Researching the 1920s via the 1990s

Hello to all you Bright Young Things! Welcome to the Jazz Age. From now on Bea Fitz and I are hurling ourselves into the Age or Decadence and we ain’t coming out ‘til the new year!
That’s right – we’ve shelved 1940’s make-do-and-mend tea dresses along with men in uniform and rationed chocolate - from now on it’s all Cocktails, Jazz and Deco Glamour. So if you see us around town in owt but dropped waists and cloches on you have the right to thoroughly punish us (in the nicest possible way of course!)

I must agree with Miss Bea – Fashion is always a favourite starting point when delving into the aesthetics and culture of any particular era and for the Miss Fitz-Poste’s it is a priority to dress appropriately. Whilst my sister-in-style is beavering away on the Singer – recreating 1920s rags from vintage patterns – I have been somewhat passive in my initial approach to the matter. I have been researching the 1920s via the 1990s; which means sitting flicking through a book on George Barbier, whilst watching one of my favourite BBC television programmes from my youth. The House of Eliott. Now before anyone can mock or protest I must state that I am quite unashamed of my love for this unrepentantly ‘girly’ costume drama.

There are many reasons why this programme might be criticised and I have just been on You Tube to watch the French and Saunders pastiche, whose accurate lampoon still has me giggling even after all these years. ‘Look we’re between the wars here!’ is my favourite line, a nod to the potential anachronisms in the self-consciously ‘period’ dialogue. The Show itself, although lavish for the time, was shot on video not film and appears to have low production values to our slick 21st century TV, viewing eyes.

But for me, as a youngster who loved both fashion and ‘period’, the combination of these elements in the House of Eliott won me as a devotee for life. Until now, I hadn’t watched them since the 90s so doing so again has been such a pleasure – one could hardly call it work.
{Actually no-one would call it work. However, I am going to, for the purpose of this blog which is meant to record the long, hard, journey into the past, upon which Miss Fitz-Poste’s Modern Mixers goes in order to bring you the well-researched, holistic period experience which is Tongue-in-cheek Vintage Fun!}

Anyway, watching the House of Eliott (series one) again has been illuminating – not just as I sit, pen and pad in hand, ready to note down the references to 1920’s couture culture, or to sketch fragments of coats and headdresses to aid my search for the perfect ensemble for January’s event, but because there is so much else to the programme than simply having fun with 20s fashion, {or storylines about missing buttons as the French and Saunders sketch would have it!} There is a lot in there which could serve a feminist reading; from the financial and educational opportunities women were or were not privy to, the advancement of sexual freedoms in the form of birth control, the tension which arises when women become more successful financially than a male partner etc. And through the character of Penelope (the trouser-wearing mission worker who admires Marie Stopes, drove an ambulance during the war, campaigns for a change in the Poor Law and dismisses the Eliott sisters’ enterprise as frippery) – a fairly constant discussion of the value of fashion both as industry and art to a society where so much poverty and inequality exists and where women under 30 still don’t have the vote.

So while Miss Bea (Fitz not Eliott) puts those skilful hands to creative use and produces the gorgeous dresses we’ll be sporting this season, I’ve been outputting nothing, but I promise you that all this soaking-up of 1920’s ephemera will manifest itself come January and hopefully to your delight!

Right back to my Shiaparelli paper doll … oops! ... I mean back to reading up on Bauhaus!

Ta ta from Miss Emily Poste!!