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Done in an old atlas... gesso, dressmaker's tissue pattern paper, layers of paint, ephemera from the beach, photo, rubber stamps and neopaque crayons.
Merry Christmas all!
This is aBlack Label Farrah Fawcett (the 8th Bruce McBroom Version) by Cruz for www.myFarrah.com) celebrating Christmas, today, Christmas DAY! In a diorama and room furnished by Ken Haseltine. Bedding is Fashion Royalty, Farrah is wearing a DressMaker Details Dress.
Visit: www.myfarrah.com.
Farrah is on facebook www.facebook.com/FLFawcett
On Tumblr at; farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com
On ipernity at www.ipernity.com/home/311111
Join Farrah on Instagram at www.instagram.com/farrahlfawcett
On pinterest at www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Photo/Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Oscar Winner Angelina Jolie is a repainted and restyled Mattel Barbie by Noel Cruz for www.myfarrah.com.In the 1:6 scale Mansion by Ken Haseltine of www.regentminiatures.com. Angelina is wearing a DressMaker Details Dress.
Angelina Jolie Pitt is a filmmaker and special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Jolie has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
You can see Jolie's Bio on IMDB at www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Mattel Repainted Black Label Barbie of Farrah Fawcett Left to right - (all ten versions 14 - Shoulder Length, The Bruce McBroom Version in a Black Dress and red coat by Fashion Royalty, Version 15 with a short hairstyle Fawcett wore in the 80's, version 12.0 - in a white DressMaker Details Short Dress with dangling earrings (60's young Texas Fawcett) Version 14.0, (in a red gown by Fashion Royalty), 1-2012 --classic flip style in a black Fashion Royalty dress, version 2-2012 --straight shorter version in a black dress, version 5-2013 -- straight longer version and version 10.0-2014 in a FR Black Mattel Barbie Dress, and --Long and glamorous version and version 11.0 in a Fashion Royalty Red Dress) and version 16.0 (Modern styled and made up Fawcett) to the far right and front and all by Noel Cruz. Featured in the Horse Barn by Ken Haseltine of www.regentminiatures.com.
Visit: www.myfarrah.com.
Farrah is on facebook www.facebook.com/FLFawcett
On Tumblr at; farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com
On ipernity at www.ipernity.com/home/311111
Join Farrah on Instagram at www.instagram.com/farrahlfawcett
On pinterest at www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Photo/Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
James Dean and Rock Hudson repainted and styled with hair added and a repainted and restyled Elizabeth Taylor all by artist Noel Cruz of ncruz.com . Featured in this photos is the Barbie Coca-Cola Soda Fountain Limited Edition.
Elizabeth's Raincoat and Yellow Dress, Deans, shirt and slacks and Rock's Slacks, Shirt, Sweater and Tie are all dressed in DressMaker Details.
Noel's repainted Celebrities are featured in the 1Sixth (1sixth.co) Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover.
Check out the 1sixth.co site, all things Farrah & Regent Miniatures at 1sixth.co
& the first issue is up and available of 1sixth Magazine www.blurb.com/b/8447547-1-sixth
tumblr farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com/
pinterest www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Join Farrah on Instagram at instagram.com/farrahlfawcett
Magazines and books that feature photos from this account and 1Sixth.co (1sixth.co) & 1SixthWorld.com (1sixthworld.com) are available for order through Blurb.
Click this www.blurb.com/user/smckinnis for those books/magazines and ebooks. They are also available on iTunes.
1. Flickr FarrahF My Best So Far-rah www.blurb.com/b/9878133-flickr-favorites
2. FarrahF on Flickr www.blurb.com/b/9877886-farrahf-on-flickr
3. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Hardbound Book) www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
4. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine Version with Elizabeth Taylor Cover) www.blurb.com/b/9282662-1sixth
5. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine - special issue with Farrah Fawcett cover) www.blurb.com/b/9284044-1sixth-winter-2019
6. 1Sixth Winter Edition Premiere Issue (Magazine: Cate Blanchett Cover) www.blurb.com/b/8449117-1-sixth
You can also shop and display Noel Cruz repaints via RedBubble here: www.redbubble.com/people/stevemckinnis/shop under the collection NOEL CRUZ!
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
"Lucy Ricardo: I want the names to be unique and euphonious.
Ricky Ricardo: Okay. Unique if it's a boy, and Euphonious if it's a girl."
- 'I Love Lucy'.
Lucy Desi by Mattel as Repainted and with styled hair (and added hair for Desi as the factory collectible has molded hair) by Noel Cruz of www.ncruz.com wearing a beautiful gown by DressMaker Details in a diorama by Ken Haseltine.
More repainted art by Noel Cruz are featured in the 1Sixth Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover. Also as a PDF or eBook. Order here: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
eBook: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth?ebook=690084
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Farrah has a Coca-Cola after school!
Black Label Farrah Fawcett Barbie as repainted and restyled by Cruz based upon a young Fawcett's photos in the 60's in the Barbie Coca-Cola Soda Fountain Limited Edition. Farrah is wearing a DressMaker Details tie with a blouse by Integrity Toys/Fashion Royalty.
Farrah is on facebook www.facebook.com/FLFawcett. On Tumblr at; farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com. Join Farrah on Instagram at www.instagram.com/farrahlfawcett. On pinterest at www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Photo/Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Bissau. He was working outside his atelier, close to my hotel. He was one of the few I met in Bissau streets that did not ask for money to be photographed...
Couture Gown by the impeccable DressMaker Details for Kenvention 2015. This Miss Roberts gown is the height of fashion and elegance for the modern woman of this new age. It's bold extravagance and beautiful details are a breath of fresh fashion faire.
Fashion designed by Steven Fraser.
Modeling the dress is a repainted and restyled Mattel Audrey Hepburn Barbie as crafted by artist Noel Cruz of www.ncruz.com/.
Photo by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com/.
See more at 1sixth.co/ & 1sixthworld.com/. Books available on Blurb (www.blurb.com/b/9282662-1sixth) . a variety of issues are available on blurb as well as on iTunes and Apple books at: itunes.apple.com/us/book/id14… Visit www.1sixth.co
As requested Linus . . . more from the fabulous 'The Dressmaker' exhibition at Rippon Lea in Melbourne.
She appeared to be:
*In love with her cat(s).
*A former dressmaker/seamstress....or Costume-maker.
*Kinda lonely (aren't we all?)
*Unable to speak English - or "act-like" she understood my Espanol??
Elizabeth Taylor repainted, re-rooted and restyled wearing a DressMaker Details dress. Mattel Barbie of Elizabeth Taylor as repainted by Noel Cruz photographed in the Regent Mansion by Ken Haseltine.
