Interesting Picture to Interpret

I was in Portland OR this weekend and spent a couple hours poking through antique shops with Maridy and we found this photo. I found it interesting for a few reasons. 1. Very rarely do you find a full figure photo, most of the hundreds of old photos are head shots, or some group pictures 2. Most of the studio photos if they are a full figure shot are indoor clothing 3. This is a studio shot, outdoor clothing, she has all her accessories - hat, gloves, purse, fur piece. Her hat, gloves and shoes appear to be white, all coordinated. And she is posing!

Just an interesting picture to me. So what date would you put on this? I think around the late teens due to the length of her ensemble, her purse, hat, and fur piece. Her boots did throw me off at first. I didn't think boots were sold or really worn in late teens and high button boots seem a little late for such a stylish lady. Not to say one couldn't pull out a favorite pair of boots or shoes from a few year previous if you really found them comfortable to year. It is hard to tell in this picture of a picture but they are boots.  I did find this picture below at New York Public Library collections. It is dated 1918. The suit is so similar to the lady above.

 

I did find these boots as late as 1917 from the New York Public Library.

So to put two and two together and hopefully not come up with five, I would date this around 1918ish give or take a year.  My deduction can be off so I don't mind standing corrected if someone else has a better date.

Roaring into the 1920's - Barnstormers to Bootleggers

Another fun program! I love working with the National Automobile Museum. Their programs are historical and make for an interesting afternoon. Any historical program they organize is a fantastic event to receive CEU's if you are an educator. This event is Barnstormers to Bootleggers. Now on to pulling this together with power point, music, dancing, and costumes. We have a lot to do! This is Interpretation at it's best with some of Lauren's costumes.

Synopsis for National Automobile Museum symposium
           program, March 29, with Lauren, American Duchess

The Bee’s Knees and the Cat’s Meow, Fashionistas 1920’s Style

The 1920's - a time that is often referred to as the "Roaring Twenties" - a boisterous period characterized by rapidly changing lifestyles, financial excesses, and the fast pace of technological progress. 

A new woman evolved in the twenties, redefining womanhood. It was more acceptable for her  to smoke and drink in public, wear shorter hair styles and make-up, and skimpy and shorter dresses.  There was also a greater participation in the workforce because the new woman of the '20s wanted to work, not because she had to.  This all contributed to the new breed of woman in the twenties.

Fashion also kept up with the fast pace of change in the 20’s.  It was the beginning of a new era of fashion freedom for women. Women would shed the confining corsets and multi under layers of foundation garments of the teen’s to the minimal under garments that produced the boyish silhouette that so stylizes the twenties. Men on the other hand would settle into the silhouette of the three piece suit that is still the epitome of proper business attire today. 

The “little black dress,” has its birth in the twenties and still survives today as a fashion necessity, with plenty of accessories, the ticket to being fashionable in the twenties. And the flapper dress, what was that and who wore it?  The proper names of clothes to have in your closet in 1921 were: the one piece coat dress, the waist line dress, the tuxedo-scarf dress, the long waist dress, a Kimono Waist-Line Dress, and a tunic dress, quite different from today's typical jeans and t-shirts.

During this presentation, we will move through this decade of fashion, and explore these fashions as they interact with society.  From the Speakeasy to the lawn party, dancing the Charleston or the Foxtrot, listening to Jazz, the Devil’s music, and dealing with that inconvenient Prohibition, we will look how fashion collided with daily life, the night life, and the law.

 Some originals fashions will be displayed and fashions will be modeled of the twenties.

National Automobile Museum

Finally down loaded 350 pictures of the camera. This project was last summer. The National Automobile Museum the Harrah's Collection wanted a model for a photo shoot for Horseless Carriage Magazine. "No problem" says I, as the back of my brain is quickly going through my stash. They wanted 1904, that meant "pouter pigeon" look. I found a material in my stash that mimicked a crepe. The color is a little brighter than the mauve, pinkish color the magazines of the time talked about, but I thought I could make it  work. 

The very modern hat from Dillard's and the illustrations of what I needed to turn this hat into.

I liked the clam shell effect in the books - so I tried it on this

Front clam shell

Mimic of the clam shell in back, I did add more feathers a couple of months ago hang down across the back.

sorta my base - needed that fullness in the back and flatter front.

Cutting out the mock up on material

Mock up - trying to get drape and flat front panel

flat front panel - lace over lay is some old curtains in stash

messing around with drape in back

Figuring out some type of decoration with use of some old flat lace

Blouse was off of a wedding pattern

Deer in the head light look - but the "pouter pigeon" is there

They do wrap covers - the little boy was a cutie

Contest - Me, History & Interpretation - Winner

It's been almost a month and nearly a week and half of that month vegging in the eastern Caribbean, aboard a cruise ship since I announced the contest.  My brain is functioning again. If there is one thing I've learned in branding or logos, words are tools and use them wisely. Everyone relates, interprets words according to their own historical use of a particular word.

Thank you, thank you for all the suggestions I had via postings, email and facebook.

I've been back over all the suggestions and plugged them into the logo and put them into a power point slide. I will use the slide at the beginning of each presentation, when I tell who I am, my "expertise",  what the subject is today,  etc.

I then took several of the suggestions/tag lines and mixed them with each others. I'm leaning toward these two. Remember that Lady Carolyn is in Red right above this line. So Lady Carolyn.....

          Brings History's Lesser Known (Tidbits) to Life
                                                                 Past
                                                               Stories
                                                              

          Brings Lesser Known Historical (Tidbits) to Life
                                                                 Past
                                                                 Stories

A couple people (Vicky, Maridy) suggested Tidbits - I like the word, but would it turn off the male population?  is it connotations-- delicate? dainty?  Dictionary and thesaurus -"a tiny morsel of food or a pleasing bit of anything, as news or gossip". Girls gossip!This word my be to feminine.

