#1920s history

[midcenturyfinds]

Glentworth Sands, Weston-Super-Mare - 1920s Postcard

[achronalart]

FWIW, "mauve" was one of the coal-tar dyes developed in the mid-19th century that made eye-wateringly bright clothing fashionable for a few decades.

It was an eye-popping magenta purple

HOWEVER, like most aniline dyes, it faded badly, to a washed-out blue-grey ...

...which was the color ignorant youngsters in the 1920s associated with “mauve”.

(This dress is labeled "mauve" as it is the color the above becomes after fading).

They colored their vision of the past with washed-out pastels that were NOTHING like the eye-popping electric shades the mid-Victorians loved. This 1926 fashion history book by Paul di Giafferi paints a hugely distorted, I would say dishonest picture of the past.

Ever since then this faded bluish lavender and not the original electric eye-watering hot pink-purple is the color associated with the word “mauve”.

[yesterdaysprint]

The Birmingham News, Alabama, June 24, 1922

[laurenillustrated]

I started drawing the Ever After High girls in random historical fashion eras… why? I have no idea

Raven Queen in 1890s, Apple White in Italian Renaissance.

Briar Beauty in 1920s, Madeline Hatter in 1880s

No particularly reason for the eras, just the vibe I get from the characters and their designs!

[frostedmagnolias]

Shoes by Philips Shoes

c. 1925-1935

The National Museum of Norway

[happilylostinwords]

Reviewed: "Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery" by Earl Swift

Sometimes it’s necessary to read and understand things that make a person uncomfortable. At the risk of sounding pretentious, those are teachable moments. And Earl Swift delivers a profoundly important one with his telling of the so-called ‘Murder Farm Massacre’ in Jasper County, Georgia in 1921. It isn’t easy to know that slavery didn’t end when it was outlawed after the Civil War, that…

[thingsmk1120sayz]

Vintage butterfly faires..

[artschoolglasses]

'Ghostly Wood' Jar and Cover, from Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, 1916-32

From the Victoria & Albert Museum

[beggars-opera]

Hey since we're in the 20s again can we bring back heavy eyeliner for all genders please. Those silent film guys knew what was what

[steampunktendencies]

1920s Vintage Porcelain Toaster

[omgthatdress]

Few American writers and entertainers have managed to have careers as wild and scandalous as that of Mae West.

A vaudeville performer since childhood, she developed a distinctive sexy stage persona and signature sauntering walk that was inspired by the likes of Julian Eltinge and Bert Savoy.

In 1927, she opened her first play, Sex, which she both wrote and starred in. It centered around Margy, a high-end sex worker, and Clara, the stuck up society lady who was the mother of the man Margie falls in love with. Ticket sales were strong, but city officials were upset about the play's risqué content. West was eventually arrested, tried, and sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity.

While incarcerated, she told reporters that she'd worn her silk panties in jail, instead of the "burlap" that was usually given to prisoners. The scandal of it all sent ticket sales through the roof.

Her next play was set to be even more controversial: it was called The Drag, and it had an entire cast of homosexuals. The end scene was a massive and spectacular drag ball. The show went for ten performances before it was shut down by police.

Police threatened to shut down all of Broadway if The Drag continued to be performed, so it was cancelled. However, a censored version with a now heterosexual protagonist called The Pleasure Man was allowed to perform a year later.

Eventually, West would make her way to Hollywood and become one of the most iconic stars of the 1930s.

In 2019, The Drag was performed for the first time in many decades at Gay City in Seattle, and has since then been performed several times across the U.S.

[fleursscaptives]

"a modern flapper in an old fashioned gown" by arthur kales, 1923

[eirene]

Portrait of Mrs. Doreen Marguerite (Bury) Buchanan, 1929 (private collection)

Philip Alexius de László

[yesterdaysprint]

Brooklyn Eagle, New York, October 31, 1920

[the-melancholy-maiden]

1920s Inspired Hair Set

Long time to see! I fell in love with the slick wavy hair from the latest expansion pack and felt it needed more variations. This is the first hair I've made in a while and I'm hoping to release a few more before the end of the year. Stay tuned!

DOWNLOAD (Free)

[frostedmagnolias]

Ballet costume worn by Anna Pavlova for “The Swan”, silk and sequined cotton

believed to be worn c. 1910s-1920s

credit: Museum of London