For The Love Of...The House of Eliott

Remember The House of Eliott? I sure do. Originally released on the BBC in 1991, I imagine it probably screened in Australia a few years later - probably 1993 if memory serves.

As a child, being allowed to watch TV was a rare treat and this Sunday evening program with its jaunty violin theme song and billowing silk across the credits was one of only a few that wasn't a nature documentary. As you can imagine it was the highlight of our viewing week! My mum has even kept a letter my brother wrote to her (delivered by me), pleading he be allowed out to watch it with us even though he had been sent to his room hours earlier!

Centered around the trials and tribulations of sisters Evie and Beatrice Eliott as they establish their London Fashion house in the 1920s, this rather earnest period drama probably kick-started my deep and enduring love for the genre with it's fabulous clothes and strong female characters.
Re-watching it today I am struck by the fact even though the production values aren't as spectacular as its modern counterparts (ahem, Downton Abbey) and there is a rather dangerous propensity for overacting (especially as it draws towards the final season...), the romantic notions of success, love and aspiration are still just as relevant today.

Bea and Evie - silk pyjamas forever!

As a youngster, I had always oscillated between wanting to be Evie and wanting to be Bea. I could understand why everyone gravitated towards Evie; she is so beautiful with her dark bob hair and sparkly blue eyes. And being the younger of the two sisters she always has the most spectacular and daring outfits.

This backless gold number gets worn a number of times throughout the series and is basically sartorial perfection.

Beatrice in comparison always seems a little down in the mouth; life seems to have disappointed her one too many times - but she has that gorgeous finger-wave blonde hair and she manages to snare herself the most handsomest of men in photographer Jack Maddox...
Ah yes, Jack Maddox - society photographer, turned film maker, turned political activist...and all the time with the perfect hair and brilliantly knobbled nose!

Beatrice making eyes at Jack.

Beatrice, Jack and Evie...hard at work...

...their work outfits are absolute perfection!

Watching it again now, I find a new-found respect for Beatrice. She never ever shys away from a difficult conversation - be it in business or love; has a firm belief in her abilities as a business woman, is spectacularly organised and still manages to look glamorous through it all. For a newlywed woman in her mid 30s she makes the rather controversial decision to delay starting a family to focus on her career - a decision which still manages to raise eyebrows almost 100 years later. When it comes down to it, Bea is actually a very modern woman living in an era when the concept of a 'modern woman' was only just percolating.

Beatrice has the most perfect finger-wave blonde hair ever. EVER! Sigh...

Wearing the most perfect knitted black jumper with white bow detail.

And Evie - delightfully perfect Evie! With her backless dresses, billowy sleeved blouses, headscarves and bob hair she truly is a style icon. I have hit the pause button many, many times to marvel at the drapery of her work blouses. What I have really appreciated about her character this time around is how independent she is. Move to Paris at 21 to design for a famous couturier? Sure. Go to all-night bohemian parties without a chaperone? Absolutely. Live on her own? Why not!

Young, single and living the life in Paris!

3am and Evie's glass of wine is still full...

She is a curiously solitary character, who gets wonderfully distracted by small details and seems at peace with herself. All fabulously formative for myself as a young girl I imagine.

Designing...

That said, by Season 3 she is basically an insufferable wannabe bohemian bore and I find myself averting my eyes every time the camera lingers on her bobbing head thoughtfully considering the melody of some cool jazz tune...and I never could work out - even then - why oh WHY she chooses such boorish, deeply unappealing men.

The series was cancelled before a fourth season began filming - to the evident surprise of the producers and writers who leave season 3 on quite a cliffhanger. Yet given the lapses into hysteria and melodrama that characterise season 3, I would say this is probably for the best!

And so it remains that my favourite thing about the series overall - beyond the gloriousness of the fashion in every single frame, obviously - is that whenever something even slightly good happens, out springs Jack with a chilled bottle of champagne and a selection of crystal flutes!
And I think we can all take something away from that!

