http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-...-live-past.html

I'd like to go to one of these conventions. Sounds like fun.

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting. I have always been interested in vintage magazines like True Confessions, The American, etc.

I have some friends who live a '40s lifestyle at home although they wear regular clothes (with a little '40s flair) to work. Their décor, table settings, clothing, jewelry (earrings, necklaces for her and tie-clip for him) and hairdos are all '40s and they play '40s music but they do have a modern car. Dinner is likely to be a recipe from a '40s cookbook. I must say it really alleviates stress to walk into that atmosphere. When I go to visit I also try to have some vintage dress or jewelry. For instance, they invited me over to watch a TV show on the British Royalty and I wore a vintage tiara.

Very interesting! My house is all done in 1950's and 60's colors... Salmon, burnt orange, aqua, tan, black, cerise, chartreuse. they're just the palette I like.


You could call these wives "silly", but actually they're kinda smart... Life can be whatever you want it to be... Most people don't nearly explore all the options available to them because of social conformity.

Very interesting article. I occasionally cater for an elderly couple who have not redecorated their home since 1960. It is pristeen, state of the art, clean as a whistle with immaculate turquoise appliances, sink, and linolium flooring.
I swear I feel just like June Cleaver working in their kitchen. I want to wear a ruffled apron and pearls.
It's a blast and I love working for them.

Imatchgrl, next time, I say wear that ruffled apron and pearls! ITA with rasputin--create the atmosphere you like!

I would not mind knowing peeps like this , I need somewhere to go that involves hats .

Fascinating article, I can identify with their sentiments, I often feel that I was born too late.

These people are doing more than wearing vintage all the time and decorating their homes in a particular time period's style. These people are doing their best to completely retreat from the modern world. I noticed all three stay at home and don't work outside the home. I wonder how a woman would carry this over if she had a job.

The Thirties woman works part time.

It does all sort of seem like a lifelong exercise in putting your hands over your ears and shouting "LALALA WORLD, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

I think they're creepy.

I find the fact that they are submerged fully into the lifestyle bemusing bordering on creepy , now if this was some kind of lark or a vintage collector fancy that would be a whole n'other story. Like I said I just wanna party with folks who rock hats.

I had the same thought, but you said it better.

Eh. Whatever. I guess we all have our issues!

Yeah, reading about someone choosing to live this way full-time, going beyond style and furniture and including gender roles, makes every feminist nerve in my body stand on alert.

Hafiz (no copyright issues - dead 900 years) said:

What do sad people have in common? They seem to have built an altar to the past and go there often. They keen and worship there. What is the nature of happiness? It is so stop practicing that sad religion of the imagined past.

Sgupta, I can't speak for the people in the article but I can say that my friends who live this way at home both work and are very much in reality. they are both professionals. The wife is in a very forward-looking position at her job, working on the development of a state-of-the-art civic project. I think their '40s lifestyle is a way of combating the stress of work pressures by doing something they enjoy, just as you or I would "retreat" into a world of perfume or as anyone who has a hobby would turn to their hobby for relaxation.

That's a powerful quote.

It seems to me that there are many ways to create a stage for oneself, whether as these people did or, perhaps, taking on different persona at different stages, like goth. The new Allure has some pointed photos to the 70's, updated somewhat, but the models are looking like love children.

In a way it reminds me of those that reenact the Civil War or go to Renaissance Fairs. I wonder if any go to this extent?

And that they met their husbands at a social revolving around these eras.

It did cross my mind if they were just having us on.

A close friend one time said she wished she'd lived during WWII because she loved the fashions and the way she had romanticized it. I couldn't imagine. That was the time of my parents, but as I said to her, then she would be elderly -- and she wasn't ready for that. Me neither!

Good for them! I like it. People like this offer other models for living and give hope to people who aren't quite of a fit with whatever the modern ideal is.
Their choices don't have to validate mine, and I don't have to make my choices to validate theirs.
It's even better that they have found partners who enjoy living in their favorite eras as well.
Living in the present is only convenient. It is not a sign of superior virtue, superior self esteem, or superior any damned thing else.
It's convenient, and if you stick around long enough this present will become the past too. It happens?

Be who you are happy being if you can pull it off. Life's short.

But I thought feminism was about choice.

This is akin to the 'you have the free will to believe that you don't have free will' circle in my book. They are making a choice, but it's to limit themselves to gender roles from a time when women didn't have the same degree of choices. Putting themselves in a narrow frame, as it were. I mean, they certainly have the right, and they seem happy, it just isn't something I could ever see myself doing.

"HEY WOMAN, MAKE MY DINNER AND MAKE IT SNAPPY! AND ALSO GET MY NEWSPAPER AND MY SLIPPPERS TOO WITH A BEER!"

LOL!!

JUST KIDDING!!!!

I had to say something retarded now! LOL!!!

Everybody doesn't have to like or do the same things. To each their own.

I was raised in such a household. Then, if Dad didn't like the food for whatever reason (too hot, too cold, whatever), he'd overturn the dinnertable (literally). And say, "Woman, clean this mess up!"

Charming, huh?

