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Fashion in Literature
I am possessed by the beauty of the past. And while a vintage novel’s domestic details—like a cut crystal bowl brimming with oranges in a Christmas tableau—stirs my heart, the rousing happens moreso…
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There’s a Kind of Hush…
For me, Herman’s Hermits 1967 hit song seems to be heralding in spring, the year’s softest season. And it is only natural that the fashion song I sing takes me back to 1967…
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Snow Globe
I learned to knit at my grandmother’s knee. She handed me thick white wooden needles with red tops and began teaching me the knit stitch. Knit’s cousin, the purl stitch, would come much…
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August Issue
I was lucky in that my father paid for my subscription to Seventeen magazine until I came home from college and had my first job. The first Seventeen I ever read, which signed,…
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On Bandboxes and Lingerie….
I often think I should have lived in the 1860’s. This view was born of a great love of the novel by Louisa May Alcott, Little Women. Reading this book led to a…
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Perfume Love
The quickest route to sweet yesterday is perfume. Each spring when I bury my face in fresh picked lilacs from the backyard, it is suddenly Flag Day at Hildreth Elementary School and I…
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The American Mitfords
I have been intrigued for some time by the six English Mitford sisters, the darling and energetic sisters who caused so much controversary and interest in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Sister Nancy Mitford…
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Linoleum, Glamour, and Mother’s Day
My new husband had sent me upstairs to an obscure little room off the dining room. He told me my job while he was at work was to rip up the old linoleum…
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What a woman….
Just saw “Coco Avant Chanel” which means “Coco Before Chanel” or Chanel before Chanel became a famous designer. Admittedly, the film was a bit slow in the early years. Touching, as she and…
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Warm Weather DressingMy favorite summer ensemble may feel a bit pajama-like but certainly doesn’t look so. By layering my favorite linen wide-legs, with a camisole top under a floaty cardigan, I can have…
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Early Summer Beauty Summer beauty can be a challenge. The hot weather along with summer’s monkeywrench, humidity, can make one’s hair limp and unmanageable. However, the worse thing that Uncle Humidity does to…
