eBay Highlights: The Mystery of Grand Hotel

eBay listing

I love kitsch. In fact, I would describe this entire blog as a love letter to kitsch. The kitschier the better. I love pin-ups and roadside attractions and cheesy throwbacks to things I didn't get to experience. (I am living proof that youth is wasted on the young.) So when I find something as kitschy as vintage issues of Grand Hotel, I want to know everything about it. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information. Which is why I am dedicating this post to The Mystery of Grand Hotel. (Which sounds like a Nancy Drew novel...another kitschy thing I love.)

I first encountered Grand Hotel while looking for vintage fashion magazines on the Italian eBay site. There were magazines like Grazia and...Grazia, but Grand Hotel instantly caught my attention with its insane cover illustrations. (Click for details, obviously. The links are to the eBay listings and go from left to right. All the covers are from the 1950s to 1962.)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

I've seen a lot of pulp. I used to hang around the vintage perv Tumblrs (you know the ones), but I'd never seen anything like this. First of all, I couldn't figure out what audience the publishers had targeted. Nearly all the men in the illustrations seem vaguely predatory, if not outright terrifying (hello 7). So if the magazine was targeted towards women, were the messages of submissiveness that overt? Was it specific to Italy or the Mediterranean? And if the magazine was directed towards men–whoa, I know about machismo, but the illustrations seem to take it a bit far!

On the other hand, other covers from the same period seem to be pretty pedestrian. Or about as pedestrian as you can get with a donkey-cart.

1, 2, 3, 4

I did a bit of investigation and discovered Grand Hotel was first published in 1946. I'm still not 100% sure if it started off as a fotoromanzi or if it evolved to be one, but the brothers behind it got their start in comics if Google Translate is correct, so pairing illustrations–and later photos–with text probably seemed pretty natural. I don't have any covers from 1946, but there are a few currently on eBay.

By the mid-60s the covers started to be less creepy (though the baby doll in 2 and the cover-within-a-cover on 4 aren't helping):

1, 2, 3, 4

But I wouldn't say it went away entirely (I have to admit my mistake here:  I thought the girl in the middle had just seen like, a dead body, but nope:  she's just reading "Carlo ama la Giovanna". Her adorable sweater-dress reads Luisa, just to drive the point home). I'm mega-creeped out by the images on the left and right:

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By the 1970s it seems to have evolved into a fotoromanzi-gossip mag, though issues occasionally contained knitting/crochet patterns, horoscopes, and puppies. Do you recognize any celebrities? (Is that John Kerry?)

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These days Grand Hotel is essentially a gossip magazine, which you can subscribe to here.

If you want more information, there's an excellent (and much more informed!) write-up from Niamh Cullen here. Italian Ways also has a small selection of photos featuring moda e motori, and Salon has a general article on fumetti.

What do you think about Grand Hotel? Have you ever read an issue? Do you think social history is an important realm of study, or are comic books and other ephemera best forgotten? 

XOXO,

Annie Belle

eBay highlights: French magazine edition!

As you may have guessed from my last post, I spend a lot of time on eBay. (Not usually buying, just browsing.) Even if I can't buy everything I want, I figure I can share with you guys so maybe you can get some cool stuff!

My new favorite thing is looking at different European eBay listings. Surrrrrrre you can find some cool stuff on American eBay, but you can also find some of that stuff at antique stores. I've been looking at vintage things from the US for so long they're losing their charm. What about other places? (I haven't looked elsewhere yet because I figure one can count on "mode" for fashion for a while.)

Oh, if you want to buy these, I think most of them ship internationally or near-internationally. And PLEASE make sure to share scans/photos if you do–I would love to see them!

Without further ado...

Fémina Nöel 

This one is way out of my price range at 69 Euro, but it is SO GORGEOUS and would make a beautiful gift for a vintage fashion or illustration enthusiast. The first and third designs above are by Heim and the second and fourth are by Patou. 

The catalogue/magazine (?) also contains beautiful advertisements, including one illustrated by the amazing Rene Gruau:

So beautiful. I don't know what I would do with it...do you? It feels almost blasphemous to to leave the pages in the magazine and away from view, but I can't imagine ripping them out, either, even if they were all lovingly framed.

Elle and Elle

Unlike some of the other magazines I've highlighted that I have no idea about, everyone knows and loves Elle, though this version is quite different from the English version on supermarket shelves. (Then again, most titles from the 1950s that survived to the present are not the same at all today.) Loved seeing Suzy Parker on the issue on the left–she's definitely one of my favorite models from the period.

Le Miroir des Modes

Le Miroir des Modes was basically the French equivalent of The Delineator, a magazine published by Butterick. However, it's in French, so it is instantly way more fashion-y than any old American magazine. (I genuinely do love America and American fashion, but you can't argue with the fact that Paris is and always has been one of the international hubs of fashion design.) I really love the look of the late 1910s–that decade was such an interesting transition period for women, and while the 1920s gets all the attention, it's interesting to trace those changes back to the 1910s. No patterns in this one, but it's still lovely to look at. 

