I hate to say it but I find the bulk of American TV channels (in particular the ones that hotels come equipped with) quite frightening/hilarious and a little hard to adjust to….the overly enthusiastic news reporters, the infomercials, the very long advert breaks and the ads themselves and just in general a different presentation style altogether in comparison to the UK. I have this awful habit of needing to have noise – radio/TV in order to fall asleep and I do recall a particularly gruesome/unintentionally funny Amityville Horror documentary giving me a rather restless night last year when I was in Miami. So since I’ve got wireless in the hotel room in San Francisco, I shall be wiling the nights away watching BBC Archive. I was half convinced at BBC’s British Fashion season which has kicked off in recent weeks with both Twiggy’s Frock Exchange (more useful than I expected as I learnt how to make a nifty origami skirt tonight…) and also British Style Genius which I’ve mentioned before (tonight I gorged on the tons of footage of the best/early McQueen shows…). However, the BBC have gone the whole hog and put up archive television programmes online for streaming in a section called What We Wore and coupled with tidbits and FULL programme streams (no silly snippets), I’ve got bedtime telly sorted basically.
1957’s ‘Men, Women and Clothes’ which charts the history of fashion and is presented wonderfully by Doris Langley Moore (she’s on my fashion grandma wishlist…)and also happens to be BBC’s first television series in colour – how apt. 1967’s ‘Clothes that Count’ teaches people how to make clothes with 5 shilling patterns. 1976’s ‘Knitting Fashions’ does exactly what it says and gets people knitting.
The archives have been plundered and as I watch more and more tips on customisation and DIY being broadcasted on mainstream television today, I do wonder whether these programmes as well as the current penny pinching climate have spurred this on. Oh well, I’m still baffled at the fact that they were teaching people at 8pm primetime hour to make slightly edgy origami skirts so all in all, it’s no bad thing.
P.S. I’m also eager to know whether people abroad are able to watch the archive shows as I don’t believe they require a license unlike the BBC iPlayer which unfortuantely isn’t available to those outside the UK.
Wow! If only I didn’t have to go to bed now for uni tomorrow I’d be devouring this stuff.
I loved tonight’s British Style Genius in particular, I was running upstairs to throw clothes on in bizarre ways afterwards, which is always a sign of a good show.
Wow, I’m surpirsed there’s that much fashion TV in the UK! Really the only fashion shows I know of in the US are Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model, which isn’t even that fashion-y! Are we going to see a(n awesome, I’m sure) post about the skirt?
You don’t need to be a tv licence payer to watch BBC iPlayer, but they don’t let you watch it from certain countries because certain programs have been sold to tv stations in other countries and so can’t be broadcast. They can tell where you are from by the IP address of where you are accessing the internet. If you want to watch the programs whilst away, you can either download them from BBC iPlayer (if you have a windows laptop), hope that the programs are available on a video website. OR you can download software which will cover up your IP address, which may be your best option 🙂
I wish we had those sort of TV programs here.
Nothing will ever get a clumsy person like me doing DIY projects, I’m afraid. In the past, those have ended in tears.
ooh early McQueen.. it’s funny how you can find almost everything on the internet except for pre-2000ish runway pics.
Just tried to play What We Wore, and no, it’s coming up against the blanket “get lost, you’re not in the UK” that iPlayer usually generates 🙁 Sorry! I live in Japan.
I have been loving British Style Genius and todays episode was fantastic. Twiggy’s show is good too, makes me all inspired to go and get the sewing machine out!
You’re in San Francisco? Would you like to visit the Louis Vuitton and eLuxury office? Send me and email, I’d love to give you a tour and the teams would love to meet you!
All the best,
Randall
Ooohhh, Doris Langley Moore. Who could not adore the woman who not only wrote The Technique of the Love Affair, but also did the costumes for Freud. Delightfully offbeat!
I got really excited at the thought that i might be able to watch a bbc show after sooo long, but nope it doesnt work…i thought that they were going to extend iplayer to the US.
You must show us how to make this origami skirt of which you speak! Please?!? I’m also in the U.S. and can’t watch online …
BBC sites check the ip address so people can’t watch any of that stuff outside of the UK. Pity.
I would love to watch that show.
oh cute, i should check it out. im addicted to online tv. 🙂
I guess I could say the same for when I watch tv on the BBC website. But whatevs. You’ll have tons of time to catch up on tv shows which is always good.
Thanks for this – it’s going to come in VERY handy. I love looking back at bygone eras in fashion, and books don’t quite do the garments justice. Ta Susie Cxx
Missed Twiggy’s Frock Exchange last night but British Style Genius was brilliant! Tuesday night has now become the best TV night of the week!
If you’re on OSX, you might want to use the iplayer download program to grab these before you these… http://sourceforge.net/projects/iplayerdownload/
All those adverts for vitamins/medicines their awful I was in the US recently & as much as I loved it I was longing for some sensible TV , the origami skirt was a great idea x
new york here, and it tells me that it’s “not available in my area”…maybe you wont be able to watch it in SF afterall?
Twiggy’s show is so much better that I expected and she is a better host than her po-faced performance on ANTM (I know my viewing tastes are tragic) would lead you to expect.
British Style Genius is amazing I was swooning away at the tailoring last week and those gorgeous Westwood lace dresses this week unbelievable.
i tried using melissas link but didint work
I couldn’t agree more about american TV– especially having a boyfriend who thinks CNN should be on all the time. Watching the BBC while in Barcelona last year was such a wonderful break.