I am such a fan of good typography or should I say old style typography. The V on the Veretti Shoe Box handed to me last week by an elderly gentlemen who advised the shoes inside were just not his style has quite a royal, kingly and at the same seventies look. Love it! It reminds me of another royalesque old school typography example still in existence today just around the corner from my home.

These designs stand the test of time well, but what about more contemporary royalesque graphic design? Apologies in advance. I will not even begin but could they have not at least used a picture of them both together or perhaps even a similar scale to each other? Ah, cheap imagery for a priceless couple.

I sometimes overlook the fact that when I am struggling for visual ideas for my graphic design briefs I just need to open my eyes and look around me. My life is full of design that appeals to me. some deliberate, some accidental.

I walked out of my office one day to find this discarded Big J bottle sitting just outside the doorway. Given my name starts with J, I was instantly smitten with the idea that the bottle was waiting for me Big J (yes I am tall) to claim my rightful old empty soft drink bottle. Not that I have ever actually had to my recollection ever tasted Big J soft drink. I think I would have remembered if I had.

The design is wonderful circles and j’s, red and white. That’s what I call great packaging design. A glass bottle, for a better taste and a truly recyclable bottle. Why does softdrink now come in plastic? I do not really like that design idea, some things are great in plastic,  but not beverages.

Some more life design. That is things in our everyday life that says ‘design’ to me.

Antique cotton lace table cloth from a vintage fair about to be refashioned into a jacket.

A little car that is truly great design. Stylish, functional and and still running like a dream after 30 years. I am not sure how many cars today can be filled with fuel for under $20.

Our favourite tv show.

A beautiful bird in Lake Wendouree.

An amazing salad made from leftovers, makes for a memorable and tasty dinner.

Next to a decent pair of shoes a stylish coat is all you need to exude presence when you step out into the world in winter. I guess I always kept this in mind when heading out my front door, but it did prompt me to think it a detail important enough to blog about when I was perusing through a 1938 catalogue for Best and Less. I am assuming not the same incarnation of  the discount chain ‘Best n Less’ that operates in Australia today, if I am wrong, which I may well be, then our standards of ‘Less’ have sunk to all new lows (not Lowes another discount chain), which now that I think about it may well be the case…

Back to my reflections on wearing a coat. If all you need is a good pair of shoes and a coat, anything else seems to me superfluous. Am I alone in thinking that a coat can be your entire garment? Last winter I bought a black wool coat in a Russian military style, it had black epaulets, double breasted buttons, a high collar and a belt that tied at the waist.  It was so warm I would wear it as my main garment with black stockings and black knee high boots. It made me feel bold and ready for adventure, I could have been on assignment for the KGB. It really was more a dress for me than a coat. In fact I once popped it on with jeans then took it straight off, it looked odd.

Perusing the old Best and Less catalogue made me wonder if perhaps back in the 1930′s women wore coats as their main garment also. It certainly does look so stylish.

It makes sense for a garment such as a full length fur. Just in order to get around without feeling like an overweight grizzly bear. Then there’s the trench coat. This practical garment already attracts spy/mystery connotations, why not wear it as your garment to add intrigue to your outing?

With their dramatic glances toward each other, it seems as if these two ladies know something we don’t. Loving the dramatic sleeves and collars on these coats.

Outwitting the weather by wearing a trenchcoat with style cues from little red riding hood seems a little girly and a little grandma at the same time. However the proofed garbardine trench coat is a timeless statement, notice the only evidence of any other clothing being the scarf.

Wearing the swing coat with a dress or trousers underneath would take some of the fun out of swirling about in this wonderful garment. The cape like design of the hood looks great, I am not usually partial to hoods.

This coat is quite dress-like. Practical elegance, an outfit suitable to wear to the office perhaps? Then on the very first page following the coats, as if to confirm my theory regarding what the models were actually wearing under their coats was this image.

