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The Star of Bombay provides a secondary plot line
Back in 2010 I visited the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum where I went to the gems and minerals hall to see the Hope diamond. I was surprised to see in a nearby exhibit the Star of Bombay, an...
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Downton Abbey as a source of inspiration
If you are interested in the Roaring Twenties, you are probably enjoying Downton Abbey now, as am I. I’ve been asked on several occasions if I am inspired by the magnificent costumes that they wear....
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Men’s Hairstyles: Why I Avoid the Subject in my Mysteries
Rudolph Valentino I don’t go into men’s hairstyles much in my mysteries, because the subject is such a turn-off to today’s reader. Why? Because men usually parted their hair or combed it back in a...
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Describing Men’s Clothing
I have several fashion books that help me when I need to describe a male character’s clothing, the best of which, in my opinion, is American Costume 1915-1970. I don’t aspire to give long descriptions,...
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Lecture at the Downton Abbey Exhibit
On Nov. 14, I gave this talk at the Virginia Historical Society as part of their Downton Abbey exhibit, “Dressing Downton.” My presentation was titled Weird-but-True Things Most People Don’t Know...
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Bernice Bobs Her Hair
I recently got this short (48 minutes) movie from Netflix, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” filmed in 1976 and starring Shelly Duvall. It is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and, like much of this...
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What I learned in Florida
I was in Florida this week on a mini-vacation to Captiva, an island off the Gulf Coast near Naples and Fort Myers. While there, we visited the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island–kayaked...
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Miss America–How Our Ideas of Beauty Have Changed
I use photos of people and places taken in the 1920s to help me describe clothing, hairstyles, and locations, indoors and out. One thing I’ve noticed is how much our ideas of beauty have changed in the...
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Hand-Painted Knees
On July 21, 1925, the same day as the St. Petersburg, FL, newspaper headlines featured the John Scopes trial (he was found guilty of teaching evolution in a Kentucky science class), there was also an...
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Roaring Twenties Furniture . . . in China?
Yep, the Roaring Twenties roared in urban China as well as in the Western world. I was browsing through a really nice antiques store in Williamsburg, VA, recently and came across these restored...
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