Champagne anyone?!

He genuinely does this at every opportunity...

...to the evident delight of all!

Salut!
xo
rabia

all images are stills from Series 1 through 3 of The House of Eliott.
More stills can be found at houseofeliott.tumblr.com

Saving history

When I moved to Ashfield almost 10 years ago, there were a few things that made the location extra special.
Firstly, the flat I had moved into was in a building that looked like an original picture plate from an Austen novel - an ancient crepe myrtle drapes over one end of the front yard whilst abundant lavender bushes line the pathway to the front door. In the morning the sun hits the Victorian lacework on the front porch, projecting the intricate patterns across the wall.

The stunning lavender path and the top of the house - back when it was painted pink

When I was first peeking through the windows of my flat-to-be - hardly able to contain my glee - one of the residents came outside, introduced themselves and told me about the history of the building. It was the original Rectory that was built in 1880 to house the family of the Rector of St John's - the church across the road from the house. In the 1920s the Rectory building had been relocated onsite (another stunning pieces of architectural history in itself) and this original building had been converted into flats. I was captivated with her descriptions of how lovely it was to walk through the churchyard every day on her way to the train station, and walked that way myself on my way back home.

Under one of the Acorn trees, looking at the oldest surviving building in Ashfield, circa 1840

You see that lovely little piece of green land to the left of the Church? That's where they want to build, cutting down all the trees to do so.

To this day I still walk through this original 1840s churchyard on my own 1 kilometre journey to the train station every morning. In Winter tiny snowdrop flowers emerge from between the graves and every Spring is heralded by the heady perfume of wild freesias bursting from every corner. There is a shady walkway lined with Palms, gnarly Acorn trees and some truly beautiful fir trees. Majestic eucalypts on the boundary of the property are home to Kookaburras, Rosellas and Cockatoos. Walking home through this in the last light of the day is magical and I feel able to slow down and breathe out. 

Just a few of the wildlife nestled in the branches

The beautiful trees at sunset and in full sun

It might sound slightly morbid, but I've always loved graveyards. In hundreds of years their intention never changes - they are exactly as they were and there is something truly evocative about that.

The original gravesite, thankfully not affected by the current development application. Photo: Copyright John Cowper

Recently the church has put plans to council to develop the remaining green spaces of the site. An obtrusive new Ministry Centre will completely obscure the view of the original heritage listed building from the street. And with a recent proposed change of zoning from Special Uses to Residential, the Church's plans for building flats in a far corner seem a whole less far-fetched. I have since spent many sleepless nights drafting and re-writing a 10 page submission to council opposing these plans.

A concerned neighbour who lives on the adjacent property has written a truncated version of her own submission to council so that concerned folk who want to express their concern can do so.
You can download the letter here:
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/9/0/2990852/letters_to_councils.pdf
If you care about this issue, sign and send this letter by 5pm May 17th to:

General Manager, Ashfield Council
Post: PO Box 1145, Ashfield NSW 1800 DX 21221
Fax: 9716 1911
Email: info@ashfield.nsw.gov.au

Ashfield is the second most densely populated municipality in New South Wales and sadly we also have the lowest ratio if parkland to people in the state. To remove this historical piece of parkland from the public is deeply upsetting. And one I hope we have the power to stop.

xo

rabia

p.s. this original Heritage Walk brochure for the area is really fun

Happy Mothers Day! A little bit about my ma...

Today is Mothers Day - a day when we take some time to show our love and appreciation for our mothers, grandmothers, aunts and all the other strong, amazing women in our lives.

And this seems as good an occasion as any to give my own ma a bit of praise...

My beautiful mother Amanda picking flowers in the late 1970s

Here she is holding me in 1984. The tweed jacket I'm wearing is her handiwork!

