AS I was reading today the November 1862 issue of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, I was amused to find an article about a so-called "crinolinophobia"!
This refers to a wave of satire against the crinoline, originated and propagated by men, with the goal of laughing at women who wore the huge crinoline to support their petticoats and skirts.
The writer of the article was, of course, unpeturbed by this, and declared fashion victorious over satire! Women can wear whatever they find pleasing and appropriate.
I take the writer of the article to have been Isabella Beeton, the famous Victorian journalist. Her husband was the editor of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, and Isabella wrote most of the pieces. Isabella and her husband were young, happy and successful; unfortunately, this happiness did not last long because Isabella died at 28 at childbirth.
However, she has left us a long legacy of writing on housekeeping and fashion!
I do my archival research on the Victorians from online databases of periodicals and magazines. I started this research during my PhD study and have continued it since. I enjoy it immensely. I will keep you posted!
Have a good evening and take care! xxx
WHEN Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, people were outraged with its open presentation of passion, rage and violence. At the same time, they were fascinated with the raw portrayal of a love which is so essential and powerful that it transcends death.
Emily Bronte and her sisters Charlotte and Anne all wrote under male pseudonyms. They were Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell. Emily was Ellis, Charlotte was Currer and Anne was Acton, supposedly brothers.
Interest as to the identity and personality of the brothers was great! People were excited and could not stop guessing about them.
The young man who had written Wuthering Heights was thought to be passionate, perhaps low born but probably cultivated, proud and strong. He has been slighted by society at some point, people thought, and that is why he has turned his passion and intelligence into anger. In other words, people thought that Wuthering Heights had been written by a young man exactly like Heathcliff, the protagonist.
Wuthering Heights is considered among the finest books ever written, and rightly so. Today it has gained notoriety in popular culture because it is Bela and Edward's favorite book in the Twilight saga, and was actually printed with a Twilight cover.
Like Heathcliff and Catherine before them, Bela and Edward are obsessed with each other, and prefer to die together than live a life apart. Catherine and Heathcliff's love drives them to extremities of passion and eventually to madness.
More about books within books, the Bronte sisters and their pseudonyms in later posts!
See you all again soon :-)
TODAY I did one of my change of season rituals: I changed the Marilyn Monroe bath curtain for the white winter bath curtain!
The white curtain is bright, and goes to the bath to console me for the loss of light during the winter months. This is the dark season, which I don't like. I love the summer and the sun.
I am sure there are good things in winter, but not for me. I can find a few, like being able to wear my lipstick necklace (see picture below). By itself, the lipstick necklace is a bit heavy on the chest, but can be worn comfortably with a sweater. I love the lipstick necklace! It cost me about 12 euro, but it is priceless in beauty!
Also, winter is good because we can place soft and wooly throws on furniture. This is a winter privilege: in the summer we have to have light and not so cuddly throws.
This is it! No other pros for winter. Spring and summer are the best seasons, no doubt about it.
Have a beautiful Sunday and be well! xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Today we have a book about lipstick, the star in this blog!
The book is Lipstick: A celebration of a girl's best friend, by Jessica Pallingston.
This is a perfect book for me. It says so on the back-cover: "The book for every woman who can't leave home without her lipstick". This is me! Lipstick is my best friend. There are always several tubes of lipstick in the bag. Without my lipstick I feel incomplete. I think that my lipstick and glasses are what make me er, me.
The book is lovely in many ways. The shape is elegant, the jacket is in a warm shade of gold, with a pretty lipstick all over the front cover. The chapters are very interesting. A history of lipstick, how to buy lipstick, how to make lipstick yourself! How to shop for lipstick, uses of lipstick and what your lipstick says about you! The shape of our lipstick (the edge as it forms in the tube while we use it) apparently has a lot to say about our personality. The descriptions got it right, at least for me!
The one bad thing about this book is the design inside. While the cover is lovely, the inside of the book not much so. The illustrations are not very good, the paper very average quality, and the layout is not attractive. It could all have been so more stylish!
However, the content of the book is very good, and makes entertaining reading for lovers of lipstick, beauty and cosmetics!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
LOUIS VUITTON started his business in 19th century Paris, making luxury luggage! Vuitton's traveling equipment was made especially for the railway and carriage, which were the transport means of the day!
It was the time and place when haute couture was born, in the atelier of Charles Frederic Worth, an Englishman who worked in Paris! Worth was the first to put a label with his name on his creations, and the first to use live models in fashion shows. He is considered the father of haute couture.
In association with Louis Vuitton, they created a special form of luggage, which could be used for sea travel!
