Dear all, with a complete lack of inter-webs for seven months I'd almost forgot about blogging- sad to say but, I'm back and in the midst of studying my degree and thus coming across a lot of interesting things I wouldn't mind sharing on Le crystal cat -yes originally known as Fashion breaks my heart.
the reason for my absence being I finally moved into my own home with my boyfriend and spent the best part of 3 months just decorating or at least deciding where to put all our things. It's not the biggest of properties but being very cottage-like and tucked away from the main road it's been really pleasant a place to relax.
Anyway, on with my post. Rockabilly is my take on a brief I've been given at university studying sub-cultures, it felt the most relatable with my music taste, personal style and love for this whole vintage revival manifesting everywhere these days. How can you not resist the look of a baby pink classic chevy or those victory rolls and 50's swing skirts? Rockabilly today in my opinion normally can be seen as beautiful ladies embracing a classic glamour and sometimes with the mix of alternative hair colours and tattooing adding to the look. It's about indulging in a era of Hollywood glamour pusses, the music, the brooding looks of James dean, that perfect housewife and her pastel kitchen, pristine, Elvis' hips and post-war rebirth. I'm particularly working on topic of "Youth culture in the 1950's" and with the 1950's having been described as the era that gave birth to the 'teenager' and through music and style allowed young people to be individual and contrast from the conventions of the popular idealism of the "American dream" as described in a quote from the American dream exhibit website the description details your typical cereal box family;
(" The American Dream for the 50's was that a young man would marry a young women and have three adorable little children. They would live in a cutout house in the suburbs. Each house should have a small TV, an adorable little kitchen, a nice well cut yard, and a white picket fence in the backyard. The family would have a dog named Rover, A three sport star son who never said a swear word named Johnny, and an innocent prom princess named Jenny who would never stay out with a boy later than three. The father would be a strong worker, making money for the family and to teach his son how to play baseball. The mother would be a house wife who would raise the children, clean the house, and tend to her husband once he came home." )
The idea being, you left college married and became a housewife and after the second world war men wanted women out of the factories and back in the households. I like to this new era of adolescent played to thinking out of the box of convention and strayed into those realms of dancing, smoking staying out late and being more sexually aware turning the tables on the genders. Marilyn Monroe described in many ways as being to the contrary of her image a feminist and in terms of acts like owning her own production company and making a point not to be treated just as a bombshell without a thought of her own. She has been said to have used her beauty to her advantage and created a persona to her audience and to the men in her world that so heavily domineered Hollywood at the time. She was innocent and yet sexy and I like to believe she knew how to orchestrate what mother nature had given her to empower herself as an actress and liberate her as a woman.
If you were a teenager in the 1950's would you not feel inspired by such a woman and curious and interested enough to develop yourself as not just a housewife but as a woman?
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Rockabilly I like to think is the image of that relationship and more.
Of course I'm very much speaking about Rockabilly fashion in women and 1950's spirit but that's the area that's really defining for me to learn more about that shift in power and the tempting idea of birthing a playful and mischievous new life for women to start gently pulling away at the drawstrings of their pinnies and not bothering to cook dinner for six o'clock sharp.
Images above do not belong to me :)
