On the town

To cheer ourselves up from all the current gloom of silly little England (which has now got even smaller in more ways than one) my friend and I went into town for a Girls' Day Out. The main purpose of our visit was to see the History of Fashion in 100 Objects exhibition at the Museum of Fashion which comes to a close at the end of this month.

The design of the shoes in the centre of the picture below was fascinating. They are heeled shoes with the addition of a clog base to offer protection to the fabric shoe when walking out. When the bows are untied the clog element can then be removed to reveal the healed shoe. Clever!

The museum was quiet, most people must have already visited, so it was nice to wander round and view the many objects without any interruption. There were delicious costumes on display. I would love to wear this beautiful dress from the 1860's.

It was interesting to see some of the more modern pieces owned by well-known people, a shimmering spectacle of a sheath dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor and this desirable little jacket owned by Vivienne Leigh.

Look how many centuries separate these two items of clothing! The jacket from 1948 looks absolutely up to the minute, another item that I would love to wear. Not allowed, of course, but we did indulge in a bit of silly dressing up!

I succeeded in looking like someone very disreputable from a Dicken's novel.

and just look at the Artful Dodger!

Then we stopped being silly and took ourselves off to be Ladies Who Lunch.

Tuesday Intros. Graham Greene

Today Diane is hosting Tuesday Intros and my contribution is a book that I found on the hotel bookshelves.

We take our own selection of books away with us when we go on holiday, backed up with more reading material on kindle, but it's always interesting to look at the hotel library section and see what is on offer. The English selection is usually very thin, with far more books available in German or French. On our recent holiday I found a crumpled biography of Graham Greene which I was interested to read because I admire his work. But, oh, dear me, what an absolutely horrid man! I think the cover portrait is clever because it shows half his face in darkness and this accurately depicts his truly dark personality.

Here is the opening page.

 

The biography has made me want to go back and reread some of his novels. However, a production of his book, 'The Power and the Glory' has been on the radio for the last two Sundays and I found that my lately acquired knowledge of the author really got in the way of the story. A case of too much information?!

Visible Monday. Summer's here!

It's officially summer and festival time is here, tents are pitched, flags being waved, people are dancing and singing. But what to wear? I've just got a suitable new addition to my wardrobe, something flowery to celebrate our English summer weather.

Just what's needed, a new pair of wellies!

They are decorated with floral prints from the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library Collection.

For Patti's Visible Monday

at Not Dead Yet Style.