Ethel's Vintage Emporium

09/09/2025

hand painted knees dahlings 🖤✨️

In the 1920s, there was a flapper fad of hand painting knees.

Below is an article from The Des Moines Register from August 2, 1925:

“What is more appealing to the eye than a hand-painted knee? The answer, of course, is two hand-painted knees. And the world may expect from now on to see Flapperia’s dimpled knees exhibiting a painted pansy or a bleeding heart, or any other design of their choice.

This painting of the epidermis in the region of milady’s knees is predicted and advocated by Mrs. Ruth J. Maurer, beauty culture expert who has brought the question up for the approval of 500 beauty specialists meeting in Chicago. ‘It is an odd and beautiful fashion,’ Mrs. Maurer declares. ‘Hand-painted pictures on the knees are intriguing. Some of the designs are simple, some elaborate. Some girls prefer a flower or a group of blossoms of startling colors. Others like a portrait or a little landscape.”

The fad disappeared with the Great Depression but made a comeback in the 1960s. According to an article from 1966 in The Frederick News Post, a woman painted her knees so frequently that she could “put it on faster than face makeup.” The men who were interviewed in the same article reportedly said, “I like to see just plain legs,” or “I think it’s rather ridiculous.”

12/08/2025

08/08/2025

28/06/2025

09/06/2025

my giddy heart 🖤 exhibition

05/06/2025

love love love

Purple. Once the colour of emperors. Extracted from molluscs and excruciatingly expensive. Royal purple. The shade, in colour theory, of mystery, magic and the spiritual. Brought to you by virtue of some clever chemistry with coal. Gosh.

Victorian women fell head over heels in love with purple. Aniline dyes gave an intensity of colour which no vegetable colour could ever match. After the first, named "magenta", other glowing, lurid, eye-watering shades followed.

To us, they are crude, garish and screamingly vulgar. To the Victorian customer, they were the modern world; clean, sharp, crisp and delicious after the softer, muddier shades which look so good to us today.

12/03/2025

beginnings 🖤✨️

The story of *Alice in Wonderland* originated from a boat ride on July 4, 1862. On that day, mathematician and writer Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was sailing along the River Thames with his friend, Reverend Robinson Duckworth, and the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church: Lorina, Edith, and Alice Liddell. During the trip, young Alice asked Dodgson to tell them a story. He began improvising a tale about a girl named Alice who fell down a rabbit hole and embarked on fantastical adventures. Alice was so captivated by the story that she requested Dodgson to write it down.

Two years later, in 1864, Dodgson gave Alice a manuscript titled *Alice’s Adventures Under Ground*, with illustrations drawn by himself. However, after being encouraged by friends, he expanded the story and, in 1865, published it as *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, with illustrations by John Tenniel. The book was an immediate success and has since become a classic of literature, translated into over 50 languages and adapted into numerous films, plays, and musicals.

The creation of the story contains several interesting facts. The characters were inspired by real-life individuals: Dodgson used Alice Liddell's surname for his protagonist and modeled several characters after people in his life. The White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and the Mad Hatter may carry mathematical and philosophical references, reflecting Dodgson’s intellectual world. The Queen of Hearts symbolizes the authoritarian nature of the Victorian era, while Alice embodies curiosity and the desire for independence. The tale remains a fascinating mystery, blending logic, imagination, and subtle commentary on 19th-century society.

26/11/2024

wow 🖤✨️

“World’s Largest Log Cabin”. Portland, Oregon, 1938. Built In 1905, Burned Down In 1964.