However, it is to Lucile to whom we owe the concept of the fashion salon -- a sophisticated space where clients could mix and seamstresses could work in. Lucile is a famous designer from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her full name was Lucy Christiana Sutherland. She was the first to train professional models, and her clothes were renowned for their elegance and comfort.
I studied fashion for my PhD, and I continue to research all things fashion! Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that I also do research into 19th century periodicals about beauty and fashion. I watch only one channel on TV. Which one?
World Fashion, of course!
P.S. The fur in the picture is faux fur. I am morally opposed to using real fur.
THERE are some novels (and films) which think that they are doing a great favor to women by pitting the female protagonist against a beautiful, fashionable and sexy girl, who wears high heels, nail varnish and is usually blonde.
These novels can be written by men or women, the gender of the author matters not.
The argument which usually goes is that, "here it is, women, we are defying the stereotype. We are defying all these things which oppress you: mini-skirts, blonde locks, painted nails and lips. Wearing nail varnish and high heels is for silly and/or egocentric women". The female protagonist in these novels is usually pretty, clever, does not follow fashion, and is --usually but not always-- dark or brunette. (Note:The situation is made even worse when the male protagonist has to go from the sexy blonde to the pretty but clever brunette. This is supposed to show that he is now mature).
Of course, what this is showing is only that patriarchy is pitting one woman against the other. Women have a right to wear nail varnish, mini skirts and dye their hair blonde if they like! Blondes are neither silly nor egocentric. Silliness and egocentricity have absolutely nothing to do with hair color and appearance. And there is nothing wrong with the beauty ideal for women. Beauty should be inspiring!
The beauty ideal is oppressive only when we feel inadequate if we don't fit too well into it.
The way I see it, every woman can be sexy and beautiful if she wants to, and has a right to it.
In Twilight, the attractive blonde (Lauren) is spoilt, empty and inimical to Bella from the start. The same goes for the blonde in Beautiful Creatures. I don't even remember the relevant names here. I found the same stereotype in countless of novels and films.
One novel which didn't demonize the sexy blonde was Fifty Shades of Grey, and I totally love it for this! Kate is Anastasia's best friend, and that she is sexy, fashionable and wears heels does not put Anastasia on the defensive.
The sexy ideal is empowering and inspiring and can be reached by all. Those who deride sexy women deride women in general!
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! This week we have In My Shoes, a memoir by Tamara Mellon, co-founder of Jimmy Choo!
Tamara Mellon published this memoir in 2013, charting her beginning from the day she was fired from her position as accessories editor in Vogue, to the way she co-founded Jimmy Choo with the eponymous shoemaker, how she bought Jimmy Choo's share off the company and eventually left the company herself.
Apart from this, we get Mellon's account of her time in rehab, her family circumstances, marriage, motherhood and divorce.
I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book very much! I loved the descriptions of the fashion world, the hard work combined with creative genius that is behind fashion, the ingenuity with which Mellon promotes her lines and creations.
Most of all, I loved Mellon's honesty. She never shies away from describing pain, misery, heart-break, failure. I found this to be the most appealing part of the book. Also, I liked the positive spirit which runs across the pain and the failure, which reminds us that we must never give up and always strive for the best.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves fashion; at the same time, it is great reading for any lover of autobiography and memoir!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
DARK female beauty appears three times in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre; twice she is benevolent, and she is dangerous the third time.
The benevolent dark beauties are Bessie, the nursery maid in Jane's horrid childhood home, Reed Hall. Miss Maria Temple is the director and teacher of Lowood school, where is Jane is sent by her evil aunt, so that she can be out of the way.
On a symbolic level, Bessie and Miss Temple are one and the same: they are mother substitutes for Jane, and their physical description is identical. Black hair, black eyes and a pale skin, pretty. Miss Temple's name, Maria, goes back to the Virgin Mary, the maternal figure par excellence in western culture.
The third dark beauty is Bertha (Antoinette) Mason, Mr Rochester's first wife, the original Madwoman in the Attic. Bertha is Jane's dark double, or maybe a sort of dark mother for her.
Charlotte Bronte first wrote under a pseudonym, inspiring a whole national hunt for the real person behind the name. All the Brontes wrote under male pseudonyms. But this is the subject for another story, and another post!
Have a lovely Friday and see you again soon! xxx
THE literature genre with the most amazing pedigree must be the romantic comedy! It was created by none other than William Shakespeare! In plays like As you Like it and Twelfth Night.
