I couldn’t resist some of these old fashioned fancy dress costumes culled from the web. If I had lots of time on my hands (hmmm…) I’d love to someday make a crepe paper costume. (Lots of pix after the jump!)
All posts in category Big Sensations
Happy Hallowe’en
Posted by jessica on October 31, 2012
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1396
The marvelous follows us…
After the spectacular storm last night I’m thinking about wonder, and specifically 16th century thinker Francesco Patrizi’s list of the 12 sources of wonder, which he published in the 1580s. Patrizi’s twelve sources of the marvelous: —ignorance —fable —novelty —paradox —augmentation —departure from the usual —the “exceedingly natural” —the divine —great utility —the very exact [...]
Posted by jessica on October 30, 2012
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1390
Meow Mix
As I wind down writing my second book (!), I’m taking some time to go back through my files & to post some of the photos I had hoarded while writing Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. Perhaps you’ll remember the entry on Felines? Well, here are some photos of famous feline lovers, like Josephine Baker and [...]
Posted by jessica on October 2, 2012
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1367
Ode to the Chorus Girl
I came across all these wonderful photos of chorus girls (a ton after the jump), most anonymous, though they reminded me of Anna Held, of course, as well as Busby Berkeley’s dancers and the dancers of the Quadrille Naturaliste. (And I’m starting out my first pinterest board in high style under the handle encycloexquisit, if [...]
Posted by jessica on September 19, 2012
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1309
Bau, bau….
It’s nearly Mardi Gras already, so it’s high time that I gave a nod to the Venetian masquers of old, who eerily drift through Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. For over half the year, from early October through Lent, the nobles of that city wore masks during the early 1700s. Cloaked, hooded and capering around in [...]
Posted by jessica on February 26, 2011
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1179
Love to Love
“Good morrow! ’tis Saint Valentine’s Day All in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine” So sang Ophelia, back in Shakespeare’s day, when everyone believed that the first person you saw on Valentine’s Day would become your truest love. In Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, I delve into the [...]
Posted by jessica on February 13, 2011
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1155
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
In one of those rare moments that brings together a handful of entries found in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met for a month-long gilded romp in 1520, cementing their friendship. In an otherwise deserted area of France, near Calais, a gold-covered temporary palace was built. Pavilions draped [...]
Posted by jessica on January 16, 2011
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1127
Ex Libris
Bookplates! I’ve been doing some research on the personalized bookplates of centuries past, putting together a certain ahem-hem birthday gift lately. Since the first days when anyone lent anyone a book— or at least since the mid-15th century— nobles and monks have claimed ownership of their tomes of with ex libris labels. Collecting and viewing these ephemera [...]
Posted by jessica on January 11, 2011
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1121
“Completely Wanton”
Encyclopedia of the Exquisite’s entry on Heels focuses on how Marilyn Monroe wore them with such va-va-voom back in the mid-20th century. In Niagara, a film noir shot in 1952, she played a vixen with a walk so provocative that it sparked controversy. “The uninhibited deportment in the motel room and the walk seemed …
Posted by jessica on January 9, 2011
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1116
Freeze, please.
It’s finally time to sharpen up my blades—I’ve been waiting for over eleven months now. The oldest known ice-skates, 4000 year-old strap-on horse bone blades, were dug up near a Finnish lake by archeologists in 2007. But while ice-skates have been used as transportation for millennia, the Dutch, who call skates ‘schaats,’ turned skating fun [...]
Posted by jessica on December 29, 2010
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1106
pins lately