My first weekend of semester break and where did it go? I recall Friday evening getting excited about all the time I had to indulge in some fun craftiness without assignment deadlines breathing down my neck. I get out some seventies craft magazines, namely the New Idea Craft Book by Susan Finlay-Jost, New Idea’s craft designer since 1973, bearing in mind the New Idea Craft Book was published in 1974, and woosh its Sunday night already. A weekend passes without deciding on my next craft project, let alone commencing the actual project, let alone blogging about my options.

Another week passes, including another weekend, only one week of holidays left. Time to at least decide on my project and blog about that.

Gosh I miss the days before electronics sometimes. One could spend all one’s free time indulging on some practical but mostly frivolous crafty activity. New Ideas Craft book takes me back to those days……

Now to decide on a project, out of what seems like a hundred ideas I have whittled it down to the following:

Knitting a hammock, somehow this seems like it might be more than just a weekend project. I might need a lot more wool, but it would be a very good reason to learn how to knit.

The next contender – revamping some jeans into a pair of shorts with scissors, crochet and lots of ric rac. I love ric rac. I have lots of ric rac. Then there’s the matching bag to make from the leftover jeans leg bits.

Darn the fact that is winter in Ballarat at the moment, I would have to wait months before the weather permitted wearing such an ensemble. Still it would give me time to find a suitably loud pair of platform cork shoes to go with. Somehow I just know that the model is wearing dramatically high cork platforms, I can just sense it.

Another summery and quite out there option:a fringed vest to wear with one’s bikini of course. Truth be told I would never in a million years consider wearing a leather fringe vest with a bikini. Firstly due to the fact that if I hadn’t happened upon it in the New Ideas Craft Book the concept of such a combo would still elude me to this day and secondly due the fact that after some consideration I still could not bring myself to wear such an outfit. I do like to wear a bikini when swimming, but this as a pre – swim outfit? “Just no! ”

Having said that I really love leather fringed vests, I have always loved them. I love the idea of hand made leather work and have often thought it a wonderful craft to pursue, I guess I’m just not cowgirl rebel enough to pull it off.

The next crafty outfit is slightly more subdued but still very sassy, the shawl and matching crocheted halterneck top in sparkly nylon. Shawls were a big accessory in the seventies, it seems a bit dated to wear a shawl now. More likely to be strewn strategically around one’s neck and shoulders and called a scarf, throw or pashmina. Can one call a hand crocheted sparkly nylon shawl a pashmina? I don’t think so.

The only thing I’m finding off putting about this one is the idea of wearing sparkly nylon, it looks scratchy and you only have to look at it and it pulls and unravels. Which I guess is fine in a dark and crowded night club but anywhere else would be too distracting. However the halterneck top made with either a funky coloured cotton or a soft mohair, now that sounds more my style. I would also have to revise the shawl, it definitely could not match the halterneck and would need to be made in a less regular shape. The triangle with the two sided fringe means you really can only wear it one way, I prefer a less triangle-y style.

This leaves me with my final selection, the crochet evening dress. I’m there. A style statement comfier than a pair of pyjamas. I know I’m extra partial to this number because its currently 2 degrees celsius outside as I type this blog post, but the idea of wearing a long crochet dress is groovy. The only potential problem I foresee is getting too attached to this garment, wearing it so much that it forms a permanent sag in the derriere, just like tracksuit pants tend to go in the knees, but I am willing to give it a go. Now to find 24 balls of wool and to start crocheting before its time to go back to uni.

Stay tuned this project will definitely be posted here. One day.

It’s winter, in the evening approaching zero degrees. What is one to do? I like to draw. I was recently asked to produce some artwork for a wine label. Whilst enjoying a delicate sip of Pinot Noir, I design imagery that takes me back to my childhood.

Navigating around angry clouds cruising the blood red skies in a zeppelin.

I started this post some weeks ago in the lead up to getting my folio of first semester graphic designs submitted by yesterday’s deadline. Phew! I made it. Now I have evenings free for a couple of weeks to work on personal stuff. I hope this includes more blogging. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to a dear friend who gave me a suit case full of old Australian Women’s Journals I only recently learned the term for the bright plastic kitchenware from the fifties, GAYWARE, marketed by Pierwood Plastics Limited in Sydney Australia. I have always loved GAYWARE, I just did not know what it was officially called. I am sure we all had a grandmother or great aunt with one form of GAYWARE or another housing the spices, sugar or flour on the kitchen bench.

