I have been making some graphics with my lovely GIMP programme lately, and I must say I'm proud of how I'm slowly starting to get better and better. Tonight, I wanted to practise some more and found this random Marilyn Monroe picture on Google. I do admit it's not the most complicated graphic I've ever seen or that you have probably ever seen, but the result satisfies me.
Whilst working on this picture with the flashing Marilyn in it, I came to think of a new Marilyn movie that came out recently: My week withMarilyn. It hasn't been released here yet, so I haven't seen it, and therefore I also can't say too much about it for now, but this one is certainly on my must-see list! The trailer looks so promising!
Judge for yourselves:
The rating of this movie on IMDb is four stars out of five, so I don't think this movie will disappoint me. I love the clothing and the ambiance in the trailer!
From today on, there will be a new series of posts on my blog, showing you some famous classic hairstyles and their backgrounds. Today I'll start with the pompadour.
The pompadour was incredibly popular among rockabilly boys during the 1950s. Elvis Presley was, of course, the most famous person with this hairstyle and copycats all over the world soonly started imitating his look - some more extremely than others - and always carried a comb with them to keep their hair in the right shape.
One might wonder why this hairstyle, that seemed to be founded in the United States of America has a French name. An English name would be much more practical, wouldn't it?
No, in fact the hairstyle got its name from Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV of France. She used to wear many wigs that looked like the picture above; it was volimunous at the front and framed with ringlets.
Although not backcombed with pomenade like the 1950s hairstyle, the resemblance is rather big if you ask me.
The pompadour, however, was not only a hairstyle for men: there was also a version for females available. This is a version in which the hair is turned back off the forehead in a roll. This hairstyle is still popular among a lot of girls with a slight interest for anything retro or rockabilly. In case you are one of them, or would just want to give it a try for fun; here is a nice tutorial on how to do it:
I have personally never worn this look for two particular reasons:
Reason 1: I practically always have a fringe that is not long enough to roll up.
Reason 2: I have a big forehead and have an updo on the front of your head makes a big forehead appear only bigger than it already is.
And throughout history, there have been several periods in which the pompadour made several comebacks:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus sported a wide reverse pompadour in the late 1980s / early 1990s series Seinfield.
Mike Score, vocalist of the new wave band A Flock of Seagulls, was famous for his extravagant own version of the classic pompadour, in which he only backcombed hair on the sides of his head, and left it straight at the front.
Dita von Teese is wellknown for her vintage inspired looks and creates a pompadour every now and then.
And of course, the pompadour is still popular in the modern rockabilly/psychobilly/whateverbilly scene as well!
I've been wearing practically the same outfit throughout the whole weekend and have taken some pictures of it with my sister's camera that's at least five years old, hence the quality. I absolutely love the combination of black and white and have hardly worn any colours for the last seven years, though I intend to add some more colourful pieces to my garderobe.
This will be one of last weekends that allows me to dress in a way like this, because the cold weather will arrive soon. I honestly hate both Autumn and Winter; whereas other people associate these seasons with coloured trees and fairytale-like snowy scenes, I think of rain, exploded hair and falling off your bike and breaking your leg because of the frozen roads. I also like Summer fashion much better than Winter fashion and have this tendency to wear my Summer outfits during Winter too, by adding more layers. But Winter hasn't arrived yet, so let's stay optimistic just for now!
It is a beautiful white blouse from the 1950s in perfect condition! I bought it on Etsy from Aya, the woman behind Strawberrykoi.com, one of my favourite websites around. On her blog, I saw the picture of this blouse and I immediately knew it should be mine. It's my first piece from the 1950s and I love it. Too bad the season for wearing short sleeved blouses is over, but I think it would look great with a nice cardigan as well. Stay tuned and you might see it more often on this weblog.
I am still browsing Etsy for great finds all the time; I have currently fallen in love with a 1960s wool coat and 1940s oxford shoes and might order some other items along. Whatever it'll be, you'll see it appear on this site sooner or later.
And that's not the only thing that's new! I also created a layout that satisfies me for this blog, and have officially finished it today, now the header is up too. I've been working for several days on this particular header, and it just didn't look right until today. I know it's rather simple, but I love it nevertheless, especially because it is quite an achievement for someone with photoshop skills as poor as mine.
After searching for quite a while on google for the right pictures, I finally chose Marilyn Monroe (before she was the way we usually her - blond and possibly the biggest sex symbol of all time) and Bette Davis, whose left arm had to be made invisible, because it looked rather awkward without the original black background.
She was the most famous (or should we rather say infamous?) pin up model from the 1950s.
Bettie Mae Page was born in the Nashville, Tenessee on April 22, 1923. Her parents had three sons and three daughters and the family was very poor; they would divorce when Bettie was 10 years old. Her father molested all three of his daughters and ended up in jail after stealing a police car.
At high school, Bettie was a very good student and had roles in many of the school plays. After graduating, she left Tenessee for New York, where her career as a pinup model took off, when an amateur photographer asked her to pose, while she was on a break from her job as a secretary. She got more and more popular, resulting in being the centerfold of Playboy magazine in January 1955.
A picture of Bettie taken by Irvin Klaw
From 1951 onwards, she started posing for the photographer Irving Klaw, a photographer who specialized in S&M, and Bettie became known as the Queen of Bondage. Irving took thousands of pictures of Bettie; and Bettie also appeared in more than 50 burlesque films, Teaserama being the most famous one.
Back in the days, however, the prudish American society did not allow pictures like Klaw's and he was arrested for "conspiracy to distribute obscene material". Bettie was not arrested, but was asked to testify in the case and the senator of Tennessee launched a congressional investigation against her.
Bettie in Teaserama
After the cause with Klaw, Bettie retreated from public view and moved to Florida in 1957. Before the start of her career, she had been married and divorced and in the years after her career, the same scenario happened twice again.
The salvation of her misery was in 1959, when she saw a church with a neon cross on top and entered this building. This was the moment that would change Bettie's life forever, since it made her dedicate her life to Jesus Christ.
Quite an unexpected move from someone who used to be a pin up and S&M model, isn't it? Bettie had always been a christian, though. The reason why she had no problems with being portrayed (partially) nude, was because Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were nude too.
Ever since the end of the 1950s, Bettie hasn't appeared in the public view anymore and led a rather quiet life, with the exception of being treated for schizophrenia for 8 years throughout the 1980s. Bettie died in December 2008, at the age of 85.
Bettie competing against a gorilla
Bettie had been practically forgotten until her pictures and movies were rediscovered by a large audience during the 1990s. People were fascinated by this woman, who seemed to be the innocent girl next door gone wild - a superstar whose success was demolished by the government and who practically disappeared afterwards.
This must have been the reason for director Mary Harron to film Bettie's past, her career and the way she vanished from the public view. The movie she made is named The Notorious Bettie Page and features Gretchen Mol as Bettie.
The trailer of The Notorious Bettie Page
I personally really enjoyed this movie. The ambiance is wonderful, the acting is good and the funniest part is that it shows how incredibly innocent the photo shoots actually were compared to what we are used to today. Bettie also did it purely because she enjoyed it, but didn't think of the possible consequences and the fact that it was not as innocent as she thought it was.
The real Bettie Page was positive about the movie too, but wasn't very pleased with the title of the movie.
"Notorious? That's not flattering at all. They should have used another word."
Bettie just did what she loved to do, that was all.
"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn't think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any other way to live."
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