Farrah is on facebook www.facebook.com/FLFawcett. On Tumblr at; farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com. Join Farrah on Instagram at www.instagram.com/farrahlfawcett. On pinterest at www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Photo/Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Taken at the residential street in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
For more photos of Cuban rum, classic cars, cigars and people, feel free to take a look at my ¡Hola Cuba 2016! travel series.
Oscar Winner Angelina Jolie is a repainted and restyled Mattel Barbie by Noel Cruz for www.myfarrah.com.In the 1:6 scale Mansion by Ken Haseltine of www.regentminiatures.com. Angelina is wearing a DressMaker Details Gown.
Angelina Jolie Pitt is a filmmaker and special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Jolie has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
You can see Jolie's Bio on IMDB at www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Have a coke with some legends..
James Dean and Rock Hudson repainted and styled with hair added and a repainted and restyled Elizabeth Taylor all by artist Noel Cruz of ncruz.com . Featured in this photos is the Barbie Coca-Cola Soda Fountain Limited Edition.
Elizabeth's Raincoat and Yellow Dress, Deans, shirt and slacks and Rock's Slacks, Shirt, Sweater and Tie are all dressed in DressMaker Details.
Noel's repainted Celebrities are featured in the 1Sixth (1sixth.co) Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover.
Check out the 1sixth.co site, all things Farrah & Regent Miniatures at 1sixth.co
& the first issue is up and available of 1sixth Magazine www.blurb.com/b/8447547-1-sixth
tumblr farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com/
pinterest www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Join Farrah on Instagram at instagram.com/farrahlfawcett
Magazines and books that feature photos from this account and 1Sixth.co (1sixth.co) & 1SixthWorld.com (1sixthworld.com) are available for order through Blurb.
Click this www.blurb.com/user/smckinnis for those books/magazines and ebooks. They are also available on iTunes.
1. Flickr FarrahF My Best So Far-rah www.blurb.com/b/9878133-flickr-favorites
2. FarrahF on Flickr www.blurb.com/b/9877886-farrahf-on-flickr
3. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Hardbound Book) www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
4. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine Version with Elizabeth Taylor Cover) www.blurb.com/b/9282662-1sixth
5. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine - special issue with Farrah Fawcett cover) www.blurb.com/b/9284044-1sixth-winter-2019
6. 1Sixth Winter Edition Premiere Issue (Magazine: Cate Blanchett Cover) www.blurb.com/b/8449117-1-sixth
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Sa Pa, Vietnam, 2008 - Leica M7, Summilux 50, Fuji Reala
I met this nice Hmong dressmaker while wandering in the surroundings of Sa Pa, North West Vietnam in summer 2008. Her Singer treadle sewing machine was probably half a century old but still in very good shape. She did not speak Vietnamese or English. I was glad to buy several traditional skull caps and specially to learn respecting ethnic minorities.
crafted and executed by the Official Replica, Regalia and Dressmakers of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino de Cebu, Mr. Juanito Zafra, Mr. Orlando Abellanosa, and the Asilo dela Medalla Milagrosa.
Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. ~Faith Baldwin....
Time is the wisest counsellor of all. ~Pericles
The illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not.... ~Thomas Carlyle
Hope you have Time to enjoy today....
Explore
Oscar Winner Angelina Jolie is a repainted and restyled Mattel Barbie by Noel Cruz for www.myfarrah.com.In the 1:6 scale Mansion by Ken Haseltine of www.regentminiatures.com. Angelina is wearing a DressMaker Details Dress.
Angelina Jolie Pitt is a filmmaker and special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Jolie has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
You can see Jolie's Bio on IMDB at www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Back to work on Monday wearing Dressmaker Details "Today Boucle" (the bodysuit is a FR because the original wouldn't pull over her hips! Too much good food this weekend!)
Photographs from the Midlands Vintage Chic Wedding Fair.
Held at The Old Library in The Custard Factory, Birmingham on Sunday 30th January 2011.
For more information about the exhibitors and news of upcoming events visit - www.vintagechicweddingfair.co.uk
Have a coke with some legends..
James Dean repainted and styled with hair added by artist Noel Cruz of ncruz.com . Featured in this photos is the Barbie Coca-Cola Soda Fountain Limited Edition.
Deans, shirt and slacks by DressMaker Details.
Noel's repainted Celebrities are featured in the 1Sixth (1sixth.co) Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover.
Check out the 1sixth.co site, all things Farrah & Regent Miniatures at 1sixth.co
& the first issue is up and available of 1sixth Magazine www.blurb.com/b/8447547-1-sixth
tumblr farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com/
pinterest www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Join Farrah on Instagram at instagram.com/farrahlfawcett
Magazines and books that feature photos from this account and 1Sixth.co (1sixth.co) & 1SixthWorld.com (1sixthworld.com) are available for order through Blurb.
Click this www.blurb.com/user/smckinnis for those books/magazines and ebooks. They are also available on iTunes.
1. Flickr FarrahF My Best So Far-rah www.blurb.com/b/9878133-flickr-favorites
2. FarrahF on Flickr www.blurb.com/b/9877886-farrahf-on-flickr
3. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Hardbound Book) www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
4. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine Version with Elizabeth Taylor Cover) www.blurb.com/b/9282662-1sixth
5. 1Sixth Winter Edition (Magazine - special issue with Farrah Fawcett cover) www.blurb.com/b/9284044-1sixth-winter-2019
6. 1Sixth Winter Edition Premiere Issue (Magazine: Cate Blanchett Cover) www.blurb.com/b/8449117-1-sixth
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Black & White Bathing Suit Barbie® Doll and Double Date™ 50th Anniversary Gift-set (along with Repainted Dolls by Noel Cruz and Hot Toys - Bruce Lee and Bruce Banner) attend a Holiday party in the Regent Miniatures Mansion!
Barbie's from www.barbiecollector.com. See more of Noel Cruz's repaints at www.ncruz.com. Some of the repaints featured here are Farrah Fawcett, Chris Reeves, Bo Derek and Lindsay Wagner.
This is 1:6 Mansion perfect for hot toys, barbie or fashion royalty. Ken Haseltine constructed, designed and built this 1:6 scale diorama and designed and customized the furnishings, florals and layout.