My parents were idealists, passionate about the very specific decisions they had made about the childhood they wanted my younger brother and I to have. We were both birthed at home (in Annandale and Marrickville respectively), raised on a vegetarian diet and surrounded with music, books and sunshine. The television was almost never on and when it was always proved a rather strange experience: you see we had two; one that had a colour picture with no sound and beneath it, covered in a cloth, was a black and white television that provided the slightly out of sync audio.
Almost all our food was made from scratch by my ma - there was even a brief period when my parents grew wheat to grind into flour to make bread believe it or not - and it was all delicious, wholesome, unprocessed fare.

My brother and I hanging out in the garden in Marrickville

By today's standards some of these choices still seem extreme, so you can imagine how bizarre they would have been in the early 1980s. We lived a very simple life, both by choice and by necessity - my father was a musician who drove taxis, whilst my mum, then a primary school teacher, looked after us at home until we started school. And my childhood could not have been a happier one. My brother and I had several cubby houses we had created, dotted around the generous quarter acre block of a backyard and loved playing in the garden, learning about the different herbs and vegetables. We would go outside in the early hours and only come back in at night-fall. We were healthy, robust, adventurous children who had an appreciation for the small things in life instilled in us from an early age.

Reading to us with her 'reading glasses' which we found out only recently were completely for show. She was always quite the joker!

Messing around in front of the humongous rosemary bush in the back garden, behind the old stone shed.

Our birthday cakes were never new-fangled, tiered contraptions covered in a slick of coloured icing; we had wholemeal spiced pear upside-down cake. Rewards were fancy fruits - creamy custard apples and juicy mangoes. Summer treats were frozen bananas dipped in lemon to retain their creamy colour.

My brother patiently waiting for the cake-eating to begin at one of his birthdays - I love the decorations of colourful wooden beads and streamers. Not to mention that shirt!

Most of our clothes were made by our ma on a very old and very heavy sewing machine. Her handiwork was spectacular with hand smocking and embroidery on a number of beautiful pieces. Sometimes it's hard to believe when looking through old photos that we were even part of the 1980s because my mum dressed us so well. I can thank her for teaching me how to sew and to knit and to use my hands skilfully. I can safely say that my own talents will always seem rudimentary compared to hers.

Some examples of her work - a simple play dress on the left and some hand-smocking on the right.

As a kid I do remember going through periods of longing for different, 'normal' things - I held white bread exulted above all others and would do just about anything to get my hands on a pot of chocolate yogo. I absolutely LOVED the chain store clothing my well meaning grandmother would buy me for Christmas (that would all mysteriously disappear around February), wanted a Barbie doll pretty badly and would read banned trashy books like The Baby Sitters Club secretly at night with a torch.

Now, as an adult older than my own mother when I was born, I can only thank her for her steadfast patience, perseverance and practical skills. My brother and I both know how to create tasty, nutritious food in a flash; how to sew on a button and fix a hem; how to plant something and keep it living.
And most importantly we understand that hard work pays the greater dividends, to never give up no matter how ridiculous the whirlwind, to believe in our own abilities and to remember that happiness is more important than monetary gain. Given our chosen professions of designer and luthier (my very talented brother makes handmade guitars under the moniker Lockwood Guitars) are so very niche and specific, this last point is particularly important. We know that no matter what seemingly ludicrous decisions we make in life, our ma will always encourage us to do what feels best and true for us at any given time. And that is a luxury so many do not have.

Riverside hugs with ma

So here's to my mum Amanda - Happy Mothers Day!

rabia
xo

a very country wedding

Last September my dear friend Brooke married her forever-love Ezra on the banks of a river in the northern New South Wales town of Bangalow. It was perfectly sunny in the day and ever-so-slightly chilled as the evening descended. And boy, was it pretty!

Last week her wedding was featured on the Etsy wedding blog. The wedding itself truly was a labour of love for Brooke and Ezra - they made almost everything themselves; from the napkins to the chandeliers, and I can tell you that on the day this effort made the event all the more sweet. Everything worked together seamlessly; the colours, the decorations, the chairs...it was the perfect representation of who they are. 

