The Glamorous Age...

Have you noticed there are very few magnificent magazines anymore, particularly for women of 'The Glamorous Age'? (As my friend calls it.)

The Glamorous Age is the age between 35 and 70. It's the second part of our lives. The great, glamorous, dignified, wise, do-what-we-like-cos-we've-earned-it deuxième part of our lives. We get thirty-five years of this. And by god we're going to enjoy every minute. 

The Glamorous Age, you see, when we women start feeling confident. When we start dressing the way we want – and usually the way that suits us, whether we're wearing a sexy frock, a business-like suit, or simply dog-walking attire. 

It's when we start dating proper men. And I mean gentlemen, rather than those scruffy, slovenly, perpetually poor, drunken-ass ratbags we hung around with in our twenties, simply because they owned a Ducati, or knew how to kiss, or came from some obscure aristocratic English family. 

The Glamorous Age is the age when we finally make headway in our careers having worked our asses off for ten or fifteen long years. It's when we start to afford designer labels, and travel, and nice houses. With gardens we can potter around in, wearing Hunter wellies and planting hydrangeas. 

It's when we stop accepting nonsense and bulls**t from other people (terrible word but really, no other phrase for it), and when we start considering that we might just make it in life. And not just make it either, but really tie a bow around the whole thing and make a bloody great celebration of it. 

The Glamorous Age is when we realise we have an entire wardrobe of beautiful shoes – I mean spectacularly beautiful shoes, having learned where to buy them cheaply in the world – but we're just as happy to wear lovely casual ones, usually with lovely casual tops and pants to match. (A very French look.)

But The Glamorous Age is also when we've acquired pieces like a proper winter coat (Max Mara, if we can afford it), a proper 'opera coat', a proper Parisian trenchcoat, a beautifully designed handbag, proper luggage, proper lipsticks (Chanel, or YSL), proper fragrances, elegant leather gloves (some of us even have driving gloves: not me; but I want some), and sometimes even a spectacular collection of glorious chapeaux. 

The Glamorous Age is when we splash out on expensive bedlinen because it reminds us of the time we stayed in that five-star hotel in New York. And because clean, starched, ironed, high-thread-count white linen is SO much nicer to sleep on.

And The Glamorous Age is when we know how to garden, cook, keep house, wear slips under dresses that need them, write thank-you cards (or emails), place our cutlery on an empty plate the right way, be courteous to our neighbours and strangers, and generally live a life that is kind, gracious, and full of compassion and humour in equal measure.

According to the ABS, there are more of us in The Glamorous Age than any other demographic. We are the masses. The median. The generation with the biggest population. 

So why are there so few magazines catering to us?

Whatever happened to all those fabulous ones we used to have?

For vintage magazine covers (a sliver of sentimentality) try:

paperpursuits.com

www.vintagemagazinecompany.co.uk

www.condenaststore.com

http://designtaxi.com/news/353331/Vintage-Vogue-Magazine-Covers-From-The-Early-20th-Century

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Vintage Vogues, Botanical Whimsy & Other Miscellany

Just in time for the weekend comes this quietly beautiful image. It's a vintage Vogue from the 1950s, framed by our wonderful local framer. (Our framer is incredibly cheap: email me if you want his details.) It was part of Santa's kind Christmas stash.

I asked my framer's assistant if anyone ever brought in... you know... prints that were so awful they weren't worth framing. "You mean like the black velvet Elvis someone brought in last week?" she said.  (BTW I love Elvis. Don't want to offend anyone who may have framed a black velvet print of him...)

The Vogue and a gorgeous old New Yorker magazine from the week I was born (another gift) now sit on our hall table. With my collection of shells from around the world. Which are apparently contraband, according to my partner who used to work in the Federal Police. 

Don't you love the Wish magazine that comes with The Australian newspaper on the last Friday of every month? I love a freebie. Grab it this weekend while you can people.

I noticed India Hicks has redone her guesthouse. Look at this banana yellow. Who knew yellow could be sexy in a beach house? Wonder if it was for a photo shoot? (Pottery Barn were there recently.)

Still infatuated with this botanical wallpaper at The Dorset Square Hotel in London. Kit Kemp's taste is impeccable.

Whipped up some curtains for our living room. Only had time to do one, so can't show you the whole room. This fabric was $10/m at Spotlight. It looks just like the Manuel Canovas print that I was coveting in Paris, below... Which was 100 times the price.

This was the fabric. 'Beaurogard'. Beautiful. 

Did you know chintz is coming back in? Yes, truly. 

Best save your granny's curtains, people.

Have you seen Manuel Canovas' new 50th Anniversary collections? They've released new houndstooth. Love the denim blue too.

How about this for a cute fabric? 

Matchbook magazine did a fabulous Downtow Abbey spread in this month's issue. www.matchbookmag.com

Started reading this, on the recommendation of a bloggy friend Paula. (Originally recommended by Slim Paley.) It's set in the South of France. 

Also reading Michelle de Kretser's The Hamilton Case, set in old Ceylon. Thanks for the literary tips Miss Paula and Miss Slim.

Was cleaning up old photo files and came across these, from the Petit Trianon in Versailles. Still can't get over the intricate trelliswork. Wouldn't you love a potting shed that looked like this? {Images mine}

A tent to convert me to camping. By Field Candy Tents. Fabulous. {Images via Field Candy}

Did you see this whimsical interior in Vogue? It's a house in the Hamptons owned by the swimwear designer Lily Madock. 

Am only posting one image as I'm trying not to use too many magazine photos, after seeing my uncredited pix all over Pinterest last week. I always try and credit my pix, but it's still a grey line and The Library is now trying not to use professionally shot photos that have been especially commissioned by magazines. If I do, I will always credit, and will ascertain whether the photographer (like me) would be happy being featured. Usually it's the magazines that are cross, as evidenced by Habitually Chic's having to remove many from her blog. (Although her crediting is not the best.)