DOLLS SHOWN: (left to right - top floor) in the far back is a repainted Fashion Royalty as Farrah Fawcett, foreground of her is a Mattel Reproduction Barbie in a Dressmaker Details Dress (red cape), next to the piano is Noel Cruz's Chris Reeves, Reproduction Ken directly behind Chris, next to Midge, then another Ken and Barbie (Black & White Bathing Suit Barbie® Doll and Double Date™ 50th Anniversary Giftset) then Malibu Barbie (in a blue Fashion Royalty Gown, then a Hot Toys Bruce Lee and seated is Lindsay Wagner (TV's the Bionic Woman also by Cruz. (left to right - bottom floor - starting on the staircase is a Brad Pitt, then Farrah Fawcett - black label Barbie repaint by Cruz, in the Red Ruffle Dress is another Fashion Royalty repainted to be Farrah Fawcett, foreground in a the large purple DressMaker Details dress is Bo Derek by Cruz, seated is a Ghost Barbie repainted as Fawcett in a pink mermaid dress by Mattel, directly behind her is Bruce Banner (www.sideshowtoys.com) standing in a Red beaded gown is a porcelain Barbie, behind her in a red Fashion Royalty gown is Madonna (repaint by Cruz), Right Staircase at the top is a black label Farrah Fawcett (cruz) then Bruce Lee (www.sideshowtoys.com) and seated is another Black Label Farrah Fawcett in a green gown with red underskirt.
A 1/6th Scale Regent Miniatures Diorama and furnishings.
Regent Miniatures is also featured in 1Sixth.co Magazine and you can get the magazine, ebook/PDF by visiting the 1sixth site or this link: www.blurb.com/b/8449117-1-sixth
Instagram:
www.instagram.com/1sixthworld/
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Don't use this image on websites, blogs, facebook or other media without my explicit permission. Copyright © Claudia Merighi-Lamerighi All rights reserved
My "creation in progress" is done.....I think. I don't want to over-do-it. I think I'm going to frame it.
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are following Edith, Lettice’s maid, as she heads east of Mayfair, to a place far removed from the elegance and gentility of Lettice’s flat, in London’s East End. As a young woman, Edith is very interested in fashion, particularly now that she is stepping out with Mr. Willison the grocer’s delivery boy, Frank Leadbetter. Luckily like most young girls of her class, her mother has taught Edith how to sew her own clothes and she has become an accomplished dressmaker, having successfully made frocks from scratch for herself, or altered cheaper existing second-hand pieces to make them more fashionable by letting out waistlines and taking up hems. Thanks to Lettice’s Cockney charwoman*, Mrs. Boothby, who lives in nearby Poplar, Edith now has a wonderful haberdasher in Whitechapel, which she goes to on occasion on her days off when she needs something for one of her many sewing projects as she slowly adds to and updates her wardrobe. Mrs. Minkin’s Haberdashery is just a short walk from Petticoat Lane**, where Edith often picks up bargains from one of the many second-hand clothes stalls. Today she is visiting Mrs. Minkin with her friend and fellow maid, Hilda, who works for Edith’s former employer, Mrs. Plaistow and has Thursdays free until four o’clock.
“Cor, you are so lucky Edith,” remarks Hilda as the two friends stand at Mrs. Minkin’s cluttered, but well ordered shop counter. “Your Miss Lettice seems never to be home. Weekend parties and all that.”
“Are you complaining, Hilda?” Edith asks her friend as she gazes around the floor to ceiling shelves full of ribbons and bobbins, corsetry, elastics tapers, and fabrics and breathes in the smell of fabrics, and the cloves and lavender used by Mrs. Minkel to keep the moths at bay.
“Oh no!” Hilda defends with a shake of her head. “I’m so happy that you’ve got spare time in her absence to catch up with me, Edith. I just wish I had such luxury. You remember what it was like. I’m lucky if Mr. and Mrs. Plaistow go to Bournemouth for a fortnight in high summer, and even then, I get penalised by being paid board wages*** since they take Cook with them.”
“Miss Lettice has only gone down to Wiltshire for the weekend, Hilda,” Edith confirms, toying with a reel of pale blue cotton she plans to buy along with a reel of yellow and a reel of red cotton. “She’ll be back on Monday, so it would hardly be worth putting me on board wages.”
“She never does though, does she? Not even for Christmas when she goes home, and you go to your parents?”
“Well, no.” Edith admits, dropping her head as her face flushes with embarrassment. She knows how much better off she is with Lettice than in her old position as a parlour maid alongside Hilda at Mrs. Plaistow’s in Pimlico. Mrs. Plaistow is a hard employer, and very mean, whereas Lettice is the opposite, and she knows that she is very spoilt in her position as live-in domestic for a woman who is not at home almost as often as she is. “But,” she counters. “When Miss Lettice does come back, she’ll be bringing her future sister-in-law with her, and then I’ll be busy picking up after two flappers rather than one, and she often entertains when she has guests, so I’ll have my work cut out for me between cleaning and cooking for the pair of them.”
“Still, it’s not the same.” Hilda grumbles. “Even if you do have to work hard, it’s not like the hard graft I have to suffer under Mrs. Plaistow. Did I tell you that Queenie chucked in her position?”
“No!” Edith gasps, remembering Mrs. Plaistow’s cheerful head parlour maid who was kind and friendly to both her and Hilda. “She was always so lovely. You’ll miss her.”
“Will I ever.” Hilda agrees. “She’s gone home to Manchester, well to Cheshire actually. Said she’s done with the big lights of London now, and she wants to be closer to her mum now that she’s getting on a bit.”
“That’s nice for her.”
“That’s what she said, but I think she really found a new position to get away from Mrs. Plaistow and all her mean ways.”
“What’s her new position?”
“She’s working as a maid in Alderley Edge for two old spinster sisters who live in a big old Victorian villa left to them by their father who owned a cotton mill. She wrote to me a few weeks ago after she settled in. She told me that the old ladies don’t go out much as one of them is an invalid, and they seldom entertain. Half the house is shut up because it’s too hard for them to use it. There’s a cook, a gardener cum odd job man, and like you a char comes in to do the hard jobs, so she’s finding it much easier. She writes that she can even take the train in to Manchester on her afternoons off to go shopping and see her old mum.”
“That sounds perfect. Does that mean you’ll become the head parlour maid now, Hilda?”
Hilda cocks an eyebrow at her friend and snorts with derision. “Don’t make me laugh. This is Mrs. Plaistow we’re talking about.”
“Yes, but you seem the most obvious choice to fill Queenie’s spot.” Edith says cheerily. “You’ve been there for what, three years now?” Hilda nods in agreement to Edith’s question. “So, you’d be perfect.”
This time it is Hilda’s head that sinks between her shoulders in a defeated fashion, the pale brown knit of her cardigan suddenly hanging lose over her plump frame as she hunches forward slightly.
“Of course you would, Hilda!” Edith assures her friend, placing a comforting hand on her forearm.
“Mrs. Plaistow doesn’t think so. She says I need more experience.”
“Oh what rubbish!” Edith cries, the outrage and indignation for her friend’s plight palpable in her voice. “Three years is more than enough experience!”
