A little colour Chinoiserie from a century ago….

These photos are from a collection by Auguste and Louis Lumière who invented the first colour photography process, Autochrome Lumière around 1907. Dyed grains of potato starch and light-sensitive emulsion enabled them to produce colourful photographs without the need for additional colourisation. It was very expensive to do but the effects were amazing…and some chinoiserie was popular being both very ‘on trend’ at the time and also making the most of the colourisation process…

‘Two girls in Oriental costume’, 1908 – assumed to be in Paris

‘Woman smoking opium’, 1915 – the original photo was, I believe, taken in French Indo-China

Plum Rains in Macao, 1930

It’s that time of year again…plum rains…and here’s Macao, in the rain, in 1930….just click to enlarge

On the Shanghai Catwalk, 1988

The Shanghai fashion shows in 1988 revealed some interesting throw back trends in millinery for the 1989 season….a rather stylish version of what was traditionally referred to as a “coolie hat”.

All You Need to Know About Peking in 1934

This handy guide to Peking in 1934 appeared in the popular “Know Your World” series….you can click to enlarge the images…

Yet More Change at the old Sun Department Store (Shanghai No.1)

Apparently Shanghai NO.1 Department Store, formerly Dai Sun or Sun Sun is to get yet another makeover. These are always awful whether it’s making store Maoist back in the day or the wholesale ripping out of interiors in the early 1990s so as to cram in concessions when the store ‘marketised’. Now the interior has only a few original touches left and it’s best to enjoy the exterior (with a little imagination). There are so many images of the Sun Sun, but here’s two that perhaps mark the changes it has seen…

The store just after the war with China’s leader emblazoned across its frontage – when he went so did classy retailing (in case you want another reason to dislike what came after?)

Ah yes, the happy retail days of the communist era – flasks, tartans, pioneer scarfs and a red Guard on the telephone reporting everyone for enjoying consumerism…

Marlene in Schiaparelli and a Chinese Lion

I noticed it’s been a while since we had a picture of Marlene Dietrich on this blog…so to remedy that here’s Marlene in the 1940s modelling a Schiaparelli dress alongside a Chinese lion…

A Shanghai Shopping Street on Bargain Day, 1935

This photo-illustration appeared in the US papers in 1935 depicting “Bargain Day” at a Shanghai shop…

Tallulah Bankhead Day – June 15 1940 (& remembering 1931’s The Cheat)

In order to drum up some attendance figures the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940 named various days after celebrities of the time and encouraged their fans to come along….Noel Coward got a day….as did Tallulah Bankhead – on June 15 1940. So, as a fan of Talluluah, I want to record this auspicious day in the calendar and the only thing I can think of is (apart from her 1920s forays into Limehouse for opium and cocaine – see my post on that here) is to recall the 1931 (pre-Hays Code) movie The Cheat.

Tallulah herself saw the movie as ‘banal’, though the New York Times liked it. Tallulah is seriously sexy and the movie is a must for those interested in Orientalist tropes in American movies – it’s basically an entire movie of them! It’s a Harry Hervey script (he of Shanghai Express and the broadway adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s Rain – see my posts on Hervey here and here). Bankhead spends much of the movie in a Chinese dress of some Hollywood concoction – she certainly looks great; stylistic accuracy is less certain. You can watch the film on Youtube here .

Talluluah in her “Chinese costume” with Irving Pichel (in  “Japanese costume”)

Tallulah on the telephone in her costume!

Tallulah with some Chinese dolls