Outfit post: looks very 1950s, is actually 2014!

Woohoo, new dress! I got asked earlier this week if it was 1950s, and got quite a startled look when I said it was new. Yesterday I forced Mr Robot to take some pictures of me around Trowbridge

Crinoline Robot's vintage week

NOT HELPING!

Another quietish week for me, with lots of vintage going on but nothing worth a complete post on its own (or worth it but lacking decent photos!) so I thought I'd do a roundup for you.

The Coldest City [comic]

Cold War spy stories are increasingly rare these days - with the Cold War over, that's no real surprise. However, I love a good espionage story, whether on film or in a book. The Coldest City is the first one I've read in graphic novel form.

1950s crime drama: Crimes of Passion

I am very excited that BBC4 has finally announced Crimes of Passion will be broadcast soon! I thought you might appreciate an advance warning, as it can be easy to miss good programmes coming up away from BBC1 and BBC2, and Doctor Who seems to be capturing the world's attention right now. I love Swedish crime dramas, I love old crime fiction, so what could possibly be more exciting than a Swedish crime drama set in the 1950s? That's all sorts of good things in one! And the first programme is being broadcast at the end of August.

Vintage as a pick-me-up

Sometimes I've just got to retreat into an old magazine...

Most of us get a bit down from time to time. I'm not talking about depression, which is a serious illness, more the sort of thing generally healthy people feel occasionally. I have to confess, when I'm in the sort of mood where I'm feeling like a failure, things like blogs and Pinterest can make me feel worse, because it feels as though everyone else 'out there' is just perfect, endlessly spurting forth creative marvels while holding down an amazing job and living in a fabulous home. No-one else seems to be fat, forty, and treading in cat sick on their way to make breakfast.

A couple of Odhams 1940s knitting books

This week my friend Sarah - whose wedding cardi I knitted - got in touch and asked if I'd be interested in buying a couple of Odhams knitting books another friend of hers was selling, so I said yes. Today Sarah delivered them. She was wearing her wedding cardi! I'm so happy that she likes it so much.

These books are from the 1940s, and they're real classics. You may have seen similar ones for sale at vintage fairs or even own some. Susan Crawford has an impressive stack of Odhams knitting books. Unlike later publications I own, such as Knit With Norbury, there's a strong emphasis on knitting for men in the books I bought today, with extensive sections of jumpers, cardigans, socks, mittens and headgear for the chaps, though the war itself is never mentioned.

Goodnight, Baby

Lauren Bacall passed away on Tuesday. She was a Hollywood legend: beautiful, talented, and with Humphrey Bogart part of an on- and off-screen partnership that smouldered in many a classic film noir. The two first acted together, and she made her debut, in To Have and Have Not. That's not my favourite Bogie and Baby film, though it is possibly Mr Robot's, as he fell utterly in love with Lauren Bacall in that. Mine's a toss-up between The Big Sleep and How To Marry a Millionaire (one screen, three bombshells!). Like Katharine Hepburn, her wit and intelligence shone through in her performances, though she also had serious sex appeal – the quinessential film noir 'dame'.

In these days of endless celebrity dramas, one thing that stands out about Lauren Bacall is how notorious she wasn't. She managed her private life gracefully and privately, which is remarkable when you think she was only 20 when she first got married (to Bogart, her great love). Her fame endures not because of her beauty and talent, not her personal business. Some of today's stars could learn a lesson in graceful living from her.

One owner since new - a couple of 1990s dresses

I was doing a bit of mothbusting today - I'd noticed a couple of the blighters in our bedroom and decided to refresh all the clothes moth killers, even though the ones I'd seen looked too large to be clothes moths - and one of the places I tidied up / checked contents for damage was my bedlinen trunk. As well as duvet covers and pillowcases, it's home to the few items of 1990s clothing I've kept.  I thought it would be fun to share a couple of favourites.

Giveaway winners / A Night at the Cinema in 1914

Trench Cake. Not in the Box of Robotness!

The Random Number Generator at random.org has spoken, and it says the winner of the Box of Robotness is number 3, Vintagegal! Congratulations! Please email your address to crinolinerobot AT yahoo DOT com and I'll post your parcel to you. Thank you to everyone else who fancied winning. I promise I'll have another box for you next July. (Or possibly sooner, if I find enough fun things to share with you. Sharing is fun.)

St Trinian's, St Trinian's, will never die...

Flash Harry in teddy boy garb, hanging out with the 6th form

 Ah! Mr Robot has just put up with me watching The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery*. It may be the weakest of the original films, nonetheless I enjoy it greatly. Many, many years ago, when I was just a little guttersnipe and we had only a black-and-white telly, Channel 4 broadcast the films and I loved them. That must date it to the early 1980s. Anyway, something about the anarchy of the films appealed to me, and does still to this day.