“She’s gone and hired a new girl after putting an advertisement in The Lady****. Her name’s Agnes.”
Both girls look at one another, screw up their face at the name, mutter their disapproval and then burst into girlish laughter as they chuckle over the faces each other pulled in their shared disgust. It is then that Edith has a momentary pang of loss as she remembers the nights she and Hilda used to share in their tiny attic room at the top of Mrs. Plaistow’s tall Pimlico townhouse. It might have been cold with no heating to be had, but all the girlish silliness and fun they had made up for the lack of warmth: talking about the handsome soldiers they met on their shared days off, discussing what their weddings would be like – each being the other’s bridesmaid – and constant discussions about what was fashionable to wear.
“Mrs. Plaistow’s just being her usual penny-pinching self.” Edith remarks. “She just doesn’t want to increase your wages and pay you what you’re really worth. I bet she hired this Agnes at a lesser wage than Queenie got, and even then, I don’t think Queenie was paid her worth.”
“Probably not.” Hilda says in return.
“I don’t know why you put up with her, Hilda. There are plenty of jobs going for parlour maids. I got out and look at me now. I’ve overheard Miss Lettice talk about something called ‘the servant problem’ with some of her married lady friends, where people cannot find quality domestics like us unless they can provide good working conditions. That’s why my wage at Miss Lettice’s is higher than it was at Mrs. Plaistow’s, and why I have a nice bedroom of my own with central heating and a comfy armchair to sit in.”
“And Miss Lettice is a nice mistress.” Hilda adds. “Who’s away half the time.”
“And Miss Lettice is nice mistress.” Edith agrees. “I can always give you the details of the agency in Westminster that I registered myself with, which led Miss Lettice to me. It has a very good clientele.”
“I don’t think a duchess will pay any better than Mrs. Plaistow will.” remarks Hilda disparagingly. “Anyway, I’ve been making enquiries on my days off, not today of course, and putting my name about Westminster and St. James’, so who knows.”
“Well, the offer is there if you fancy.” Edith begins.
“Here we are, Edit, my dear!” Mrs. Minkin chortles cheerily, breaking the girls’ conversation as she appears through the door leading from her storeroom, a bolt of pretty blue floral cotton across her ample arms. “Mr. Minkin needs to keep to buying fabric and leave it to me to arrange it in my own back room.” She wags a pudgy finger decorated with a few sparkling gold rings warningly as she places the fabric down in front of the gleaming cash register. “It was hidden, but now it is found Edit my dear.”
A refugee from Odessa as a result of a pogrom***** in 1905, Mrs. Minkin’s Russian accent, still thick after nearly twenty years of living in London’s East End, muffles the h at the end of Edith’s name, making the young girl smile, for it is an endearing quality. Edith likes the Jewess proprietor with her old fashioned upswept hairdo and frilly Edwardian lace jabot running down the front of her blouse, held in place by a beautiful cameo – a gift from her equally beloved and irritating Mr. Minkin. She always has a smile and a kind word for Edith, and her generosity towards her has found Edith discover extra spools of coloured cottons or curls of pretty ribbons and other notions****** in the lining of her parcel when she unpacks it at Cavendish Mews. Mrs. Minkin always insists when Edith mentions it, that she wished all her life that she had had a daughter, but all she ever had were sons, so Edith is like a surrogate daughter to her, and as a result she gets to reap the small benefits of her largess, at least until one of her sons finally makes her happy and brings home a girl she approves of.
“Thank you, Mrs. Minkin.” Edith says.
“Have you seen the latest edition of Weldon’s*******, Edit my dear?” the older woman asks as she jots down the fabric price in pencil on a notepad by the register. “There’s a very nice pattern for a frock with side and back flounces in it.”
“That’s what this fabric is for!” Edith says excitedly. “I think it will make a lovely summer frock.”
“I thought so.” Mrs. Minkin says with a wink. “I’m getting to know my Edit’s style. No?”
Edith nods shyly in agreement.
“Now, anything else, Edit my dear?”
“I’ll take these three cottons too please, Mrs. Minkin.” Edith places her hands over the spools and rolls them forward across the glass topped counter.
“Of course, Edit my dear.” the older woman chortles. “Some buttons too?” She indicates with the sweeping open handed gesture of a proud merchandiser to a tray of beautifully coloured glass, Bakelite and resin buttons expertly laid out next to the till.
“Oh,” Edith glances down at them quickly. “No thank you Mrs. Minkin. I have some buttons at home in my button jar.”
“Nonsense!” she scoffs in reply, expertly flicking through the cards of buttons. “A new dress must have new buttons.” She withdraws a set of six faceted Art Deco glass buttons that perfectly match the blue of the flowers on the fabric Edith is buying. “You take these as a gift from me. Yes?”
“Oh, but Mrs. Minkin!” Edith begins to protest, but she is silenced by the Jewess’ wagging finger.
“I’ll just fold them in here with the dress fabric.” She announces as if nothing were more normal. “You take them home with you and when you have made the frock, you wear it in here for me so I can see my buttons.”
Then just as she is slipping the buttons into a fold in the patterned cotton, a contemplative look runs across her face. She glances at Edith and then shifts her head. “You know what would go nicely with this fabric?” she asks rhetorically as she deposits the cloth onto a pile of brown paper next to the register and leans back. Stretching her arms over a basket of various brightly coloured and patterned fabric rolls she plucks a hat stand from behind her on which sits a beautiful straw hat decorated with a brightly coloured striped ribbon and some dainty fabric flowers in the palest shade of blue and golden red. “This.” She places it on the counter between herself and the two maids, smiling proudly as though the hat were a beautiful baby.
“Oh Edith!” gasps Hilda. “Isn’t it lovely?”
“Oh yes it is.” agrees Edith.
“And with your blonde hair it would be perfect.” Hilda adds enthusiastically.
“Your friend has a good eye.” Mrs. Minkin pipes up, nodding in agreement at Hilda, blessing her with a magnanimous smile. “It would suit you very nicely.”
“Oh no, Mrs. Minkin.” Edith protests.
“Now, I can’t give it away,” the Jewess answers, squeezing her doughy chin between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand as she contemplates the pretty bow and flowers. “But for you, my dear Edit, I sell it for twelve and six.”
“Twelve and six!” gasps Edith. “Oh Mrs. Minkin, even at that generous price I could never afford it.” She gingerly reaches out and toys with one of the fabric blooms as it sits tantalisingly on the hat’s brim.
“Ahh,” sighs the older woman as she reaches over, picks up the hat stand and hat with a groan and returns it to the display top of the mahogany drawers behind her. “Pity. Your friend its right. It really would suit you.”
