i spy: a woman in yellow, art deco plastic, a foggy Dutch evening

As Don Draper told Lane Pryce when he suggested they go see the film Guns of August, "I hate guns and I hate August."  Nonetheless, I did spy some beautiful things last month:  a woman in yellow, a dress in rust, a beautifully furnished room in Iceland, and more.

See more on my Tumblr and Pinterest.

clockwise, starting upper left:

* Willy Jaeckel, Dame in Gelb (Woman in Yellow), 1928. | Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg

* 1930s rust crepe dress with smocking and braided hair tassels. | GuermantesVintage

* James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne; Grey and Gold--Canal; Holland, 1883-1884. | Smithsonians's Freer-Sackler Gallery

* A collection of circa 1930s art deco style plastic buckles. | gerson lessa's Flickr

* Iceland. | Eva Kosmas Flores' Flickr

xo

K

i spy: laughing ladies, Lanvin polka dots, more delicious Hamm, and summer lushness from Klimt

In this edition of I Spy: laughing ladies in the 1930s, superb Helsinki street style, more Hamm, and a bar that never changes.

See more inspiration on my Tumblr and Pinterest.

* In tribute to what would have been Orson Welles' 100th birthday this year, one of my all-time favorite films, The Third Man, has been restored.  This is a German poster for the movie by Heinrich Stengel.  You can see many more beautiful examples of posters for this film at the following link. | MUBI Notebook blog

* Photo of Woody Guthrie performing at McSorley's Ale House in NYC in 1943. (Photo by Eric Schaal-The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.)  What I love about this is McSorley's looks almost exactly like this to this day--down to the sawdust on the floor.  And Woody's outfit is terrific. | LIFE magazine on Tumblr

* A wonderful photo, dated 1939, of two ladies laughing, apparently at something in Esquire magazine.  I wish I knew what it was! | roni greenwood on Flickr

* If, like me, you're missing Mad Men and Jon Hamm's handsome (and sometimes ridiculous) face, you have options.  You can re-watch Mad Men, and/or you can enjoy him along with Daniel Radcliffe as a 1930s Russian morphine addict in the funny and dark A Young Doctor's Notebook and Other Stories, based on the stories by Mikhail Bulgakov.  Both series of the show are now available on Netflix.  (You can also see Hamm in A Wet Hot American Summer First Day of Camp on Netflix now.)  And that's your Hamm News for the day. | my screenshot; more on my Tumblr

* Ilka Chase modeling a fantastic polka dot dress by Lanvin in May 1925, photo by Edward Steichen. | Corbis

* Gustav Klimt's The Park, 1910 or earlier. | Wikimedia Commons

* Great street style, Victoria in Helsinki!  Love those pants and the pop of color from her scarf.  I'm so glad that Hel-Looks appears to be back in Helsinki and posting street style. | Hel-Looks

* A circa 1920s vasculum.  Isn't it beautiful?  These were used by botanists to safely collect and store plants without crushing them when in the field. | Live Auctioneers

* A door handle in the Bremen City Hall, designed by Franz von Stuck.  This makes me really bummed that I never got to visit the Museum Villa Stuck when we were in Munich.  Next trip! | Culture Design blog

xo

K

april showers...

...bring May inspiration!  A peek at the pretty, cute, and sometimes odd things that caught my eye last month on the internets.

1. The cutest baby animal ever? A wild boar piglet.  Painting by Hans Hoffmann from 1578. /// Wikimedia Commons

2. The decoupaged walls of the Print Room in County Kildare, Ireland's Castleton House. /// via

3. Katharine Hepburn and her sisters, ca 1939--gorgeous ladies, great style, and Kate's pants! /// vintagegal

4. Serge Gainsbourg dishes out not just sexy French pop, but worldly wisdom. /// via

5. Pink pixie + vintage dress + amazing coat = inspiring London street style. /// Street Style Aesthetic

6. Amazing paper light sculpture by Nicholas Wright. /// via

1. The Lantern Parade by Thomas Cooper Gotch, 1918 /// We Love Paintings

2. Project for an art nouveau apartment house facade by architect Hans Schlechta, 1901 /// booknbuildings

3. Incredible bee-embroidered gown by Jacques Doucet, ca 1900-1905 /// Les Arts Decortifs

4. 1978 McCall's Embroidery Book /// Girl of 100 Lists

5. 1963 Penguin Books edition of The Fall by Albert Camus /// scatterkeir

6. Stylish Lucille Baldwin Brown, the first black public county librarian in Tallahassee, Florida. /// Of Another Fashion

xo

K