Gorgeous table settings and the magical mulberry tree at night. Photos: Chris Cooney

Brooke is best known for being the co-founder of  The Finders Keepers - the East Coast independent design market that she runs with Sarah Thornton. They also have a store in Surry Hills called Follow that is stocked to the brim with brilliant pieces from Australian designers including, of course, yours truly.

She is also an incredibly talented jeweller, note-worthy curator, biscuit fiend, brilliant friend and it must be said - a total babe!

See what I mean? Babe. Photo: Chris Cooney

After finding the perfect dress - a stunning embroidered Collette Dinnigan sample - it was onto the search for the perfect accessories. I was chuffed when Brooke asked me to make her a headpiece, and I was quickly selecting pieces that would fit with the vintage theme of the wedding. In the end I chose some amazingly fine 1930s silk veiling that I teamed with some elegant and tiny organdy millinery buds from the 1940s. This was all sewn onto a piece of the embroidery that was salvaged from her dress when it was altered.

Isn't her hair amazing!! Photo: Chris Cooney

Here comes the bride... Photo: Chris Cooney

The veil was detachable so that she could remove it when she hopped into her second dress for some shimmy-ing to tunes as spun by the inimitable Jack Shit later in the night.

Before...and after! Her second dress was a fantastically frothy embroidered tulle 1950s prom dress. Photo: Chris Cooney

I'm pretty notoriously photo shy, but their talented photographer Chris Cooney managed to snap this lovely photo whilst I was unawares. I'm wearing a 1930s lace gown from Bohemian Bisoux Vintage that I had meticulously mended in the weeks leading up. I'm really glad I persevered because it was the perfect dress for the occasion.

The mulberry tree was truly amazing...here I am perched beneath it looking up into the canopy. Photo: Chris Cooney

I think they both looked perfect, happy and proud and I was so glad to have been a part of such a glorious day.

Seriously photogenic couple! Photo: Chris Cooney

Photo: Chris Cooney

xo

rabia

Pinterest Picks #11

Long days and short, hot nights are coming...

 

{ All images sourced from our Pinterest Boards where they link back to their original source }

Stepping back with Past/Lives

It will be of no surprise to anyone who has ever looked at anything we have ever done, that we are past fetishists.

Bonnet dramas, edwardian fashion, mid-century knick-knacks and Dickens Dickens Dickens!

We recently discovered a local blog from Sydney-sider Michael Wayne 'Past/Lives' and were absolutely enthralled.

Now // East Village Hotel, Darlinghurst

Then // The Tradesman's Arms Hotel

The premise is simple - seeing the past glimpsed through it's bastardised present: "...uncover the secrets, reveal the hidden parts and tell the forgotten stories of Sydney using the clues that have been left behind through the years."

For all it's pretti-nesses, we've always loved Sydney for the combination it has of extremes of both the beautiful and the ugly. Looking at the timelines from then to now is both sad and somehow illuminating. As if you've just glimpsed a secret that no one else saw or knows about...

KC Beauty Centre // Cut and Comb hairdressing Hurstville NSW

Sharpies Golf House / Harmex / Derelict, Sydney NSW

Rockdale Furnishers / Cash Converters, Rockdale, NSW

Mrs N. Prior Clothing / A1 Cut Price Flowers / Nothing, Kogarah NSW

Michael adds his own memories (real or imagined) and ramblings to each post in an utterly hilarious and frank way, making each post a delightful read. And the detail! Our hats are tipped to his commitment to seeking the true histories of such minutiae.

It reminded us a little of 'Abandoned' one of our favourite catagories from the amazing Retronaut Blog where rotting theme parks and office buildings are photographed in all their current decay, so far removed from the glories of the past.

Abandoned // Buffalo Central Station

We highly recommend making a cup of tea and taking a trip through the back streets of Sydney's commercial past with Past/Lives

xo
g&j