“I’m only a maid, Mrs. Minkin,” Edith reminds her. “And whilst I might get paid more generously than some,” She dares to glance momentarily at Hilda who does not return her gaze, distracting herself looking through a basket of balls of wool. “I’m afraid it’s Petticoat Lane for me, where I can buy a straw hat cheaply and decorate it myself with ribbons from here.”
“And you’ll do a beautiful job of it I’m sure, Edit my dear.” Mrs. Minkin replies consolingly. “Just remember to echo the colours on your new frock. Yes?”
“Alright Mrs. Minkin. I will.”
“Good girl.” Mrs. Minkin purrs.
Just as the older woman turns back to the two girls, Edith notices for the first time a small square box displayed next to the hat. The cover features the caricature of a woman in profile with a fashionable Eaton crop******** wearing a pearl necklace reaching into her handbag. “May-Fayre Handkerchiefs,” she reads aloud softly.
“Oh, I just received a delivery of them.” Mrs. Minkin reaches down and pulls open one of the drawers and withdraws another box. “They’re British made, and very good quality. Look.” She points proudly to some red writing on the face of the box. “The colours are guaranteed permanent.”
“Hankies?” Hilda queries. “You don’t need hankies, Edith. You’ve got loads of them.”
“Not for me, Hilda: for Mum,” Edith explains. “For Christmas.”
“But it’s summer. That’s months away!” Hilda splutters.
“I know, but I don’t see why I can’t do a spot of early Christmas shopping.” Edith defends her actions. “It will save me having to join the crowds desperately looking for gifts in December. How much are they Mrs. Minkin?”
“They’re three shillings and ninepence.” Mrs. Minkin replies. “You’re a sensible girl, Edit my dear. You shop for bargains, and you look for gifts all year round. What a pity you aren’t Jewish. You’d make a good wife for my Gideon.”
“No thank you, Mrs. Minkin,” Edith laughs. “No matchmaking for me.”
“Never mind.” Mrs. Minkin chuckles, joining in Edith’s good-natured laughing as she carefully folds brown paper around Edith’s fabric, buttons, box of handkerchiefs and spools of cotton.
“Besides,” Edith adds. “I already have a chap I’m walking out with. I can’t very well walk out with two, can I?”
“Well, a clever girl like you must have dozens of young men vying for her attentions, I’m sure.” The older woman ties Edith’s purchases up with some twine which she expertly trims with a pair of sharp shears.
“I wouldn’t say dozens. Anyway, just one will do me fine, Mrs. Minkin.”
“Now, the fabric is six shillings,” the proprietoress mutters, half to herself. “And the handkerchiefs three shillings and ninepence. With the three cottons, that comes to ten shillings exactly.” She enters the price into the register which clunks and groans noisily before the bright ting of a bell heralds the opening of the cash drawer at the bottom.
Edith opens her green leather handbag and pulls out her small black coin purse and carefully counts out the correct money in her palm. “Cheaper than a new straw hat.” She hands it over to Mrs. Minkin, who carefully puts it in the various denomination drawers of the till before pushing the cash drawer closed.
“Right you are Edit my dear. There you are.” Mrs. Minkin says cheerfully as she hands over Edith’s brown paper wrapped package bound with twine. “Now, what may I hep you with, my dear?” She turns her attention to Hilda.
“Me?” Hilda gulps, pressing the fingers of her right hand to her chest. “Oh, I’ve just come to keep my friend company. I don’t sew.”
“What?” The older woman’s eyes grow wide as she looks the rather dowdy brunette in the brown cardigan up and down appraisingly. “Not sew? What girl cannot sew?”
“Well I can’t,” Hilda replies. “And that’s a fact.”
“Foyl meydl*********!” gasps the Jewess aghast, her hand clasping the cameo at her throat. “All girls should know how to sew, even if badly.” She folds her arms akimbo over her large chest, a critical look on her face. “No goy********** will want to marry you if you can’t sew, my dear! Edit my dear,” She turns her attention away from Hilda momentarily. “You need to take your friend in hand and teach her how to sew.” She turns back to Hilda. “Your friend can show you. She knows how to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Eh?”
Hilda looks in terror at Edith, who bursts out laughing at her friend’s horrified face. Wrapping her arm comfortingly around her friend, Edith assures Mrs. Minkin that she will take Hilda under her wing. Winking conspiratorially at Hilda so that the proprietoress cannot see, she ushers her friend out of the haberdashery and back out onto the busy Whitechapel street outside with a cheery goodbye to Mrs. Minkin.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
***Board wages were monies paid in lieu of meals and were paid in addition to a servant’s normal salary. Often servants were paid board wages when their employer went on holiday, or to London for the season, leaving them behind with no cook t prepare their meals. Some employers paid their servants fair board wages, however most didn’t, and servants often found themselves out of pocket fending for themselves, rather than having meals provided within the household.
****The Lady is one of Britain's longest-running women's magazines. It has been in continuous publication since 1885 and is based in London. It is particularly notable for its classified advertisements for domestic service and child care; it also has extensive listings of holiday properties.
*****Pogroms in the Russian Empire were large-scale, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting that began in the Nineteenth Century. Pogroms began to occur after Imperial Russia, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire from 1772 to 1815. The 1905 pogrom against Jews in Odessa was the most serious pogrom of the period, with reports of up to 2,500 Jews killed. Jews fled Russia, some ending up in London’s east end, which had a reasonably large Jewish community, particularly associated with clothing manufacturing.
******In sewing and haberdashery, notions are small objects or accessories, including items that are sewn or otherwise attached to a finished article, such as buttons, snaps, and collar stays. Notions also include the small tools used in sewing, such as needles, thread, pins, marking pens, elastic, and seam rippers.
*******Created by British industrial chemist and journalist Walter Weldon Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was the first ‘home weeklies’ magazine which supplied dressmaking patterns. Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was first published in 1875 and continued until 1954 when it ceased publication.
********The Eton crop is a type of very short, slicked-down crop hairstyle for women. It became popular during the 1920s because it was ideal to showcase the shape of cloche hats. It was worn by Josephine Baker, among others. The name derives from its similarity to a hairstyle allegedly popular with schoolboys at Eton.
*********”Foy meydl” is Yiddish for “lazy girl”.
**********”Goy” is Yiddish for a gentile, non-Jew.
Mrs. Minkin’s cluttered haberdashers with its bright wallpaper and assortment of notions is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The pretty straw picture hat on the left, decorated with a real fabric ribbon and artificial flowers is an artisan piece and was acquired through Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders miniature shop in the United Kingdom. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. In this case, the straw hat was made by a British artisan. In complete contrast, the hat on the right with its restrained decoration is a mass manufactured hat and came from Melody Jane’s Doll House in the United Kingdom. Contrary to popular belief, fashion at the beginning of the Roaring 20s did not feature the iconic cloche hat as a commonly worn head covering. Although invented by French milliner Caroline Reboux in 1908, the cloche hat did not start to gain popularity until 1922, so even though this story is set in that year, picture hats, a hangover from the pre-war years, were still de rigueur in fashionable society even after this. Although nowhere near as wide, heavy, voluminous or as ornate as the hats worn by women between the turn of the Twentieth Century and the Great War, the picture hats of the 1920s were still wide brimmed, although they were generally made of straw or some lightweight fabric and were decorated with a more restrained touch.
