Rainy Browsing

>> There are three things that must done in tandem with each other to counteract a miserable day like this when I get sloshed all over by violently fast buses and things refused to function properly just because it's bucketing with rain outside.  I need to be at home cutting up things into collages, eating Heinz cream of tomato soup wearing a big chunky jumper and girly knickers.  Don't ask me why I have to be all covered up at the top with practically nothing on the bottom.  I've ticked two of the boxes today and was very tempted to collage crazy when I trekked up to Finchley Central to see Liz Joseph's collection of fashion mags spanning 60s-00s that she is currently selling.  She could go down the eBay route and make a pretty penny on some of the issues that she has but she'd rather have people come round and see what takes their fancy as she needs to offload her mag stash in lieu of a career change (blub blub blub to the day when I have to do the same thing to my stack of mags…).  They're mostly Vogues, heavily concentrated in the 90s but with some from the 60s-70s too and she also has somes 90s Elle for people to immerse in the original styles that are currently being rehashed in some form or another today.  Before digital and fully browsable archives are available in the style of Jalou Gallery (wonder if Conde Nast has looked into this as I know other independent titles are in the process of doing this…), I suppose looking at paper format is still the way to go (LCF and CSM libraries are useful in this respect) but for collaging purposes, Liz's stash proves useful…

I kind of like how Liz has left her little post-it notes in – the equivalent of getting old copies of texts in English class and seeing people's little notes in the side margins…

Thanks Audrey and Hubert de Givenchy for reminding me that I really need to focus on two STRONG shades of pink together all at once…

The Sart has definitely captured many a women evoking this exact picture this season…

Still confuses me as to why Bill Gibb's work isn't more well-known… see vision of prettiness below…

Never seen later pics of 'The Shrimp' beyond the 60s…

Like I said, the 90s dominates Liz's collection with Kate of course making multiple appearances…

…as well as a very young Stella Tennant…

I should really have taken this 90s copy of Vogue Italia away as it has a really stunning Paolo Roversi shoot inside that has had some ker-razy analogue film-warping done to it.  Sadly I was saddled with a rucksack as well as a curious shooting pain in my side that still hasn't gone away…

Other titles are also up for sale including this iconic Tatler April's Fool issue from 1989 where Vivienne Westwood dressed up as Margaret Thatcher…

Not sure when Tatler lost its quirks but I also found this 'Best UNDRESSED List of Britain' from another issue of Tatler where tits, arses, shoulders and other erogenous areas are looked at…

Liz is also selling a few fashion tomes that might also be useful…

…as well as some of jewellery making bits and bobs from Liz's own collection including a lot of unstringed 50s-70s pearls that could be good raw materials…

You can email her to arrange to go up round there to do some sort of a job lot deal or just have a browse if you're in the London area.  If you're not, you could still email her if you're desperately after something.  Go on…let's kick this Loot-style yeah? We can all do with some face-to-face interaction right?

Going back to knickers though… I had some arrive today from Gilly Hicks, which I know nothing about other than its Abercrombie & Fitch-owned, is strangely influenced by Australian culture (hence why they're referred to as 'undies' on the website and why it says 'Sydney' after the name…) and are about to open up in London's Westfield, but these do fit the rain-staying-in bill.  The trio here even come in XS, S and M size to enable me to change through the night as I cram in more and more comfort junk…