Nothing From the Past...

So I posted the other rambling thing earlier, and reveled in my ability to post pictures of Dottie in the beautiful gown and hair and WHY do I not have those things...  *sighs*

But then I noticed - watching Howard - that I probably actually have most of the scene.

Please, judge me.....
In this, I don't care a whit.

See? Besides, then I get more beautiful pictures.

On a side note, I was thinking about Person of Interest.

Increasingly moreso since I researched Film Noir and Neo-noir for the book.

It is a beautiful medium, really - so elegant, simplistic, glarmourous.....  Oh, I love it - and have I established I love older eras? Hopefully. Then the Reader can avoid being surprised when I spend most of my time referring it it....

The series - a truly spectacular, thoughtful, deep one that I cannot WAIT for the next series in and that I really hope they don't cancel....  But I was never that fortunate - but the series was always a bit off. It's supposed to run in tandem with realtime, as are most television series - but there's something slightly wrong. It just doesn't...fit. Maybe it was the overwhelming corruption that ruled out it taking place in reality, or maybe it was that the main characters always wear suits, or maybe it was the Machine (HA!!)....  But regardless, it still was.

(Yes, those are all of Finch. I don't care. He's the best character. At least I chose different colourings and scenes.)

I've decided that it was mostly the colours.

Now, obviously, in every era, there were shades of bright colours, and obviously situations where bright colours would have been predominately worn - but there are also averages.

In general, the colour schemes of the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties were earthy tones. This was of course dependent upon what dyes were available. Dyes for the most part have come from plants and animals and other products of the earth - none of which lended themselves to neon colouring. Thus, most colours leant more towards earthy tones.

Obviously.

In the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties, more dyes were developed or whatnot - I actually have no idea, I just know that technology advanced by leaps and bounds in the end of the Nineteenth century, and with the Great War and change in fashions, it only makes sense that due to technology, more dyes and shades would have been made available.

There was the Twenties, which I actually think was quite bright and...guady at least. It was the Roaring Twenties.

And then came the Thirties - the Great Depression.

And then the Forties, in olive war colours.

A lot of what we envision of vintage eras comes from pictures. Of course, many of these pictures were propaganda - especially in the Forties. Navies, olives, kahki.... These colours dominated the pictures.

Yes, they're all for women. So shoot me - I'm watching Agent Carter; what else is on my mind? (and no. WWII was and is the only point in time I believe it acceptable for a woman to serve in any branch of the military. And even then it was stretching it..... But they were different. They still wore dresses and makeup and did their hair.....  Now? Not a chance.)

But as you can see: generally earthier colours.

Person of Interest basically follows the same scheme for the most part.

Different lighting, live action rather than drawings, spread out across all levels and parts of a bustling metropolis rather than in a single part or in a field....  But for the most part.... It does the same thing. Darker, muted colours, harsher lighting - or so it seemed to me...

And it's not perfect - it's just enough to...skew it a bit. Throw the perception off - make it seem less....normal. And it lends itself wonderfully to the series.

By the way, I might have written a research paper on women's fashion in the Forties - but I'm in no way an expert. All I have is my observations and compilation of events through history and how they tend to repeat - and I apply them to modern life.

It's the only way things make sense to me. Apply it to history, and then see if that clarifies the world today.

Red, White, and Blue

Now, on to the subject this post was actually going to be about.

As ever, I managed to completely get lost in a rabbit trail.

Agent Carter series Two. I have been waiting for what feels like forever. I realise it's nothing compared to Sherlock or something - but I don't quite care.

It's a series. About spies. Where the women are dressed modestly. And the men are for the most part chivalrous - we're ignoring that they don't fit into today's standards of how to treat women. Jarvis is the example, not Thompson - whom I'd gladly drop a table atop too.... - and in many ways I agree with Thompson. He just goes about saying it in a horrid way.

But! The series! Spies, and Queen's English, and etiqueete, and elegance, and the Forties.....  Captain America is originally my favourite superhero simply because he came from the Forties. No surprise I wanted to watch this series....

And Dottie's hair is dark now! She does look better with dark hair - but I was always partial to it anyway....  It's...colder? I prefer Winter. But she looks nice in many hair colours so far - annoyingly so, because then it's harder to recognise her save a niggling feeling of nagging recognition.

I actually didn't believe that it was the one from this series given that the costume looks almost (or completely - it's rather hard to find a full picture of that suit) exactly like the one in the close of the first series.

And would that have been proper? Probably given this series has done a terribly good job so far with accuracy....  I shall have to look into it more.

*MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES UNTIL THE NEXT PICTURED SECTION*

........Ana Jarvis. Just when I thought that his part of the series could get no better, it did.

She is.....scatterbrained, adorable, flighty (how does she manage that alongside Edwin??), the model housewife, intelligent, likely much stronger than we're shown in the first episode: Edwin is Howard Stark's butler, and he's hardly going to leave his wife when they move to another house - yet I can't really picture her having an affair with Stark. Yet, she's pretty enough that he would have noticed her.

Granted, Stark could also have voluntarily refrained out of respect for Jarvis - but it's Stark. I might understand and like the two of them, but I don't have THAT high an opinion of them.

*smiles* I think Ana knows exactly how to annoy and embarrass her husband, and she gleefully takes advantage of it.  I think there's quite a bit more in her head than it seems - there has to be for her to be in that position.

She is certainly an amusing, intruiging creature and I look forward to seeing more of her. And Jarvis, because that was completely hilarious.

Not to mention, as long as I'm talking in the Spoilers section of this post, that beginning-!

Plainly copied after the opening of the first Series - and honestly surprising that it wasn't actually Carter. And yet....Was it more intentional that just mirroring it? Dottie is stronger than the men she deals with of course - but she was trained to. And there are others like her that can do the same. Peggy Carter on the other hand....She basically made herself. Against opposition. The War might have helped, and with that getting into position likely wouldn't have been that hard - but actually going out into the field? Sousa is a good example of someone that knows she can do it - that women aren't completely useless - but believing that she shouldn't. and Carter still suceeded. And Dottie copies her look - out of admiration? It was hinted a bit that it was out of fear - but I think admiration works better..... Carter has beaten her twice.

By the way, perfect example of there being more to Ana Jarvis than shown in the initial meeting: her being Edwin's sparring partner.

....for whatever reason, I'm going to bet she was the usual winner. Jarvis just...doesn't seem like it. At all. He's too....polite?

*SPOILERS FOR PLOT CONCLUDED - ALL'S SAFE TO READ NOW*

AND THE COSTUMES!!!!!!!!! Look at it!!!!!!!!!!!!  Beautiful, gorgeous, lovely, vintage, fitted costumes.....

Wherefore doth thou stay within this series - wherefore doth thou hide in the past?

And makeup! Actually applying it!!  I couldn't comment on her light pink lipstick - but she's being 'filmed' so that was something I never looked in to.....  Couldn't have. It's rather annoying.

The great spymaster..... Alright - the flamingo was hilarious.
Ana more so....

And Jarvis......  *drops head on desk* That poor man....I usually always feel sorry for him - it's painful sometimes. (AKA: American accent, and athleticism. Those that have seen the episode will know to what I refer.....)

Hats, stockings, shoes, and gloves. Corsets and girdles. Slips. Garters. Hair combs. Hair rats. Earrings. bracelets. Jewelry.

WHY IS IT ALL IN THE PAST!!!!

And really, Besame??  Twenty-two dollars for a tube of lipstick???  ....and yet, I'd still get it.

Sometimes I hate my interest in history.

Oh! Speaking of costumes....

Well chosen costuming for her - whomever she is. I think she may be some Marvel villainess, but I really wouldn't know so....  I will merely comment on her costuming.

In a world where most of the rest of the people are still wearing wartime fashion, she is the wife of a very rich, popular man; and she is dressed in the very newest fashion, in the beginning of Dior's New Look. Early, of course, and I've no idea of it's history - but in a world where everyone else lives in the Forties, she dresses as if she's from the Fifties.

There are some things that never fail to make me smile. Tennant making weird, insane faces as Hamlet and this picture that is just so.....safe? Are two.

I've a dangerous amount of fun with this......

Made by Angelique

The wars been over for many a year,

I saw no one pass, shed not a tear

O'er newly dug graves: I have no right

To pretend to sorrow for those that did fight.

The war has been over, I heard we won.

We did what we said we would when we begun.

And the graveyards are filled with all we have lost -

And yet it feels there was a greater cost...

The war has been over - that time is long gone.

No more is that darkness tainting all with wrong.

But something's broken, something's turned weak:

Without an objective, can we find what we seek?

The war has been over, but which one did we fight?

Much blood was shed - but were both won by right?

The war is long over, and so much was lost;

But there are no graves to remember the lost.

I am not a girl of the modern century. I use it as I must, but......

And yes, dear Reader, the title of this post is completely erroneous.

Well, not if you bear in mind its origins - but I can only apologise.

Godspeed, et bonchance!