The May-Fayre handkerchief box and the lisle hose box sitting directly behind it come from Shepard’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, who have a dizzying array of packaging pieces from the late 1800s to the 1970s. The Warner Brothers corset box behind them and the corset box sitting on the second shelf to the left were made meticulously by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The box of Wizard tapes on the top shelf to the left and the pink corsetry box on the bottom shelf to the left I acquired from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel as part of a larger collection of 1:12 artisan miniature hats, gloves, accessories and haberdashery goods. Edith’s green leather handbag also comes from Marilyn Bickel’s collection.
The jewellery stand, complete with jewellery comes from a 1:12 miniature supplier in Queensland. The round mirror, which pivots, and features a real piece of mirror was a complimentary gift from the same seller.
The basket in the midground to the right, filled with embroidery items is a 1:12 miniature I have had since I was a teenager. I acquired it from a high street shop that specialised in dolls and doll house accessories.
The Superior Quality buttons on cards in the foreground next to the cash register are in truth tiny beads. They, along with basket of rolled fabrics in the left midground, the spools of cottons and the balls of wool in the basket on the right all come from various online shops who sell dollhouse miniatures.
The brightly shining cash register was supplied by Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering in the United Kingdom.
The mahogany stained chest of drawers on which the hats, jewellery, mirror and boxes stand I have had since I was around ten years old.
I was already going home later than I planned because of stopping to photograph April and Nathan. As I came out of the abbey grounds I saw Tilly. I crossed the road and asked if I might take her photo.
Tilly asked what my project was about and happily agreed to participate. I asked if she would be happy to sit on the wall next to where we were standing. I said that the project was social as well as photographic and asked if she was OK chatting for a few minutes before I took the photographs. “Oh.... you want to take the photos now....” Tilly said. Perhaps because my camera was in my back pack, she imagined that we might be meeting up at another time for the photos. “Yes, do you have a few minutes?” I answered.
Tilly enjoys music and clothes. She makes clothes and costumes, including most of what she was wearing today. Tilly has a hand held harp that she plays; enjoying making music for others, she sometimes busks. I asked if she would like a full sized harp. She would but they are very expensive.
I asked if Tilly had been stopped for photographs before, she said that she had been “at Beltane”. This was the same event where Morgan and Steve, strangers that I met last week, had been photographed by someone else.
Tilly has been in touch, thanking me for sending her copies of the photos and letting me know her preferences for my upload. She had also visited my project, said that it's great. Tilly was amused because she recognised several of the subjects as people that she had spoken to. Tilly also reminded me that she likes dancing.
Thank you Tilly for agreeing to be in my project. It was good to meet you. Best wishes as you make music and clothing.
You can view more portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family
I always try to take advantage of what makes my collaborators so special. So when I met Oceane who's also a passionate dressmaker, we set up the studio!
alyzee_babylone
The print on the wall is a copy of William Hogarth's Before.
Your Help Is Needed: I picked the idea for this image from a photo I saw on Flickr. Unfortunately I did not bookmark it, and I have been unable to find it again so far. If you can give me a reference, I'd be grateful: I want to give proper credit where it's due!
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today we are in the little maid’s room off the Cavendish Mews kitchen, which serves as Edith, Lettice’s maid’s, bedroom. The room is very comfortable and more spacious than the attic she shared with her friend and fellow maid, Hilda, in her last position. The room is papered with floral sprigged wallpaper, and whilst there is no carpet, unlike Lettice’s bedroom, there are rugs laid over the stained floorboards. The room is big enough for Edith to have a comfortable armchair and tea table as well as her bed, a chest of drawers and a small wardrobe. Best of all, the room has central heating, so it is always warm and cosy on cold nights.
Friends of Lettice, newlyweds Margot and Dickie Channon, have been gifted a Recency country “cottage residence” called ‘Chi an Treth’ (Cornish for ‘beach house’) in Penzance as a wedding gift by the groom’s father, the Marquess of Taunton. Margot in her desire to turn ‘Chi an Treth’ from a dark Regency house to a more modern country house flooded with light, has commissioned Lettice to help redecorate some of the rooms in a lighter and more modern style, befitting a modern couple like the Channons. Lettice has decamped to Penzance for a week where she is overseeing the painting and papering of ‘Chi an Treth’s’ drawing room, dining room and main reception room, before fitting it out with a lorryload of new and repurposed furnishings, artwork and objets d’arte that she has had sent down weeks prior to her arrival. In her mistress’ absence, Edith has more free time on her hands, and so she is spending the morning pleasurably laying out some new fabric that she recently bought from a haberdasher’s in Whitechapel and cutting out the pieces for a new frock she has been wanting to make for a few weeks, but hasn’t had the time to do so before now owing to Lettice having her future sister-in-law as a houseguest.
Today is Tuesday and on Tuesdays, every third Thursday of the month and occasionally after a big party, Mrs. Boothby, Lettice’s charwoman*, comes from her home in Poplar to do all the hard jobs.
Edith is so emersed in running her hands joyfully over the soft cotton fabric featuring sprigs of pretty blue flowers that she doesn’t hear the familiar sounds of Mrs. Boothby as she climbs the service stairs of Cavendish Mews: her footfall in her low heeled shoes that she proudly tells Edith came ‘practically new from Petticoat Lane**’, nor the fruity cough that comes from deep within her wiry little body.
“Morning dearie!” Mrs. Boothby calls cheerily as she comes through the servants’ entrance door into the kitchen.
“Oh, morning Mrs. Boothby,” Edith calls in reply through her bedroom door. “I’m in here.”
The old Cockney woman’s head appears around the doorframe, her wiry grey hair hidden beneath a dark blue cloche hat, another purchase from Petticoat Lane, which frames her heavily wrinkled face. “Aye! Aye!” she says good naturedly with a cheery smile. “What ‘ave we ‘ere then? Whilst the cat’s away.”
Edith’s face flushes with embarrassment at Mrs. Boothby’s remark.
“Oh I’m only teasin’, dearie!” the old woman laughs, emitting another fruity cough from deep within her lungs as she does so. “What’s that what you’re doin’ then?”