The word Past, everyone enjoys the past. Everyone you meet you want to know about their past or facts of their life, we're curious about them. Past is much better word we relate to than facts. Do you say "Tell me about the (facts, past) of your life". You may not be that direct on a first date, but you will find out their past.   Facts- accurate  word but seems dull. Facts and History is what everyone avoided in high school.

Stories, everyone enjoys a good story. No one suggested this word, it actually came to me while I was typing this up. As an interpreter  we are taught that Stories can create an emotional bond which can tie us to the past or history.

As much as I personally love the word tidbits I think I'll have to past on this one. If I only spoke to women this would be such a lovely word to use. Women relate to tidbits in food, you know, you'll  only take a little bit of that delicious dessert. What woman doesn't love a  pleasing bit of news or gossip? And tidbits of history would wet their appetite for some juicy morsel of information about someone or something.

"Past" doesn't seem to have a zing to it, but stories could be exciting to settle down and hear about. Uumm may I be as good a story teller of history that matches the level of my historical costuming! Now that could be a scary thought, not living up to the costumes.

 So.....

Lady Carolyn, Brings History's Lesser Known Stories to Life

Lady Carolyn, Brings History's Lesser Known Past to Life

Lady Carolyn, Brings History's Lesser Known Tidbits to Life -rats! I like, but no - don't think I can unless I get an overwhelming "yes use it"

                                   

                                 or

Lady Carolyn, Brings Lesser Known Historical Stories to Life

Give me some feed back and then I'm done!And then to pick a winner of the slogan, that may have to be one or two, as I pirated part of their words, Maridy and Vicky.  

Beginning to get brain dead again and I need to order a corset pattern, I HAVE to get busy on my Titanic era gown.

Interview and Interviewed with Sixth Star

As many of you know I was in Florida last week to catch the ship Celebrity Eclipse for a cruise and to speak aboard ship. Sometimes I don’t know whether to say I was speaking, doing a presentation, a show or wrap it all together into edutainment.  I did receive some wonderful feedback from Maria, the Activity Director on board.  I’m unique, out of the box! Those of you who know me  might say, “oh, she’s different alright” J  She would love to have me book several back to back runs.  What a nice complement!

But on to Sixth Star.  Our ship left port on Saturday, January 14^th. To catch a ship back east, you have to fly in the day before due to the time changes, which would put the date for flying on Friday the 13^th. My dear husband does have a bit of superstition in him, no flying on Friday the 13^th.  So we flew in on Thursday. We had a free day Friday so I made arrangements to meet with Sixth Star for information on their company.  They in turn were interested in me as a speaker.

I met with Doug Jones, president of Sixth Star Entertainment and Marketing.  Doug is a high energy, inspirational guy. You can definitely feel his edutainment, entertaining type of back ground.  He started out in the late 1970’s in the industry with the Royal Viking line. He then worked his way up through the cruise industry in various positions, but always in the sector of entertainment aboard ships. This guy knows the “in’s and out’s” aspects of the entertainment end of cruise lines.  This background gave him the ability to be the first to set up a company that would provide speakers aboard ships. He has been so successful in this endeavor that he now is doing events on land for clients in the corporate or private sector who wants quality entertainment or props, e.g., conferences, trade shows or private parties.

There are about six-or-so booking agencies for speakers on cruise ships, I asked Doug what he thought made Sixth Star distinctive, different, stand out from the others.   

Ø  Sheer Volume Bookings– They do about 90% of the bookings on several cruise lines. This sheer volume has forced them to fine tune their bookings and communication process between them, the cruise lines and those they place on the ships, which has promoted a working relationship that all enjoy.

Ø  Sheer Volume People – Their data bank of Bridge Directors, Ballroom Dance Instructors, Destination & Special Interest Speakers, Distinguished Gents, Arts and Crafts Instructors and Specialty Artists (Face Painters, Balloon Twisters, Silhouette Artist, etc.) has allowed them to match people with ships needs. They have had very few to no complaints about the speakers they recommend to go aboard. Doug could not even remember the last time they had a complaint.

Ø  Vetting Process – this seemed to be a stellar component to his company. His group finds qualified people and works with them to be successful. The dialog between the Sixth Star  staff and a prospective speaker/person is to tweak their skills for ships. This dialog seems to be a main ingredient of success for Sixth Star and the person being placed.

Ø  Instruction Manual and Port Information Sheet – He spent considerable time and energy to answer many questions ahead of time in the Instruction Manual. Port Information Sheet, even speakers from other agencies will look at his Port  Information sheet to answer their questions about port, i.e., how far from airport to ship, address of port, different ways to get to port.

Doug did state they are always looking for persons who can do the enrichment speakers series. Destination speakers are always in high demand. He compared his company to a casting agency for cable TV, as you know cable TV broadcast shows that several years ago would never have been accepted by the major TV stations. Now people demand cable as much as they demand the major TV stations. Sixth Star is always looking for people who can speak to the interest of the people as much as the cable TV looks for that niche of people.  Who would have thought food or crime investigation would have such a devout group of followers.

I asked Doug what was the number one attribute they looked for. He had one word, actually he had two words. The number one thing is ADAPTABLE, not only in tweaking your skills for the cruise lines, but sometimes you need to roll with the punches aboard ship and be a team player. His other word, don’t let the word Prickly end up in your data base.

If you think you might like to work with Sixth Star, http://sixthstar.com/ the first step is to fill out an application.  If they feel you have some skills they can work with the dialog will start.

As I left Sixth Star the logo and theme for Allstate Insurance came to mind “you’re in good hands with Sixth Star”.