Armed with this new piece of Australiana trivia the very next week I stumbled upon my very first piece of GAYWARE at Lifeline Sheppherd Street Op Shop in Ballarat for just a few dollars. This find inspired my very fifties pattern design above and has set the style for my kitchen in 2011. As a designer I find it peculiar that I am now setting the entire colour scheme in my kitchen around this interesting and for me unlikely colour combination of green, yellow and orange.

The interesting thing about GAYWARE is that it is now, I learn, becoming quite difficult to find reasonably priced pieces in Op Shops due to the popularity with generation x’ers like me, who find them providing an instant nostalgic rush and so must have them. Such emotive appeal along with the basic fact that these old plastic items are now brittle and highly likely to be cracked, faded or somehow damaged makes for quite a thrifting prize.

I have come to know my piece of GAYWARE as the condo. It is like a condominium for my kitchen dry goods.After much consideration I have concluded the B stands for bread (although it is impossible to house a sour dough loaf within it’s confines), the S stands for sweet biscuits and the C stands for crackers. If anyone has better suggestions please let me know.

So what to accompany the bright condo that sits proudly on the middle of my kitchen bench? Once the GAYWARE was in place the next pieces came rather quickly. Starting with a mug tree with a set of four matching mugs that I found at the Light Lounge for $2.50 still in the original box completely unused. The other amazing details of these mugs on a mugtree was that my Grandmother had an identical set of these in her kitchen, so my very first memories of drinking Milo came from the yellow cup. I always had to have the orange cup.

It is only now I truly appreciate the beautiful mugs for their amazing floral design and the quality of Japanese earthenware. The stand is metal powder coated in orange and very sturdy. It saddens me that you cannot buy this sort of quality today with brand new pieces that mainly come from China.

The next kitchen item on my wanted list was a butter dish. I spent quite a few weeks looking for a butter dish that would be a practical place to store my butter and look at home with the new colour scheme. I am not sure but I think Australians do not really embrace butter dishes due to the popularity of margarine. Just a hunch as I could not find many specimens on my Op Shop adventures. I turned to ebay and voila! I paid 99c for this little folkart piece from the USA. It cost me $10 for the postage – still a bargain.

My final find  was at a garage sale held by the daughter of a little old lady who was selling her Mother’s belongings as she was going into a nursing home. The beautiful yellow floral Pyrex dish was a bargain but nonetheless came with a tinge of sadness. I vowed I would put it to use straight away in order to ensure it’s new life would be a happy one. Lot’s of rhubarb crumbles have been made in this perfect little dish already.My search continues, so of course I will be back with more soon.

After perusing through a collection of 1950′s Australian Women’s Home Journals I was amazed to sight so many advertisements for products I had grown up with and some I still use today. I am now analysing why I am buying/using these products. Is it because they are fantastic products, or is it because they have been reaching out to me via previous generations who were influenced by these very advertisements? Is there such a thing as intergenerational brand loyalty? I think so.

The first advertisement for Aspro has the most insane looking couple taking their medication with a cup of tea for a faster remedy for what ails them. Last time I thought I was feeling too hot my immediate thoughts were something along the lines of either taking my jumper off, turning the heating down or opening a window.

The Band Aid commercial quotes three different types of Band Aids, plain, waterproof or E-L-A-S-T-I-C. I think I grew up with the plain variety, which at the time seemed waterproof to me. It seemed a more painful prospect to peel a Band Aid off than incurring the actual injury.

Palmolive soap, the subject of a 14 day medical program for you face? With one of the suggested improvements to your complexion termed as ‘less oiliness’ I think more correct terminology would be ‘Make your face so taught and dry it stings’. Perhaps that’s just my aversion to putting soap anywhere near my face.