Romantic comedy is the "boy-meets-girl" story, where we know who the romantic couple is, we just don't know how they will end up together. The romantic comedy usually has a happy ending, and emphasizes, apart from love, community, unity and continuation through marriage (or its modern equivalent, the permanent relationship).
Romantic comedy films are often very good, though sometimes they are considered of interest "only" to young women, or overtly romantic women of any age.
I say, any film which appeals "only" to women is a successful film, since women make up 51% of the world's population. Inasmuch as I would, one day, love my books to be read by men as well as women, I will be happy if they are read "only" by women!
Also, when someone speaks against romantic comedies, I tell them that they were invented by Shakespeare! Ha!
Of course, there are romantic comedies which are not that good. For example, those which present women desperate for a ring, for a proposal, for a guy, for anything. Or which emphasize the idea of marriage more than the idea of love. Or which insist that marriage solves everything.
An excellent romantic comedy was, for me, While you were sleeping with Sandra Bullock. Though Sandra Bullock was truly sad and alone at the start of the film, she wasn't desperate, nor spoke of marriage all the time. She went to her work, had friends and, most important of all, she had dignity.
Though marriage is the ultimate goal in While you were sleeping, it is presented as the natural ending to true love, not as a subject for hysteria.
Let's enjoy romance and the romantic comedy! It is one of the most honored literary genres ever invented!
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Today we got a novel, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I bought this novel a few years ago from WH Smith at Heathrow airport, as I was boarding a flight. I read it during the long flight for Christmas at my hometown.
WH Smith is the bookstore which got a commission in the 19th century to open in railway stations, and they have since kept the tradition of providing travelers with books. In the UK, there is a WH Smith in all airports, train stations and all the large coach stations!
As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I have a fear of heights and planes. It is a totally irrational fear, which is making my life extremely difficult. Don't ask how I got it, coz I can't tell you. All I know is that I was fine until a few years ago, and then I got this fear.
So what I buy to read on the plane is vital for me, because it can help me go through with the flight. I need something interesting and well-written, nothing nonsensical, annoying or stereotyped, nothing too cultish, or nothing too complex and philosophical.
The Thirteenth Tale was perfect! It's a gothic and weird novel, but very well-written: not too easy, and not too complicated. It's full of secrets and twists. Family secrets, mystery, obsessive love, discoveries, enigmas... If you love this sort of thing, you are going to love The Thirteenth Tale!
You are not going to like it if you are only into conventional and comforting fiction. I too am into comfort (though not convention). The Thirteenth Tale is only slightly discomforting but it is quite unconventional.
By the time I had finished The Thirteenth Tale, the long flight was over and we were ready to land! I closed the book feeling satisfied and happy with my choice.
Have a great weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
THE power of beauty is such, that even the memory of beauty can help us through a tough day. As my darling John Keats has said <3, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases; it will never fade into nothingness". John Keats's poetry is mysterious, sexy and beautiful! I totally recommend him anytime! ;-)
I AM reading a novel with an archaeologist who is led into a discovery about the Amazons; it seems interesting so far, and I like the fact that the protagonist archaeologist is a beautiful woman, tall and blonde and very clever too!
I like this, because it goes against the stereotype of the beautiful yet not clever woman. This stereotype is misogynistic and dangerous because what is the most important part is, of course, the opposite side: girls, if you are going to be clever, you will be ugly! Beauty and sexuality do not go with brains, traditional attitudes tell us. If you are beautiful, we will ridicule you, but we will be attracted to you.
So, I love fiction where this stereotype is shattered; in my own novels (I will publish them soon on Amazon Kindle self-publishing platform) the protagonist is always pretty and sexy and also clever!
One thing which I don't like about the novel I am reading now is the way it deals with men. The beautiful man will turn out to be all wrong, and the not so beautiful man will be the good guy. You will say, "but is this not so in real life? Beauty is no judge of character, either for men or for women". I totally agree.
Yet the novel is fiction, and not real life. The woman, in this book, and in many other books, is a knock-out in beauty, but she too must learn that for a man, beauty is not important. This is another traditional attitude stereotype. The woman must learn NOT to judge the man by appearance. The woman must learn to look at character. However, the woman must always be beautiful.
I support beauty equality for all in fiction! If fictional women protagonists will be judged by appearance then so must the men!
LIPSTICK is a star in this blog, and here's our lipstick dictionary with useful lipstick terms:
On the happy side--
Lipstick Bliss: when you have your favorite lipstick with you!
Lipstick Fun: when you try on different colors!
Lipstick Amazing: when you discover a new color!
