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.

Researching for Genius I bought quite a few old catalogues, this one, a Sears, Roebuck & Co. from 1929 was a particularly useful Ebay find. I am trying to find out whether or not it's in the public domain, if so I will share the whole thing, it's only small. My favourite page was the sporty selection above.

An Amazing Photogrpahic Discovery - Spitalfields Life.

1938 and 1966
Charles W. Cushman Collection

A friend of a friend has started this great blog, Sunday Mornings.
It's a collection of slightly older, smartly dressed, Italian churchgoers. They look splendid and remind me of the same types I became fascinated by when we were living in Spain.

A good point of costume reference at some stage, I'm sure.

Some great turn of the last century mugshots from Tyne and Wear police archives.
Found here, on Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse's Flickr page.

We've just got home from the launch of The Gentle Author's first venture into publishing, so first of all it's huge congratulations to him.
An excellent reference book for 80's period costume purposes and a wonderful collection of photographs regardless.
I highly recommend purchasing a copy.

Great references at Petrut Calinescu's Pride and Concrete Project.
via Kleidersachen

Spitalfields Life last week had an article about medieval finds from the area. Wooden plates from a well and ceramics still blackened from The Great Fire are all part of the collection in the Museum of London but obviously I was especially interested in these thirteenth century boots found at the bottom of a cesspit in Spital Square.

Sharon Long and I were talking about this book yesterday, the image of four girls laughing is a favourite - great hair reference.

I love pictures of bleaching greens and I screen-grab images as I come across them.
Consequently I have no record of who painted these paintings but I'm sure they are traceable through a description within a Google search.

Two more from WiganWorld.

When I bought my first AppleMac I did it in order to jump onto the 'Information Superhighway' as it was called at the time.
The constant exchange of images and information that has unfolded since is incredible and for me, in costume terms, the most fascinating is usually the everyday, the mundane.
When I look at old family photographs of my own it's often a small domestic detail that arouses the most emotion; the curtains we had in the old house or the trousers my grandmother wore to cover her swollen, rheumatoid knees at a time when few women her age wore anything but skirts and dresses. These domestic, personal details which are not on show at a photographer's studio or a formal event are the notes we collect to aid and enrich the storytelling process of Costume Design.

 Star1950's photostream on Flickr.