Exciting and vivid descriptive passages from Miss Mapp (1922, England)

[cimorene]

EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels, previously mentioned a couple of times, have not only enlightened me about quaint bits of vocabulary and lifestyle and politics so far, but have also conveyed some fascinating new images of people of the time!

I am enchanted by 1920s fashion and have been since childhood, so these haven't introduced any absolutely new styles to me, except for a "Prince of Wales's cloak", which I can't find any other results for, but conjecture to be the long blue velvet coat worn by the Prince of Wales at the coronation of the monarch - images available of the current incumbent wearing the style and also of his predecessor at Elizabeth II's coronation in the 40s; the text must be referring to the prince who abdicated to allow E2's father to take the throne, the one who liked Nazis. But that's not what I meant to talk about. What I meant to talk about were these fantastic descriptions of fashion and interior decor.

1. The decoration of the studio was even more appalling than might have been expected. There was a German stove in the corner made of pink porcelain, the rafters and roof were painted scarlet, the walls were of magenta distemper and the floor was blue. In the corner was a very large orange-coloured screen. The walls were hung with specimens of Irene’s art, there was a stout female with no clothes on at all, whom it was impossible not to recognize as being Lucy; there were studies of fat legs and ample bosoms, and on the easel was a picture, evidently in process of completion, which represented a man.



This studio belongs to an eccentric socialist artist, a gentlewoman who smokes like a chimney and spits like a man, to our narrator's dismay. The first association the description brings to mind for me are American advertisement illustrations for midcentury bathroom fixtures, from that period (started in the 1930s actually) when sinks and toilets and tubs came in a rainbow of colors, and to sell them they had some absolutely wild pictures with brilliant colors on the walls and the floors as well as the fixtures, and weird carpets and curtains and bows and things like that. I've seen 1960s and 1970s features from magazines on decor with similar color schemes, but only for bedrooms. This is an absolutely gobsmacking mental image that I'm dying to see on film.



2. She had an old wide-awake hat jammed down on her head, a tall collar and stock, a large loose coat, knickerbockers and grey stockings.



This is the artist in question. She always dresses like this, we learn, and at another time the narrator refers to the style as "like a jockey". You can see snapshots of women from the period in knickerbocker outfits like this, usually for some kind of sports (although this was not the dominant outfit for sports in the 20s, but knickerbockers or jodphurs were the trousers worn for horseback riding) - the easiest to find and most widespread are of Chinese American actress and fashion icon Anna May Wong. But because I've seen so few images of this, and encountered it so rarely in the literature I've read from the period before, I wasn't sure how widespread this outfit really was. The idea that it's a suitable costume for an eccentric revolutionary artist type is pleasing to know. (PS: the Quaker Oats man's hat is a wide-awake hat.)



3. [...]looking quainter than ever in corduroys and mauve stockings with an immense orange scarf bordered with pink.



The same person in winter. Interesting that even winter did not seem to be cause for full-length trousers.



4. Without being in the least effeminate, Mr. Wyse this morning looked rather like a modern Troubadour. He had a velveteen coat on, a soft, fluffy, mushy tie which looked as if made of Shirley poppies, very neat knickerbockers, brown stockings with blobs, like the fruit of plane trees, dependent from elaborate “tops,” and shoes with a cascade of leather frilling covering the laces. He might almost equally well be about to play golf over putting-holes on the lawn as the guitar.



A completely different character. This one isn't considered an eccentric at all; everybody looks up to him, in fact, as a member of an Old County Family whose sister is married to an Italian count. This reminds me of the outfits Oscar Wilde wore.

Comments

[msilverstar]

Those are great, she seems to have more relish in eccentricity than Sayers or Christie. I mentioned Jessica Mitford, but it's Nancy who wrote in and about the 1920s and actually influenced upper-class British culture at the time.

[cimorene]

Benson's novels have a pretty high amount of visual descriptions and the eccentricity of the major characters is a bit more like it is in Austen, although the skill isn't commensurate. But Austen is definitely the more apt comparison.

Oh, thanks, I forgot and hadn't got around to going to look it up yet, lol.