I love the Holbrooks ad. Worcestorshire Sauce is still my all time favourite sauce. The rendering in this drawing is beautiful even if the scale of the bottle seems too small compared to the meal.

And here are a few advertisements for products I have not tried so I shall refrain from comment. Although if anyone has tried Youth-O-Form I would love to hear about it.

Lila Lee presents some thoughtful ideas on gifts to make for those special to you for Christmas from Needle Art 1923-1924. These goodies are made with time and quite obviously patience and thought. The result a visual feast. Clearly it would take one a long time to produce such quaint little items and many would be received today with a curious look of confusion as to what to do with them but therein lies the appeal. Living our busy lives in society these days we may not find much use for handkerchief cases, let alone embroidered handkerchiefs, boudoir caps, dainty gift garters or telephone dolls but they are fancy yet frivolous notions.
So let’s step back to a slower time to see what special gifts were considered appropriate. These ideas were basically simple yet highly decorative. You can click on the image to increase the size.

1 & 2 Decorative Trays, 3 & 11 Handkerchief Cases, 4 A Bag for Evening Slippers, 5 Card Table Cover with Pocket, 6 A Bridge Score Table, 7 Numbers for the Card Table, 8 & 31 Tiny French Pin Cushions, 9 A Case for a Pocket Comb, 10 & 33 Dainty Gift Garters, 12, 13 & 14 Paris Girdles, 15, 16 & 17 Paris Boutonnieres, 18 A Crochet Sports Hat, 19 A Rose Petal Sachet, 2 A Paris Powder Puff, 21, 23 & 30 Three Pockets for Powder Puff, 22 A Bead Hot Dish Mat, 24 A Back Powder Puff, 25, 27 & 32 Powder Puffs that are Different, 26 An Unusual Pin Cushion, 28 A Sewing Kit for the Guest Room, 29 A Work Bag, 34 A Telephone Doll, 35 & 36 New Boudior Caps.

Needlecraft was an art and skill in the twenties that ladies could use to while away many hours when otherwise not much else was happening. Thus even the humble handkerchief was an object of aesthetic appreciation.

There were also the more traditional needlecraft gifts such as doilies, and motif embroidery pieces that the gift recipient could use in all manner of ways, on scarves, pin cushions or any other fabric item. Hence this next assortment was aptly titled ‘Worthwhile Gifts’.

The needlecraft skills were not limited to one’s personal accoutrements. Needlecraft art was often used to decorate around the house in the twenties, so it was only natural that lampshades and cushions made ideal gift creations.
1 Silk Candle Shields for a Dressy Room, 2 Parchment shields for use with Simple Furnishings, 3 silk Bulb for a Drop Light, 4 A Beautiful dome Light of Old Gold, 5 A Bridge Lamp shade of Glazed Chintz, 6 Pleated Shades are very Lovely, 7 A Chiffon Shade in two tones, 8 A Lovely Cushion of Reversible silk, 9 An interesting Black Cushion Embroidered in Gold, 10, 11 & 12 Pulls for Large Lamps can be as Decorative as the Shade, 13 A Parchment shield in the New Cut Out Work.

Some more assorted gifts from turbans to compounds. I think the term compound is used to denote any form of a container that will hold some sort of paste or tincture. 1 A Tulle Turban, 2 A Head Handkerchief, 3 A Bead Neck Lace, 4 & 5 A handkerchief and Wristbands, 6 A Wrist Purse, 7 A Flower Compound, 8 Powder Puff Garters, 9 A Sealing Wax Pendant, 10 A Fancy Compound, 11 A Bag for a Compound, 12 Ribbon Shoulder Straps, 13 A Vanity Bag, 14 A Tiny Party Bag, 15 & 16 Painted Compounds, 17 A Handkerchief Case, 18 A Wrist Powder Puff, 19 A Comb Case, 20 A Powder Puff.

One’s needlework skills also included knitting and crochet. Naturally this extended the gift ideas to knitted fashions, specifically colourful sweaters. I must admit I did not immediately associate the flappers of the roaring twenties with hand knits. I learn.

