Friday 27 September 2013

Last-Week Links: 27 September 2013

This week's collection of links includes some of my favourite things: fashion, neon, Northern Soul, museums and a 50s girl gang. So, a pretty standard week then.


Let's start with some fashion and a gorgeous frock. I wrote about Coco Fennell for Domestic Sluttery this week, and have spent a lot of time since trying to work out which is favourite. Currently it's this one.


Onto the neon. Last weekend, I went to God's Own Junkyard for its closing weekend. Time Out shot this short film with Chris Bracey where he talks about the yard, and some of his past clientele, including 'King of Soho', Paul Raymond.


I missed The Look of Love - the film about Paul Raymond's life - when it was out at the cinema but I want to watch it both because I'm fascinated by the history of Soho and because I bet it's got some great 60s costumes. Much like this special edition Barbie, my favourite product of the week. I've never been a huge Barbie fan (I was never allowed to play with Barbie, only Sindy dolls - the homegrown version) but I have to admit she does look pretty wonderful in her Catwoman ensemble. The wider influence of costume, especially TV costume, is explored in this New York Times article, while the recent Gatsby reworking of the 1920s is questioned here (via The Vintage Traveler).

The Prada Gatsby designs appeared in one of my collection of links from May, alongside a mention of Elaine Constantine's Northern Soul film. That forthcoming film is also referenced in this Northern Soul article by Paul Mason, an unusually thoughtful piece in comparison to Vice's usual offerings, about the journalist's passion for the movement: "What we were doing, back then, was rewriting the rules of being white and working class. We knew exactly what it meant to dance to black music in the era of the National Front and the racist standup comedian. Ours was a rebellion against pub culture, shit music and leery sexist nightclubs. Our weapon was obscure vinyl, made by black kids nobody had ever heard of."

The piece is based on a documentary available on BBC iPlayer (I've still to watch it, that'll happen this weekend). And well done to the woman mentioning poor overlooked Cleethorpes in the comments - the town doesn't even merit an index entry in Paul Morley's huge new book The North (And Almost Everything In It). More interesting than me starting a full-on rant on that topic is another programme, Fabulous Fashionistas. It's been given a horrible title but a great documentary about ageing through the life of six brilliant older women.

Apparently Fashion Museums are popular - who knew? I'm all for fashion being explored and presented in fresh and exciting ways, all long as exhibitions treat the subject matter with the intelligence it deserves, rather than using them as puff pieces for designers or donors.


I think I've almost ticked everything off my list now, with the exception of the 50s girl gang. This girl gang is entirely fictional. High School Hellcats was a 1958 exploitation film shared by Mallory on Gems, and which features some pretty nifty clothes.


Bad girls have the best clothes, as well as the most fun, it seems.


I certainly won't be emulating their behaviour this weekend however - it's my sister's wedding party (how I wish I had that Coco Fennell dress to wear!). And then I'm heading up to the depths of Scotland to spend a week with a dear friend. Have a great weekend!

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2 comments:

  1. My friend was an extra in the Northern Soul film, cant wait to see it!

    ReplyDelete

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