On an equally bright note, we've been working on some Lily Maddock-inspired page spreads for a new book mock-up. I can't tell you more as it's still in the planning stages, but you might be able to guess the subject matter from the pix.

Think lavender, wine, olive groves, sweet hillside villages, fields of gently swaying lavender, and charming stone cottages begging to be renovated... Just like this one. {All images mine}

The pix are going to be so luscious I won't even need to write any copy. 

{All pix mine, excluding the cute Citreon, which is my mother's photo.}

Have already made some new friends to see while I'm in this place. I emailed this couple last night to ask about their gardening smocks, of all things, and then complimented them on their house. They were so lovely they invited me to pop in and say hello. I'll do a special post on them soon as they're so interesting, and their architect and design work is so inspirational, but here's their bedroom...

Look at the ceiling! Isn't it fantastic?

Love the interiors of the new Corinthia Hotel in London too. {Image via their website gallery.} Olive and navy are always an elegant combination. But the grey stripes are inspired design.

Doesn't this make you want to have a kitchen that looks like an old general store? It's the kitchen department of Anthropologie in King's Road Chelsea. The old-fashioned cobalt blues and ceramic greens are so gorgeous. They'd even etched 'General Store' into the cabinet glass. {Image mine}

(On a side note, I want to say thank you Anthropologie for stocking my books, both in London and New York. It's thanks to this wonderful store that Chronicle bought 20,000 copies of the latest 'Paris' book, which has set in motion the wheels for doing a sequel. I will be shopping at Anthropologie for the rest of my life now!) 

Another fantastic place, this time a relatively new one. This is quite possibly the most beautiful new hotel in the world. Tall call, I know, but look at it. Pale power blues and emerald greens, with graphic black lines to hold it all together... Traditional and yet distinct at the same time. Look at the old safari hats in the rooms.

It's The Siam in Bangkok. Belle magazine featured it last last year, but I suspect it's going to take off very soon. Here are some more images from The Siam's website gallery (which are available to use)...

Love the greenery everywhere. 

Not sure about The Siam's artwork though. What ARE these people doing?

Shot this in a window near Liberty's in London. Such cute merchandising.

A wider shot. Don't you love botanica?

And lastly, have you seen the new changes to UK Harper's Bazaar under the editorship of Justine Picardie? Justine is a literary hero of mine; such a lovely person too. She's taking it back to the glamour of the 1950s. Look at this sublime page. Oh! I wish all magazines would experiment with white space and whimsical typography...

Wishing you all a whimsical and irreverent weekend. 

x

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The Glamour & Grace of Vintage Bathers

A few weeks ago I made one of those serendipitous discoveries that makes your afternoon a little brighter. I stumbled over a new website devoted to one of my favourite photographers, Dare Wright (below).

Dare was one of those astonishingly brilliant, gifted and incredibly stunning women who seemed to be able to do anything, from modelling for top magazines to writing bestselling books, to photographing shoots with her classic Rolleiflex; shoots that still look gorgeous, even today. She looked just as good in  front of the camera (see below) as she did behind it.

I'm so pleased to see there's a resurgence of interest in her work at the moment, led by a new website (darewright.com), a new book and quite possibly a movie as well. Her life was quite tragic, but the legacy of images and words she left mean she will always be remembered.

Inspired by Dare's gorgeous beach style (above) and also by a great post by Slim Paley, here – SWIM, about the revival of vintage bathers, swim caps and syncronised swimming, I thought I'd do a post on the glamour and grace of vintage bathers. It seems like the perfect thing to take our mind off the miserable winter here in Australia! (And the perfect thing to inspire the Northern Hemisphere as they head into summer.)  If you're heading somewhere warm in the next few months, I hope this offers some lovely inspiration.

BEACH GLAMOUR, 

VINTAGE STYLE

Great robe. Even more gorgeous hat. {Via Vogue}

To sweet to get wet. Lilac and white petal swim cap, from Saratoga {via saratogafinelingerie.com}

Balloons and beachy chic. {Uncertain of source. If you know who to credit, do let me know.}

With this swimming cap, you don't really need to wear anything else! Karlie Kloss by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia.

The line-up. A collection of bathing caps in the pool room of a friend's house (Mickey Robertson at Glenmore House in Australia.)

Pink perfection. [Via Conde Nast Store.]

Casual in a cardi. {Via Elle Germany 2011}

Dancing queens. 'Demi-Plie' halter maillots with ruffles by Marysia Swim. (Tutu not included.) {marysiaswimstore.com}

Darling, where's that drink you promised me? Oh my goodness, you're not the man I married! {Via Elle Germany 2011}

Classic glamour. {Via Vogue}

Cinematic elegance. Keira Knightly in Atonement. {Via Atonement publicity}

When Jack met black: 'The Swimmer' – the painting from the movie Something's Gotta Give. 

(Jack Nicholson actually suggested this artist for the set design; he has an art for art and thought this piece would give the set a summery lift. The artist is Kenton Nelson – www.kentonnelson.com)

John Rawlings for Vogue. {Via Vogue}

{Source unknown}

Via Slim Paley. {slimpaley.com}

Ulla Anderson, 1964. {Source unknown}

Karl Lagerfeld's Resort collection for Chanel, staged at The Raleigh's iconic baroque pool in Miami, scene of Esther Williams' original movies.

Cool in Chanel. A maillot from the 2012 collection. {Source unknown}

[Top image: Source unknown. Bottom image: Vogue cover.}

Floral fantasy. White petal swim cap, from Saratoga {www.saratogafinelingerie.com}

[Sources unknown.}

[Source unknown}

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