Now I am not sure on what grounds a hand knitted sweater is deemed useless but here are some ‘New Lines in Useful Sweaters’.

If all of the above furiously decorative gift crafting is not enough here are some fabulous ideas for the leftover wool and threads. These are definitely my favourites.

This edition of International MANSTYLE that Time Forgot is dedicated to that style aid that was designed not to be noticed in the wild – the Toupee. Are toupees still a popular style choice today? How could we know? One would assume the function of a good toupee is to blend in with the wearer’s real hair so nobody but the wearer could possibly tell.

The following suite of images is a style rarity, we get to see the BEFORE style without a toupee and the AFTER style with a toupee. Obviously most people considering the use of a hair piece realise that if a toupee is going to function it must be applied to one’s scalp in such a professional manner, with such a degree of similarity to their actual hair it renders it completely invisible to total strangers. Therein lies the appeal of the toupee, with the obvious benefit of providing the wearer with untold confidence. As is the case in the suite of images below.

I can now only wonder how much time such a successful toupee application would take in ones morning routine? How carefully would one need to disport one’s self to ensure the visual illusion of a full thick head of hair remained in tact? Could this impede one’s level of spontaneity? Am I alone with such philosophical thoughts on Toupee style?

Toupee Tidbits

1. The earliest known example of a toupee was found in an Egyptian tomb Hierakonpolis from around 3100 BC.

2. Toupees are also referred to as Hair Pieces, Units or Hair Systems.

3. Julius Ceaser wore a toupee, among other attempts to disguise his male pattern baldness.

4. Max Factor revolutionised the mass produced toupee in 1954 by producing carefully made toupees with each strand of hair sewn into a flesh coloured piece of lace.

5. In 1970 Time magazine estimated that toupees were worn by over 2.5 million men in the USA.

6. Toupees are usually held to one’s head using an adhesive, but cheaper versions are available that use elastic instead.

7. Hair Weaves are a technique where the toupee is woven into the existing strands of hair remaining on the wearer’s head. This technique means the toupee is less detectable but it also is reportedly less comfortable than the adhesive toupees.

8. Toupee etiquette suggests one acquires three identical toupees at a time. One to wear while it’s counterpart is being cleaned and a spare.

9. Whilst advertising may show toupee wearers engaging in sports and active pursuits, damage to toupee’s fibres causes irreversible wear and contact with saltwater and chlorine is to be avoided.

10. The first patent for a toupee was filed in 1921.

11. Etymology. 1727 from French toupet, “tuft of hair, forelock,” Originally an artificial curl or lock on the top of the head, a style, not necessarily a compensation for baldness.

12. In Tokyo you can buy toupees for your dog.

13. In recent times Hair Transplantation has replaced the use of toupees among those who can afford them.

14. A decline in the use of toupees includes the rise in the acceptance of male pattern baldness. Since late last century the look has been minimised with a completely shaved head.

These hirsute honeys have been quietly smoulering in my hard drive for too long. It’s time to give them an airing. The second instalment of International MANSTYLE Time Forgot Part 2. The style book from the seventies that lay languishing in the Library of my uni for over thirty years never to be borrowed. Well I bought the book for 30 cents and what a turn of fortune for these visual delicacies. Now risking complete over exposure, I offer my apologies in advance.

There once was a time when big hair implied other big things and although some of these men are carrying their hair with an air of confidence, for quite understandable reasons most are not. When I speak of an air of confidence in many cases I am in fact alluding to the adroit use of a blow dryer. Obviously a staple of many stylish men of the seventies. But what happened to them on a windy day? Did they have to spray their carefully layered hair do in place just to ensure they could get out of their car and make it across the carpark to arrive at their desk with the style still in place? Maybe they made frequent trips to the bathroom to make use of the electric hand dryer.

I shall start with the men wearing their hair with supreme confidence. Be warned the confidence diminishes quite quickly. And in case your up for it there’s more you can revisit International MANSTYLE that Time Forgot 1.