La Mode

I don't know a lot about this magazine. It seems to be separate from La Mode Illustrée. The issue for sale in the above link is from 1911. Very interesting two compare the evolution of styles--and in just six years!

Tricotons pour eux and Tricots pour vous

I'm pretty sure these are not by the same publisher, but at some point a knitting pattern is a knitting pattern, and honestly, I picked the image on the left because of the dog. 

Plus these GEMS

Femme Pratique

Femme Pratique

The longer I look at the two of them, the more I am horrified. What is going on in these photos!? I thought France was supposed to be a gastronomist's paradise, WHY IS SHE WEARING A FOOD DRESS!? I seldom agree with cats, but they seem to be in the right mind about this whole ordeal.

What interesting things have you found on eBay lately? (Don't worry, I won't buy them. Maybe.)

xoxo,

Annie Belle

My vintage pet peeves: eBay edition

While I may not attend reenactments (I really don't have a lot of those in my area), I do consider myself a member of the "vintage subculture." You know the type:  the sort of person who's more comfortable staying in and sewing or knitting from a vintage pattern than going bar-hopping, who's on a first-name basis with the owners of the local antique shop, who knows the optimum time to visit the Salvation Army for some primo vintage. That type.

And maybe a little of this type too.

However, there are some things about this vintage culture that drive me absolutely insane. And because I live in a fairly small town, most of what I encounter is over the internet. A lot of this is on eBay.

I don't really do a lot of online shopping, but I do a lot of online browsing, so I spend a fair amount of time over at eBay. This is my (by no means exhaustive) list of pet peeves. There will probably be more installments in this series, because I am easily annoyed.

• "Industrial" sewing machines.

I am of the opinion you can NEVER have enough sewing machines, especially vintage sewing machines (where there is a possibility one may conk out on you at any time if it's not in optimum condition). Even though I have two great sewing machines, I'm always on the lookout for another. A Featherweight, a Class 15 clone, Pfaff or Adler, Kenmore...all are on my wishlist. (As well as space to put them!) However, one word that crops up a lot on sewing machine listings is "industrial." Compare the two pictures:

Both illustrations are from ISMACS.

The first sewing machine is the Singer 29. The second sewing machine is the Singer 201-2. The first is designed for industrial use by bootmakers, furriers, and all sorts of other leatherworkers. The second is designed for domestic use. 

Now, the two do look kind of similar. They're both black, they have hand-wheels, and there's a needle. But the Singer 29 is designed for highly specialized work, whereas the Singer 201-2 is designed for more general work. Is a Singer 201-2 capable of sewing leather? Yeah, as eBay sellers will testify. Is it designed to sew leather every day? No, probably not. I have a Singer 201-2 and I love it. It sews beautifully. But there are some things it just can't do.

So we've concluded the Singer home machines aren't "industrial". But are they "industrial strength"?

This is a hard one. On one hand, we have no working definition of "industrial" or "strength". "Strength" may come without "industrial"—due to the decline of the manufacturing industry in the United States, I'm probably more likely to see a Singer 29 in a leatherworker's shop than I am in an industrial factory. And "industrial" may come without "strength"—delicate items such as lingerie and silk blouses are sewn in industrial settings all the time, just with sewing machines designed for the purpose, like the Juki 8700-A. Industrial machines may not always have a super-fast stitch speed like the Juki model above (4,000 stitches/minute!), especially if they're designed for heavier materials. However, my beloved Singer 201-2 is lagging behind at a mere 1,100 stitches/minute, which is where household machines tend to settle.

The cutest sewing machine ever--but as a hand-crank, probably not very efficient!

On the other hand, vintage domestic sewing machines were designed to take much more of a beating than our modern plastic ones. Most were made of cast iron until the mid-1950s (if my research serves me correctly) and continued to be made out of metal until at least the late 1960s. The manual for the Singer 201-2 instructs the user to oil the machine daily if it's used every day, which it may have been, for some users.

In short: don't trust an eBay seller describing a domestic sewing machine as "industrial" or "industrial strength". It doesn't matter if it sews eight layers of tooling leather or denim unless YOU'RE going to be sewing eight layers of tooling leather or denim. Buy for your needs.

Speaking of which...

• Selling sewing machine manuals (especially digital copies). 

Yes, it's cool to have the original, but you can probably find one online for free.

And finally...

• Mad Men is set in the 1960s!

Does this:

Photo from the Mad Men Facebook page

look like this:

No! I mean, really, even if I try to step out of my fashion-historian shoes for a minute, no, they do not look ANYTHING alike. I've been looking at a lot of vintage sewing patterns and ephemera lately, and the difference between the 1950s and the 1960s is so marked:

MAYBE I'm cheating a little by using a late 1960s pattern, but the early 1960s part of the show was over half a decade ago. The show is ABOUT the social changes of the 1960s—and I'd say fashion is included in that! If people are still throwing Mad Men themed parties (are they?), people are dressing more like Megan than Betty.

Probably because Megan is way more fun.

So, that wraps up my vintage pet peeves entry part one. Don't even get me started on clothes...I have some more goodies coming up though! 

What are YOUR vintage pet peeves? Did I miss any? (I'm sure I did!)

xoxo,

Annie Belle