began building it in the late 30s. Rolled leather on the sides and heavily decorative stitching are penny-loafer innovations introduced by other companies.

It wasn’t until the late 50s that the penny loafer became a collegiate standard. One of the earliest indications that the Weejun was becoming a campus must-have was a1960 note in the University of North Carolina Daily Tar Heel. Those “with-it” just had to have Weejuns, the Tar Heel said.

Prep-crazed 1980 Americans are buying Weejuns as fast as the company can make them.

Source:

Toledo Blade - 8/27/80

Photo

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:14:08 -0400

ex-frat-man: morning light, artisit: steven clayton corry,...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:39:49 -0400

ex-frat-man:

morning light,

artisit: steven clayton corry, July, 2012

Photo

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:15:19 -0400

Well you’re wrapped up in a blanketAnd you’re staring at the...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:48:00 -0400

Well you’re wrapped up in a blanket
And you’re staring at the floor
The conversation’s moderated
By the noisy street below
I never wanna hurt you baby
I’m just a mess with a name and a price
And now I’m drunker then before they
Told me drinking doesn’t make me nice

I’m antiquing: Someone buy me this. (Taken with...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:22:00 -0400

I’m antiquing: Someone buy me this.

(Taken with Instagram)

"Whatever’s happened has happened because of Alan. Alan is himself. Every soul is itself. If..."

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:44:00 -0400

“Whatever’s happened has happened because of Alan. Alan is himself. Every soul is itself. If you added up everything we ever did to him, from his first day on earth to this, you wouldn’t find why he did this terrible thing—because that’s him; not just all of our things added up.”

- Dora: Equus by Peter Shaffer

Christian Bale, what a beast.

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:21:07 -0400

Christian Bale, what a beast.

Talking like a jerk Except you are an actual jerk

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:07:00 -0400

Talking like a jerk
Except you are an actual jerk

Keep the Lights On chronicles the emotionally and sexually...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:15:00 -0400

Keep the Lights On chronicles the emotionally and sexually charged journey through the love, addiction, and friendship of two men. Documentary filmmaker Erik and closeted lawyer Paul meet through a casual encounter, but they find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity and to be true to himself.