You asked for it, so here’s an occasional open thread to bitch about anything tangentially related to history, costume, movies, or TV shows! Or whatever else is on your mind right now. Note that URLs are automatically held for moderation, but most anything else goes as long as you’re not bitchier than we are!
We’re in the darkest depths of winter now, in more ways than one. But still we persist — and resist. As the Black American poet Toi Derricotte wrote, joy is an act of resistance. We might add, so is snark. Frock Flicks exists because it brings us joy to create, and we hope it brings you some joy to read, and we’ll all need what joyful snark we can get in these dark days. It may be a hard slog, but we can only get through this together.
What’s bringing you joy right now?
What is the movie/GIF above?! Reminds me of my stalwart Mormon ancestors and their exciting frocks.
2nd season of Gentleman Jack!
Ha ha, our stalwart pioneering ancestors wished they could be so hot. Instead they were juggling dozens of babies and multiple rival wives (and cold and hunger)…
Goodness, I want to see that miniseries!
I just started reading a book called “Jane Austen’s Wardrobe” by Hilary Davidson. It’s fascinating reading about what we know about her clothes over her lifetime! Some of the details go a bit over my head because I’m not a sewer but I recommend it for anyone who likes historical clothing!
This just turned up in my email and I thought it might be of interest:
Rebecca Gibson, Ph.D., an associate professor of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, has recently published THE BAD CORSET: A Feminist Reimagining– which appears to be the ultimate rebuttal to “corset whining.”
About a decade ago, Gibson had ordered a reference book on corsetry and had been mistakenly sent a rare original first edition of a 1908 French anti-corsetry treatise, LE CORSET, by Ludovic O’Followell– which she describes as having “a relentless anti-woman agenda.”
Gibson decided to not only translate the work from French, but to go further, “annotat[ing] and critiqu[ing] O’Followell’s work, exploring contemporary anti-woman bias and challenging widely held conceptions about corsetry’s contribution to disease, disfigurement and disorders of the female body.”
Full article from VCU website (including an offsite link to purchase the E-book):
https://news.vcu.edu/article/2024/11/bad-corset-vcu-rebecca-gibson-translates-a-medical-text-that-goes-beyond-a-womans-waist?utm_source=VCUNewsNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VCUNewsNewsletter&utm_content=https://news.vcu.edu/article/2024/11/bad-corset-vcu-rebecca-gibson-translates-a-medical-text-that-goes-beyond-a-womans-waist
Gibson sounds like someone you ought to approach for an interview.
Yikes! Akismet evidently hates me and wants to run everything together, so I’ll try to repost with a LOT fewer words:
A professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has just published THE BAD CORSET: A Feminist Reimagining– which takes on an infamous 1908 French anti-corset treatise.
Details from VCU News website:
https://news.vcu.edu/article/2024/11/bad-corset-vcu-rebecca-gibson-translates-a-medical-text-that-goes-beyond-a-womans-waist?
It’s just the url – that automatically gets held for moderation & we’re traveling, sorry!
Looking forward to watching The Twelve Days of Tudor Christmas, with Lucy Worsley. It’s become a tradition since I saw it about 3 yrs ago. A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott version) is also on the list. :)
Has anyone been watching the miniseries of “Like Water for Chocolate” on HBO/Max? I’m finding it frustrating as an adaption, but some of the settings and costumes are interesting.
Really like all the neat like 1940’s costumes in Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) and am shocked there isn’t a review or commentary for it on this site yet. The men’s uniforms are very spiffy plus you get some nice working class women’s clothes and a few nice party and mourning dresses. Plus the Captain’s suspenders are just very appealing to me.
Had no idea there were ’40s costumes in it!
It’s set in 1944 during Franco’s regime, dealing with the leftist guerrial rebels (Maquis). The fairy tale stuff overlaps that.
Can you please make the second The Buccaneers 2023 post available, since today is the deadline?
Currently watching the Chinese drama Miss S, which is a Chinese remake of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries – they’ve set it in the 1930’s – and enjoying it. Costume – wise, the Chinese clothing looks pretty but I don’t know how accurate it is, and the Western clothes Miss S wears alternate between dresses that look like they’re from the 1950’s and dresses that look appropriate for the 1930’s.
I just saw an ad on Facebook for The Six Triple Eight. Looks interesting!
Rip Olivia Hussey.