I Know That I'm Naive

So I was going through pictures the other day, finding some that fit my style and hair and basic bearing; and I found some of Eleanor Parker.

Obviously, this isn't really surprising given the time period she's from - I tend to think everyone is beautiful (or handsome) then.

Yes, this is going to be another rambling post on the past and fashion.

Actually, I don't think I've had one of those for a while - or at all...  Oh well - then it will simply be a rambling post. THOSE I know I have.

Now, it's not that I've never seen her before. I simply adore Roger and Hammerstien's Sound of Music (someday I'll get a record player and listen to those things!!), and she plays Baroness Von Schraeder.

And thus, why I never thought her beautiful.

 

Although I've always loved old fashion, when I was younger, it tended to centre in the Georgian and Medieval eras - nothing modern or approaching so. So while I enjoyed the music of the film, fashion and scenery was..... Well, it was too modern

And then I got sick of wearing trousers and dowdy modern clothes, and I began researching fashion so as to replicate it and begin dressing in clothes I like.

I am rather self-centred, am I not....

But the amount of cloth necessary for the styles of the Victorian era or the Georgian era? Hardly feasible! Likewise for the Regency, Tudor, or Medieval.... That, and I'm really not a corsetier - sadly - and haven't the money to afford a corset at this time. I'm saving up - but this took place about two years ago.

But then I discovered Grace Kelly and Lauren Bacall and the Forties and the Fifties. Still Vintage, still elegant, still feminine - but MUCH more practical for interaction with the modern world (we'll ignore petticoats for the moment and stockings...) and much less costly to make. And the skirts were simple enough to draft by sight rather than having to figure out some complicated pattern.

 

Blouses are a different matter - but one day.....

 

So while I still love Victorian and Edwardian fashion, the Forties and Fifties is where I usually stay.

 

So this took place two years ago, more or less. Since then, I've researched silhouettes, wrote papers, learnt makeup, and perfected pincurling. More or less for the last one. I'm not an expert, but I know more than I did when I began.

 

It's rather annoying, actually. Because I do know a lot - enough to tempt me into thinking I'm an expert. But I'm really not. There is so much I DON'T know, so many that know so much more than I.....  And yet I watch films and somehow my mind thinks I'm capable enough to judge on historical accuracy. HA!!  But no one else knows enough to tell me WHY I'm wrong.....

Anyway! Eleanor Parker. Baroness Schraeder.

I always thought her cold, cat-like, conniving, jealous - hardly someone beautiful. Maria was beautiful.

And then I watched the film again after researching.

Maria is actually rather...dull! In my opinion, of course. She's not ugly either - but she's hardly a glamourous beauty like the Baroness.

In fact, now, I'm rather surprised I DIDN'T like her. I've always preferred long, blonde hair - and Maria certainly does not fit that. The Baroness likely barely does - but it's up, which means it is certainly longer than Maria's.

This, by the way, is reason what....five hundred or something? That I should not have a blog. I inflict my opinions on others WHERE have I heard that before.....

I know I heard it somewhere.....

But I sit here rambling to myself on topics no one cares about for no reason whatsoever save my own idle amusement. I suppose it saves those around me from having to listen to the worst of it - but nonetheless.....

Another thing about here? Even at my absolute youngest age watching the film, That golden evening gown was just....so. wrong.

Now that I know better? That applies to basically every female costume in the film (men's clothes really do tend to stay the same), but this gown actually manages to fit best now. The green dress Maria wears returning the second time from the Abbey sort of fits with the Forties at least - save that this is set in the late Thrities, not the Forties.

Thus, basically, NO CIRCLE SKIRTS.

Alright, it is set in Austria rather than America, so they probably didn't have the Great Depression shaping the fashion of the Thirties - but still. The fashion of the world tends to generally stay the same more or less.....  It wouldn't have gone from circle skirts to a-line skirts back to circle skirts - why would Dior have called it the 'new' look then?  It wouldn't have been new!!

It still generally wasn't - but it hadn't been worn so short ever, nor for so long a time.

On a side note, I always thought that picture was of Rita Hayworth. The hair is close enough, but the face didn't QUITE fit. Now I know why....  But I still have no idea how to shape my pincurl setting that way....

Back to the Baroness!

Lamé dresses were actually common in the Thirties - one of the features of the evening gowns of the time that I ran across when I was researching. That being said, it's still inaccurate - but I find it amusing that the very thing that seemed so off about it (the gold material) is the very thing that makes it more accurate.

But the rest of the costumes really are just taken from patterns from the clothes commone to the decade it was made in - which I'd assume is late Fifties, early Sixties? I actually don't know when that film was made....

although! Her waist in that picture! That is TINY!! Why in the world can't fashion be like that today? No, instead there are dangerous diets and sheer dresses that leave little or nothing to the imagination, styles and haircuts that are only fashionable on certain people....  And on and on and on. Perhaps I only glimpse a bit of it - but that bit is annoying.

It is humourous to me, however, how much Vintage influence I can now spot in today's High Fashion.

And......

I hate it when I do this.....I forgot what I was talking about again.....

 I'm thinking about it, thinking about it.... Trying to remember....

Nope, I can't seem to recall.

I shall leave this here then, and section something else off later.

Does anyone else here get quite bored with Valentine's Day? It's just rather.....sappy. As I posted somewhere else: sappy, sickly, sadly sweet. Ick. In general.

Too...fluffy. Who could bear it?

Oddly enough, I don't care for sugar. Sorry, apparent non-sequiter - but it fits. Really.

Not saying I don't LIKE it - it just really depends on the mood, and it really can't be too sweet or I get nauseous.

Which is odd, because I used to love sweet things. Then I had some one day and it was just...No. I don't care for it.

Perhaps taste is linked with life?

I can't STAND Valentine's Day.

Oh, the idea as I understand it, spending a day with the one you love, that's all fine and lovely.

Except, I rather think THAT'S impossible too. Romantic love is just.....

Maybe it's just me? No one ELSE seems to have this problem!! But what does it matter..... It's one day out of the year....