“Well, with Miss Lettice being away,” Edith replies a little coyly. “I have a bit more free time, so I thought I’d make the most of it and cut out the pattern for a new frock I’m making. I was hoping to have it finished in time for summer, for when Frank and I went walking in Hyde Park, but I suppose Autumn is as good as summer for a new frock.”
“Course it is, dearie!” Mrs. Boothby concurs. She bends down with a groan and picks up a copy of Weldon’s*** Dressmaker magazine off the floor by the foot of Lettice’s armchair and looks at the four smart outfits on the front cover. “Any time’s the perfect time for a new frock if you ask me – ‘specially when someone is as pretty as you! What a picture you’ll look steppin’ out with Frank Ledbetter in that pretty pattern.” She scruitinises the fabric, admiring the blue flowers interwoven with stems and leaves in olive green on a cream background. “That come from Mrs. Minkin’s then?”
“It does, Mrs. Boothby,” beams Edith. “I can’t thank you enough for telling me about her. She’s a much better haberdasher than the old one I used to use in Holborn.”
“I should fink she would be,” Mrs. Boothby replies loftily with an appreciative nod. “We East Enders know better ‘n anyone ‘bout how to sew and patch a dress, and turn a silk purse from a sow’s ear, ‘cause that’s all we get.”
“Mrs. Minkin is so generous. Look. She gave me these buttons as a gift.” She withdraws a card of six faceted Art Deco glass buttons and wafts them in front of the old charwoman.
“Aye. She’s a gooden, that one. Not all Russian Yids**** is like that Golda Friedman what goes round my rookery***** wiv ‘er nose in the air like she was the Queen of Russia ‘erself. Mrs. Minkin’s taken a shine to you, that’s for certain. Tried to marry you off to one of her sons yet, ‘as she?”
Edith blushes again. “Well, she did, until I explained to her that I was stepping out with Frank.”
“Well, them Yids tend to marry uvver Yids anyways, so I s’pose it don’t matter that much. She’ll still treat you like ‘er surrogate daughter ‘til one of ‘em marries, and even then, she’ll probably still treat you special ‘cause youse so nice to ‘er, ‘cause you’re such a good girl.”
“Oh I don’t know about that, Mrs. Boothby,” Edith scoffs. “I just treat people as I’d like to be treated. Isn’t that what we all learned in Sunday School.”
“I’m not much of a church goer myself, but that’s one rule I do know and agree wiv, dearie. Nah, thinkin’ of treatin’ folk, I ain’t ‘alf parched after me trip up from Poplar this mornin!”
“Was the traffic bad again, Mrs. Boothby?”
“Bad? You should’ve seen the traffic at Tottenham Court Road, dearie! Quite bunged up it was! Nah, ‘ow about a nice reviving cup of Rosie-Lee*****, eh?”
“Oh, of course, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith says cheerily, pushing herself up off her knees and standing up.
A short while later, Edith and Mrs. Boothby are seated around Edith’s deal table which dominates the floorspace of the Cavendish Mews kitchen.
“Ta!” Mrs Boothby says. “Lovely.” She accepts the cup of tea proffered to her by Edith, and sticks a biscuit from the Hunley and Palmers******* tin on the table between her teeth and then starts fossicking through her capacious beaded bag before withdrawing her cigarette papers, Swan Vestas and tin of Player’s Navy Cut. Rolling herself a cigarette she reaches over to the deal dresser and grabs the black pottery ash tray Edith keeps for her. Lighting her cigarette with a satisfied sigh and one more of her fruity coughs, Mrs. Boothby settles back happily in the Windsor chair she sits in with her cigarette in one hand and the biscuit in the other.
Edith shudders almost imperceptibly. She hates the older woman’s habit of smoking indoors. When she lived with her parents, neither smoked in the house. Her mother didn’t smoke at all: it would have been unladylike to do so, and her father only smoked a pipe when he went down to the local pub. Nevertheless, she knows this is Mrs. Boothby’s morning ritual, and for all the hard work that the old woman does around the flat, Edith cannot deny her one of her few pleasures.
“I do like a nice ‘Untley and Palmer******* breakfast biscuit to go wiv me Rosie-Lee?” Mrs. Boothby sighs as she munches loudly on the biscuit, spilling a shower of golden brown crumbs into her lap as she speaks.
“I’m glad Mrs. Boothby,” Edith replies genuinely pleased as she pours herself a cup of tea.
“So dearie,” Mrs. Boothby queries. “Gonna whip your frock up on the sewin’ machine this afternoon are you?”
“This afternoon?” Edith looks questioning at Mrs. Boothby.
“Yes dearie, nah that you ‘ave the time on your ‘ands. Are you gonna stitch it up on your sewin’ machine?”
“Oh, I don’t have a sewing machine, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith adds sugar and milk to her tea and stirs her cup.
“Not got a sewin’ machine, dearie?” Mrs. Boothby draws deeply on her cigarette.
“No, Mrs. Boothby. There has never been one here, ever since I came to Cavendish Mews. No, I’ll take the cut pieces down to Mum’s when I visit her later in the week. She has a little Singer******** treadle that I can use.”
“Can you buy yourself one?”
“At forty pounds? I hardly think so!”
“You could get one through hire purchase********.”
“If I can’t afford one of Mrs. Minkin’s dressed hats, how can I possibly afford a sewing machine, even on hire purchase, Mrs. Boothby?”
“Well, can’t Miss Lettice buy you one then, dearie?” A plume of bluish grey smoke bursts forth in a tumbling cloud from the old woman’s mouth as she speaks.
Edith shakes her head as she selects a biscuit from the tin. “There’s no call for it, Mrs. Boothby. I seldom have to do any mending. Miss Lettice has Mr. Bruton mend any clothes for her. If she tears one of her stockings she simply goes and orders a new pair. The same can be said for any other article of clothing Mr. Bruton doesn’t make for her.”
“Lawd, to be that rich that I could toss a torn pair of stockings in the dustbin and buy a new pair wivvout thinkin’ twice!”
“I know. It seems like a wicked extravagance to me too, but I suppose Miss Lettice has always lived her life like that.”
“Yes,” Mrs. Boothby nods sagely as she slurps her tea loudly. “The ‘aves and ‘ave nots.”
“And any repairs required to the linen are done by the commercial laundry we use. No, I’ll take the pieces down to Mum’s and I can spend the afternoon there and sew it up then. She won’t mind.”
“Course she won’t mind, dearie. I just fink it’s a shame you don’t ‘ave your own sewin’ machine to make your own frocks on.”
“I get by well enough Mrs. Boothby, and Mum knows that if she ever wants to give up using it, I’ll have her Singer.”
The old charwoman nods and contemplates as she looks at Edith over the top of her own tea cup through the curtain of blueish grey cigarette smoke as she sips her tea.
