Hemlines and waistlines.
Embarrassingly I can't remember the name of the book - but I found it in an amazing second hand bookshop in L.A. called Illiad.
Cute reference.

Betsey Potter, owner of The Costume House LLC, and my costume companion around LA last year, has a fantastic collection of travelling salesmen's catalogues from the 1880's through to the 1930's. They are substantial tomes, like old parish bibles, so evocative of the period. It's great to handle the cloths, so many options and such good, heavy, dense quality, particularly the coatings. We make nothing like it now and it only makes me think again about how pointless it can be to try too hard to recreate authentic early clothing for costume. Better to enjoy the effort of a creative response to a period. 

There's an interesting essay on the subject here.

One rented from Western Costume in Los Angeles, one rented from Angels the Costumiers in London... quite a coincidence.

Remix Shoes felt like a pilgrimage. Years of looking online, finally a visit.

I am in LA this week pulling stock for our current project which is set in New York in the thirties. Even with a small budget I knew I had to come here to spend some money on authentic American clothing.

I have had an exhausting, exhilarating, ambitious week.

Betsey Potter whom I met on a job last year has been showing me around, driving very fast indeed but I think that's her way, regardless of my crazy schedule.

First stop was MPCC, Motion Picture Costume Co. 

This costume house has a great collection within their principal department.

Having recently purchased stock from another house called Repeat Performance, MPCC have kept a separate area for these principal rentals, so they've effectively got two tiers of quality. This principal collection is particularly well cared for, it contains all the small details and the stock feels very fresh, remember these clothes are nigh on 100 years old.

Some of the hats are just brilliant. I will blog some shapes when we unpack in London next week.

In the evening I went to meet Bill and Jean Gold at Repeat Performance where they have kept a small part of their original collection and this stock is for sale. They still buy too, I imagine they can't stop as they are very passionate about their stock. We had a great chat about clothes, filming, friends in common, and I purchased some garments which will hopefully nail a couple of scenes for me. Bill and Jean's boutique collection was of particularly special quality.

Their online shop is here,  it's worth a visit.

And on the way home we passed the Paramount arches. Doing a thirties film made this feel quite special, something I haven't really connected with before is the history of film making here in LA.

I am usually standing in the rain doing the gritty urban dramas.

I was interested to see this article at Flavorwire magazine - 'costume test photo's'.

Fitting photo's are a vital part of our process but it is unusual to see them published. There is a big element of trust involved in the rehearsal period, the photo's being quite intimate because the actors generally aren't wearing any make-up and the costumes usually have pins and visible markings for alterations and whatnot. 

They are most definitely not for sharing. 

Maybe there is a thirty year rule or something! 

Anyway, in these old studio photographs I particularly like the blackboards and the small details in the notes; the real names, costumer credits, black and white or colour tick-box options, the scenes for each costume all plotted in advance. They don't appear to be expecting much to happen organically throughout filming whereas I'm used to lots of costumes filtering onto the truck throughout the schedule and I am open to new ideas from cast throughout. Even when the costumes all have to be made it's not the norm to have them all ready before we shoot, the workroom will be busy making most of the way through.
They reek of a slower pace of life.

It's quite amazing to see technology change so fast. I used to be sent out to Snappy Snaps with a roll of film to get prints developed and then go to use a public phone box so I could let the designer know how long it was going to take.  Around that time I can remember saying to Phoebe de Gaye that one day I would be able to sample for her and send pictures from my mobile phone back to her in the office, saving me the journey from the West End to Angels so she could make a decision and then for me to go back to town to buy the items. It seemed like a sci-fi vision at the time and, believe me, it wasn't very long ago.

1938 and 1966
Charles W. Cushman Collection

Classic Shoes for Men

Classic Shoes for Men. Purveyors of traditional shoes from the best shoemakers in the world; a very good resource for fine period footwear and an interesting site for information regarding the manufacture and history of rare shoes.

boots c1895, shoes c1930

Boston Public Library

Good Girls, Bad Guys, Sportsmen.
Boston Public Library has a very good collection of photographs, published on Flickr.

Needless to say none of the above were relevant to my research topic. Distracted by the collection whilst looking for kids fancy dress ideas, I found myself on another one of those, 'This will be useful one day, I'd better keep going.', journeys in the wrong direction.

Found Photo # 8

I liked this one because there is a person peeping out of the upstairs window.
Found in a junkshop, it could be anyplace, the boy on the right hand side is wearing a jumper that looks a bit like a Guernsey, which is always a favourite shape of mine.

Found Photographs

I have a collection of workwear and theatrical photographs I've picked up over the years in junk shops and markets, I thought I'd start sharing them.

The top picture is a postcard dated 1st Feb 1908, it reads -
'The group on the obverse played 'The Bobby's Courtship'. The gentleman with the beard apologizes for not weariing shoes.'
So that one isn't workwear but costume - a double whammy.

The girls at the bottom are munitions factory workers, printed in Coventry it reads -
'From your sister Florrie, to Gladys.'

Tiny Snorkel Parkas and Other Vintage Childrenswear

This weekend we took a trip down to Brighton to visit friends, they took us to loads of good shops where I could easily have filled the car with second hand clobber. One place we stopped at, Dinky Vintage, has a great collection of children's clothes for sale and to rent with excellent condition stock from the 30's through to the 70's. The clothes are all reasonably priced, particularly considering how hard it is to find such good condition and sometimes unworn, period kids clothes.

Apparently there's a website on the way, I'll link to it as soon as it's up.

Screen Archive Southeast

Thanks to Phoebe De Gaye for introducing me to an online fashion on film archive, Screen Search Fashion.

In their own words -

This online resource provides a thematic guide to aspects of 1920s and 1930s fashion and dress as depicted in films from Screen Archive South East’s collections.
The selected themes guide you through the collections, using stills and clips from the archive. These enable you to discover more about the different types of clothing worn, and their historical and design contexts. There are links to records in the online film database, which can be explored in further detail, as well as links to related resources held in archives, libraries and museums.

Lovely Motoring Coat

Having a little rummage around Sheila Cook's website I found this fine pair of jodphurs.

However I am not supposed to be spending at the moment...

BROTHERS SEEBERGER

Sharon Long gave me this book for Christmas, it is fantastic. if only films needed costumes like these references. I can't say much about the photographers, brothers Jules, Henri and Louis Seeberger, because it's a french copy and my french is extremely basic, I will battle on and see what information I can glean. I will post some pages over the next wee while, but best just to buy a copy as soon as you can.