On the unhappy side--
Lipstick heartbreak: when your favorite color goes out of production. Nothing is irreplaceable, EXCEPT lipstick. Even lovers/partners are not irreplaceable, but lipstick IS. A few days ago, I learnt that Pink Lolita is gone out of production. Heartbreak was the only feeling suitable to describe the experience.
Lipstick Desolation: when, after a while,you realize that, sadly, it's true; your favorite lipstick is not available anymore.
On the philosophical side:
Lipstick Nirvana: when you have all the lipsticks you can ever want. Consequently, lipstick nirvana is something which is nice to think about, but doesn't exist. You can never have enough lipstick!
If you know any other terms, please tell me. Have a great time for mid-week and see you again soon! xxx
DO I wake or sleep? wonders John Keats in his famous and lovely mystical poem, Ode to a Nightingale. The Romantics made extensive use of the dream, but the dream as a theme has always been popular in literature.
In Homer's Iliad dreams can be deceptive and untrue, and have implications for the development of the plot. In the Victorian era, who can forget Catherine's frightening and cryptic dreams in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights? Or Lockwood's sequence of three dreams during his first night at the Heights? I think the secret to the novel is there inside the dreams.
Jane Eyre also has symbolic and meaningful dreams, while Pip, protagonist of Dickens's Great Expectations, suffers and is tortured even in his dreams. The same goes for Lucy Snowe, from Charlotte Bronte's Villette.
Enough though with pain in dreams! Or, rather, enough with pleasureless pain. Anastasia has an amazing dream with Christian and a riding crop in Fifty Shades! This is a dream I would like to have too.
I wish you a great start to the new week. Keep calm and dream on! xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! This week we have Secondhand Chic (1999), by fashion writer Christa Weil!
Christa Weil is also the author of It's Vintage, Darling!, another book which was reviewed for The Lipstick Papers a couple of months ago. Secondhand Chic is just as good, and includes not only vintage, but also clothing you can find at consignment and thrift shops.
Personally, I am not into secondhand clothing, and the truth is that, because I have a really tiny budget, my wardrobe is far from perfect or complete.
However, this book is a treasure trove for clothes shopping in general, it's not only for secondhand shopping.
This is because it has excellent practical advice on quality indicators and plenty of guidance on personal style. For personal style, there is a section for every part of the body (e.g. Legs, general) with subsections (lower leg, upper leg, short legs, thick calves). Also, you can find ideas on what to wear at work, for going out and for casual style. And I love the caring for your clothes section!
The only negative thing I can find with this book are the illustrations. They are not pretty, just functional. Not unpleasant, but they don't contribute to the overall aesthetic appearance of the book!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
A stroll in the countryside or the park with a dog! This must surely be one of the most beautiful ways to end the Friday, sliding into the weekend. The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review coming soon! :-)
WHAT IS the best thing after discovering a new lipstick? Re-discovering an old one, of course!!!!!!!!!
For me, this lipstick is Pink Lolita by Estee Lauder. I bought it a couple of years ago, and it was a huge hit. Everybody loved Pink Lolita, and so did I. The color is sexy and innocent at the same time, pretty and modern, but also romantic. You can't go wrong with a Pink Lolita!
Later, I stopped wearing it and actually quite ignored it. I bought newer lipsticks, fuchsias, pinks and reds, some pale, some loud, all of them nice and all of them special.
A couple of days ago, my eye chanced to catch the Pink Lolita lying into my lipstick drawer. There she was, in her luxury gold case, with her unique pink shade, and seeming to ask, "why not wear me today"?
So I did, and it felt so good! The old lipstick seemed so brand new! The pink was so amazing! I will never ignore the Pink Lolita again!
Trying again an old lipstick is great fun and also rewarding. I highly recommend this lovely experience to everyone! ;-)
OCTOBER was the eighth month of the Roman calendar and that is why the name is derived from the Greek (and later Latin) octo, which means eight. It is the month when, according to the Chambers Book of Days in 1864, the woods are at their most beautiful!
I wish you all a great start to the month, with new colors, new ideas, fashions, books and, hopefully, also a new lipstick! The guys who read this page may buy it for their partners or girlfriends -- and as for the girls, we may just enjoy one of the privileges of our gender, which is to use lipsticks, make up, cosmetics, and all pretty things! xxx
P.S. As you know, I never go for the idea that we have to use lipstick and cosmetics, though I am crazy about lipstick! We do something only if it makes us feel good. There is make up for all budgets, plus numerous recipes to make our own. Especially 19th century beauty books, like Woman Beautiful, they have recipes for nearly everything!