Oh, good gravy! My dad was master of his house, too, (old school, never washed a dish, never changed a diaper, etc.) but never acted like that. What a turn off.

Dave, your Dad must have been hard to live with.

Nothing to do with the old school. simply a despot.

Good point, smelka.

LIKE.
YOU.
WOULD.
NEVER.

BELIEVE.

I think there's a difference between living in the past ("Oh, in the old days people were nicer, children were more obedient, the grass was greener, moan, moan...") and recreating and maintaining aspects of the past to appreciate the beauty of the times and get a better appreciation of history. To me acting out a '40s or '50s scenario is like enjoying a picture by Rembrandt or using an antique table. Should we throw out all our antiques and great art so a not to live in the past? I believe it's important to perpetuate the good things of the past although some of the bad (like pulling teeth with pliers) can be happily left behind. To me acting out a vintage scenario is like a theatrical version of a Picasso or a Chanel suit of 1930 or living in a house built in 1912.

Not if you're in the UK, looking for a scarce NHS dentist!

I can see the attractions. Life is a little too hectic and just monitoring your kids on the internet is a full time job. I recently discontinued our cable service, after watching a family show on BBC America at 10 a.m. with my 11 year old and graphic commercial showing deviant sexual behavior were aired, repeatedly. Not really what you are expecting while watching, "How clean is your house?" Or "You are what you eat!" Anyway, I felt ill. Cancelled the whole lot. We are now existing on 8 television channels, and doing just fine, thanks to PBS. Yeah, I really wouldn't mind living in a simplier era at all. But, I don't like looking back, I like looking forward.

My husband and I have a traditional marriage. It works great for us. He brings home the bacon($) and I fry it up in the pan(perfume ) and never let my husband forget he's a man! Sorry..... I couldn't help myself...lol I know the perfume ad was a woman bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan! I'm happy with him bringing it home and me spending it at Chanel......oops, I meant frying it up in a pan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4MwbVf5OA

I understand the desire to simplify their lives and make them less crazy/hectic. But I think it's possible to do this without living in the past so completely.

Beautifully and wisely said, Shaliniji.

Fumebag, very cute commercial! Are you implying you're more the type in the Prince Matchabelli Aviance commercial (also on the same page):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9gQkikr50...feature=related

OH YEAH - BABY! LOL

Yes, that's what I thought -- and there are many ways of staging a life, this is just one of them. (3 of them).

Can you imagine how difficult it would be not to get any modern element in it?

I think the past must offer more of a sense of safety for them -- you know how it turned out.

Dave, that's too bad about your dad. He missed a lot of good opportunities.

I think it's a fun and engrossing obsession that each woman can share with her husband and like-minded friends. I don't think it's that different from people who collect pre-Raphaelite art or renovate a Frank Lloyd Wright home, do heirloom seed gardening, collect vintage fragrance or federalist style antique furniture, etc. There are couples that share Medieval or Goth "fetishes" that help define their lives and their relationships - this isn't any different to me. I think it is interesting that each woman was strongly influenced and inspired by vintage movies which romanticized and showed an idealized stylized version of a particular era. My grandmother had a 50's style kitchen a la I Love Lucy because she lived in the 50's and that was when she decorated her kitchen. I still remember happy, cheerful innocent times in her cozy kitchen with the red formica table with chrome edging, the bark cloth with prints of cherries, etc. I wouldn't mind redoing a kitchen in 40's or 50's kitsch because it's happy and cheerful, and who doesn't want to feel cheerful when they're working in the kitchen?

You know, Karin, your post makes me think of life in the present. It is just as much role playing 24/7 as playing a role in a different time setting. We can move from one role in life to another (work, family, customer, friend, etc.). We can move around geographically and act differently in different places. We can go anywhere in books, movies, internet, studies, etc. I see adopting roles in an imaginary time framework as just another way of living in the present.

ITA with what you said about rasputin's dad. Getting to know rasputin here I feel confident saying that Dad looks like the big loser, in relation to both mother and son.

It seemed that none of the people in the article did not have any children. If they did, that would take them through time to the modern world like woosh. I wonder what they use for contraception?

These are not the only people trying to cocoon themselves in their own little world and try to deny that the rest of the world exists - just think about the religious people in Texas - and their children... They forced the women to dress like in the ancient times, made the girls marry at age of 14, isolated them from the modern world. Not nice, at all.

Allure, I'll bet you're 100% right about that! I'm just cracking up laughing here imagining one of those couples trying to fit their kids into the retro mold! One controlled experiment flies wildly out of control!

This reminds me of people from the Society for Creative Anachronism, Civil War re-enacters, or Medievalists -- playacting for adults that's kind of goofy, but harmless I guess. The disappointing part is the anti-intellectual aspect of it all.

Several years ago, my husband had the spur of the moment idea of "Amish Night". No TV, no electicity, basically nothing but sitting in the dark, LOL. This involved me finding a way to cook supper with no electricity. We lived in town then so setting fires was not really an option. Good thing it was dark so my husband could not see the hateful glares directed his way.

Amish night , oh my sides ! I have to try that on my crew one of these days , they will lock me up for nuts but worth it for the bemusement it would cause.