Sunday 25 May 2008

1940s nonchalance

This is the best photo I've seen today:



I found it on Café Mode, from the Life In Occupied Paris exhibition, a show of 1940s photos by photographer André Zucca.

I must admit I like the photo quite out of context . I love the fit of the trousers and the insouciant way she wears them. It makes me want to take these trousers from Topshop Unique:



...and edit them, now that they've have mysteriously lost their original cut as shown here, and gotten several inches shorter. [Really, though, this is puzzling. I don't know what can have happened to them, I was careful how I washed them - but I can't wear them with high heels anymore, they're too short for it. The effect is baggy rather than louche, so I've gotta do something with them...]

5 comments:

Make Do Style said...

'Fraid it looks as if it's string and tucking trousers into socks! The photo is lovely and a great insight into how to make do and mend under difficult times.
If your trousers are wool or a high percentage of wool then they shrink. Wool is the only fibre that does this all on its own, no matter how careful you are. Try washing again and pulling legs when wet to restretch fibres and hopefully regain some length.

Gen Williams said...

They're lined cotton, just fairly standard drill cotton I think.... if they were wool I wouldn't have been surprised but I didn't think cotton would behave this way.

Make Do Style said...

Yep cotton does it too - depends on the thread but there is no ability to pull it back. What a pain. Poor quality cotton stretches and goes mishapen. Heavy cotton will 'shrink' - the thread gets tighter but holds it shape.

Gen Williams said...

I reckon that's what's happened then. Bugger. Oh well. I can still wear them with flats, though they're definitely not as nice now - and I have some black high-waisted wide trousers that replace them nicely [and are also less bulky around the waist - these ones here tie with a very long incorporated wrap-around belt - hidden under the leather belt - so you really have to cinch it in to avoid a barrel tummy.]

Anonymous said...

those pants are amazing