Thursday, 25 February 2021

Are your outfits shameless, smart, quaint or ridiculous?


click to embiggen

The other day, over at my daily blog Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle I posted a typically gaudy and OTT snippet from the (rare for a Dame Julie Andrews film) massive commercial flop Star! - the biography of the legendary Gertrude Lawrence - featuring the song The Physician.

On investigation I discovered that this number was originally from an otherwise forgotten West End musical in which Miss Lawrence starred, titled Nymph Errant - a bizarre comedy-of-errors about a girl returning to her finishing school, who went astray along the way and ended up in a Turkish harem. Unsurprisingly, The Physician is possibly the only thing associated with that production that was ever revived.

The musical was in turn based on a best selling novel of the same name by one James Laver - a fascinating character in his own right. An erudite and scholarly curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), he had the good fortune to be appointed the first head of the institution's embryonic Theatre Collection - and developed a lifelong passion for costume and the study of fashion and its history. Somewhere along the way, he also became a central character in the "society party set" in 1920s and 30s London [whether that was because he ever wore, or allowed friends to wear, any costumes from the collection remains undocumented].

Scholarly or no, I just adore his simple analysis of "taste" and fashion trends and how attitudes towards them change with time - otherwise known as "Laver's Law":

Indecent 10 years before its time
Shameless 5 years before its time
Outré (Daring) 1 year before its time
Smart 'Current Fashion'
Dowdy 1 year after its time
Hideous 10 years after its time
Ridiculous 20 years after its time
Amusing 30 years after its time
Quaint 50 years after its time
Charming 70 years after its time
Romantic 100 years after its time
Beautiful 150 years after its time

Faboo!

And so true.

4 comments:

  1. Oh I loved that Julie Andrews film! Daniel Massey! I think we've had this conversation before?!
    Meanwhile, I think I am Amusing?
    Sx

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    Replies
    1. I only ever watched Star! once, and I wasn't keen on it. Can't remember why. Perhaps one day we'll give it another go - when lockdown is over and "our gang" has another film afternoon/night in a pub, possibly...

      Speaking of lockdowns, I've been wearing mainly "comfy" clothes we purchased when Primark was last open - so "Dowdy" is my look at the moment. As for the rest of the clothes in our wardrobes, by far the majority of stuff is dressing-up gear, and that is timeless. Had the moths not got to the bits and pieces I had kept since my heyday in the 80s, however, I could well have hit the "Amusing/Quaint" threshold... Jx

      Delete
  2. Ha ha James Laver must have been a good friend to have if you like dressing up as much as we do.
    and I think a am Amusing too

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    Replies
    1. Imagine having access to the V&A costume collection? Wow... Jx

      Delete

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