http://estherwoovintage.tumblr.com/

Almost done with the new site!! Its crazy how long this has...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:39:58 -0400

Almost done with the new site!! Its crazy how long this has took…definitely more downs than ups but im determined to get it done (right)

jooheeyoon: Standing out in a crowd: full page for the current...

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 20:40:28 -0400

jooheeyoon:

Standing out in a crowd: full page for the current issue of Planadvisor. Thank you AD SooJin Buzelli!

Video

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 20:39:57 -0400

cwpnews: Peace on earth, good will towards men.

Tue, 28 May 2013 16:24:12 -0400

cwpnews:

Peace on earth, good will towards men.

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:30 -0400

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:32:19 -0400

Very rare to find vintage pieces from places outside of the...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:11:50 -0400

Very rare to find vintage pieces from places outside of the us…I think that may be next pet project…totally inspired by this 70s (east?) African beaded bag

soullovelyfashion: ~She Has Wings~ Manish Arora Spring Summer...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:24:26 -0400

soullovelyfashion:

~She Has Wings~

Manish Arora Spring Summer Fashion.

Photo

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:00:31 -0400

vintagegal: Tura Satana c. 1950’s

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:00:27 -0400

vintagegal:

Tura Satana c. 1950’s

classicalallure: She is like Salome. She has seven veils. If...

Sat, 11 May 2013 16:00:31 -0400

classicalallure:

She is like Salome. She has seven veils. If you lift one, there is a second, and what you discover is even more mysterious, and you go to the third, and you still don’t know where you are. Only at the end, if you keep looking faithfully, will you find the true Josephine.

Choreographer George Balachine on Josephine Baker.

torayot: I do love images like this for various reasons. I’m...

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:00:13 -0400

torayot:

I do love images like this for various reasons.

I’m obviously not one for uncritically wishing to live decades in the past. I recognise the valid arguments against romanticising historical eras and turning them into mere snippets of attractive fashions and lifestyles, ignoring any actual lives that were lived and experienced during those times.

However, the fact remains that I enjoy bits and bobs of old-fashioned things. The way I write and speak is tinged with slightly and definitely pretentious fragments and structures of outdated novels. I like seeing vintage photographs and styling myself with fashion influences from the 20s or the 40s. I pin curl my hair. I love brogues, high-waisted trousers, waist-coats, a dapper hat. I also love fitted dresses which flare from the waist. But I certainly have no wish to actually go back to these eras: people who think that it was a time of refined and “proper” manners and good music are kidding themselves, and I usually scoff at them before catching myself.

So what am I doing, then?

I can’t even pretend that I’m able to defend these tastes of mine. Perhaps my frowning at people who critique this trend for retro, usually well-meaning (augh) white middle class feminists, is knee-jerk defensiveness.

But I cannot help but feel that more stories need to be told here. I read on Tumblr once that a POC enjoyed seeing photos like the above because they loved seeing and knowing that people like them existed in the past. Indeed: the most visible versions of these retro worlds - at least the ones which exist in the popular imagination - are almost uniformly white and thin.

When [white middle class etc.] people long for their vintage world, they all but say that they want it to be visibly populated with only the sort of people that “look” right. They sigh over the vintage photographs where there’s not a single brown face, approve of a time when men where gentlemen and women were ladies, note with pleasure their trim waistlines and apparent “good health”. It’s so unlike nowadays, what with all this “diversifying”, and no-one knowing how to dress properly or treat a lady right - all those things are just PERLIDICKAL CORRICKISS GORN MAID and a symptom of an unruly and confused modern world.

But obviously there have always been a huge range of identities out there since… for ever. People whinge about “revisionist” history even when it’s based on considerable amounts of material and written evidence. It’s not like brown queers suddenly sprang up in the 1960s: it is simply a matter of which set of identities is taken into the dominant mainstream and showered with visiblity. I just wish I could confidently say that the dominant narratives and representations are more diverse and accepting in the early 21st century in comparison to the early 20th century…

So that is part of why I like to see these vintage photographs in addition to others and myself dressing up in vintage-inspired styles. We were really there in the past. We are here now. And we’re terribly stylish.

frankiemachines: Ella Fitzgerald in Paris, 1960s

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:00:18 -0400

frankiemachines:

Ella Fitzgerald in Paris, 1960s

staysuckafree: phone17 my sister wrote me this one night after...

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:09:13 -0400

staysuckafree:

phone17

my sister wrote me this one night after leaving

Jesus. this is amazing staysuckafree: staysuckafree: shot by...

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:37:49 -0400

Jesus. this is amazing

staysuckafree:

staysuckafree:

shot by Mambu Bayoh

Instagram :: MambuBayoh

Do not remove tag

Model: Ania Charlot Major Models

styled by: Nyewiania

MUA: Tara Lauren

Assistant: Yagazie Emezi

Perfection.

blackfashion: shot by Mambu Bayoh Instagram :: MambuBayoh Do...

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:08:38 -0400

blackfashion:

shot by Mambu Bayoh

Instagram :: MambuBayoh

Do not remove tag

Photo

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:10 -0400

black-berries: Janet Hubert, 1987

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:27 -0400

black-berries:

Janet Hubert, 1987

solongfarewelladios: Pearl Bailey (1972)

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:00:17 -0400

solongfarewelladios:

Pearl Bailey (1972)

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:00:27 -0400