An hour and a half later when Mrs. Boothby has finished scrubbing the bathroom, washing the kitchen linoleum and polishing the drawing room and dining room floors, she pops her head around Edith’s bedroom door again, where the young maid kneels laying out crisp white tissue paper patterns that she pins to the fabric before cutting them out with her shears. “Well, I’ll be off then, Edith dearie! I’ll see you Thursday.”
Edith looks up, her shears clasped in her right hand. “Yes, see you Thursday Mrs. Boothby. Even if I go down to Mum’s on Thursday, I’ll still be here in the morning to let you in.”
“Alright dearie. I’ll do Miss Lettice’s bedroom floor and the ‘allways on Thursday, and I’ll do the black leading. I’ll ‘elp you turn Miss Lettice’s mattress too, like we talked about.”
“Very good Mrs. Boothby.”
Mrs. Boothby looks down across Edith’s little chamber and takes in the Weldon’s and Lady’s World Fancy Workbook********** magazines scattered across the floor, Edith’s precious lacquered sewing box, a gift from her mother, from which spill knitting needles, spools of thread, pins and a tape measure, cards of buttons from Mrs, Minkin’s Haberdashery, her shears and the patterns for several fashionable frocks. The old Cockney sighs.
“Is anything wrong Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks, her own face filling with concern as she stares up into the thought filled face of the older woman.
“Well, I was just thinkin’ dearie.” She squeezes her pointy chin between her thumb and index finger thoughtfully.
“Yes, Mrs. Boothby?”
“’Ow long is Miss Lettice away for?”
“At least until mid next week. She’s gone to redecorate Mr. and Mrs. Channon’s house down in Penzance and she is staying for an extra day or two afterwards to gauge their happiness with her designs and organise any changes. I think Mr. Bruton will be going down too at the end, as he is supposed to be bringing her back up to London in his motor.”
“So she’ll still be gone on Friday?”
“I certainly expect so. Why do you ask, Mrs. Boothby.”
“Well, I was just thinkin’ dearie, that I might ‘ave a solution for your sewin’ machine problem. Can you come dahn to my ‘ouse in Poplar on Friday afternoon when I finish work about midday?”
“I suppose so, Mrs. Boothby.” the young girl replies, rather perplexed. “But why?”
“Oh, never you mind nah, dearie. Give me a few days to see if I can’t sort somethin’ out. I’ll come pick you up about ‘alf twelve from ‘ere. Alright dearie?” She smiles broadly at Edith, showing her badly nicotine stained teeth, but the smile is a kindly one.
“Very well, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith replies with her own bemused smile. “I’ll be ready. What do I need to bring.”
“Oh just yourself, dearie. Nuffink more. Well, ta-ta then dearie. Till Friday.” And the old woman shuffles out, her familiar footfall announcing her departure.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
***Created by British industrial chemist and journalist Walter Weldon Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was the first ‘home weeklies’ magazine which supplied dressmaking patterns. Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was first published in 1875 and continued until 1954 when it ceased publication.
****The word Yid is a Jewish ethnonym of Yiddish origin. It is used as an autonym within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, and also used as slang. When pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with did by non-Jews, it is commonly intended as a pejorative term. It is used as a derogatory epithet, and as an alternative to, the English word 'Jew'. It is uncertain when the word began to be used in a pejorative sense by non-Jews, but some believe it started in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century when there was a large population of Jews and Yiddish speakers concentrated in East London, gaining popularity in the 1930s when Oswald Mosley developed a strong following in the East End of London.
*****A rookery is a dense collection of housing, especially in a slum area. The rookeries created in Victorian times in London’s East End were notorious for their cheapness, filth and for being overcrowded.
******Rosie-Lee is Cockney slang for tea, and it is one of the most well-known of all Cockney rhyming slang.
*******Huntley and Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world’s first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley and Son and Huntley and Palmer. Huntley and Palmer were renown for their ‘superior reading biscuits’ which they promoted in different varieties for different occasions, including at breakfast time.
********The Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then the Singer Company in 1963. In 1867, the Singer Company decided that the demand for their sewing machines in the United Kingdom was sufficiently high to open a local factory in Glasgow on John Street. The Vice President of Singer, George Ross McKenzie selected Glasgow because of its iron making industries, cheap labour, and shipping capabilities. Demand for sewing machines outstripped production at the new plant and by 1873, a new larger factory was completed on James Street, Bridgeton. By that point, Singer employed over two thousand people in Scotland, but they still could not produce enough machines. In 1882 the company purchased forty-six acres of farmland in Clydebank and built an even bigger factory. With nearly a million square feet of space and almost seven thousand employees, it was possible to produce on average 13,000 machines a week, making it the largest sewing machine factory in the world. The Clydebank factory was so productive that in 1905, the U.S. Singer Company set up and registered the Singer Manufacturing Company Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
*********The hire purchase agreement was developed in Britain in the Nineteenth Century to allow customers with a cash shortage to make an expensive purchase they otherwise would have to delay or forgo. These contracts are most commonly used for items such as automobiles and high-value electrical goods where the purchasers are unable to pay for the goods directly. However in the 1920s and 1930s, they were also available for furnishings such as lounge suites and bedroom suites.
**********Published by Horace Marshall and Son of London since the 1850s, the Lady’s World Fancy Work Book, like Weldon’s, was a magazine which supplied dressmaking knitting, crochet and embroidery patterns. It was published quarterly on the first of the month in January, April, July and October.
This cheerful and busy domestic scene is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The copies of Weldon’s Dressmaker and the Lady’s World Fancy Work Book are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection, but so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. In this case, the magazines are non-opening, however what might amaze you is that all Ken Blythe’s books and magazines are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make this a miniature artisan piece. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The Superior Quality buttons on cards are in truth tiny beads. They, along with the spool of cotton in the foreground, the sewing box, the spools of cottons pincushion, tape measure, silver embroidery scissors and the knitting needles in it all come from various online shops who sell dollhouse miniatures.
The patterns for three afternoon dresses are genuine 1922 modes and come from Chic Parisien Beaux-Arts de Modes and are modes 386, 387 and 388.
The shears with black handles on the fabric open and close. Made of metal, they came from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature Shop in the United Kingdom.
The fabric is real, and is a small corner of a few metres I acquired to have made into a shirt. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the pattern.
The corner of Edith’s armchair that can be seen in the top of the photo is upholstered in blue chintz, and is made to the highest quality standards by J.B.M. Miniatures. The back and seat cushions come off the body of the armchair, just like a real piece of furniture.
The floorboards are a print of a photo taken of some floorboards that I scaled to 1:12 size to try and maintain a realistic look.