light sweet crude flappers and philosophers

photo via fashiones-de-mi.blogspot.com

how far we’ve come in 80 years. i definitely take for granted how easy we have it technologically.

hi everyone! it’s feels like forever since i’ve been here and a ton of stuff on my plate. it’s been one of those weeks where no matter how much i did it only scratched the surface of what seem like insurmountable challenges facing me. and i’m sure they’re no bigger or any more difficult than anyone else’s. thank god for blogging :)

like everyone else i’m obsessed with what’s going on with the state of our country so i started researching the last depression to see what it was like, and how they fared. i started with what i know: flappers who were having the time of their lives in the jazz age, the roaring 20’s. at least till the crash of ’29.

photo via 16sparrows.typepad.com

turns out the 20’s were just like our own time in that everything was new, electricity, appliances, fashion, hairstyles, legs! cars, communication and sound in film… they never stopped saying’ “what will they think of next?”

and the glamor of fitzgerald’s writing made it all the more enchanting. life was a roaring carnival.

until 1929. and then even the flappers had to deal with realities of the day. they tried to stay bright and cheerful as women always do.

once the crash hit, things changed including fashion and fancy free days. they began to stay home to cook and make their own clothes. thrift became de rigeur.

fashiones-de-mi.blogspot.com/2008/09/flappers.html

i keep thinking about this video i saw the other day that shows what life was like leading up to the crash. i haven’t even watched the entire piece but the first 10 minutes really stuck with me. it’s a little blurry at first but clears up. i highly recommend it.

google.com/videoplay

assumption.edu/users/McClymer/his394/FlapoverFlappers.html

of course you can’t start to dig into a topic like this without falling into the you know what.

these are some random links to the night’s breadcrumbs, it’s again only skimming the surface of what’s out there on the subject.

thefashionspot.com/forums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnZCVkP7GlE

funny to see how that one shift changed so much in film, fashion, design, and general thought. but it opened even more doors to new ideas, and the art deco period flourished and designers like schiaparelli and chanel rose to the top. i never noticed till tonight how pronounced the change between the 20’s and 30’s really was.

20’s

30’s

fashion-templates.com

on a personal note, it’s the end of yet another era. i moved out of liz’s house this week and am in lovely, albeit temporary new digs. all i have are my most prized possessions.

liz and i have been roomies off and on for 18 years! finding the kitten really changed us both and made us a lot softer. we both thought we were dog people. i am gonna miss that little panda mitten man but will see him often.

anyway here’s my new abode for now (my guy’s place, which as pretty as it is is beyond neglected). i’m meditating on a real move to happen soon and am keeping my eye out for a miracle deal on a dream apartment. of course i want the impossible but then i believe in all that jazz.

bon nuit mes amis and keep on carrying on!